Chapter Text
June 21st, 2019
Aberdeen Bloom was moving out.
Last week, she graduated from the University of Toronto with an Honours Bachelor of Arts in English with a double minor in film and classics. The most…well, basic of all degrees, to be honest. It wasn’t like she stuck out – some savant with a PhD in thermonuclear astrophysics or something. She was just a simple girl with a good degree from a great university. The graduation ceremony had been beautiful at least, and she got to wear the fancy black robe and the white fur trimmed hood and the fancy hat. It was all very nice. Her whole family was there – mom and dad, so proud as she walked across the stage; her older sister giving a dignified, lawyerly clap; her younger brother just happy to have the day off school.
Oh yeah – and she was looking for a job.
What Aberdeen really wanted to do was write – for anything, really (except The National Post because that was a Conservative rag that she could use to wipe her ass). Newspaper, magazines, online editorials – didn’t matter to her. Hell, even creative writing – writing was all she wanted to do.
Except writing didn’t pay well. At least for an unestablished 21-year-old recent graduate from Toronto with no formal internships or experiences under her belt, and no real…well, writing to her name besides the two times she was published in Acta Victoriana, Victoria College’s prestigious literary journal, and the one time she was published in the Hart House Review. She didn’t have a massive portfolio like some of her classmates, or fancy parents with fancy friends who knew other fancy people that could get them internships at Macleans or The Walrus or other literary magazines. Aberdeen had herself, her published work, and her unwavering work ethic.
No newspapers had contacted her after she sent her resume. No magazines had contacted her after she sent her resume. No online websites contacted her after seeing her resume.
So Aberdeen was looking for a job.
The bank teller job she had in the meantime – one that she’d had since her first year of university – wasn’t the be all, end all. It was nice, and easy, and her boss was a good boss, and they gave her decent hours (and were always lenient during exams) and she made decent money (which she always saved), but she’d outgrown it. She needed to be a career woman now. She needed to find something she was passionate about – not just something that paid the rent (but we’ll get to that). She needed to find something where she could work with cool people, do cool things, write cool things, and be downtown. And she needed to find it fast. Staff writer. Copy editor. Editor. Creative director. Editor-in-chief.
Aberdeen, you’re twenty-one.
She had to bank (no pun intended) on herself. Which is why she made the executive decision to move downtown with one of her best friends, Kasha. Kasha was a year older than her, and had already graduated and was working for a real estate company while studying for her real estate licence. She had lived in this very apartment since first-year university. Their dads were friends too, so when Aberdeen mentioned wanting to move out, Kasha offered the second bedroom. Rent would only be $1200 a month. They were on the 23rd floor of a condo on Nelson Street, right across from the Shangri-La.
She could do this. She could make this work.
“I can’t believe my baby is leaving home,” her father Mirza stood in the doorway of the bedroom, arms crossed over her chest as he tried not to cry. They had finished building all of the Ikea furniture they bought – a day bed (because it was really all that could fit), a dresser, a small desk, a bookshelf, and a cat tree – and hauling her clothes and some books up from the family car. The last thing they brought up was Minerva, Aberdeen’s cat – the cat she showed up with at home with during the first few months of university and went “Surprise!” to her parents. Despite that little surprise, he looked at his daughter throwing some pillows onto her new bed and he couldn’t help but have to look away.
“Hey! She’s not the baby! I am!” her eleven-year-old brother Camden complained from beside his father, tugging on Mirza’s sleeve near his elbow. “Remember me?”
Aberdeen shot a playful glare at her baby brother. “Stop it. Dad’s trying to have a moment.”
“I’m hungry.”
“Will you shut your mouth,” Aberdeen’s older sister, Siena, scolded Camden. “Have you realized this is going to be the first time in your life you’re not going to have either of your sisters at home with you?”
Siena, Aberdeen’s older sister, had been living in Ottawa for the past two years for law school, and was due back later tonight to start a summer job at a law firm. If all went well, Siena would be articling somewhere soon, then taking the bar, passing it, and becoming a full-fledged lawyer. Aberdeen looked up to her a lot because Siena was so level-headed. Where Aberdeen was impulsive, Siena thought things through. Where Aberdeen freaked out about stuff, Siena put thought into things. She was the perfect older sister, and Aberdeen missed Siena while she was in Ottawa, mostly because they were so close. Even though they spoke on the phone or through FaceTime together every few days, it wasn’t like having Siena in Toronto. Aberdeen hoped that whatever firm Siena would article with would be in Toronto.
“Can I turn your bedroom into a video game room?”
“Camden, any more of this and there’ll be less of it,” Aberdeen’s mother Orla warned Camden in her still thick Northern Irish accent, pinching him on his arm as a playful punishment. He was pinched often for his smart-aleck comments. She focused her attention to her middle daughter. “Aberdeen…I can’t believe the day is finally here.”
“Don’t start mom.”
“Let me have this moment,” she said. “I cried when Siena left for Ottawa, now I’m going to cry about you, too.”
As Orla hugged Aberdeen, Aberdeen looked towards Siena, who was rolling her eyes playfully. “Mom…I’m a twenty-minute drive from Etobicoke.”
“Thirty-five in traffic. And Lord knows Toronto is a city that loves traffic.”
Aberdeen couldn’t help but smile. “Have you measured how long it takes on the subway?”
“Thirty minutes if you’re going to Royal York Station,” Kasha’s voice popped in from the doorway. The Bloom Family turned to greet her warmly, with Siena giving her an extra long hug. When Kasha was done hugging everybody, she put her hands in her pockets. “All set?”
“I am,” Aberdeen nodded her head as confidently as she could.
***
Aberdeen was already in her bedroom, maybe sulking, looking out at the skyline of Toronto. It was nothing new to her – hell, she’d grown up here (well, in Etobicoke) and gone to school down here for four years – but there was something magic about seeing it lit up at dusk, and finally at night.
She heard a light knock at her door. “Come in,” she called out to Kasha.
Kasha opened the door slowly. “What are you doing in here?” she asked, standing in the doorway and leaning on the doorframe.
Aberdeen shrugged her shoulders. “Just getting used to the view, I guess.”
“It’s your first night living in the city,” Kasha said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Do you really think we’re going to be staying in tonight?”
Aberdeen’s eyes flashed slightly. “W…What? Really?”
“Oh come on. It’s a Friday night,” Kasha giggled. “I’m gonna call Masani and Tom and Margot,” she said, listing off the names of their mutual friends, “and then I’m going to call my boyfriend and we’re gonna go out.”
Boyfriend? Boyfriend? Kasha never mentioned she had a boyfriend to her or Siena before. “Um, excuse me?” Aberdeen choked out. “Since when do you have a boyfriend?”
Kasha bit her lip. “Listen…it’s Evan.”
Aberdeen almost fell on the floor. Evan was her high school sweetheart, but they had broken up in first year university during the most traditional time period to – the Turkey Dump, aka Thanksgiving long weekend. Aberdeen knew that they still spoke and kept in touch with each other, but this was new. “When did you guys—”
“Listen, we’re trying things again. But you know how my dad is,” she explained. Aberdeen nodded her head. Mr. Palowski could be…tough. He didn’t like the thought of Kasha dating. Not that there was anything wrong with Evan – there wasn’t, he was totally a nerdy sweetheart who just finished engineering school and was already working. Mr. Palowski just didn’t want to deal with boys. “And whatever happens between Evan and I cannot get out. If my dad finds out he will have a conniption.”
“Understood.” Aberdeen did. She really did. They were best friends, after all. Aberdeen would never spill her secrets.
“And listen, I can keep secrets if you can keep secrets,” Kasha said. “If you don’t tell my dad or anyone else about Evan and him staying over, or sometimes me staying over his…I won’t spill whatever you do here either. I mean, it is our business. Deal?”
Aberdeen smiled. “Deal.”
***
Masani told them they had to start at King Taps, the new restaurant and bar in BMO building in the Financial District. Aberdeen agreed because she really had no choice, but when she got there, she definitely felt too dressed up. Kasha let her borrow some of her clothes, and they were proving to be…eye-catching. Well, at least the lingerie style top was. She wore a pair of dark wash jeans to try and tone it down, but tone it down it did not. People were staring. People were staring at all of them, really, because they all looked hot – Masani especially, she always did.
“We need more drinks,” Masani announced as she saw how depleted everyone’s cocktails were. “Aberdeen, come with me to the bar so you can flash the bartender,” she reached out for Aberdeen’s hand and pulled her.
“Masani!”
“What!” she exclaimed. “Tell him you just graduated and maybe he’ll send over free champagne.”
They approached the bar and Masani helped Aberdeen wiggle her way through so she was very close to the front. As the group of men beside them left, and Aberdeen was ready to take their spot, one got too excited and didn’t look to see if anyone was around him as he spun around with his drinks. He ended up knocking Aberdeen over to the side, and she ended up crashing into someone else. It was the worst domino effect that could happen at a bar.
“Whoa!” the guy beside her said as his hand was on her arm, keeping her up from falling against him.
“Oh my God, I’m so sorry,” she said automatically as she gave a glare to the group of guys. Bunch of idiots. None of them even saw her and cared. She huffed as she finally turned her head to look at the other man – the one she almost fell into – and holy shit. Holy shit. He was a total fucking dreamboat. Tall (well, taller than her at least), blonde hair, blue eyes, little bit of scruff…wow. He was fucking beautiful. She had to collect herself and her thoughts, or else she knew her jaw would drop to the floor and drool would start falling out of her mouth and it would all become a bit embarrassing. “I’m so sorry. Are you okay?”
“I’m perfectly fine,” she smiled slyly. “Are you?”
Aberdeen nodded her head. “Yeah. I’m alright.”
The blonde man tried to make a little bit more room around them. “Trying to get to the bar for drinks?” he asked. Aberdeen nodded her head, because apparently words couldn’t form anymore. The man leaned back slightly and tapped the shoulder of someone beside him. “Alex, get this girl a…” he paused, facing back towards Aberdeen, “…what are you drinking?”
“My friend and I are having the cucumber mules,” she said, pointing absent-mindedly to Masani behind her, or wherever she was. It was then that she noticed another man – equally as blonde, equally as blue-eyed – eyeing her from right up against the bar.
“Cucumber mules!” the blonde man told his friend before focusing back on Aberdeen. “So what’s your name?”
“Aberdeen.”
“A-what?”
That was generally the reaction she got when she told people her name. She hated it. It wasn’t like it was hard to pronounce. It was just that it was an unusual name for a person. “A-ber-deen,” she slowed down the pronunciation.
“A-ber-deen,” he repeated. She nodded her head when he got it right. “Nice to meet you Aberdeen. I’m Will.”
“Nice to meet you Will,” she managed to get out. God, he even had a hot name.
“And your friend?” he nodded towards Masani.
“Oh!” Aberdeen spun around and grabbed Masani, bringing her away from the bar and towards them. “This is my friend Masani. Masani this is Will.”
As if on cue, Alex spun around and handed the girls their drinks. Aberdeen could see Masani’s back straighten as she laid her eyes on Alex, and she had to hold in a laugh. Will threw an arm around him after he got handed his own drink. “This is my brother, Alex.”
Brothers? Masani giggled. “Hey Alex,” she stepped forward. “Thanks for the drink.”
Will and Aberdeen’s eyebrows rose at the exchange, and soon, Masani and Alex were in their own world. Typical of Masani, Aberdeen thought. She was gorgeous, so she could get any guy she wanted to do anything she wanted. Truthfully, Aberdeen was surprised Masani didn’t go straight to Will. He was the more attractive brother – Aberdeen thought at least.
“So what brings you to out tonight?” Will asked, trying to continue the conversation.
“Oh, I’m out with friends,” she said, pointing to the table where everyone else was. “I just graduated university last week so my roommate wanted to ta—”
“What? You graduated university last week?” Will asked. Aberdeen nodded. He smiled brightly and she thought she was going to burst. “Congratulations!”
“Thank you.”
“Have a job yet?”
“Trying,” she made a face. “What do you do?”
“Oh, I work on Bay Street,” he said casually. She was surprised that someone with such good hair would be working on Bay Street. Usually the guys were balding because they were stressed out all the time. And such long hair, too. Clearly he wasn’t a corporate drone. Maybe he worked for some fancy start-up and not a financial firm or big bank.
“And what brings you to King Taps?” she asked.
“Ah…my brother and I, we’re going back home to Sweden tomorrow,” he said. “Gotta have one last night out before we’re gone for the summer.”
They were from Sweden. Of course they were from Sweden, these boys with their blonde hair and blue eyes and impeccable good looks. She should have known better. “Sweden! That’s so cool! How did you end up in Tor—”
“Tell me about your graduation,” he said, not exactly cutting her off but changing the subject completely. “What kind of a job are you trying to find? What do you want to do?” he asked.
“At this point, anything besides bank-telling,” she tried to joke. “But…realistically, my dream is to become a writer.”
Will smiled. “Tell me more.”
***
Aberdeen and Will spoke for the entire night. They talked about a lot – everything – so many things that Aberdeen couldn’t remember. Kasha noticed. Evan noticed. Tom noticed. Margot noticed. Even Masani and Alex, in their own little world, noticed. But Aberdeen couldn’t help it. He was just so cute and they just kept getting drinks and he just kept looking at her to keep talking, and she did keep talking (mostly because when she got alcohol in her system she couldn’t shut up), and he kept letting her, and it was all just one big mess. Well, not a mess, really – messes couldn’t be this cute and this Swedish – but Aberdeen didn’t know what to do.
When Masani announced at 12:30, along with Alex, that everybody should leave and go to Wildflower, Will left to run to the washroom quickly. It gave Aberdeen a chance to breathe, a chance to feel the alcohol coursing through her body. She’d lost count at how many cucumber mules she’d had. All she could think about was Will’s cute face and dumb laugh and how hot he was.
Kasha had a chance to approach Aberdeen. “You’ve been talking to that guy all night. He’s really hot.”
“I know. He’s from Sweden. He’s going back tomorrow and all I want to do is give him a going away present.”
Kasha snorted. “Are you drunk?”
“A little bit. I’m tipsy but I’m not drunk.”
Kasha quickly looked around. “Listen, if you wanna get out of here and go back to the condo, I don’t mind.”
Aberdeen’s eyes widened. “Whaaaaat?”
“Oh come on, Aberdeen. Have you been with anyone since Zane?”
Aberdeen winced at the mention of her last ex-boyfriend’s name. “No.”
“Then do it,” she wiggled her eyebrows, nodding her head to something behind her. When Aberdeen looked, Will was headed back towards the table.
The group moved to leave King Taps. Masani was hanging off of Alex and Will had his hands on Aberdeen’s hips guiding her out of the bar. “How you feeling?” he asked as they all waited for their Ubers.
“I’m good,” she smiled up at him sheepishly, trying to flirt.
“You wanna get out of here?”
God, he said the words. He actually said them. She nodded her head but tried not to seem too excited. “You wanna go back to mine?”
“Of course. Where do you live?”
“University and Adelaide.”
Will grabbed her hand and led her down the opposite way everybody else was going. She heard Margot call out for her, and Kasha shut her up quickly. Alex apparently had no problem his brother was leaving him, because he didn’t call out for Will. This was exciting. This made her jittery. This was the start of her new life downtown.
***
Will held Aberdeen’s hand as the sliding doors opened automatically for them. She flashed her keys against the pad to open the doors, and they were in. He nodded at the security behind the desk as he let Aberdeen guide him towards the elevators. He was excited. He was jittery. This was the last of his time in Toronto…at least for the time being.
He hadn’t planned on doing much tonight, let alone pick up a girl and suggest going back to her place – he and his brother, who had met him by flying in from Chicago, had only meant to go out for drinks. But when two young, attractive, and available single men met two young, attractive, and available single women, what did the universe think was going to happen? And Aberdeen was just so cute. Sure, she looked hot in her lingerie style top and with her hair done, but when she started talking to him about writing, he was in hook, line, and sinker. All he wanted to do was talk to her. All he wanted to do was listen to her go on and on about things and laugh at the jokes she made. It was nice. She was nice. And he needed a little bit more nice in his life right now.
So, he took the bait. Even though he was going back home to Sweden tomorrow, and even though he would probably never see Aberdeen again, he took the bait. He had to have a little bit of fun.
Just as the doors to the elevator were about to close, a deliveryman rushed through and slipped through the door. Will furrowed his brows.
“Smells good,” Aberdeen commented as the elevator began moving up. The man smiled politely. “Shawarma?” she asked. The man nodded his head. Will tried not to laugh. Her drunk thoughts were getting the best of her – so was her hunger due to that drunkenness. “I could kill for some shawarma right now.”
“…Well, you can order through Uber Eats,” the man said, shrugging awkwardly. He looked quickly at Will. “If you want.”
The elevator pinged. The deliveryman nodded again before the doors open and he escaped down the hallway. The doors closed.
Aberdeen took a huge sniff of shawarma-air in as it lingered in the elevator. She was practically salivating at the mouth. “I haven’t had shawarma since—” her sentence was cut off by Will’s lips crashing onto hers, pushing her into the corner of the elevator as he began to feel her up. She kissed him back as eagerly, wrapping her arms around his neck and shoulders.
“Better than shawarma?” he asked quickly in between kisses.
Aberdeen couldn’t help but snort. “Definitely.”
Their lips barely left the other’s until the elevator pinged for the 23rd floor and they rushed down the hallway. Aberdeen quickly put her key in the lock with Will’s lips kissing at her ear a neck – a true heroic feat, really, because he was able to cause quite the distraction doing that. Eventually, thankfully, she got it, and they stumbled into her apartment and kicked off their shoes.
“Want some water?” Aberdeen thought she should be polite.
It was Will’s turn to snort. “Where’s your bedroom?”
They kissed all the way there, and fell on top of her bed. They couldn’t keep their hands or lips off each other, which was great in aiding them take each other’s clothes off. Everything was fast and neither of them were thinking, but it was okay.
“Nice tattoos by the way,” he whispered quickly, his thumbs gliding over their place on her forearms, right beneath the crease of her elbows. “Very sexy.” She giggled and smiled in response, not knowing what else to say, but thankful that he said it now so that she didn’t feel the pressure to explain their meaning to him.
Will began kissing her neck and Aberdeen let out soft moans. “You like that?” he asked in a husky voice. Aberdeen could only nod her head. He’d bite her a little – she was sure he probably left a mark – before moving further down. She was so hung up on how good his lips felt along the skin of her body that she almost didn’t notice what he wanted to do. The slight tug on her underwear solidified it.
“N–No,” she hesitated, wiggling around and pushing him away slightly.
“You – you what—”
“No,” she repeated. “I’m not comfortable with that.”
Will nodded his head. He didn’t even hesitate. “Okay…okay,” he said, coming back up automatically. “Next time,” he smiled sweetly.
He couldn’t do that to her. He couldn’t kiss down her body and then attempt to do that and then come up and smile at her like that. It just wasn’t fair. It made her brain into a pile of goo – a bigger pile of goo than it already was. It made her unable to think.
Well, Aberdeen was thinking about one thing.
“Condoms are right here,” she whispered, reaching slightly with her right hand to open the drawer on her bedside table. Her mother put them there earlier that day when her father wasn’t looking. Aberdeen was embarrassed about it, but at the end of the day, Orla didn’t raise a fool.
Will reached over, rummaging through the drawer before finding one. He ripped off the foil and Aberdeen helped him slide it on before they resumed kissing. His hands wandered down along her thighs before she hooked them around his torso. “You’re good?” he asked, checking in.
“Yeah.”
“And you want to do this?”
“Absolutely.”
Will took her verbal confirmation and began entering her, reminding himself to take it slow. He saw Aberdeen’s eyes go slightly wide, the close from wincing in pain. He got worried. “Are you okay?” he asked. She nodded her head. “Are you sure?”
“It feels good, Will,” she breathed out. “Keep moving.”
Well that fucking changed things. He began moving in and out of her as requested, and with each movement came a new moan from Aberdeen. He leaned his head down to keep kissing her, and soon they worked up an amazing rhythm that brought pleasure to them both. The more noises she made, the more Will knew she was enjoying it and felt good, and, well, that meant he was enjoying it and felt good, too. She felt amazing for him. He was fucking lucky that he met her at King Taps, and even luckier that they got talking and she brought him back to her place. He was having the time of his fucking life.
Soon, he could sense Aberdeen getting closer and closer to her climax. “You close?” he asked. She could only nod her head again. But when she arched her back, he could feel her walls tighten around him, and she was a goner, repeating his name and letting out heavy breaths. He climaxed too, spilling everything out into the condom before collapsing beside her on the bed.
As they caught their breaths, Aberdeen looked over at Will who was staring up at the ceiling. He sensed she was staring and turned his head. “That was fucking awesome,” she blurted out.
He laughed out loud. “That was.”
***
The next morning, Aberdeen took a while to wake up. She knew she’d be hungover, she knew she’d be tired, but she knew it was a Saturday, so it’s not like she had to be anywhere. And, best of all – she was alone. No screaming Orla to wake her up, telling her she was wasting her day. No loud Camden footsteps running down the hallway to annoy her. No Mirza starting up the lawnmower at the God forsaken hour of 8am because he didn’t know how to sleep in.
She kind of missed it.
As she rolled over, her head began to throb. She brought her hand up to massage her forehead and she began opening her eyes slowly to adjust to the light – so much more now that she was 23 floors above the city. She saw Minerva sleeping on her cat tree, her fluffy tail falling over the shelf.
She tried to get up – she really did – but the pounding headache was making it difficult. When she finally lifted herself up, out of the corner of her eye, she saw something peculiar on her bedside table. After rubbing her eyes and having them refocus, she saw a glass full of water and an extra strength Advil on top of a piece of paper.
Oh right, Will.
She appreciated the gesture as she popped one of the Advil and took a big gulp of water. She picked up the piece of paper from the bedside table.
Tack. I had a flight to catch.
--Will