MANDY REID
Witch
Posts: 46
Age:
Twenty One
Occupation:
College Student
Status:
Single
Partner:
Future: Rhys McEvoy
Played by:
Lissa
Last seen May 2, 2024 18:32:17 GMT
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Post by MANDY REID on Feb 25, 2021 15:00:46 GMT
| Mandy had been in Mystic Falls for a short while. It was still very up in the air as to whether they were staying in America or going home to London. Darcey needed this, and if he wanted to stay… then Mandy was going to as well. She would rather stay here with both of her brothers, and if their stay was going to be long term, she would enrol in the local college come the new semester.
For right now though she had a lot of free time and there was only so much that you could do in a small town like this. She was happy to be spending the day with Nicky. She didn’t get to see him very often, his business ventures taking him away from home quite frequently.
As agreed, she told him that she would meet him at the coffee shop in town, before heading out on their buying trip as he wanted to call it. To him that meant looking for items to sell on at profit. To her she could turn it into more of a personal shopping trip rather than looking for dusty magical items that he could sell on.
She didn’t have a driver’s licence, so she was walking to meet her brother. As she was walking up heading to the diner, she noticed her brother coming from the opposite direction. She smiled though it didn’t quite reach her eyes, ” Morning!” She spoke brightly. She was trying to always be her happy jovial self. Even if she were struggling, she couldn’t show it. Especially not around her eldest brother. He had enough of his own grief to deal with, ” I need coffee…” she groaned out as she met him outside the door of the coffee shop, the aroma of fresh coffee leading her inside.
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NICHOLAS REID
Warlock
Posts: 77
Age:
36
Occupation:
Co-owner of Reid's Pawn Shop
Status:
Single
Played by:
Ange
Last seen Apr 13, 2024 14:48:13 GMT
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Post by NICHOLAS REID on Mar 17, 2021 16:29:20 GMT
Standing in front of the windows that looked out over the town he still couldn’t see as home, Nicky slipped on the suit jacket over his waistcoat and shirt. His fingers smoothed down the lapels, gave the shirt a last tuck into the waistband of the neatly pressed trousers. He hadn’t seen it as any sort of home at least. The business was here, although it was far more Bastien’s than his own, he had rented an apartment on a short lease, but until Darcey had walked into the shop it had felt like the whole thing might just be temporary. Everywhere else had been in those years since he’d graduated from Oxford and taken J. Reid and sons on the road. It was everything else that was meant to be permanent, the people, those connections you made with them.
He wasn’t supposed to be mourning his sister-in-law. Or watching his brother falling apart from it.
Shaking his head at the thought of what had happened at the last without him there, what Lorna had gone through, Nicky moved away from the windows. He’d always known you wouldn’t stop everything but you could be there for those you cared about when these things happened. Could being the operative word. He’d been half a world away. With his family’s full blessing, but too far away to have even known about it until weeks after it had happened. Picking up the pieces afterwards, trying to help Darcey piece himself back together and Mandy patch up those cracks in their family, that was what he was here for now.
He crossed the apartment, grabbed his coat from the hook by the door. Picking up his wallet and the keys from beside the door, Nicky glanced down at the newspaper he’d worked his way through cover to cover first thing that morning. His lips curled, a finger tapping on the name on the front page’s by-line. ‘Stella Devoi’. There might’ve been somewhere else he could’ve been, if fate hadn’t decreed that his brother would be tortured and lose his wife with only their sister there to try and stop it all from happening, but he hadn’t been just roaming, feeling like the business he’d fought so hard to try and expand was circling down the drain. He’d found people here. He’d found Stella.
The last time he’d gone on a buying trip like he was today he’d found the piece that was now on her desk. The small ink well with its fire opal top, the matching pen that Bastien had been able to repair in the end. Maybe even used to write the piece he’d read that morning. Who knew if he’d find something else that struck him deep in the pit of the stomach with the same sense of reminiscence. Sappy maybe, he thought, leaving the apartment and trotting down the stairs to the street, but hard to deny all the same. Nicky dipped his chin, that half smile touching his lips as he headed across the square, towards the coffee where Mandy had told him she’d meet him. Definitely a sappy bugger and if Darcey had been in his right mind that first day he might’ve called him on it too.
That smile brightened as he spotted her walking towards him. The last time he’d been home she’d seemed so much younger than she was now. It had been like that each time he’d been home, Mandy growing up in leaps and jumps and him only hearing about everything over the phone or during those brief periods at home. ”Mornin’.” He caught her at the door, reaching out to open it for her. ”Oof …” The noise rolled out of him as he wrinkled his nose, shaking his head at her. ”That’ll stunt your growth. Tea … be a decent Brit and have a cup of tea at least.” Nicky shook his head and followed her in, the scent of coffee thick in the air rather than tea. ”How’s Darce? I half expected ‘im to tag along.” Maybe it would’ve been better if he had instead of leaving him in the tight confines of the motel room he’d not been able to talk him out of giving up for a room in the apartment yet. It was all too easy to picture Darcey pacing like an animal, memories and grief turning him into one of those tigers who should’ve been freed from captivity before they turned practically rabid.
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MANDY REID
Witch
Posts: 46
Age:
Twenty One
Occupation:
College Student
Status:
Single
Partner:
Future: Rhys McEvoy
Played by:
Lissa
Last seen May 2, 2024 18:32:17 GMT
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Post by MANDY REID on May 8, 2021 17:24:28 GMT
| They had been in town for a little while now. Found her other brother and told him everything that had happened in his absence. They were all still grieving all in their own way. Mandy just felt guilty. Perhaps she could have made different choices that night, studied magic harder so she could be more powerful… of more use to actually get them all out alive. She questioned herself and what she did constantly, and it didn’t help. It wouldn’t bring anyone back.
She tried to keep doing things as normally as she still could, and she was getting through it one day at a time. She just wished there was something that she could do to help her brother… but she knew it would happen in time. Each day that passed his pain eventually the pain would lessen. Some days it would get easier to breathe… but there would always be a void, that would never be filled.
Taking the day to spend with her brother Nicky, a brother that she hadn’t seen in a long time. Meeting up for coffee then out on what he classed as business. She classed it as shopping. As she walked up to the front of the coffee shop, she agreed to meet him at she smiled as they approached from opposite directions. Muttering that she needs a coffee. She caught his sound of disgust and his nose wrinkling and she gave him a flat look in return, ” You’re right. Except here in America tea tastes like piss water. But one thing they do get right…is coffee.” Mandy commented. Of course, if she could find her own tea bags, she would make her own tea… but if she was buying it…. Coffee was definitely the way to go.
When he asked about Darcey Mandy gave her brother a small smile as she stepped inside the coffee shop, ” I checked on him before I left, he was sleeping. He doesn’t sleep great at the best of times lately. So, if he is ever sleeping, I leave him to it.” Mandy told him shrugging her shoulders. Sometimes she was afraid to leave him alone, scared of what she might come home to, ” I’m sure he is out for the count for a few hours at least.” Mandy smiled as they headed up to the counter and she perused the coffee menu.
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NICHOLAS REID
Warlock
Posts: 77
Age:
36
Occupation:
Co-owner of Reid's Pawn Shop
Status:
Single
Played by:
Ange
Last seen Apr 13, 2024 14:48:13 GMT
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Post by NICHOLAS REID on Jul 28, 2021 20:15:49 GMT
He might’ve been in and out of Mystic Falls for months now but the place wasn’t home. Not any more home than anywhere else he’d been ever since he’d boarded that first plane away from London at least. That pang for family, for the dusty little shop in a corner of London few ever really got to explore, had followed him wherever he’d gone, only fading when he was back there. ’Nicky’s home!’ His dad’s voice would boom out the minute the shop door clattered open, that bell above it heralding the return of the prodigal son. Eventually he would’ve headed back there again. A couple more months to gather stuff up, to cement things with the partner who’d now pulled his own vanishing act and left him with the shop.
Lorna’s death had changed it all.
Hearing the bell above another shop door, seeing his brother walk in and fall apart with the story of tragedy from a throat choked with grief had changed it all. His sister-in-law was gone. Both Mandy and Darcey were here and it was his job to pull them together, pushing his own grief down inside of him until he was sure Darcey’s wouldn’t have him crumbling to pieces, until Mandy didn’t have the weight of what she undoubtedly saw as her own failure on her young shoulders.
Dragging her out for a shopping trip wasn’t a miracle cure, but at least, Nicky figured as he’d caught up to her at the coffee shop, it was a distraction. A way to get her out of her head and teach her a little more of the business at the same time. Hell, he didn’t even know if that was where she wanted to eventually end up. She was at the college for now, the grand place outside town, the second Reid destined to get a degree. The world would’ve been her oyster after that.
Nicky clucked his tongue, leaning on the doorframe as he held it open for his sister to pass. He’d gotten used to a lot of things on the road but there’d been nothing like going back home. The sweet tea drunk from proper bone china cups, the window in the kitchen steaming up as mum had busied herself in the kitchen. Dinner on the table every night, the family all around. Lorna too. He felt the pang of her absence in his chest as he shook his head. ”’s why you make it yerself.” Boxes of tea bags stuffed in his luggage when he left home, smuggled in like they were illegal instead of just butchered on this side of the Atlantic. ”You’re gonna make me drink it too, aren’t yer?” He would. Just to avoid the piss water. When in Mystic Falls so to speak.
That knot in his stomach was gonna be hard to loosen without Darcey here. He hadn’t wanted to drag him out with them if he wasn’t feeling up to it but Nicky knew they were both gonna be thinking about him while he was back in the room on his own. Nicky swallowed hard, nodding as he approached the counter. His hands slipped into his pockets, that troubled air slipping into his eyes like dark clouds over a summer sky. ”Best to let him rest. He been up at night?” Nightmares gripping tight, grief wringing hollers and tears out. It was all too easy to imagine after what had happened. The bed beside him empty, his wife gone, his mind screaming that if he’d done something different, it was a vicious circle. ”The two of yer should move in. There’s room in the flat and … maybe he’d better there.” If Darcey would have it. The smile twitched into place as the barista approached, friendly, not a sign of the dour mood of a moment before. ”I’ll have a flat white, ‘n’ one of those danishes. What d’yer want other than caffeine on IV?” He winged a brow at his sister, a tiny glow of that smile creeping back. He could’ve just gone for the weakest thing on the menu, those cups of frothy milk with chocolate dusted on top that they seemed to give kids and dogs over here.
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MANDY REID
Witch
Posts: 46
Age:
Twenty One
Occupation:
College Student
Status:
Single
Partner:
Future: Rhys McEvoy
Played by:
Lissa
Last seen May 2, 2024 18:32:17 GMT
|
Post by MANDY REID on Nov 5, 2021 13:16:34 GMT
| Yes, Mandy was an English girl that was slowly being turned American by her love of coffee. After only being in America for less than a month, ” You just said it. You make it yourself. I came here with a stash.” Mandy told him, ” I won’t ever buy it because the coffee they do here is better than the piss water they serve as tea.” Mandy told her brother as they waited in line, ” If you want to have tea… go right ahead.” Mandy shrugged her shoulders and gestured with her hands toward the counter.
While they waited to be served Nicky asked about Darcey and Mandy told him that when she left, he had been sleeping. Mandy didn’t want to wake him as it was rare that she found her brother sleeping these days, ” Yeah. To be honest I can’t remember the last time I seen him sleep.” Mandy told him. She at least managed some sleep before the nightmares woke her up. Darcey probably seen Lorna’s face every time he closed his eyes, though eventually exhaustion would take over and quiet that vicious cycle in his mind even for a little while.
When Nicky said that they should move in Mandy smirked toward her brother, ” Well Darcey can if he wants. I plan to enroll and might consider on campus dorms.” Mandy started, ” Plus I’m eighteen and in America, living with my brothers, who are twice my age? I might as well kill my fun right now.” Mandy grinned with a laugh. Knowing for a fact if she ever like wanted to go out on a date she would have both of them reading said future date the riot act.
Finally, it was their turn for service as the barista came over to their table and Nicky ordered his own coffee and then gave offered the table up to her. The barista huffed with laughter a little as she waited. Mandy lifted her head and looked to the barista, ” I’ll have a large caramel latte with an extra shot of coffee. I’ll have a Danish as well. Also, a blueberry muffin to go with my caffeine IV drip later.” Mandy spoke almost confidently her gaze cutting her older brother as she mentioned the drip. When the barista walked away she sank back into her comfortable chair and shrugged, ” Not my money…” She chuckled.
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NICHOLAS REID
Warlock
Posts: 77
Age:
36
Occupation:
Co-owner of Reid's Pawn Shop
Status:
Single
Played by:
Ange
Last seen Apr 13, 2024 14:48:13 GMT
|
Post by NICHOLAS REID on Dec 22, 2021 18:38:07 GMT
He’d never have thought it but there was an air of Darcey about their little sister. It had Nicky grumbling under his breath now as she schooled him on the state of tea in this town … hell, in the country as a whole. Blue eyes flicked from the list of drinks scrawled fancily in white chalk on the dusty black background, the corners of his mouth twitching. ”I swear your mouth just opened and Darce popped right out of it,” he drawled lightly. There’d been a light to Mandy’s words their brother wouldn’t have managed now though. The realisation of it left his throat thick as he swallowed hard. What had happened to Lorna had taken that spark right out of their brother. The man he had been was because of Lorna, the chase she’d put him through when he’d been even younger than Mandy now. Left behind in the wake of her murder was just a shell. One he was gonna try and help reinforce for as long as Mandy and Darcey were in town.
Nicky let out a sigh, dragging his eyes away from the board and back to his sister. There wasn’t much he could do for his brother other than be there, trying to keep his mind off of what had happened and holding him together when the cracks that were shot through him threatened to open up and spill Darcey to the floor like chunks of broken glass. ”I can mix him somethin’ up maybe. Might let him sleep a little better. You think he’ll take it?” It’d probably be a fight, unless he doctored it so liberally with booze that Darce couldn’t taste it. A bottle or two would likely knock him out but no amount of alcohol would really burn the dreams out of his head.
Pulling his hand out of his pocket, Nicky squeezed his sister’s arm lightly. They would have to try and hold Darce up together if they could, even if it meant him practically living in his brother’s shadow for now. He doubted Mandy would want her brothers hovering around that much. Nicky grunted out an ‘oi’ as she admitted she was already considering the campus dorms. Dark brows rose at her, his lips pursing tight. ”Your brothers … one of whom ain’t seen ya more than a couple of weeks here or there in a couple of years,” he reminded her. ”You think we’re gonna be hoverin’ at the door with shotguns, waitin’ for yer to bring some senior home?” It likely wouldn’t be much better. In fact it was close enough to have him wincing faintly. Darce would be the one on the poor bugger in an instant with scarred fists raised and a snarl on his face that’d have most teenage boys creating a puddle on the floor.
Mandy’d be threatening to bop her brothers on the nose with a rolled newspaper instead of the poor, soiled suitor. It lent Nicky’s smile an edge of honest humour as he gave his order but did nothing about the wince that came with Mandy’s. ”I’m not peelin’ yer off the ceiling after that lot,” he warned. He sighed, pulling his wallet out of his pocket, put down a couple of bills and dropped the change into the charity thing by the cash register. ”It will be soon enough,” he warned, watching Mandy recline back into her seat. Nicky peeled off his coat, settled in his own to eye his sister with amusement. ”You want to turn this little bit of bondin’ into a proper job with the company? I know Darce’ll wanna help, figure maybe it’d put a few bucks in yer pocket for school too.” Without discussing it with her he’d do that anyway, transferring what he could into her bank account. Even with some of the financial help you could get for college over here, it’d cost a pretty penny for Whitmore.
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MANDY REID
Witch
Posts: 46
Age:
Twenty One
Occupation:
College Student
Status:
Single
Partner:
Future: Rhys McEvoy
Played by:
Lissa
Last seen May 2, 2024 18:32:17 GMT
|
Post by MANDY REID on Dec 27, 2021 15:08:30 GMT
| Mandy mouth sort of dropped open for a split second though not surprised in the slightest by her brothers’ words, ” Well honestly are you surprised? I’ve spent pretty much every moment with him for a good forty-eight hours. Surprised I’m not going out of my mind.” Mandy joked a little. She had come here voluntarily to keep an eye on him. Now that Nicky was involved things would ease up for her as Nicky would look out for his older brother as well.
When Nicky asked how Darcey was Mandy just told him that she had left him sleeping. Admitting that she couldn’t remember the last time she had seen him sleeping. As she could imagine every time, he closed his eyes would see his wife, and the life they could have had. When Nicky offered to make him something, ” I had to threaten him to drink a cup of tea. Unless it takes like alcohol, he likely won’t take it. Could spike his drink with it…. Make it tasteless?” Mandy mused for him.
When Nicky mentioned they should move in Mandy immediately rebuffed that idea for herself. She wasn’t going to completely waste her time here. She was going to enrol at Whitmore for as long as they were here. To that end as well she was already considering dorms on campus, for her own space. Have a real go at college life. She laughed out loud when he mentioned hovering with a shotgun, ” I wouldn’t put it past either of you.” Mandy giggled, ” And I’m spending time with you now, and there will be weekends… and homework to help with.” Mandy teased him, ” Plus, its not like we are an ocean apart anymore.” Mandy reminded him. Visiting would be a lot easier for them both.
After his small joke about a caffeine drip, she made a point of ordering loads knowing he had promised to pay, ” No need to worry dear brother.” Mandy laughed when he said he would be peeling her off the ceiling. She shrugged and told him it wasn’t her money. Leaning back in her seat making herself comfortable as she waited for the coffee to be bought over. Hearing what he said about a proper job, she was grateful she didn’t have a drink then or she might have spat it out in shock, ” Gonna make me work on our bonding time? What do you want me to do?” She asked with a sigh. Yes she had helped her family out in the shop before, but never really considered joining the family business. That was always Darcey’s or Nicky’s legacy.
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NICHOLAS REID
Warlock
Posts: 77
Age:
36
Occupation:
Co-owner of Reid's Pawn Shop
Status:
Single
Played by:
Ange
Last seen Apr 13, 2024 14:48:13 GMT
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Post by NICHOLAS REID on Jan 12, 2022 20:18:02 GMT
Amusement had that rusty chuckle rumbling in Nicky’s throat but it had to force its way past the lump there. Seeing those first few cracks work their way through his brother’s cocky shell after he strolled into the shop had jammed it there and it hadn’t entirely melted away yet. They all had to have hovered over him after. While he was blithely strolling around on this side of the pond they’d been burying Lorna, holding Darce together. Mandy especially. So much pressure for a kid – although she woulda argued the title. Nicky lifted his hand, squeezed her arm lightly now. ”Not at all. You’re lucky, coulda ended up looking like him too.” He winked at her, then pointedly tipped his head towards the freckles that dusted her skin like cinnamon. Darce was as bad, both of them taking after their mum while he’d stayed a smooth lily white. All of them had their dad’s blue eyes though.
His red rimmed last night after Darce and Mandy had arrived in town. Sinuses burning from more than the glass of brandy he’d raised to his sister-in-law. The grief was still raw for him, had to be a thousand times worse for the two of them, Mandy’s vigil taking a strain on her. Now he’d take his turn with that, hand on his brother’s shoulder when Darcey fought his way free of what was undoubtedly an uneasy sleep and came grumbling after the two of them.
Nicky slipped his hands in his pocket and made a low sound. There were plenty of things he could brew up to make Darcey sleep easier. Plenty Darce could’ve made himself, but he hadn’t. Sleep was where your brain had no defence, letting all that was eating you up flow out unchecked. ”Shoulda made it an Irish coffee, he’d have downed that fast enough.” Or just tea splashed straight scotch. Grief, along with everything else, still dulled under that heavy layer of booze. ”Tell me if he don’t settle huh?” His fingers twitched in his pockets, the words to the doctoring already rolling low and familiar in the back of his mind. He’d used plenty of it on the road after he’d first left, that yearning for home far stronger across the water than it had been just a couple of hours away in Oxford.
The pangs were back in a way with family so close – and stuck in a place that was still clinging onto the 70s nightmarish shroud of cheap motels. An outlier in a town that seemed so fixed on the traditional. No skyscrapers here, no chain motels either, but plenty of space going wanting. It might still be if Mandy had her way it seemed. Nicky dipped his chin, his other hand appearing for both of them to hover in the air like he was warding off the idea. ”Dunno whatcha talkin’ about,” he said innocently. ”We were always on our best behaviour back home, weren’t we?” On those brief trips he’d taken, which were likely all Mandy remembered after all. ”You sure, you really wanna share with all …” Nicky’s voice trailed off. Them was the wrong word. He didn’t have a thing against the Americans, more against the spotty teenaged oiks who’d suddenly be too close for her brothers’ comfort. The sigh slipped out … if she wanted it they’d find a way to make it work.
She was right, the cord had stretched across the ocean before. It’d stretch a few miles out to the school. Another dubious sound hummed out of Nicky. This was his chance to really get to know her after all that distance, not just the pigtailed kid she’d been, barrelling into his legs, shoving grubby hands into his pockets to find the treat that’d always be there. He clucked his tongue now, snorted as he settled opposite her. He propped his forearms on the edge of the table, blue eyes narrowing faintly as he dropped his offer. ”You can just bond … won’t come with the fifteen bucks an hour though,” he warned lightly. Nicky spread his hands slightly, shoulders shrugging. ”What you woulda done at home. Dad didn’t think you’d be much interested in playin’ assistant to Darce, but … you’ve a good mind by all accounts. You’ve an eye I take it?” That magpie’s eye they all had, honed and trained along further by their dad in that dusty little corner of the world.
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MANDY REID
Witch
Posts: 46
Age:
Twenty One
Occupation:
College Student
Status:
Single
Partner:
Future: Rhys McEvoy
Played by:
Lissa
Last seen May 2, 2024 18:32:17 GMT
|
Post by MANDY REID on Feb 5, 2022 12:12:02 GMT
| Leaving her brother sleeping. A rare occasion when exhaustion let him fall asleep. Instead of waking him she had left him alone when she went off out to meet their other brother. When she eventually met up with Nicky outside the coffee shop, she said something which reminded him of Darcey which forced him to comment. She pretended to be offended claiming that they couldn’t be surprised that she had spent virtually forty-eight hours in nothing but his company. When he mentioned that she could’ve ended up looking like him as well, then she didn’t have to pretend to be offended, ” Heavens help me. I’m much prettier, no offence Darce…” Mandy joked.
Nicky eventually asked about him and Mandy was honest that she had left him sleeping. Mandy didn’t even try to sugar coat how he had been. She had been better, at least she managed some sleep every night, interrupted as it might be. When he offered to make him something to help him sleep Mandy laughed saying she had to threaten him just to get him to drink a cup of tea, ” Why when threatening to beat him up worked so effectively?” Mandy chuckled. Of course, that night she had been joking. She still wasn’t sure if he had gone on to sleep, ” Yeah I will.” Mandy told him.
Once they were in the coffee shop, he mentioned that they should move in. Instead of staying at the hotel, while she agreed that it would be good for Darcey, she told him that she was thinking of enrolling at Whitmore and staying on campus. Arguing that living with her two older brothers was no way to have a fun college experience in a different country, ” I remember you wanting to chase down and kill my prom date…” Mandy reminded him, ” Not that I’m saying it wasn’t warranted but that’s my point.” Mandy told him. When he trailed off asking if she really wanted to share, ” What a room with a stranger? There are such a thing as single dorms.” Mandy reminded him, ” And that is my intention.”
She then chose to remind him that there was no longer an ocean separating them. A small jaunt in the car across and out of town. They would be fine. Ordering their beverages before their day started. When he dropped about offering her a job and making this her starting point. Turning their bonding time into an introduction to antiques. When he mentioned her salary, ” Fifteen bucks? You are aware that doesn’t even equal minimum wage in pounds, right? I’m your only beloved sister. I should at least get forty bucks per hour.” Mandy argued a little. Sitting up a little straighter knowing this was going to be a negotiation point.
Asking what he was expecting her to do he simply went on to say what she did at home. That she could do, at least here she would actually be getting paid to do it. Instead of being expected to do it, to help out the family. When he went onto add if she had an eye she chuckled, ” Don’t we all?” She asked him.
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NICHOLAS REID
Warlock
Posts: 77
Age:
36
Occupation:
Co-owner of Reid's Pawn Shop
Status:
Single
Played by:
Ange
Last seen Apr 13, 2024 14:48:13 GMT
|
Post by NICHOLAS REID on Mar 20, 2022 16:02:50 GMT
Would the joking insults have had Darcey cracking a smile? Maybe. Cracking would’ve been the word for it though. The man who’d walked into his shop had been a shell of the brother he’d left behind at the airport that last time he’d flown out of London. Nicky was sure one wrong word, one unexpected blow from the universe, would have what was left behind crumbling to dust, blowing away in the wind to join Lorna. Darcey probably wouldn’t even fight against it. When you had that sort of love, some part of you was bound to die with the other when it happened. Nicky had always imagined their parents going that way, eventually, but Lorna had been so young.
His brows furrowed faintly at the thought even as he chuckled at Mandy’s words. They’d had their whole lives ahead of them and now his sister-in-law was gone and Darce was halfway there. He forced his lips to curve a little further as he let his hand fall away from Mandy’s arm. ”Think he’d be the first to admit it too,” Nicky quipped. The first to want to keep the weight off of their sister that would etch lines and shadows into her face long before her time.
A change of scenery, some sleep finally, and maybe those signs of a man on the brink of collapse would start to fade. If not … he wasn’t above playing dirty. Their parents might’ve spluttered over it for a moment but the call he’d made home the night that Darce and Mand had arrived had made it clear that they both thought them coming had been the right thing. A chance of scenery, his mum had called it, that edge of emotion in her voice he hadn’t liked to hear. It was free of Mandy’s voice now at least, that chuckle adding an ease to what might’ve been a tense conversation. ”I imagine a strong wind would probably knock him down now, those guns of yours’d prob’ly put him right out.” A reassurance for her as well as him. Nicky nodded slowly, his lips twitching before he glanced down at the floor. Mandy would keep an eye when he couldn’t.
It would’ve been easier if they were both under his roof but Mandy was arguing that the minute they stepped inside the coffee shop. Nicky eyed his sister narrowly. The first time they’d really been together in a couple of years and she was already trying to squirm out from under her brothers’ thumbs. He’d had his own freedom when he’d gone to uni but that had been different circumstances, in a place where he could’ve been home in less than two hours. Snorting faintly, Nicky pointed a finger at her, his hands remaining hitched. ”That was Darce as much as much as me. There … you said it, we weren’t wrong now, were we?” His brows hitched too, like he expected her to argue back about it. Tilting his head at her reminder, Nicky let out a hum. ”We gonna get ta see this dorm before you move in? Parents do that ‘ere, don’t they?” Not that they were her parents but he couldn’t imagine Darce being any happier about her swanning off than he was.
At least if he could talk her into working with, for him, he realised as they sat and Mandy immediately began quibbling over her pay. Haggling had come with the territory at the shop but Nicky doubted Darce had ever tried it when their dad had dolled out those little piles of notes on a Friday night – just in time for a weekend spent on the town, or as close to it as you got in Camden – he certainly hadn’t. Mandy, though, was shrewd enough to have her brother sighing at her. Nicky worked his tongue against the sharp point of a canine. ”Not ‘ere it ain’t,” he reminded her. ”We’re not in London anymore and you’re cracked if you think you’re gettin’ close to that. I ain’t runnin’ Fort Knox, Mand. Twenty five.” Nicky tapped his fingers on the table as he expected it, like a hammer going down and securing a price.
Whatever he ended up paying her, he’d make her work for it. Darce too. He’d keep the pair of them busy while time hopefully started to heal some wounds here. Nicky made a little sound of agreement in his throat and rocked back in his seat as the waitress came to set cups and plates down on their table. ”You’ll lead the shoppin’ today then. Show it off to me. You pick the pieces and you do the hagglin’. How’s your accountin’?” A touch of smug hit Nicky’s smile as he picked up his coffee and took a healthy gulp. That’d been his job even as a teenager, a mind quick enough to get him into Oxford more than enough to handle the books at the shop, when he’d been there.
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