Everything was happening in the same week. That was just how life went though. Or so he often found. It would be boring same old day after week after month and then bam everything happened in a couple of days. Parker clung to it because he knew that it was only a matter of time until it went back to boring again.

It wasn’t that Parker disliked what he did. He knew that it was all for a greater cause and that soon enough everything would come to fruition. Life would certainly be a lot more exciting once all of that went down. Of course all those thoughts were for another day.

Parker woke up to an owl tapping at his window. He was tired and it was annoying still he rolled out of the bed and took the note from the bird. He was honestly expecting another note from one of the LaStrange brother’s. There was a lot of bitterness when it came to working with the notorious family. Of course he had the same beliefs. It was the rejection that was the hardest to swallow. It wasn’t form the death eaters. In fact Parker was shocked to see the name gracefully scrawled on the bottom.

He hadn’t seen Alina in a while. Back in Salem they were friendly. Of course he could never really say that he had any true friends. Unfortunately that was something that Memari called out accurately. He couldn’t have friends. They were people that would cloud your judgment and distract from goals. Right now Parker couldn’t afford that. Not to mention that friends were things that could be used by an enemy to heart you. It might have sounded heartless to be so distant and fake to people, but really he was just saving them from his future.

Still he had to play along with everything that would go into friendship. Hide in plain sight, right? Parker did honestly like the woman, it was harder done than said to keep things impersonal on his part. He quickly wrote back a response saying that he would meet up with her and he set to getting his day going.

Shower and food then getting dressed: Button up, jeans, well-loved combat boots. The man had a few things to get done, luckily all of that would take up the time he had to kill until he would meet up with Alina. A quarter till six rolled around and with a sigh Parker got up to head to the Laughing Gnome.

Parker pushed open the door to the well-known Inn. It seemed to be a central hub for the town. That was no different today. There were plenty of people talking and visiting. Still it was no problem to spot the woman he was there to meet. He took the time to order them both a drink. When he was given the glasses he made his way to the table that Alina had clamed .

She had grown up sense the last time that Parker saw the woman. He liked the woman she was now. Spending time with Alina would be easy. It would be strange to have a conversation that he wanted to be around. It would be nice to not have to fake friendliness.

More recently Parker had been spending time with people doing the whole “welcome to the dark side” speech. He just wanted to relax and have a good time. As they say all work and no play. Parker sat at the table setting one glass for her and the other for him. “Yu know I could never do that. But it would have been fun to see you kick in the door to my place,” He laughed. The image was tempting. Like a sexy heroin busting open a door to take out her enemy.

He was playing with fire here. Parker knew that he liked Alina, he always had. Of course up until now he had been good about keeping it friendly. He wasn’t sure if he could pull off some casual fling and not feel guilty about it with her.

Parker took a drink, smiling over his glass. “I’ve been good.” He nodded licking the corner of his mouth were some of his beer had managed to escape. “Spending some time traveling around the states. Taking in the sites. You know boring,” Parker smirked and shrugged. His life was not the one that he was interested in talking about.

“How have you been gorgeous?” He asked with a smile. For once it wasn’t that well practiced crooked charming thing that he gave everyone else. He could count on one had the amount of people he got to be himself around. If he really thought about it Parker was not even completely open with Alina. She didn’t know about his father, the family that he was part of and standing behind. She would probably never know. For now he wouldn’t worry about it, one thing that Parker had mastered was compartmentalizing. “Hopefully a little more thrilling than my life.”

“Oh coming after me?” Parker cocked an eyebrow a grin spreading across his face. If he ever got the chance he would request her dressing up as wonder woman and playing all this out. Getting tied up with that lasso of truth wasn’t sounding half bad right now. “Now I’m almost sad that I made it to out meeting. “ As tempting as standing the girl up was sounding now he knew that he never would. To some people he might have been a snake that was up to no good. That wasn’t the truth. He might have hid parts of himself but he had never been one to stand up a girl on a date. He would buy countless drinks for a pretty girl, open doors and pull out chairs. Just because he could be a dick in some situations did not mean it was ever okay to disrespect a woman. Especially one he liked.

“Sense it was a wild goose chase more than a road trip,” Parker shrugged. Going around truing to find your estranged father does not a fun time make. The fact that his trip had ended in Alaska with being told that he was a dumb delusional child made it terrible. Still he survived and was at least part of his family in a way. “A road trip would have been perfect, but then I would have been alone. You know typical whiney reasons.”

“Move?” His grin pulled down into a light pout. “Where to?” She was the first face to make him smile in a long time it would be a shame if she did leave. Parker probably would be better off without Alina around. He wouldn’t have to constantly tell himself no and then fail at fallowing his own advice, like he was now. One date was hardly as bad as it could be but Parker knew himself. This would lead to more, if she let it. A yes from her was a green light for him. He would allow himself to give in saying that he didn’t want to break her heart. Either path seemed to lead down that road. Parker was ignoring that fact.

He took another drink and almost pulled spit take when she mentioned the Russian spy. It sounded like a joke. He choked a bit on the beer and coughed through it. “What do you mean Russian spy. Are you actually some kick as super hero and not telling me?” It sounded just crazy enough to be real. “You better tell me everything about this Alina.”

This little game they played was probably his favorite thing. The way she wanted to make him pout and beg for her to not leave or stand him up. He would do the same to her just to see if she felt the same. It was cute. Parker also loved knowing there was someone there who honestly wanted him around.

His grin only got brighter when Alina said he should have gotten a hold of her. “We will have to plan a road trip for the both of us then. We will have all the fun we can stand,” A small wink was thrown into the end of that offer. Of course he hoped that a road trip wouldn’t be the only way he could have endless amounts of fun with the brunette. There was something about being on the open road and being able to stop and take a break in the back seat or in a new hotel room in every new town that gave Parker’s smile a naughty little twist.

He mulled over the idea of Italy. “You would really make me go that far to see you?” He asked, a playful glint in his eye. Of course he would if he had to. His mind kept telling him it would be better if she was in Italy, they could have a casual relationship. The type of relationship they should have.

Parker did manage a little laugh at her remark. Personally he felt that being a hero was not as glamorous as stories made it seem. He listened to her story though. His expression changed fromm curious to jealous when the story wen from a guy just bugging her for information to them having drinks. Parker didn’t mean to be so transparent. Normally he was good at hiding his true emotions. This girl could easily do dangerous things to him.

“That’s what you get for having drinks and trying to get frisky with a damn Russian spy,” Parker was trying to save face with poking fun again. He leaned back and took a drink. Though, he was concerned about her being stalked by something as crazy as a spy from Russia. He was relieved that she had thrown the guy out. This jealousy thing was new and Parker wasn’t sure that he was completely prepared to deal with it.

“And now it looks like you need yourself a body guard,” He leaned forward again setting the glass down. “I could offer up my skills.” Not that he thought he was anywhere up to par with someone who was specially trained, but Parker knew a lot more about combat in multiple forms than most people expected of him. Instead of quidditch or quadpot back at school Parker took time to teach himself. After he graduated part of that trip to Alaska was also finding people to teach him more about hand to hand, magical and knife combat.

He would never make it easy for her to just have everything she wanted from him. He couldn’t. This thing had been going on sense they were sorted into the same house. Of course back then it was between eleven year olds. She was quitter then and he was a lot less tactful. And as most eleven year old boys he didn’t know the first thing about how to deal with girls.

As they grew together Parker go better and Alina seemed to grow into herself. It was bothersome because he liked her more then, than he did in the beginning. So their game evolved. When they graduated the distance seemed like the best option. Obviously Parker didn’t plan on having her back around and just like in school with time Alina proved that she could catch his attention more than he ever expected. The universe was surely testing him and at this rate Parker was bound to fall right into its trap.

With her remark his grin matched hers. All of this was driving him nuts. The tension was ridiculous and he just wanted to pick her up and take her to the restrooms where they would both just give into the inevitable. How they had manage to avoid it this long was surely a fluke. Parker was taught better and he was sure that Alina wouldn’t let him get away with it that easy.

“I’m curious, but also inclined to say that you shouldn’t move to Italy. It would just be easier on both of us if you stayed here,” He shrugged crossing his arms across his chest. No. He shouldn’t have said that. Too late now so he had to let it hang there.

Parker sucked some air in between his teeth. “Ah you caught me.” He leaned forward again and took up his glass. “But let’s be real here, if you need someone to watch out for you I can.” There was an honesty in his eyes that almost never was there. “I don’t want to learn that you got abducted in the middle of the night. That would ruin all my summer plans with this road trip,” Of course the seriousness mearly lingered.

Parker made it a habit to pick girls up, treat them well but never commit. That was eventually what broke every single relationship he had. Because he had treated them like ladies and acted like the gentlemen he was always taught to be they assumed he was looking to settle down. They couldn’t be more wrong. It was strange to Parker how mad some of them got saying he was so mean for leading them on like that. He would look dumb founded and more often than not get aslap across the face before they walked away and out of his life forever.

It was better that way. They didn’t need to know what something long term with him ment. Alina though. He wanted to know. He wanted to wake up next to her every morning. Parker had wanted that for a long time. AS much as he made her work for his attention he was working to pull his own away from her.

“I just figured that you would need help moving and naturally, being the gentleman that I am, I would help you,” He informed. Regardless of together or not her being in Italy meant having to go there, a lot. Friends visited friends right? Parker knew he would fallow her, still continue this thing that was so addicting regardless of if they ever went father. She could easily be the one that he would look back on and remember. ‘The one that got away’ , that was what books said girls like her were.

She said yes to his offer of body guard. His grin spread. Parker was honestly happy that she said yes. He almost looked like a school boy who had just got the affirmative form a the girl he asked to prom. “Get sick of you?” He then repeated with tilt of his head. “Doubtful.” They had known each other for over ten years, he was sure that if he was going to get sick of her it would have happened by now. “We went through puberty together, or did you forget that? If that didn’t scare me away I don’t think some extra time with you now will. “ Parker took another drink and finished off his beer with a proud smile. It wasn’t like she had said anything about a relationship, he was making sure she wouldn’t get abducted, but he felt like he had finally won something.

“Geez you just want to make me sounds like a creep,” Parker joked looking offended. He would never be that desperate. Sure they played this little game but Parker would be upfront before he ever hid in Alina’s closet. The banter and testing was just a whole lot more fun than finally caving and doing this whole thing like people normally did. It also made it easier to keep ignoring the obvious problem with giving into his feelings.

His grin was painted on his face. Parker could only imagine what she had on her mind. Still he bit his bottom lip. “You aren’t doing a very good job of talking me out of this.” In fact she was doing the exact opposite. Parker was hoping somehow something would happen here that would make it easy to just say ‘ hey it was nice catching up’ and then take his leave. Of course it wouldn’t work out that way. Parker had a feeling that Alina would plague him for the rest of his life in one way or another. Ife he just stopped talking to her he would regret it. If he gave into what they both wanted he knew there was a very good chance that she could get hurt one way or another. Both sucked.

She narrowed her eyes at him and he tilted his head curious what she had going on in her head. The question wasn’t one that Parker was expecting. He wasn’t one to share that much about himself. There were details that she knew about him, they were vague though. His answers were always generic. Normally that was good enough for people. Of course not for Alina.

“I wasn’t lying when I said I traveled,” He laughed leaning back in his chair as one finger absently traced patterns on the table. “Sort of just seeing the states learning new things.” Parker shrugged. He always found that if you kept your story close to the truth it was easy to get through it without making people suspicious. In his case Parker just left out the death eater part of everything. “I would go from one city to the next find a job to work for a while and then move on. Obviously I didn’t really find my calling anywhere outside of Salem.” He did but was sent right back to Hawthorn Village. For better or worse Parker seemed to be stuck in the town. “Why do I get called out on a boring life when all you gave me was family visits and maybe moving. That isn’t exactly a gripping tale.” Of course he was teasing. Though knowing more about the girl was never a bad thing in Parker’s book. He was just relieved that she didn’t come here with a ring on her finger.