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Post by Jonah Wellington on May 8, 2011 22:07:56 GMT -5
Was it wrong that he found her incredibly hot when she was comforting that little boy? Jonah was going to have to get out of here soon, or he was going to do even more things that he would regret. He'd already made a promise that he didn't know if he could keep, and another one that she didn't even know about. In less than an hour, he'd managed to dig himself a hole so deep, he couldn't see the top anymore.
"You're really good with him," he said honestly. Possibly it was the only honest thing he'd said since he told her his name. "You're going to be amazing when you take over... the kids are really lucky to have you."
He sat down next to her and had to restrain the urge to put his arm around her shoulders. "So, do you spend all your time here, or do you ever go out?"
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Post by Carley Spangler on May 9, 2011 7:47:51 GMT -5
"He's a good kid," she said as Matthew started to stand back up on his own. "Thank you." Carley blushed a very light pink. Taking over the orphanage wasn't something she worried about, it was more or less how she was going to continue to make ends meet. She never voiced the worry to anyone, except Yvonne, because she didn't want to worry anyone else.
"Majority of my time is spent here, yes, but I go out sometimes with my best friend Yvonne." The last time she actually went out was when she met a new friend, and that was about a week ago. It was about time to go out somewhere else again.
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Post by Jonah Wellington on May 9, 2011 22:08:41 GMT -5
With the thoughts that were going through Jonah's head at that moment, he was fairly sure that there was a very special place in hell reserved for him. This was just not the appropriate time or place to ask a girl out on a date, and yet...
"Well, what would you say to meeting me somewhere for... coffee, or drinks? I could find someone for your friend, and we could make a night of it."
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Post by Carley Spangler on May 10, 2011 9:08:17 GMT -5
"You're asking me on a date," Carley asked turning to look at him with amusement on her face. It had been awhile since she was asked on a date. The last time that whole thing didn't work out because majority of her time was spent at the orphanage. The guy didn't like the idea that she didn't have more time to spend with him or go on more dates more often. Jonah, however, knew about the orphanage first.
"I'll mention it to Yvonne. I think she might be working for the next couple of nights, since she's a bartender at a club here in London." She didn't want to come out a mention what club since she wasn't exactly sure if he was a muggle or not.
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Post by Jonah Wellington on May 16, 2011 0:04:01 GMT -5
Oh, well, he was already going to hell, or whatever the equivalent was in the wizarding world, so he might as well just go all the way, right?
"Yeah, I guess I am asking you on a date," he said, grinning more brightly. This, at least, he was good at, and he didn't have to lie to her. He liked her; what was the point in beating around the bush about it? He was safer talking about that, and about her, than he was talking about the orphanage. He'd already dug himself into a deep enough hole where that subject was concerned.
"OK, well, I'll tell you what. I'll leave you my card, and you can call me when you know what a good night would be for your friend. Meanwhile, I'll make some more calls to see if I can get a contractor out here to take a look at some of the work that needs to be done around here."
And there he was, digging the hole ever deeper. What was wrong with him?
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Post by Carley Spangler on Jun 5, 2011 20:39:12 GMT -5
"Never had a man leave me his card before," Carley said teasingly. She knew she would mention to Yvonne, but for some reason something was telling her not to get too excited or attached. Maybe it was because of previous experiences.
"As for the contractor, that sounds perfect." She paused for a moment. "This really is the nicest thing that has ever really happened to the house. Mrs. Elvington had wanted to remodel the house for the longest time, but since it is just the two of us we haven’t really had the extra stuff coming in.” Mrs. Elvington had teased Carley before about finding a handy man to date so that he could always be around and fix some of the things in the house. She figured that Jonah’s appearance meant a good sign for the orphanage.
Carley glanced from Matthew who still happened to be in the floor, to Jonah, she looked at him teasingly. “So is this the way you find some girl to go on a date with you? Find out that the place she lives needs to be fixed, so you stop by, offer your services then while you are having a conversation with her, casually bring up something about a date?”
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Post by Jonah Wellington on Jul 5, 2011 23:35:21 GMT -5
Jonah laughed, but he felt a little awkward. After all, he'd never really explained why he'd actually come to the orphanage, and had just made up the offer to sound like an excuse. If she thought too carefully about it, she might start to wonder why exactly he had chosen this place, and why he had made such an offer. It would have to seem rather sudden and "out of the blue." Carley was a smart girl, but Jonah really hoped she wouldn't read that deeply into it.
"Well, it is an awful lot of work to go through to get a girl to go out with me," he said teasingly. "I would hope I wouldn't have to work that hard... Honestly, I'm just offering this out of the goodness of my heart." For added effect, he put his hand over his heart in mock solemnity.
"But did it work?" he added, cracking a grin.
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Post by Carley Spangler on Jul 11, 2011 22:16:33 GMT -5
Later on, Carley would start to question Jonah about how he found out about the Orphanage and why he chose this particular one. At the moment, however, she was more than excited that the orphanage was finally going to get the renovations it desperately needed. She was thinking more along the lines that it was a wonderful thing for the children.
Carley laughed. Jonah was quite the charmer, that was for sure. She rolled her eyes and shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. I mean, you have been laying it on pretty thick, and it appears that you have tried really hard." She pretended to give it a serious thought. "And you are quite the charmer Mr. Wellington. I think it might be working a little....yeah."
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Post by Jonah Wellington on Aug 22, 2011 22:12:28 GMT -5
Jonah's grin widened. Under normal circumstances, he'd be feeling pretty good about himself for having charmed this girl. But of course, these were not normal circumstances. He'd dug himself into a hole, and he wasn't entirely sure how to get himself back out of it again. Out of all the girls in all the orphanages in all the city, he had to meet this one at this orphanage. His father was going to kill him...
Yet at that exact moment, he didn't care about any of that. His guilt was just nibbling at the corner of his conscience right now, because he was more interested in the girl in front of him.
Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out his wallet and began to look for a business card. But immediately, he realized the flaw in this plan. The business card read "Wellington Contracting and Construction," which was fine... but the phone number at the bottom was the office number. If she called that number.... well, it wouldn't go well for him, that was certain.
"Oh, it looks like I'm out of cards," he lied. "Tell you what? Do you have any paper or anything? I'll write it down for you, and you can call me when you get a chance."
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Post by Carley Spangler on Aug 30, 2011 13:42:25 GMT -5
"I think there's some parchment in the desk, I'll be right back." Carley moved from the place she was sitting after glancing down at Matthew again who happened to be trying to stand up as he watched her move from where she was. She walked into the adjoining room to reach the desk on the other side of the wall. Pulling out a piece of parchment, she looked around and only found a bright blue crayon.
Walking into the room again, Matthew plopped back down on the floor seeing that she walked back in the room and she offered the parchment and crayon to Jonah. "Sorry," she said with a light smile, "all I saw was the blue crayon. We have pens around here somewhere, but the kids like to move them all the time."
For the first time in a long time, Carley felt almost shy, but she wasn't letting Jonah see that. She was continuing on with her outgoing personality.
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Post by Jonah Wellington on Mar 25, 2012 0:27:41 GMT -5
Jonah laughed as he was presented with a piece of parchment and a crayon. It did answer one thing for him, however. If she had parchment on hand, that meant she was probably a witch. This was good, because it meant he wouldn't have to work too hard to hide his powers from her. He decided not to mention this right now, however. He didn't want to make a big deal out of it.
"It's fine," he assured her, taking the crayon. He quickly wrote down his name and his home phone number and handed it back to her. "Don't hesitated to call me if you need anything at all. I'm going to look into getting a crew to come in and help with some of the things that need to be done around here... maybe you could come up with a list of some of the most important problems? Although... probably best if it's not written in crayon..." he teased.
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Post by Carley Spangler on Apr 9, 2012 15:18:06 GMT -5
"I'll see if I can find pens or maybe a quill," she replied with a laugh. It did seem strange that all of a sudden there was a man who wanted to fix up the orphanage. Sure, she was grateful and for the moment she didn't think to hard about it, but that thought was still in the back of her mind.
"I'll make sure to have a list for you, don't worry. There's quite a few things around here that need to be absolutely fixed." For instance, there was a part in the roof that was leaking. Carley couldn't exactly fix it with magic. There were a few children at the orphanage that seemed like they might possess the gift of magic, but she didn't want to create magic and somehow have word get out she could. Carley didn't want any sort of witch hunts or anything like that to happen.
"I can't thank you enough Jonah," she said holding onto the parchment he handed back to her. "You have already made a difference here by just offering to help patch this place up. It means a lot, not only to me, but the children as well."
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Post by Jonah Wellington on Apr 13, 2012 0:15:20 GMT -5
Of course she had to lay it on a little thicker, to remind him of just how very wrong he was to do what he was doing. He allowed a pretty face to distract him from his real purpose in coming. Now he had promised to do the exact opposite of what he was supposed to do--instead of getting her to sell the orphanage, he was offering to help her fix it up. But really, what kind of monster wants to evict a bunch of orphans?
Somehow, as impractical as it was, he was going to find a way to keep his promise to Carley. Even if it got him fired, disowned, or something worse he couldn't even imagine.
"You're welcome," he said warmly. "But really, there's something about a bunch of orphans that's hard to resist. I couldn't forgive myself if I didn't do what I could to help."
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Post by Carley Spangler on May 10, 2012 18:32:14 GMT -5
Carley's smile was soft. "They have no place left to go and no one else to depend on until a nice person, or nice people come along and want to adopt them. I promised Mrs. Elvington I wouldn't let anything happen to the children or the orphanage itself, and I intend on keeping that promise."
This was quite the sticky situation, but in reality she had no idea. "Thanks again Jonah. You, uh, you don't have to leave right away. The invitation for dinner is still available. I just have to go start it."
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Post by Jonah Wellington on May 27, 2012 15:26:54 GMT -5
It seemed like every word she said to him twisted the knife still deeper. And every word he said in response dug him in even further. He felt like he was digging his own grave. He was locked in now, and he was going to have to deliver the promises he made to her. It wasn't just her he'd be letting down... it would be little Matthew and Mrs. Elvington and all the little orphaned children. How could he look them in the face and lie? Somehow he had to save this orphanage.... even if it meant betraying his father.
"I shouldn't stay, but... uh... well... why not? I could help you out with dinner... I'm actually a pretty good cook."
Yeah, good idea, Jonah, he thought to himself. Stay longer. Give yourself more time to get into even more trouble. Why couldn't he say no to this girl?
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Post by Carley Spangler on May 27, 2012 23:47:11 GMT -5
"A man that can fix houses and can cook, you better watch out before Mrs. Elvington tries to make you stay here." Carley laughed. She gave a long look at Jonah before moving from the chair she was leaning against.
"Alright well dinner must get started before they all start complaining they're hungry." She motioned for Jonah to follow her into the kitchen. "I thought we could have one of the kids favorites for dinner. It's pasta with chicken strips in a four cheese Rosa sauce. They tend to like Penne better since they don't have to worry about the long noodles and its less mess to clean up after they finish eating."
Carley grabbed the necessary pots to place on the stove. "Rylan," she called out. She waited for the little red-headed boy to stick his head around the corner. "Why don't you start setting the table while dinner is starting? You can see if you can get Thomas or Jay to help you." The little boy nodded, coming into the kitchen and getting the utensils for the table. "Thank you sweetheart," Carley said with a smile.
She waited for him to disappear around the corner again. "Rylan is probably my biggest help here. He's always willing to do things. Poor boy is 13 and several families have come by for interviews but none have been successful. I would adopt him myself if I could."
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Post by Jonah Wellington on May 28, 2012 15:08:32 GMT -5
Jonah looked at the boy as he left the room. Once again, Carley seemed to be rubbing it in. How could he even think of putting that poor kid out on the streets? Orphaned children, especially the ones who ended up in places like this, had already been through enough in their short lives. Here, at least, they were cared for and loved, even if they didn't have families of their own. He had always expected orphanages to be terrible places, like something out of a Charles Dickens novel. But these kids were happy here. He couldn't take away their home. They could end up in worse places, or homeless in the streets.
"He's a cute kid," he agreed. "Maybe there's still a chance the right family will come along for him."
The kitchen was a bit run-down, Jonah noticed, and the equipment was rather old and out of date. It was the kind of thing he was going to have to try and ignore, though, because he needed to focus on what he could do. The repairs were more important, so the kitchen would have to wait until another time.
"Are you making your own rosa sauce, or something from a jar?"
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Post by Carley Spangler on May 31, 2012 14:24:44 GMT -5
"He's a mess, don't let him fool you," she said jokingly. "When they say that children are completely honest, that one is the most honest one I think. If you don't want to hear a certain answer, then don't ask him the question." Carley laughed. She didn't mean to rub anything in. It was just her pride in the Orphanage.
"It's something I make on my own. I tried to use the jar stuff before and some of the kids won't really eat it. I haven't figured out why, but I'm not going to complain." She grabbed a few cloves of garlic from a container. "We always try to have fresh ingredients when we can. There's actually a small garden out back too." Grabbing a few more things, she started to chop the cloves.
"Do you like to cook?"
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Post by Jonah Wellington on Jun 19, 2012 23:58:04 GMT -5
You could learn a little from that kid, Jonah thought guiltily to himself. Here he was, lie upon lie pouring easily from his tongue, while this poor kid seemed to have no problem saying exactly what was on his mind, Actually, Carley was pretty much the same way. Not like him. It made him feel unworthy, like so much scum scraped off the bottom of their shoes.
"I love to cook, actually," Jonah said, smiling. He'd learned to cook originally because a friend had told him that girls liked guys who cooked (which was totally true). Then he'd found, to his utter amazement, that he really enjoyed it. Sometimes when he was feeling stressed, he'd randomly start preparing a lasagna or a curry stir-fry.
"I can't bake to save my life, though... it's too precise. But cooking is more creative. Sometimes I just experiment and try mixing different flavors together to see what I can come up with. I actually have a really good pasta sauce recipe... But it'd take too long to make tonight. I start with fresh tomatoes. But maybe I could make it for you some time."
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Post by Carley Spangler on Jun 25, 2012 22:00:20 GMT -5
"Oh, already thinking about cooking for me," Carley said in a teasing tone. "My oh my. Well, I'll have to think about those future plans. After all Rylan has to approve of you first." She let out a laugh. "He told me before that any man that wants to go on any kind of date with me, no matter who they are, has to get an approval from him." She winked at him just as she finished crushing the garlic cloves.
"I like to bake, I will say that. I made a three tier cake before and decorated it myself. It was for the kids after a small fundraiser we did. They wanted one so we could celebrate. Baking is not always about precision, just how much you feel like putting in the recipe. However, I can understand where you're coming from. Cooking is a lot more creative. I think cooking shows personality. You can learn a lot about someone from it. I do look forward to trying your sauce. It does sound like it would be amazing."
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