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It had been hell coming back to New York. You had been in your home state taking care of your parents, and they had begged you to consider coming back to live with them. Your dad didn’t trust New York, and your mom was concerned that two of your best friends were men. You reminded them you were in your mid twenties and you could handle yourself just fine. You told them that your friends weren’t just some guys, they were lawyers. Your dad scoffed, “Lawyers, if they’re not screwing you, they’re definitely screwing somebody.”
You dropped it after that. It wasn’t worth the headache. But you were also excited to get home to your boyfriend. Which they didn’t know about. It would have caused even more problems.
After months of being away, you had finally returned home, and you had a new apartment. You told your boyfriend to meet you there, so you could see each other before meeting up with your friends for dinner. That was when he dropped the news that he didn’t want to see you. He had been seeing someone else in the months that you’d been gone.
“What did you think I was going to wait for you to get back from the middle of nowhere?” he scoffs.
“Uh, yeah!? You’re my boyfriend. I wasn’t even gone that long. How could you do this to me?” you ask.
“Well, I have needs.”
“How long?”
“Excuse me?”
“How long before you started fucking someone else?” you nearly yell.
“Oh, actually I started seeing her in March.” he replies, sounding almost pleased with himself.
“I left in May,” Realization creeps over you. You want to cry and be mad, but you find yourself saying, “You know what, have fun. Go fuck yourself.” you hang up on him and resist the urge to throw your phone. You instead text one of your friends.
You had known Foggy Nelson for a while. He and his friend Matt frequented a bakery that you used to work at while they were interns at Landman and Zack. You were gone when he told you they had made the courageous decision to branch out on their own, but you were happy for them and wished them luck, not knowing when you would be home to properly congratulate them.
Hey, I just got some really bad news. I’m going to have to cancel, I’m so sorry.
What happened?
Well, you know that guy I was seeing? He was cheating on me. Before I even left.
What!?
What a dock.
Dock
Dick* dammit. I’m sorry. Anything I can do?
Nah, I’ll be okay. I’ll catch up with you guys tomorrow or something.
Okay, well let me know if you change your mind. Matt misses you.
I miss him too.
You set your phone down on your couch and flop onto it. The studio apartment you moved into was smaller than your last one, but it was all you could afford by yourself. And just barely at that. You had boxes piled up all around and figured you might as well start cleaning up and organizing. You only had tonight free before you had to go back to work.
You were pissed that you had to spend it alone, but after setting up your bed next to your couch and TV across the room you started to feel better. You got the TV set up and turned on, so you could have some background noise while you started sorting through boxes.
You had gotten most of the kitchen unpacked when you heard a knock at your door. You look out the peephole and roll your eyes with a small smile.
“Foggy.” you say, unable to keep the grin off your face when you open the door.
“Hey, I know you said you’d see us tomorrow and we can still do that, but I know you don’t have any food in your fridge, so I thought I’d bring the meal to you,” he lifts a bag. He was right, you hadn’t gone shopping yet. “I also brought wine.” he lifts the bottle in his other hand.
“You are so sweet, come in.” you reply. He steps in and looks around.
“Nice place.” he says.
“Oh stop. I know it sucks.” you smile.
“Eh, kinda, but you’ll make it your own.” he shrugs, setting the food and the bottle down. “Well, come here.” he gestures for you to hug him. You wrap your arms tight around him.
“I missed you so much.” you tell him.
“I missed you too.” he murmurs back, sensing that you needed the hug to hang on for a little longer than normal. He was happy to oblige.
“Where’s Matty?” you ask, finally breaking away from the hug and wiping away the tears that had threatened to spill over as discreetly as possible.
“Oh, he had some work to do. Following on a lead apparently. I don’t know what’s going on with him to be honest.” Foggy shrugs.
“Nelson and Murdock, hmm. It suits you.” you reply, smoothing his tie.
“Come on, let’s eat before it gets cold.” he smiles.
“Just over on the couch. I do want to get some stools for this counter, but it’ll be a while.” you lead him over to the couch. “Oh, shit. Glasses. One sec.”
You head back over to the kitchen and pull two glasses that you had just put away, then walk back over to Foggy, who had taken off his suit jacket and was attempting to open the food without spilling.
“Here.” you drag over one of the empty boxes that had kitchen utensils in it and flip it over to use as a makeshift table. Foggy gets the food set up while you open the bottle of wine, a twist top (thank god), and pour a glass for you both. You hand him his glass and he thanks you.
“Welcome home.” he says, clinking his glass with yours.
“Thank you.”
You sit on the floor, preferring to be closer to your food so you don’t spill, while he eats on the couch. You sit in silence for the most part, glancing at each other with a reassuring smile as the TV provides a buffer between the awkwardness. After you finish eating, you leave your container on the box turned table and pull yourself up to sit next to Foggy, now laying back on the couch. You curl up and lay your head on his shoulder.
“Thank you for coming, Foggy.” you murmur.
“Anytime,” he replies. “That guy is such a jackass. I’m sorry he did that to you.”
“Thanks, but we don’t have to talk about it.” you say.
“Sorry, I just had to say it.”
“I appreciate it. To be honest, I should have seen it coming. He was really distant. And he was… he was kind of jealous of us hanging out. He accused me so many times of cheating on him with you. Now I know he was just projecting, but still.” you say. Foggy turned his head toward you and raised a brow quizzically.
“He thought you were cheating on him…with me?” he scoffs.
“Yeah, I mean we’ve always been close, and he told me once that he didn’t like it.”
“Wow, huh,” his head turns back to the TV. “Like I could get you.” he mutters.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“Huh, nothing.”
“Bullshit, nothing. Tell me.”
“You’re just so pretty. I don’t know.” he mutters, attempting to get out of admitting what he meant.
“Oh my god, Fog, two words; Marci. Stahl.” you say with a slight grin.
“That was different. You and I are friends. Marci’s just… that’s not fair.” he knew even he couldn’t argue his way out of that one.
“Well, I mean I’ve thought about it.”
“Whoa, what?”
“Yeah, actually, um,” you giggle a little. “Before Jason asked me out, I was planning on asking you out.”
You take a peek at his stunned face.
“I’m sorry, what?” he asks.
“Yeah, I mean, I’ve always liked you.” you shrug. He looks away like he’s contemplating every time you two have hung out.
“I’m not sure what to do with this information. I mean, considering you just had your heart broken.” he finally replies, turning his head to look at you.
“I’m fine. Honestly.” you reply, glancing at his lips. “I’m glad you’re here.”
He places his hand on your knee and leans in tentatively. Your hand snakes around the back of his neck and pulls him into a kiss. After a minute he breaks away.
“Wow, okay cool.” he says, looking at a spot on the floor, anywhere besides meeting your eyes.
“I hope you don’t think I’m only doing this for like, revenge, or something. I do like you a lot.” you murmur. He finally brings himself to look you in the eye.
“No, no, I believe you,” he replies, kissing you again. He pushes you gently onto your back, setting himself between your legs. You giggle into the kiss, gripping his arm, unable to believe that this was really happening. When he finally breaks away, he says, “I owe Matt five bucks.”