Re: Aedan's home: Aedan/Marta
[Beings - that was, humans and others - were like books. The pages had to be read to understand them, and sometimes a book stayed with you long after you'd crossed the rear cover. Some people couldn't be understood by the end of it, some people had whole series. They were all different, and Aedan loved to read - or so he'd learned once he was land bound.
Her book held secrets. One's he already begun to guess at, but he let her move freely, watching and listening. The smoker's rasp without the scent of tobacco on her, the lack of warmth, her pale cheeks. He noticed, too, the lack of a bag, but that was less of a concern. Many ladies of the night did not spend the whole night with their john, and though he had already voiced his lack of expectation for sex with her, he wondered if she would be going out again after this.
Especially once she launched into her speech.] A higher girl? [A question as he leaned against a wall decorated with old oil paintings that he had enjoyed for years.] Better. [Dully, but with a quirk of a brow.] I have no preference on male or female; living is all I require. [Where they home, his aunts would already have her face in their hands, calling out illnesses and remedies, and ignoring, like he did, the 'and stuff.'] Twenty seems short. You could have asked for at least 80, and that was forty years ago. [Calm, but he wasn't demanding that she take the money. No, he'd never risk that insult.]
Very well. And extra, to make up for me being a poor host and unable to offer you dinner after coming out all this way. [And perhaps with a complete lack of subtlety, hinting that he thought she needed to eat.] If you have no preference, I'd rather we go onto the back porch. I have a decent enough view of the lake, and I've always found it calming. Unless you require something. A drink? I'm not sure I would trust the water, but I do have brandy.