Demure and practiced beauty

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GENERAL INFO

Full name: Mary Frances “Frannie” Corwin

Age/birthday: 39 / January 11th

Occupation: Attorney

Gender: Female

Sexuality: Bisexual

Relationship Status: Single

When Verona’s fiancé had died, everything had gone by in such a blur. She had been in such a state that there were times she didn’t even remember some of the following days around the funeral. Though she had known of Frannie for a while before hand. Her fiancés family had known her own for a long time and while she would never say she was friends with the other woman, they had functioned in one another’s orbits before. It was why that despite the combative nature of the conversation, Verona never responded with aggression. “ No,  I  don’t think that is the reason at all. It’s not every day I’m trying to meet someone for a commissions, so I was trying to be prompt and it bit me in the ass. It happens”  

//

She could point out how Verona shouldn’t agree to meet someone if she’s not sure she can make it in time and Verona would most definitely defend herself using another weak argument. It seemed that they could do it for hours. She made a living by arguing, after all, and Verona seemed quite full of excuses. But she didn’t want to waste any more of her time with this so she pushed her annoyance aside and nodded. “Alright. I guess I shouldn’t hold you any longer since you’re already late for your appointment. Good luck with your client, I’m sure they would appreciate it if your job turned out to be a lot better than your punctuality.”

Frannie’s apology felt hollow and meaningless to him. She had immediately blew it into a million pieces by stating ‘your kind,’ he rolled his eyes. “Good job.” He commented. “Word to the wise when Elaine finds out, pull your head out of your ass, and get better at apologizing. She’s not going to be as nice as I am.” Robbie put his hands up, “I’m not lying to Elaine. If she asks, I’m telling her.” He absolutely meant that. It wouldn’t be the first thing out of his mouth but he wasn’t going out of his way to hide it. “Neither of us asked for today to happen so maybe that will give you some…” brownie points? Leeway? “Today was just a series of unfortunate events.”

//

Frannie’s expression tightened, she opened her mouth, ready to argue, but sighed, closed it and listened to him without saying anything. He wasn’t wrong and she deserved it. When he was done, she tilted her head and studied his face, wondering what he was thinking. “Do you think I’m afraid she’ll be jealous?” She could actually scoff at the thought, and she sort of did it before shaking her head slightly. “That’s not the reason I asked you to keep this from her. I mean, I know she would never think such thing. I’m a Corwin,” she stated, and after a pause she added, “And still in love with her brother.”

.

“My sister.” Lainey hummed, smile tugging at the corner of their lips. “We live together, which is usually a great thing, but like all siblings, we have out differences of opinion on things.” Like how many Halloween decorations were acceptable, and when it was okay to start drenching the house in them. Brown eyes flicked to the woman, who was clearly distracted, watching on worriedly. Lainey had struck up the conversation to try and offer her something else to focus on, but maybe that hadn’t been the right choice. But then the redhead pulled her eyes away from the arena, and Lainey offered her a wide smile. “I ride two horses here. I don’t actually own them, but I compete them for their owners. It’s great.” Lainey knew how lucky they were. There was no way the student could afford the two amazing horses that she got the privilege of riding. “No need to rush into it. He can have as many lessons that he wants, and the introduction program is super great. They learn so much.” 

//

“I don’t have siblings so I’ll have to trust your word that living with them can ever be a great thing.” She was under the impression that many only childs dreamed about having siblings, but it was never her case. Whenever people asked her if she wanted a little sister or a little brother, she was honest, and they assumed she was just a very selfish child but, really, the only thing she would have to share was an incredible dysfunctional family and that was precisely what she worried about. “Oh, you compete? I didn’t know that! Will you let me know the next time you do it? I’d like to watch. I think Benji would like it too.”

Breanne let out a loud laugh. “Hold on.” Through the fact she was laughing hysterically at the name confusion she managed to change his name in her phone to Harry Liam. “That’s his name now. Harry Liam. I’m so happy right now. No he didn’t suggest but he tried to ask me if it was negotiable and I’m divorcing him immediately. His name is Morgyn. And you know what you’re not wrong.” Her thoughts now focused on if her boytoy could have ever been in a boyband. He’d make a terrible boyband member. He had the charisma, the problem is he doesn’t care who likes or doesn’t like him. “He’s got the face and charisma but he’d be terrible in a boyband. I also really want to see it.”

//

“Morgyn in a boyband or...” she leaned forward and whispered, “Or me getting railed by Liam?” Something in Breanne’s face made Frannie immediatelly add an, “Oh my God, that was not an offer. I was genuinely confused.” She chuckled, then covered her mouth with her hand and shook her head. When sobered up a little she said, “People will think we’re acting like two silly teenagers, Jesus.” And that was the second time she took His name in vain. Great. “I’m starting to think you’re a bad influence, Breanne. Mother warned me against girls like you.”

Cassie nodded as she listened. “Oh, okay. He’s got cancer doesn’t he?” She asked. There had to be a reason she saw him there all the time. It only made logical sense given where she was used to sitting at. “Yeah, it’s a long road but hopefully we are getting close to remission.” Cassie was hopeful every day to hear those words. 

//

“I really hope so,” she said, giving Cassie a small, gentle smile. Then she thought about her question and sighed. “Possibly,” she answered, before leaning back on her chair. “The results came back inconclusive. They took more samples on Monday and I have an appointment with his doctor this evening. Hopefully he’ll be able to explain what’s wrong.” She swallowed carefully and then looked down at her hands. “I still hope it’s not cancer,” she said, quietly, before weakly adding, "At least I don’t think there’s something worse than that."

Lucy knew that Frannie had a hard time opening up to people. The thirty-three year old didn’t blame the other woman. She sometimes had a hard time opening up as well, but that was why she was always grateful to have Scarlett her best friend by her side. Lucy leaned against the wall and folded her arms across her chest. She knew that Frannie wasn’t fine, but the surgeon just gave her a small smile instead and reassured her that she was here if she was needed. 

 Wes’s family had become her family. It killed her with the way she ended things. Not only did she hurt Wes, but she hurt his family and Lucy hated that. She hated that she had hurt them in the cross fire.She had become close with his family, and it made Lucy happy that even though she fucked up they still all wanted to keep in touch with her. She was lucky that Frannie still wanted to keep in touch and she was glad she did. However since moving to Salem, they fell out of touch but than Lucy realized Benji was now staying at the hospital she worked at, so it was her turn and time to pay a visit. Lucy watched as Benji enjoyed the food. She loved that little kid. It was crazy to her to think that she could’ve been a mom. 

With the genes that Wes and his family had, and her family had, their child would’ve been perfect. Getting lost within her thoughts, she nodded her head “I promise I’ll tell you exactly why I left, one day. Just not now. It’s still.., it’s still too hard. I just told him so.. I.. Wes and I need time to process it I guess.” Lucy said, shrugging her shoulders as she realized she’s probably giving it away. Taking a deep breath, she pushed her hair out of her face and than sighed “Well whenever you’re able to, let me know and we’ll plan something.” She laughed a little at Frannie’s next comment “We’re super close to some restaurants so it’s nice to have those options other than the hospital food.”

//

Frannie flushed lightly. “You know I don’t like to pry,” she said, kind of embarrassed. “You seemed like you wanted to talk about it, so I was giving you an opening.” Her tone was carefully formal, like she was addressing a legal issue, so she gave Lucy a gentle smile to let her know she wasn’t upset. 

Without an issue to focus on, Frannie felt silent, and eventually trained her eyes on the television. Benji took several naps throughout the day and she was bored out of her mind, so she flipped through channels even if she didn’t like to watch TV. “In case you’re wondering,” she started, looking from the TV to Lucy, “I have no idea what’s on right now. I think they’re supposed to be nerds who love science though.”

“hey, that’s mean.” harper argued back, her own playful grin pulling at the corner of her mouth at the sight of her cousin. she’d always looked up to frannie - modelled herself after her even, wanted to excel in the same ways that she had.  “i am perfectly aware of my surroundings in an or - diners in a new town however, are a completely different matter.” it wasn’t a great excuse, but it was the one that she was opting to go with for the time being. 

“listen, benji has great taste.” she justified it, but really it was just a case of knowing what she liked. “we should get him and jordan together, i’m sure they’ll have a blast hanging out.” she suggested, head nodding in the direction of benji. “besides, you should just be pleased to have us here in salem because i’m sure we make it so much more exciting for you.”

//

Frannie laughed; then rolled her eyes; and then demanded, “Ok, now let’s not get carried away.” Whenever Frannie and Benji got together with their family it was usually in spite of her own desires, but she had to admit that it didn’t apply to Wes and Harper at all. “What we can say for sure is that you both certainly make it a lot more interesting. Benji is still making me buy those japanese comics or whatever they’re called that Jordan introduced him to.” Frannie was not entirely sure she got the appeal after an hour of listening to her son talking about it, but his excitement was a little cute. And very welcome after so many trips to the ER this year. “Speaking of Jordan, you’ll never guess who I saw the other day. Here, in Salem.”

Maybe she couldn’t remember but Elaine did. It had been back from a trip to the local pizza place. Their mom would always take them there when they were in the mood for somethign yummy, simply because she had never dared to do a homemade pizza. She stopped by the gas station when they saw another car there, black, too damn expensive for the Martells. She saw the way he stared at Frannie and knew inmediately that nothing good would come out of it. so she slapped the back of his head, made him come back to the land of the living but even when she practically forced him to roll up the window, he continued to stare.

“I knew that you would be trouble and that tere was no way that you and him could have been together,” Elaine said. “For your family it would have been a shame, right? I mean, you burned our ancestors or tried to because we didn’t have the same beliefs as yours did back then. Still do, I suppose,” she added. “My brother was a kind man, a good man. The light in any room, he made everyone smile and feel special. In all those years I’ve wondered what the hell did he see in you to make him capable of feel something for a Corwin,” she fixed the flowers and let out a sigh. “Maybe if things had been different he would have loved you, or tried to at least, but I don’t know if you could have been able to reciprocate the feeling.” 

//

A strange look washed over Elaine's face at the gas station factoid and Frannie wondered if she was thinking about that day. While she heard Elaine, she also wondered how the witch felt about her. Sure it was something negative, that much she could tell, but was it hate? Was it hurt? There was a really thin line, really. After Elaine was done, Frannie didn’t speak immediately. She took her time to consider how much she was willing to share. “He did love me,” she ended up saying, quietly, and staring at Tristan’s name. “He told me once. And I believed him.” It wasn’t hard to do so. For someone like Tristan to fight so hard to be with someone like her, it only meant he was in love. She didn’t deserve him. She has always been a terrible person, and so difficult to deal with. But he wanted her. All of her. And she threw it away. “And I could. I could love him,” she said, in barely more than a whisper, and then felt a wave of tears slowly climbing up her throat. As soon as her eyes started to sting, she looked away, but added, “In fact, I think I did.”

“I’m single. I’m just passing the time for now. Leave me alone.” He shook his head at her. “What are you laughing at now?” He raised an eyebrow at her. When she brought up family it took everything out of him not to make a groaning noise. “I have no interest in going to that thing. I don’t feel like being asking a million questions about why i left Chicago, what happened to Lucy, what happened to you? I’m just not in the mood for it.” Weston never really enjoyed going to those family functions. “No way. I don’t owe you.”

//

“That’s the only reason behind those events, isn’t it? To pry and gossip.” Frannie hated it, and she hated that she had to pretend she was one of them. 

Christian nodded as he sat down across from his friend.  “It’s a great place.  They had a table available, so it all worked out.  Just wanted to thank you for welcoming Victoria with open arms and helping her get settled in at work.  I know she isn’t the easiest to get along with,” Christian admitted.  “And?  You get to enjoy lunch at a place you don’t get too often, win win,” he added with a wink before reaching to pick up his menu.  “Japanese is one of my favorites, but you already knew that.”

Frannie smiled wryly at him and then tilted her head. “Oh, you know?” Saying Victoria was difficult to deal with was an impossible statement to challenge. “I could really have used a heads up. You know, something along the lines of ‘oh by the way, the friend I’m asking you to help is a bitch who doesn’t deserve it’.” It came out a little more sharply than she meant to and she sighed. "I’m sorry. I just-... This week I actually had to ask an adult to behave, I’m still completely baffled by this,” she said, with a loud scoff, and then added, “but nothing changed. I suppose it's like asking a dog to solve a quadratic equation..."

“Cheerleaders? You were a cheerleader?” She raised an eyebrow. “That’s intriguing.” Victoria rested her head on her hands as she looked at Frannie. “Oh, that’s a great attempt to guess what is wrong with me but you are way off. My parent’s are amazing and I had a lot of friends growing up. Maybe, let’s spend a little less time psycho analyzing me.” Victoria came out bitchy but she had always cared about others until a few years ago. “I’m looking for someone like that but apparently that doesn’t exist?” 

//

Frannie narrowed her eyes but she looked wryly amused. “Head cheerleader,” she answered, tilting her chin up. She actually scoffed at Victoria’s next comment. "I don't want to analyze you much, I’d rather find out things because you tell me about them. But you don’t seem to be able to do it. Do you?” She said, raising an eyebrow. “Alright then, I’ll see what I can do, but it won’t hurt if you do the interviews yourself. As I said, it’ll save us time and money.”

“Oh a laugh?” He mused. “And here I thought you were going to to colder than the ground in winter.” He wasn’t a fan of how awkward this experience had been. All he could think about was that Elaine would be more than likely mad that Frannie had shown up at all. “Need help with those?” He checked. “I can handle these last few boxes. If you want to head home…” He let the sentence trail off. “I don’t imagine you’d want to be caught here.”

//

Frannie lowered her head and shifted, then said, “It isn’t personal.” Saying that felt super rich coming from her, so she shook her head and tried again, taking a deep breath. “I mean I’m stand-offish and aloof to the world at large, it has nothing to do with you.” And before she could stop herself, she added. “Or your kind.” Frannie realized as soon as she said it that it was the wrong thing to say, and she sighed, raising her hands. “I’m sorry- I... yeah, I think I should go.” She was already heading towards the door when something occurred to her and she turned back to look at him again. “If you could... not tell Tristan’s sister about this afternoon that would be golden. Please?”

.

“Phoebs doesn’t mind that I decorate, as long as I don’t go too overboard.” But that was sometimes hard, because the spooky season was one of Lainey’s favorites. That, and Christmas. For someone who’d lost both their parents, Christmas could have been bitter and sad, but Lainey had been lucky enough to be embraced by a whole new amazing family, and nothing was allowed to be sorrowful. Of course, there was always space to grieve, for all the kids who had ended up in the Winter’s care, but there was always warmth to follow. Lainey was pulled out of those thoughts by the other woman’s comment. “Oh my god…that happens?? That’s so cute.” Head shook a moment later, at the question, however. “Oh, not at all. I’m so indecisive when it comes to that.” 

//

“Who’s Phoebe again?” She asked, kind of distracted. Benji had been feeling a little better since he started taking his new meds and he had been insisting on going to the saddle club for a while now. Frannie wasn’t sure about it but took him anyway. Now, while Lainey chose just the worst person to talk to about halloween and christmas, she watched her son in the riding arena thinking that bringing him was the right thing to do after all. He was clearly having a good time. “I like New Year’s Eve,” she said, turning her attention to them. Small talk with semi-strangers was terribly boring for her, but there was something she had been thinking and maybe Lainey could help her make up her mind. “So, do you have your own horse here? The club provides an introduction for kids about horse ownership and they do adoptions if they think the kid is ready for it, so Benji wants to try but I’m not sure.”

Verona was a peaceful being. She tried to stuck to herself and just mind her own business in Salem. People still knew who she was due to the well known death of her fiancé, who had been a fixture in the town  and that way why she tried to stay off other radar. She was however not the type to be pushed around or talked to like she was on a schoolyard. She had enough of that growing up. She stayed crouched down picking up her artwork before looking back up at her. with an apologetic look. “ I’m really sorry about that. You can just send me the bill for that. “  Verona replied with a nod. She wasn’t struggling financially due to her former partners family, but she still lived within her means. “ That would be very sound advice, if I wasn’t park just over there” She noted to her car down the street, finally putting everything back in her portfolio. 

//

As soon as Frannie really took a look at the woman’s face, she realized she knew her. “Oh, it’s you,” she said, a bit surprised. She remembered Verona from boring family dinners with her parents’ friends. When they lost their son, the Corwin’s were devasted, and Frannie felt sorry for Verona’s fiance’s brother. She was an only child but she could imagine that losing a sibling was one of the hardest things to go through. She didn’t really understand what Verona was doing in Salem, after all they weren’t her family and Frannie always suspected her fiancé’s father didn’t approve their marriage anyway. She assumed the only reason Verona was sticking around was because she had some sort of plan to still get some of her fiancé’s family’s money but she overheard people gossiping at the law firm the other day and apparently Verona was in Salem because of her fiancé’s brother. Frannie wondered if she was trying to marry him now. “It’s great that you have a car, Miss Warren” she said, half-smiling wryly, “I can only assume this is why you don’t seem so well acquainted with other ways to move. You’ll find it is incredibly helpful when you walk on the sidewalks.”