It wasn't that Arya didn't love her mother, it was just that she was so controlling and didn't seem to get that Arya was an adult now. She worked a job and she was out of school and she wasn't just some kid. But there had always been the sense of while you're under my roof...
Well then. Arya would just not be under her roof. She could be under this roof that Ethan had arranged for her.
He was gorgeous, Ethan. So hot, in that silver fox kind of way that Arya had always seemed to attract. Not that she minded attracting that.
In high school Arya had dated a few boys her own age but they were always such... boys. And every time she was with some college guy or actual man they always told her how mature she was for her age, how adult she was, that she wasn't just the foolish teenage girl that everyone else wanted to see her as. Older men had just always gotten Arya, even if she ended up having to keep most of those relationships quiet.
Ethan was quiet too, but that wasn't going to be an always thing. Like Ethan said, they just had to be patient and then when they got to live together and be together completely, it would be all the sweeter. Arya was so looking forward to that day, but at least as she waited she now had a great little Manhattan apartment.
And, sure, it was small- bedroom that fitted a double bed, narrow bathroom, all purpose living space- but it was really well furnished and had beautiful wooden floors and it was close to all sorts of things. Arya bet it wasn't cheap, knowing the prices of real estate. Not even slightly bad for her first apartment!
There came a knock on the door and Arya bounced towards it, excited to show it off to her brother and make sure he wasn't going to be all weird and worried.
"Welcome!" Arya smiled brightly, grabbing Armaan's hand (the bag handle crumpled between them) and dragging him in. "Look!" She exclaimed. "Look how much light there is!"