"Abraham," she repeated, with so much warmth that someone could've mistaken her for speaking the name of an old friend. "Tea, then," she promised, and when he thanked her, she brushed it off quickly. "It's not everyday that I get to make tea for someone new," she said, leading him by the hand to the library exit.
Once they were outside and on the street, she slipped her hand up to settle in the crook of his arm. He wasn't leading her; it was rather the other way around -- but he was nevertheless quite a good walking partner. Everything about his demeanor felt courtly and proper and familiar and comforting. She barely knew him, but already she felt that they would be quite good friends indeed.
The City made the walk to the park quick indeed, shuffling streets until the next turn ahead was onto the street where the great iron gates of the City Commons stretched. Her cottage was a little ways into the park itself, situated behind a low hill and just off the wending sidewalk.
"Megan, the friend who lives with me, is at work right now, but please excuse the mess, if there is any." She never really knew what Megan would leave out until she saw it.
Today, it was only a brightly-colored set of earbuds on the end table by the couch and a thin sweater in magenta draped across the back of a kitchen table. Beauty went quickly about cleaning up, folding the sweater and neatly coiling the earbuds before setting them over said sweater. Beauty wouldn't walk into Megan's room, even to put her things away, but she wasn't above making the things a little neater.
"Tea!" she finally exclaimed, heading back to the kitchen. "Chamomile? Oh, orange spice!" She started pulling out the tea she'd mentioned with one hand, while turning up the already-waiting kettle with the other. It was clear that Beauty drank quite a bit of tea. She paused, then looked over her shoulder at Abe. "Orange spice?" she asked, belatedly wanting to confirm the choice.