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 Posted: Wed Jan 08, 2014 10:44 am
"I can't help but be a little ******** resentful that you'll be so blase about Otto and Bertrand but the vaguest suggestion that I might even turn a smile--" Taym became suddenly aware of a sensation like his foot missing the top step in a staircase. A precipitous and painful descent loomed inevitably in front of him and he swallowed whatever he'd been about to snap out at her, lapsing instead into the sullen broodiness he occupied when he wasn't engaging in slinky tomcat grins. "Did I mention your shoes are nice?" he said instead, drily. "Really nice. The lipstick too. Good choice." And then, almost immediately and with genuine alarm: "Jesus. Is he really eighteen? I keep forgetting."
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Posted: Wed Jan 08, 2014 10:56 am
The glasses were officially on. They were her personal signal, too, not just for those around her.
"Otto," Clerise said, keeping her tone candid very deliberately, "is not delicate, nor is he damaged. He will weather whatever damage is done to him and come out stronger for it. Should he come to me for advice, either in a personal or professional capacity, I will advise him to avoid her from the appropriate angle.
Clerise's tone grew increasingly more and more chipper. "Mildred, as you are well aware, is not in any state for a relationship with someone with such a clear end goal in mind who has difficulty with expressing affectionate honestly and openly and--"
She removed the glasses before she told Taym more of what he already knew.
"Yeah, a few months back. The shoes were her and lipstick was his, he's got an eye for colour. Somehow. Maybe it's because he always just picks the brightest one he can find."
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Posted: Wed Jan 08, 2014 11:15 am
"I express affection honestly and openly all the time," he said, but it wasn't really a protest, more just a rote, necessary reply. "I tell you I love you all the time." And he did. At the end of every conversation; in the morning in the stead of a "hello" from where he stood with one hand in his pocket and the other stirring the eggs; in random text messages sent completely devoid of context whenever more than four or five days went by without talking to her. And that was the problem. It wasn't just Clerise. There were probably a dozen or more "I love you" text messages sitting in the sent folder on his phone as they talked, to a dozen different people; he'd probably closed three conversations with it just since the doors had opened. And he always, always sandwiched it safely between layers of sarcasm and sniping and derision. She'd been right, of course--Clerise, especially Clerise-with-glasses, knew him better than almost anyone. "It's almost enough to make up for the suit. Almost."
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Posted: Wed Jan 08, 2014 12:07 pm
"I know. I love you too, you know I do." It wasn't a lie: a large part of her heart was carved out and devoted to the home of Clarice-and-Ben, but Taym was a consistent part of her life. He was her friend and ******** and sometimes chef and the baby whisperer. But he was also very damaged, in ways he had no interest of healing, but by god, she'd dragged him towards a semblance of normality, even if he had been kicking and screaming in the guise of feigned reluctance.
Through break ups and scars and drowned sorrow, she'd been there. She intended to stay there, if he'd let her.
"Oh, give it a rest, you butthole, or I will sad hold you out here instead of waiting till tomorrow night."
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Posted: Wed Jan 08, 2014 12:21 pm
"Perish the ********' thought," he deadpanned. "Entirely because I am done smoking and not at all in a transparent attempt to circumvent just such an occasion, I'm going back inside. I'll leave you out here with your spoils." He gave the massacred plates a sideways look.
He went to move past her, the usual predatory slink--he was a lean and well-fed Doberman at the best of times and he played to it, willingly and shamelessly--but he paused to push aside collar and braid and to drop a kiss against the hollow behind her ear, a habitual spot and one safely far from her lipstick. "I love you," he said, automatically.
(He always did.)
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Posted: Wed Jan 08, 2014 1:34 pm
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