“Yeah, this is like, totally fucking weird,” Winnie said, tilting her head down with a nod. For certain, Winnie was not a vulnerable human. That much could be said from the way she treated others, but while she was raised in a loving and caring home, she wasn’t raised in a vulnerable one. Hunter and Sebastian had never been hands on parents and that was fine, Winnie knew her dads loved her, but it meant that between the nannies and the au pairs, she never learned how to properly connect with someone and when Winnie never developed her parents interests, they were quick to toss her aside and just provide for her. There were conversations at the dinner table but they never went past work or school or the topic of whichever miserable boy Winnie was bringing to the house that week and that was only if Winnie was home and if her dads weren’t working late which was often slim to none. And even when it came to school, somehow she still didn’t find people to connect with. There was Gigi at Crawford, but she had a completely different reason for playing the mean girl role and there was Ivy who Winnie had been able to connect with because it seemed like neither of their parents were around much and there shared personas, but even then, everything still felt surface level. Winnie wasn’t the type of girl to wear her heart on her sleeve or dream about her perfect guy. Well, she did, but it normally relief on his bank account balance more than his personality. “No, I like so get that,” she remarked, reaching up to play with the ends of her hair. “Because I like this too, it’s like... nice,” she wasn’t the best at putting her words together, especially in a moment of truly trying to get to know someone. She was always someone who befriended people or dated people for something in return. Popularity, gossip, or just general fun, and while Austin could provide that, she never looked at him as if she could gain something from him.
Do you believe people fall in love? Austin’s question shocked Winnie. She wasn’t expecting what’s your favorite color, but she also wasn’t expecting something just as loaded as that. “I think it like depends,” she licked her lips before continuing, “I think there’s like some people who get married because they like care about the person there’s like so many people who get married and then like don’t bone for fifty years, but I like also think there’s definitely some people,” a lot of people, “who like only get married because they like fucking,” after that, Winnie asked for his answer and soon after they began falling into a casual and real discussion. They shared laughs about the times Zoe dyed Austin’s hair and talked about what was or wasn’t real about themselves in the Muckraker and ultimately, Winnie was enjoying herself. She wasn’t fake in any capacity. She was still throwing out ‘like’ at every other word and wasn’t kind in her words, but Winnie was genuinely enjoying her time and she hoped Austin saw that. Once their conversation had died off, it seemed like things were treading to an awkward state once again, so Winnie took their glasses and sat them down next to the now empty wine bottle. “So, you know how you were like saying you trust me or you know, or like whatever it was?” she asked, leaning closer to him. “I like kinda trust you too,” and with that, she placed her lips against his. They knew how this one would end, but something felt different. Perhaps it was just Valentine’s Day though.