Gwen could tell that the woman was lost in thought. Probably forming some type of opinion about the situation. Lots of people couldn't believe that she was subject to an arranged marriage. She usually had to remind people that 150 some odd years isn't a long time in the grand scheme of things.

She gave Lee a smile, "It's quite a pleasure to meet you." She nodded, "It is. It is quite crazy. I would not believe it myself if I was not the victim of circumstance." She sighed, "Yes, quite. I hope my family found a way to repair themselves after my loss. They were counting on that marriage."

She shrugged after a few moments and sipped some of her coffee, "Plus, this time is pretty nice. No slavery, abundance of food, most people seem to wear deodorant. It is nice." 

Gwendolyn was glad that she hadn't actually loved the man she never got to marry, but was worried about how her family had fared in the aftermath of her travelling 150 years into the future. Because the arranged marriage had been to benefit the family, she was going through with it to help her family. Lee couldn't even imagine that; at Gwendolyn's age, Lee hadn't even seen her family in years, she couldn't have cared less about what they thought or how they were doing. Even now that Lee was at least on speaking terms with her entire family, and even actually close to a couple of them again, Lee couldn't even imagine doing something as drastic as marrying a man simply to help her family.

But now that the shocking revelations seemed to be over, Lee took another sip of her coffee. At least she hoped that it was safe to do so again.

”Have you thought about checking?” Lee asked as she set her cup back on the table. ”I mean, it's history now, and you said your fiance was a senator's soon, right? There should be records somewhere about what happened when the wedding didn't happen. And business records, if nothing else, about how your family did.”

Lee paused, realizing how much she had just gone on about, and she looked down at her coffee cup in embarrassment. ”Or just ignore me if you've already thought of that…”

Gwen sighed and leaned back in her chair as she took a sip of coffee. She was enjoying the whole relaxing sitting people could do now. No longer did a woman have to have her back in a straight line as she sat. Gwen was getting spoiled in this time.

She gave Lee a smile. It was sweet of her to try to offer her advice. She had thought about checking but she was having a surprisingly hard time finding information. She looked everywhere and couldn't find a d*mn thing. She was not a very good technology user yet, though. Gwen was saving money to hire someone to help her look into it. She wasn't sure if she had it in her to find it out by herself, anyways. 

"Oh no, no, those are amazing suggestions. I have thought about it - I've even tried, some. It is hard, for me. I am not good with these technologies. Smart phones, the internet, computers and such... I am still learning and adjusting to these things. I am just trying to save some currency so I can hire someone to help me find information about them." She sighed and looked down at her coffee, "Plus, I am not quite sure if I could do it by myself. Emotionally, speaking. It is a lot easier to be forced to hear it from someone than it is to actually have to research it." 

She cleared her throat, "Anyways, do you live in the area?" 

She liked the idea, and had even started to try and look into her family already, but she didn't know enough about current technology to look too far into it. Well, that made sense, it's not like she would have had anything like the internet or smartphones on her day.

”I'm sure there should be some hard copies of newspapers and such somewhere in the library,” Lee mused. But to be honest, she really didn't know. A lot of the search likely would require use of a computer and Internet.

”As far as I can tell, you are adjusting remarkably well, though,” Lee continued. ”A job and trying to learn how to use technology already? I'm impressed.”

“But no, I don't live around here,” Lee said. ”Well, I used to years ago, but I moved out of the city. Though, I guess I will be moving back before too long.” Thanks again for that, Rachel.

She nodded and sighed, "Yeah, I suppose so." Newspapers didn't seem too popular nowadays, honestly. They'd have their moments again and some people still used them, but it wasn't like her time - the newspaper was a way of life. At least for her, a wealthy urbanite in Boston.

She nodded and grinned proudly, "Quite! I am incredibly bles- um, lucky to fall into good hands in this world."

She perked a brow, "Oh? Well, welcome back to the city!" Gwen couldn't tell if the woman was excited or not but was clearly curious on her reasonings - it would be rude to inquire, though, so she mostly kept her thoughts to herself. 

Gwendolyn had lucked into falling into good hands after suddenly appearing into what for her was far into the future. ”I'm glad,” Lee said. And she really was. As far as Lee could tell, the woman in front of her was quite a lovely young woman; it would be hard enough for her suddenly finding herself here, never mind with getting no help from anyone.

”If you need any other help, feel free to ask.” Wait, now why did she say that? Didn't she already have enough on her plate with helping Rachel get her boutique ready and moving back to New York?

”I'm guessing that means that you've already found yourself a job, then?” Lee went on to ask. ”What did you find to do?”

Gwen gave Lee a big smile. She was one nice woman. Despite all the horrible things she read in the paper, here she was talking with a stranger that she could tell was a good person. It was refreshing, really.

She smiled again, "Thank you, thank you so much. I greatly appreciate that. I think I will be okay, though." She nodded, "Yes, I'm an administration assistant for my friend, Charlie." That wasn't entirely a lie - she helped assist in stuff. However, she was told she couldn't exactly tell people what her exact job was, after all. She couldn't' say 'Syndicate from across the rip' and expect a good reaction. 

She hesitated for a moment, but decided it would be better to just ask, "So, what brought you back to the big ole' city? Is there anything I can help with?" The woman had offered assistance for her, so it was only right that she offered assistance for her. It wasn't just politeness, though - Gwen really wouldn't mind helping the woman. She was friendly, nice, and actually believed her without treating her like trash. If the woman needed help, she'd do her best to do so.

Gwendolyn already had a job, as an administrative assistant for her friend. That has worked out really well for the woman, Lee thought. She was lucky.

But she didn't think that she needed Lee's help. In a way, that made sense; Gwendolyn sure seemed to be adjusting well so far to the time period, she had a friend, who had helped her get a job, and Lee assumed somewhere to live.

But then the big question: why was Lee back in the city after she had moved away?

”That is both an easy, and at the same time difficult question to answer,” Lee replied before taking a large sip of coffee. Some things simply required coffee, or preferably beer, but it was still morning and the only thing within sight was coffee. This question definitely required coffee, if for no other reason than it came close to questions that would require alcohol to properly deal with them.

”Long story short, I'm helping my sister open a clothing boutique, and rather than staying in Toronto, she decided to open shop here.”

But then, Gwendolyn was offering help, if it was needed. Lee thought for a moment, tapping the side of her coffee cup. ”Honestly, I don't know if we'll need help. I've never done anything from the ground up like this before, I mean, we're not even open yet.”

Gwen smiled as the woman mentioned that it was an easy and hard question. It seemed like the way of the 21st century - of course, that was the way in her time. Clothes changes, technology changes, but humanity doesn't. It was kind of funny, truly. 

A clothing boutique? Ooh! That piqued Gwendolyn's interest. After all, she was a skilled tailor. She could thread a dress together easily. Kind of easily, anyways. She wasn't entirely sure what the materials were made of in this time but probably similar if not the same as in her time... Hopefully, anyways. 

She nodded as she listened to Lee's honesty and her worry. She gave the woman an encouraging smile, "Opening a business is quite a difficult yet rewarding thing to do." She nearly wanted to give the woman's hand a squeeze of confidence, "It will take hard work, for both of you. But, it will work out so long as you put effort into it. Not to mention, I can repair clothes and make dresses. Part of the whole being a woman in the 18th century thing," she chuckled. "I can give you my..." she paused, trying to remember what a cell phone was called, "device's number. Just give me a ring if you need me." 

Lee took another sip of coffee as Gwendolyn started speaking. Some things must not change much over time; the stress and reward of open your own business must be one of those things. But Lee was sure that it would be worth it; all the work she had put into the other shop had been well worth it.

But that was something that Lee didn't really want to think about. It wasn't going to do any good thinking about it, and the emotions that thinking about it would bring up, week, this was not the place for that.

Giving herself a quick shake off her head, Lee blinked at Gwendolyn when the woman said that knew how to make and relate dresses. Well… That could be useful, actually.

”You know, I might take you up on that,” Lee replied, turning to dig her own phone out of her purse. ”I'm not going to be any use sewing, I'm here for the business side of it, at least that's what my sister's claiming, so she doesn't lose money on me.”

Gwen gave Lee a smile. The woman was going to be able to make it work, she could sense it. She'd have to put a lot of time and patience into it, of course, but she could do it.

She gave her a curt nod, "Please do. I have plenty of free time on my hands, I do not mind helping a friendly soul out if I can." She took a sip of her coffee as she waited for Lee to get her phone out. She chuckled quietly, "Well, we all have strengths and weaknesses. It is understandable. To be frank, I would not be very good at the business side. At least, not at this time." 

In her time? A whole other story. She'd whisper into her dad's ear and get him all sorts of good deals. Business was a lot different than in 1862.

Having finally retrieved her phone, Lee smiled across the table at Gwendolyn. ”That would be amazing,” Lee replied, then thought about it for another couple moments, and her smile grew. ”My son would probably love it, too. With having someone else helping out, I might actually take a day off every so often.”

Turning her attention to her phone, Lee tapped a few times to get ready to enter Gwendolyn's number, then looked up expectantly.

Another couple moments thought, and Lee cocked her head at the woman across the table. ”And don't sell yourself short. When I was younger, I never expected to be any good at this, but apparently I'm a bit of a natural, at least for small businesses.”

She smiled, glad she would be able to help Lee out. Maybe she made a new friend today?! What a crazy coincidence. The world was a wild place to live in, indeed. She perked a brow, a son? He had to be young, Lee looked pretty young. “Oh, a son? How old is he? That is wonderful, I am so glad to hear.”

She gave her cell phone number to Lee after checking it on her phone – she hadn’t remembered the numbers entirely yet. 

She smiled, appreciating the compliment although she didn’t quite understand the sell yourself short part. What did she mean? She wasn’t about to sell herself – no one in their right mind would sell themselves, heck, in her time, a whole war was raging over that question. In either, she hoped that she might be good at something without even trying.  “Maybe you’re right… I should try more things.” She said, more to herself than to Lee.

Gwendolyn seemed a little surprised, though happy, that Lee had a child. ”He's six,” Lee replied, her smile turning happier and a little proud.

Next thing Lee knee, Gwendolyn was giving her number before tucking her own phone away, so after Lee saved it she clicked over to find a picture, turning the phone so the screen faced the other woman. ”He's smart, as well adjusted as I could hope for, and amazes me every day that he's mine.” And it was true, every day, every time that Lee looked at her son even all these years later, there was a part of her that was amazed that she had a child. It was so much more than she had ever thought she would have.

Turning the phone back to herself, Lee smiled at the screen for a moment before tucking it away. ”If there's just one thing I've learned from this city, it's that nothing is impossible.”

She smiled. Kids were adorable. She was glad she now lived in a time where kids didn't simply die at their young age. She might miss her family from her time, but she definitely was glad for some of the improvements in life.

She nodded and gave Lee a smile, "That sounds wonderful, truly."

She grinned and laughed quietly, "You are quite right about that... It is of endless possibilities."