Glimmerbrook Watch, Present Day*
"Thanks for breakfast, Mrs. G," Mariah said, "and thanks for letting me stay with you for a bit."
Mariah Huntley and Miranda Silveroak-Goth's final year of University was now behind them and, as their friend Aadi had pointed out, it had been accomplished without interruption by gangsters, vampires, evil wizards or other strangeness. They were ready to begin whatever came next.
At the moment, whatever came next consisted of a visit to Miranda's home, Glimmerbrook Watch, to spend a little time with her moms and go through her room to decide what to keep and what to store.
"Don't be silly, dear," Cassie Goth, who Mariah still found surprisingly grounded for an international musical superstar, called from the kitchen. "It's nice to have someone else to cook for... and you're always welcome."
"Of course you are," Gwen Silveroak, Miranda's other mom, added. "You're family now."
"Well, we're not married yet," Mariah said, feeling a little self-conscious.
In fact, Mariah had been fully prepared to drag Miranda down to the Britechester courthouse and turn her fiancé into her wife the moment the graduation ceremony had ended. A smiling Miranda, however, had pointed out that Mariah's mama, romance novelist Danielle Huntley, would not be denied a wedding.
"Just a formality," Gwen smiled.
"A lovely and important formality," Cassie added, "but, I agree, a formality."
The arrival of Cassie and breakfast forced a brief pause in conversion. Cassie's cinnamon French toast, which Mariah felt was reason enough by itself to visit to Glimmerbrook, required one's full attention. The real maple syrup that accompanied it had forced her to reconsider her habitual denial of the concept of a benevolent deity.
"Gwen and I didn't get married for years," Cassie mused finally.
"That's right," Mariah said. "You guys were living together when Miranda was little, after her dad left you..."
"At the altar," Gwen muttered savagely.
"I still don't understand why she held that against him," Cassie smiled. "You'd think she'd rather I had married him."
"High school friends, discovering love in the healing of a broken heart," Mariah said, surprising everyone accustomed to her tough-girl persona.
"Oh dear, she's been reading that new unauthorized biography, hasn't she," Cassie smiled.
"Yes," Miranda nodded.
"No," an embarrassed Mariah insisted. "I mean, maybe I read a little... there might have been an excerpt, in a magazine that I probably picked up in a waiting room... somewhere..."
"You're so cute when you get flustered," Miranda laughed.
"I hate you," Mariah laughed, blushing.
"They never get the story right, anyway," Gwen mused.
"Which is probably just as well, given the truth," Cassie chuckled.
"So, what's the truth?" Mariah asked. "I mean, how did you guys fall in love?"
"Oh well, as the Bard says, thereby hangs a tale," Cassie smiled.
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*Author's Note: After some thought, I chose to label these sections as "present day" to save confusion.
Year of the Wolf and Unguarded Heart each cover most of a year, and College Years covers three years. So, if we assume that our M&M's story started around the actual "present day" when I started writing, the story has progressed faster than real time. Suffice it to say, these parts of the story take place in M&M's "present day."
Of course, only compulsive continuity geeks, such as myself, need be concerned with such things. :)
