Work Text:
Halloween
“Do any of the apartment kids trick or treat? Should we get something for them?”
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a kid here. I think there’s a baby on the fourth floor.”
Sydney gives him a look with raised eyebrows and dead eyes. “There are like ten kids in this building. Don’t you hear them?”
Carmy shrugs, continues to flip through movies. It’s his turn to pick but if there’s anything he knows absolutely nothing about it’s movies. He prefers Sydney to pick, even if she picks a terrible Lifetime movie where raccoons save the town or some shit. “I’m always in and out of here. So are you. How do you even know that?”
Syd shrugs back. “I count.”
“You count—?”
“Doesn’t matter! Eh, whatever. I’m just gonna pick up a bag from CVS. Cover our asses. Where’s Barry?”
Carmy points to the cat tree in the corner. Bartholomew is lounging around, sleeping soundly on the blanket stuffed into the pocket he prefers to sit in. She walks over to pet him, getting to hear his little snores before he wakes up. Sydney gasps before turning slowly toward Carmy with a wild glint in her eye.
“We’re getting Barry a costume.”
The man sighs and stands up, heads toward their bedroom. “Which website?”
“He could be a hot dog.”
“That’s for dogs.”
“I don’t think they’re exclusive to species.”
Sydney still shakes her head, looks down at the cat now sitting in Carmy’s lap. “He’s not a hot dog type. He could be a lion.”
“Typical. Expected more creativity from you Sydney. Honestly.” He’s smirking and it makes her roll her eyes. “Fuck you. It would be cute!”
He’s softly shaking his head and she sighs, keeps scrolling. “Fine,”
“Nat’s dressing Sammy up as a bear I think. Told her it was on the nose.”
“A little. Cuteness overrides irony though.”
Carmy’s about to say something when Sydney gasps. “Holy shit. That’s it.”
He chuckles and leans over to kiss her on her temple, waiting for her to turn to capture her lips. “You’re gonna humiliate him.” He says it into her mouth.
“He’ll be fine. Right, Bartholomew?” The cat just smushes his face further onto Carmy’s knee and sighs.
As it turns out, the kids in the building do trick or treat, and there are eleven of them, not ten. Sydney’s a little annoyed at herself for getting the number wrong, but Carmy amends it. “The baby on the fourth floor is a newborn. Easy to miss.”
When the bell rings they take turns answering the door, and when they do Barry’s following them, lovingly tucked into a green dinosaur costume with a stuffed Jurassic Park character on top. The kids gasp and ask to pet him and it makes them both smile.
Sydney still insists they have to get a new costume for him next year.
Christmas
Carmen wishes there was really any point in time that he enjoyed Christmas. Well, really that there was any point in time besides one.
He couldn’t have been older than six or seven, he remembers because he had an entire Rubik’s cube phase where his small brain was determined to get the colors matching on all sides. The one he had was old as shit, all loose and one of the pieces was missing. He loved it anyways and often locked himself in his room shifting the sides until he got sleepy.
That Christmas was calm. Donna was too tired to invite the family over for her seven fishes so she simply told them it’d be quiet that year. Carmy wasn’t old enough to mind either way, but Natalie and Michael were thrilled at the proposition.
When Christmas morning came, he was kind of surprised to see something under the tree for him besides T-shirts and socks. Both Sugar and Mikey presented it to him, told him we looked everywhere for this so don’t break it.
It was the newest Rubik’s cube model that he'd seen on a dingy commercial and wouldn’t stop talking about for about a month. His eyes were as wide as saucers.
When they presented it to him he hugged both of their legs in thanks. Sugar ruffled his hair while Mikey pretended to shove him off and then began to wrestle playfully.
The holiday since then has been less than enjoyable.
They had already planned on closing early and letting the staff go after lunch to enjoy the day, so the kitchen is basically empty except for Carmy, Sydney and Natalie. He’s glad to be able to give them some extra time off considering they’ve been packed out for the last four weeks straight.
He’s poaching a salmon filet when Sydney comes out of the office. She sidles up to him and rests her elbow on his shoulder. “Whatcha doin’?” It’s in her sing songy voice and it pushes a chuckle out of him.
“Not much,”
“You’re poaching a salmon. Which is all cool, poach away. But where’s like, all the other ingredients? Ooh, are you doing like a herb-y sauce? Cilantro maybe? Or are you doing a pesto with those roasted saffron almonds instead of the pine nuts? You could also just be doing straight up lemon but that’s kinda boring—"
“Um, nope. No, just. Just water.”
He looks over to see her eyebrows crinkle. “Who’s this for?”
His silence makes her laugh. “You’re making fresh fucking salmon for Bartholomew aren’t you?”
“I’ll end up over cooking it if I’m not watching it, Syd.”
She raises her hands up in surrender. “Of course. Wouldn’t wanna distract you.” She cups a hand around his face and pulls it to her lips to kiss it tenderly.
“My dad said either we can go over to his, or he can come over to ours on the 24th, he doesn’t mind.”
Carmy fishes the filet out of the water with a sieve and places it in an ice bath. “We should bring him over to ours right? If we go over to his he’s gonna have to be in host mode, I want him to relax.”
“Okay, very sweet. It also kinda feels like you want an excuse not to have his jollof rice because you said it was really spicy.”
“I never said that. I liked it!”
If Sydney wants to bring up how watery his eyes got or the deep shade of vermillion his face turned, she doesn’t. She rolls her eyes lightheartedly and reaches into her pocket for her phone. “I’ll let him know.”
She turns back into the office. “Nat, he’s making fish for the cat.”
He only hears the echo of Sugar’s mocking laugh. “Ha!”
Carmy always overcooks when Emmanuel is over, and Sydney never stops giving him shit for it. He tries to cover his tracks by saying he likes sending him home with leftovers when really her dad just makes him fucking nervous. Two things can be true at once.
“Carmen. Did you put cardamom in these carrots?”
“Uh. Um actually it’s uh. It’s only cinnamon.” Carmy eyes the steaming dish like it insulted them both. “It was to bring out the natural sweetness in the carrots and imitate kind of a sweet potato thing? The thyme might-might have been an overkill but I thought it complemented it well—"
Mr. Adamu smiles at him. “Relax, son. I’m messing with you. They smell delicious.”
“Dad, I told you to stop doing your Ramsay impression. You’re raising the poor guy’s heart rate.” Sydney’s knelt down in front of the stove to check on the herb crusted turkey in there.
Carmy makes a pfft! face while her dad starts to laugh, scours onto the floor until he finds what he’s looking for. “It’s worth working on, baby! Carmen doesn’t mind, neither does Bartholomew. Isn’t that right?”
The cat in question makes an attempt in vain to crawl up Emmanuel’s shoulders to curl around them. Barry’s always been a little clingy when it comes to Syd’s dad, it makes Carmy’s heart twist a bit every time.
“You know your mama always wanted a cat, almost scooped one up off the street one time when you were a baby.” Emmanuel places Barry back on the floor only for the cat to follow him to the couch anyways.
“What happened?” Carmy didn’t exactly expect the question to come out of his mouth, didn’t intend to verbalize it, but it’s worth it to see the smile on Sydney’s face at his interest.
“She realized at the last second she was allergic to them. Once she went to pet that cat outside she got a rash on her wrist and that was that. Kinda broke my heart.”
Sydney smiles sadly, plops down on the couch next to him. “Think she would have liked Barry?”
“Liked? He’d be in her bag on his way back home with us.” Carmy barks out a sort of kind of loud laugh, tries to smother it by clearing his throat, but he fails.
“Speaking of which. I got Barry something.”
“Dad, oh my god…”
“It’s nothing! A small thing, take a look. Don’t even have to wait until tomorrow.”
When she opens it it’s a little clip on bow tie collar with a bell, green with a bunch of little reindeer on it. Sydney gasps.
“We have to take those pictures now. Carmy go—"
“Getting the camera.” He already knows she wants him to get the professional one they never use, lugs it from the back of the closet and blows some of the dust off.
The pictures are the most ridiculous Carmy’s ever seen, let alone have taken, and Bartholomew has that insane red glow in his one eye from the flash. But Sydney loves them, and he loves her, and their damn cat, so he loves them too.
“I know this is like the lamest shit but this cat is too cute. It has to be exploited somehow.”
Carmy and Emmanuel both chuckle and give each other a warm smile.
“Oh, Carmen! By the way I brought my jollof rice. I made it spicier since you seemed to like it so much last time.”
“Um. Gre-that’s great.”
Sydney laughs from the corner of the room with Barry in her arms, mouths sorry.
New Year’s Eve
The first time Sydney kisses Carmy at the start of the New Year, it’s terribly awkward.
A Christmas party outvoted a New Year’s one, so she's spending it holed up with her dad watching some artist butcher an untimely Christmas anthem. Her dad is getting drowsy, and normally she would keep tapping him awake because the ball is about to drop, but it seems a touch pointless. It’s the same new year at the end of the day right? He could use the extra sleep.
She gets a text from Carmy at about 11:45.
Carmy:
Can you talk?
Sydney’s fingers are trembling when she replies. Whether it’s how naturally nervous Carmy makes her or how unreasonably worried she tends to get about him, who’s to say.
Sydney:
Sure.
Her next move is to tap the call button and it rings once before declining. She removes the phone from her ear in confusion.
Carmy:
Not on the phone. I’m kind of outside your place.
Oh. Alright then.
He’s sitting on her stoop when she makes her way down the stairs, shivering a little in the fresh winter air. It’s been a couple of weeks since they found the money, and to say it’s been weird between them would be an understatement. It’s like there’s this mutual understanding between the two of them; a new restaurant, a new dream. This ambition is the only thing really keeping whatever this is together. It’d be a lie to say Sydney was still angry. She wants to be, wishes it was that simple, but really she’s frustrated. With him, with herself, with why the fuck she’s so eager for more of him. Why she wants to know more about her fucking boss of all people.
“Hey. It’s late. You good?”
Carmy scoots over so she can take a seat next to him on the steps, shrugs in reply. “I was uh. I was taking a walk and ended up here. You mentioned your address that one time when I couldn’t figure out whether to hand you your check or mail it out, so. I’m sorry if this is weird.”
Sydney chuckles under her breath, decides to be honest. “It is. But that’s okay. Last chance right?”
Carmy looks over at her, eyebrows slightly furrowed. Sydney suddenly realizes the implication of her sentence. “Oh! Oh I didn’t mean— you know like since it’s the last ten minutes of the year and everything—"
“No it’s. I know what you meant, Syd. It’s alright.” He smiles at her flustered state, prompting her to give him a light shove. “It’s something though. Going into 2023 without him. It’s gonna be a year soon. S’lot at once.”
He starts to get up, huffing a bit. “This is. I didn’t come here to-to dump this shit on you. I— enjoy your night Sydney.”
“Hey,” she grabs his arm and pulls him gently to sit back down. “You’re not dumping anything on me. It’s like what— three minutes until 2023? Might as well wait it out together. I wanna um. I wanna wait it out with you.”
She gets a smile out of him as he does so, both of them silently awaiting the change in hour. When it does they both hear shouting somewhere down the street, it startles them both enough to turn toward each other and start laughing. He’s looking at her with those eyes and really the moment escapes her. She’ll swear on it for the rest of time.
“Happy New Year, Syd—"
Carmy’s halfway through her name when she leans forward and presses her lips to his. She lightly grips onto the collar of his shirt and feels the chill of his chain on her fingers. His lips are a little dry, but soft, so soft she can’t help it when she sighs. Sydney pulls back, coming back to her senses, eyes widening in horror.
The look in his eyes is slightly dazed, and as much as Sydney wants to push for more, she figures she’s made this night weird enough. Her last words to him come out in a speedy jumble.
“HappynewyearCarmygoodnight.”
Sydney rushes back up the stairs and closes the door behind her gently, leans on it like a lovesick teenager and touches a finger to her lips. They’re curved into a smile.
Though one would expect the second time to be just as awkward, it wasn’t.
Tina’s basically the queen of the New Year’s Eve party, with everyone else simply on her court. She calls Sydney a princess enough times to make her sweat, earning a laugh from the entire party every time she does it. She adores the woman too much to mind, but isn’t exactly ecstatic to reach midnight with everyone. Overstimulation can be a bit of a bitch.
It’s about five minutes out when Sydney wheedles her way to the back alley, planning to spend midnight there alone, make her way back in to everyone and when they’re spent and all buzzed out asking “where were you, Syd?” she’ll say “I was here. You’re all suuuuper drunk aren’t you?” which they are so that’s believable right?
Carmy’s thumbing a cigarette between his fingers when she bursts through the door, startling her even though he was there first.
“Shit. Sorry, did you wanna be alone?”
He waves the assumption away. “It’s cool. Party too much?”
Sydney chuckles with half the humor one should have. “I’ve been dubbed ‘princess of the party’ despite sitting by the bar nursing a seltzer water all night so…” It’s not that it makes Sydney uncomfortable, really it’s the opposite. This restaurant, the people that make it run have such a tight hold on her heart she often doesn’t know where to put those feelings. When it comes to verbalizing it? Basking in any attention she gets? That’s when it gets difficult.
Carmy raises a hand like he’s testifying to a jury. “Prince. Furthest from deserving but T wouldn’t hear it.”
Something about that makes her heart twist. Sydney’s nodding her head when she remembers the time. 11:59.
“Almost midnight—" Happy New Year!!!
Sydney laughs at how loud the crew manages to be even through the steel door. She turns toward Carmy. “Happy New Year, Carm. I’m gonna hug you now.”
Carmy chuckles, inches closer to her. “Happy New Year, Syd. I’d really like a hug.”
Her arms are wrapped around his neck, his around her waist hesitantly, both of them sigh into the embrace. They stand there for a good bit, holding each other when Sydney figures she should probably let the guy go before she does something weird like smell his hair.
She inches back without letting go to at least catch his face this close when she feels his lips on hers. It’s quick and chaste, could nearly be slid under the rug as platonic. Until they kiss again.
The second kiss lasts at least ten seconds longer, Sydney’s hand finding its way down to his neck and his wrapping around her wrist. Their lips disconnect and reconnect once, Sydney clearing her throat when they part. Alright. They can still get away with the platonic thing.
Her eyes flutter open and land on his, and she can see everything. The dip of his chin, the mark under one eye, the freckles under the other, the ever so slight red of his lips, pretty Cupid’s bow to complement it.
Syd lunges forward, or maybe it’s Carmy, but in the next five seconds Carmy’s pressed up against the nearest wall and this kiss is the farthest it can get from chaste.
One of his hands is wrapped around her jawline, the other gripping her waist, lips attaching and reattaching to hers frantically. Her fingers find his hair, gripping and combing, pushing a groan out of him. She pulls away, breathless. “I’m sorry. Is that—"
He’s breathless too, leans his forehead onto hers, his mouth inches from her own. “No. No no it’s fine. Keep doing that?”
She nods and dives back in, tugging at his bottom lip with her teeth and sliding her tongue over it to soothe. It’s hard to tell how much time passes, whether it’s 5 minutes or 30. She rolls her hips into his when his hands finally find her ass, squeezing gently, too gently and fuck this is everything she’s wanted—
The back door bursts open and they jump apart like they’re on fire. Sweeps is the one behind it, clearly a little blasted. “Yo! T’s asking for y’all. Nat too.”
Sydney’s arms are wrapped around herself, her shoe fiddling with a pebble. “Yeah, yeah heard um. Be-be right there.” Carmy’s voice is trembling but luckily it goes unnoticed.
When Gary closes the door she finds her voice again. “We should um. We should probably get back inside.”
“Wait,” his hand is wrapped around her wrist and she turns back. “The-there’s this night market that’s happening on Monday. I was gonna ask you this last week but would you wanna go? With-with me?”
A smile creeps its way up to her face. “Carmen. Are you asking me out right now?”
“Yes, yeah 100%. But you don’t. Don’t feel like you have to say yes because of what happened or-or whatever it’s totally cool I just um. I really like you, Syd. And I uh. I wanna take you out.”
Sydney laughs, steps forward again to plop her hands down onto his shoulders. “Breathe dude. I would love to go out with you. And not ‘cause of—” she waves a hand around, “—this. Because I really like you too. Now let’s go back inside before T flames our asses.”
The third time she kisses him on New Year’s, it’s not objectively exciting.
“You know what I really wanna make?”
“Baked Alaska?”
She looks over to Carmy who’s flipping through channels. “How’d you know?”
He settles on the animal version of America’s Funniest Home Videos he pretends not to enjoy. “You wrote it down on the fridge in that spot you keep little reminders at.”
“Oh. Well we can make it tonight right? I think the grocery store is open until like 7 at least.” Barry hops up onto her lap and gets comfortable.
Carmy’s already grabbing his keys. “You wanna use premade or make the ice cream ourselves?”
“Homemade would probably be better— wait let me get my shoes on,”
He shakes his head. “Barry looks pretty comfortable. I’ll be back.” The cat nuzzles his head further onto her leg and Syd sighs. “I love you,” she calls.
“I love you too.”
“I was talking to Bartholomew.”
She can hear Carmy rolling his eyes at her even from the door. “No, you weren’t.”
Syd’s surprised it only takes two tries for them to get the merengue right. It’s been a couple of months since either of them have made it and both have had issues with consistency in the past. Way too loose, way too stiff, it always made her wanna scream.
They work well into the night trying to come up with interesting ice cream flavors and settle on Mexican hot chocolate, raspberry and salted vanilla caramel.
Barry starts to meow at Carmy’s feet somewhere along the middle of the third ice cream flavor. “What’s up, little guy?”
Sydney tuts. “He’s tired. I forgot to fix his blanket on his bed.” She skips over to the spot right beside his cat tree to do exactly that. Barry waits patiently behind her, curls right up into his bed when she’s done. She presses a kiss to his little forehead when he’s settled, makes her way back to the kitchen to see Carmy trying not to laugh.
“May I ask what the fuck is so funny?”
He smothers his actual laugh with his hand. “Uh. Nothing. I just think you’re very cute with Barry.”
Sydney scoffs, carefully places their vanilla caramel in the freezer to chill. “If you want him to start meowing right in your face in the middle of the night again, be my guest Carmen.”
Carmy smiles and his eyes light up like he’s about to retort when his face drops. “Oh shit. What time is it?”
Sydney checks her phone quickly. “Uhhh 12:03. Why?”
His eyebrows scrunch together a bit like he’s apologizing and it makes Syd all the more confused. “It’s the New Year, baby.”
She gasps, looks at her phone again to confirm. January 1st.
“Shit! We missed the-the y’know thing! Oh! Kiss me.” Syd basically barrels in front of Carmy and wraps her arms around his neck. He backs his head up from hers, smirking.
“This is really not romantic, Syd.”
Sydney scoffs. “Right. Like the first time I laid one on you was fucking romantic,”
He places a hand at her waist and cups her cheek with the other. “That was romantic. Couldn’t stop thinking about it for months.”
Her mouth is curved into a smile. “Well, I really wanna kiss you right now. And it’s tradition. And good luck so. Can I?” He’s already nodding when their noses touch and his lips lay on hers softly. Carmy eventually brings his other hand up to her face and Sydney’s find his wrists, becoming a little breathless the longer their lips brush but not caring one fucking bit.
He talks to her without pulling away, making her knees buckle a bit with how strained he sounds too. “Happy. New Year. I love you. Wouldn’t. Wouldn’t wanna spend it. With anyone else.”
Sydney’s voice cracks a little when she replies, she doesn’t care about that either. “Love. Love you too. You’re my favorite. Favorite person. Second to Barry.”
“Cat’s not a person.”
That gets her to open her eyes and pull away. “To me he is.”
Carmy only rolls his eyes and insists they set the dish aflame the next day, dragging her gently by the arm to bed.
Valentine’s Day
“Let’s go to the market in Wilmette. They have the good cantaloupe there.”
Carmy tilts his head back and forth, considering. “I mean do we have to? It’s like a 25 minute drive. I thought you wanted to spend all day on this,”
Sydney’s eyes narrow slightly. “I do, but I don’t want it to be a waste either. There’s no point in making the dish at all with shitty cantaloupe. You know what? Whatever, I don’t care.”
“Hey, hey. We can go, alright? I never said no. Something wrong?” He gets up from the couch to scour for his keys.
“No. Nothing’s wrong. That sounds like a lie, especially after you asked but I’m fine. Stomach’s a little weird, that's all.” Sydney leans her head against the arm of the couch and sighs.
Carmy offers to make her the tea she likes to drink after long services but she says no. He finds his keys and they head out, and the ride is as tense as the whole morning has been. He’s not sure how to turn the day around.
If there’s anything he wishes it’s that he fucking figured it out. When they get back home Syd’s cantaloupe loaf goes well enough, but a comment about their biggest back and forth since they’ve moved in together— the organization of the fridge—rears its ugly head.
“I put the goat’s milk right next to the ketchup, where is it?”
Carmy responds without looking. “I moved it to the bottom shelf.”
“Why? It can’t get too cold then it tastes odd. Why do you keep moving things I tell you not to move?”
He scoffs, knowing that it’s a mistake but too frustrated to care at this point. “Putting it next to the ketchup is weird, Syd. It doesn’t make a difference.”
“And there it is.” Sydney starts to clap and directs her attention to an imaginary audience. “You got that one, folks? Carmy doesn’t trust my judgment. What the hell else is new?”
She continues and he’s too fired up now to let her finish.
“What the fuck? It’s not about that—"
“This is exactly like when I wanted to try that curry powder on the chicken—"
“—I don’t think I have to trust every single thing you say if it doesn’t make any sense—"
“—but you were so against it. It does make sense! Or even if it doesn't, why not leave it there?!”
“—I’m not trying to start shit with you Syd, it's insane that you won’t even listen to reason right now and— hold on hold on,” Carmy raises a fist up to his heart, rubs a small circle over it. His shoulders sag in relief when Sydney stops and returns the gesture, though he’s not sure how much it’s solving right now.
Sydney sighs deeply, pries the tie in her hair holding her bun together loose. “I’m sorry. I am I just. I need some space, okay? I’m um. I’m gonna take a nap. I love you.” She shuffles over to their bedroom and suddenly Carmy feels like fucking shit. He calls back to her. “I love you more.”
He sees Bartholomew following her from the corner of his eye. “Yeah, right.” is her weak reply.
If Carmy felt like any more of an asshole he’d have forgotten that Valentine’s Day is in a week. Fuck.
Lunch service the next day goes fine, it’s dinner that kicks all of their shit sideways. Sydney makes her way to the office to say goodnight to Natalie, Carmy already there to go over VIP bookings for next week.
“I’m gonna wait in the car,”
That uneasy feeling comes right the fuck back. “Do you want to stop and get some soup from—?”
Syd’s shaking her head. “No. No no that’s okay. Fuck, I need to lay down, that's it. Don’t take too long please?” She gives Nat a quick standing hug from behind when Carmy nods.
She’s walking out the back and Natalie’s eyes narrow, chair creaking. “Is she alright?”
Carm pinches the skin between his eyes and sighs. “Not sure. She uh, she’s been really tired all week and doesn’t want tea or soup or-or anything. And we’ve been getting into it about little shit too. I don’t know how to make it better.”
Sug lets out a soft aw. “You want me to talk to her? I can probably find out for you.”
“No. No, I really want her to tell me first if something is wrong. Maybe it’s nothing like she says. If she’s annoyed then fuck, she’s allowed to be. This place is probably driving her up the wall. I wanna get her something nice for Valentine’s Day so, I don’t know I’ll focus on that.”
Sugar places a hand onto his shoulder. “I got it from here, take the girl home. And just make sure your gift is thoughtful, she’d probably appreciate that.”
The next Monday that rolls around starts in a way Carmy’s honestly not prepared for.
He rolls over ready to wish Sydney a happy Valentine’s Day when he notices she’s already out of bed. It’s dark, so it’s a little odd she’d be up so early especially on their day off. His hand is up to his face rubbing his eyes when he hears her voice, a little strained. “Carmen!”
When he gets to the living room he flips the light switch to see Sydney kneeling over by Bartholomew in his bed.
“Hey, what is it what’s wrong?”
Sydney sniffles when she replies and it sends a shockwave of heartbreak and panic through him. “He was meowing like crazy so it woke me up and—" she sniffles again, hiccups too, “—he like hopped out of the bed and I don’t know I went to follow him and then suddenly he’s fucking puking up blood. There’s another pile of it by the kitchen too. I think he’s sick,”
“Uh. Okay, let’s get him to a hospital yeah? Animal hospitals are open 24 hours I’ll um. I’ll get his carrier.”
They gently place Bartholomew in his carrier and rush down to the car, thankful to be seen only ten minutes into arriving at the emergency vet.
“For Bartholomew?”
Sydney and Carmy both perk up and give the receptionist all of the information she asks for.
“Okay, we’re gonna take your baby to the back for x-rays, and it could take up to 30 minutes. Sit tight and we’ll call you up as soon as we know what’s wrong.”
It’s about 15 minutes into the silent wait before he hears sniffling beside him again and he looks over to see Sydney covering her face with both hands and sobbing. Carmy’s heart basically shatters.
“Syd…” Carmy wraps his arm around her as her head drops into the crook of his neck, his other hand coming up cup her face. “He’s gonna be alright, yeah? It’s probably something he ate. Shit, I hate seeing you like this,”
Sydney grabs his wrist and lets out a couple more weak sobs when he hears her voice again. “It’s not. It’s not that. I’m worried about Barry but—" she moves her head from his neck to look at him straight, beautiful brown eyes red rimmed. “I’m pregnant, Carmy.”
Carmy’s eyes widen, mouth dropping open slightly. Sydney continues.
“And I’m not. I’m not crying because I’m upset. I’m really fucking happy actually I just. I didn’t know how to tell you or when and then Barry got sick—"
“Sydney, that’s. Oh my god. We’re having a baby?”
She laughs, snotty and wet. “We’re having a baby.” Carmy’s eyes get cloudy too as he turns in his seat to hug her, laughing as she cries, crying as she laughs. He peppers kisses onto her lips frantically. It’s messy and it’s silly and it’s fucking perfect.
“You are everything to me. More than that. This is incredible.” He cups her face when he says it, gets to see her eyes light up even more.
They get called to the back where Bartholomew is laying patiently on a table, vet right behind him.
“So, it looks like Bartholomew here got into a couple of herbs that must have upset his tummy. Make sure to keep anything like that out of his reach even when you think he’s not interested, ragdolls can be a bit deceiving.”
Barry looks up at them both with his big adorable blue eye and Carmy can tell Sydney’s already forgiven him. The vet says she’ll be back with an antibiotic prescription for his food that’ll settle his stomach.
Sydney sighs. “Happy Valentine’s Day even though this is probably the last thing you’d wanna be doing.” That makes him laugh again.
“There’s no other fucking place I’d wanna be right now than with you and this cat.”
Eventually they get the okay to take Barry home and he’s a little sluggish which they were told was entirely normal especially after he eats. Sydney doesn’t want him out of her sight so they simply watch tv in the living room most of the morning.
She turns his way. “Is now a good time for gifts?”
Carmy’s a little surprised. Not that Syd’s one to forget but with all that’s going on he doesn’t need a gift anymore. He’s still on cloud nine at the thought of their future family. Still he says “I hope so. Kinda worked hard on yours.” Which he did.
”Well I wanna go first,” Sydney’s up and zooming to the bedroom, coming back with a box in her hands. She sits back down and hands it to him. When Carmy opens it a shiny gold chain sits inside of it, making him laugh out of shock.
“You got me a…?”
“A new chain, yeah. I um. I noticed that the one you have is a little worse for wear so I thought you could use a new one. You like it?”
He immediately reaches up to unclasp the one around his neck and put the new one on when Sydney stops him. “I got it,” She takes gentle hands and finishes where he left off, clasping the new chain on and scratching gently at his nape. “There. Hi, handsome.” She wiggles her eyebrows suggestively and it makes Carmy shy. “Fuck off,” he says and doesn’t mean a word of it, brings her forward by the wrists still wrapped around his neck to kiss her and murmurs a thank you into her lips.
Sydney sits back and ties her braids half up with the scrunchie on the coffee table. “Alright now you.” Carmy chuckles and makes the trek to the bedroom like she did to pull a small gift bag from underneath the bedside lamp.
He walks back over with it and hands it to her, heart beating wildly.
“A sketchbook and color pencils?” Her smile is soft.
“Ye-yeah well I uh, I drew you some stuff and thought you could color it in? I read that it was a good way to relax. And-and then it’d be like something we did together.”
Sydney flips through the pages slowly, scanning every sketch on the page with her eyes poring over them. One of a crème brûlée, another of the front of the restaurant, one of her red work scarf, another of Barry on his cat tree. “Carmy this is…” she shuts the book, inches back over to him and places her hands onto his face. “This is the most amazing, most thoughtful gift I’ve ever gotten. Thank you.”
She presses her lips to his again and keeps at it until the both of them are breathless. Sydney leaves one last kiss to the corner of his mouth before reaching for the remote.
“Wanna watch that animal home video show? It’s usually on in the morning.” She suggests.
“You really love me huh?” He chuckles softly and Syd shrugs, pushes his head playfully with her hand. “Nah, you were in the middle of your Sharknado 3 commentary.”
Her eyes widen. “You really love me. Loser.”
More than she’ll ever know without him sounding like the corniest poet in the world that would put Whitman to shame. Carmy responds by tucking a braid behind her ear and kissing her temple, leaning back into the couch with his arm around her and her head tucked warmly into his neck.
Sydney’s rambling is only interrupted by Bartholomew’s hungry meowing.
They both sigh in relief, and surprisingly Carmy is the one to verbalize it. “I have never been happier to hear his annoying ass ‘I’m hungry’ screaming.”
Sydney looks up at him with her big chocolate eyes, it makes him shy again. “What?”
“I uh,” She looks down at her lap and back up at him. “I can’t wait to raise a kid with you.”
Syd gets up to prepare Barry’s breakfast unaware of the arrow she just shot through his fucking heart.
As if she ever really knows. It’s too often to be news anymore.
Wedding Day
“Um. So-so as you know I’ve been. I’ve been in love with Sydney for a long time. Madly in love with her since-since we met really and. We’ve built this life together with the restaurant and with our cat and everything, it’s been. It’s-it’s been amazing. I told her once that I want everything with her and with the baby coming I… I want to be hers. Like really hers. You’re the most important person in her life so uh. I’m not uh, I’m not asking permission but I wanted you to know. You’re a major part of both of our lives and it’s important to me that you know. Sydney and I are getting married.”
Said woman pats the arm she has her hands wrapped around, trying in vain to settle his pulse. Carmy doesn’t look like he’s about to puke anymore so that’s a start.
Her dad gives them both a prolonged look of bemusement. “Wait. You’re not already married?”
Sydney rolls her eyes as Carmy huffs out a loud nervous laugh. “Dad.”
Emmanuel starts laughing too, more genuine than Carmy’s. “Jokes, jokes. Carmen,” he looks Carmy dead on. “That was beautiful. And I don’t know whether to be happier about this or the baby. But please tell me you’re planning on having a ceremony instead of a quick certificate signing. I don’t want to hear the ‘busy chef’ excuse.”
Fuck. They were totally planning on doing that. He’d be a witness though, isn’t that enough? No, he’d scold her until retirement.
Sydney’s talking before she realizes exactly what she’s saying. “No! Nope we’re uh. We’re 100% having a ceremony. A nice one, right Carm?”
She kicks him in the shin—lightly—to get him out of his head enough and on board with her terrible idea. “Uh, yes. Yeah. It’s-it’s gonna be intimate prob-probably only close. Close y’know family but a ceremony. Yeah.”
Emmanuel beams. “That’s great! I’ll let the family group chat know.”
“Dad—"
“Don’t worry! I’ll tell the smaller group chat.”
Sydney’s pacing as soon as they get home, not minding Carmy’s pleas for her to sit and relax.
“Relax? Carmen, we have to plan a whole wedding now. Like an actual fucking wedding! With-with guests and decorations and table arrangements—"
“We said it would be small though, right? I don’t want you to stress about this. Um, I’ll handle it.”
Sydney’s eyes scrunch. She’s about to laugh when she realizes he’s serious. “Handle what? The wedding?”
Carmy’s nodding. “Yeah. I’ll uh. I’ll find a-a venue and handle the invitations and table arrangements and whatever else. And-and the food obviously but. Let me do this, Syd. If we’re gonna do this I want it to be beautiful for you.”
This man is so earnest it rips her heart out from her chest sometimes. She’s in a bit of a silent disbelief like she was when he proposed.
Sydney’s pressing her palms to her eyes to wipe the tiredness away after her nap when she hears quiet swearing and clutter in the bedroom. She walks inside to see Carmy bent down by the ledge of their bed, Barry lying on his own paying hardly any mind but suspiciously looking like he’s about to hop on his back.
Sydney carefully crouches next to him, making his head snap up. “Lose something?”
“No. What? No. No. I mean yeah but, don’t worry about it. Weren’t-weren’t you taking a nap?”
She shrugs. “You woke me up.” She’s not looking at him anymore, trying to scour under the bed herself to see what it is he’s stressing over. Getting things stuck under their bed frame was a bitch, what went down hardly ever came back up especially if it was small.
Sydney spots something and is reaching for it by the time she’s asking “I think I see it. Is this—" In between her fingers is a gorgeous ring, her heart might as well have leapt out of her mouth when she raises it up to her face.
“Shit. That’s— I-I mean I…”
“Yeah?” Her voice is meek and hopeful.
Carmy takes both of her hands in his own, deadlocking his eyes onto hers. “Will you marry me, Sydney?”
She gasps out her ‘yes’ toppling over him gently and kissing his face over every available surface repeating her answer after each one.
Of course, Barry chooses that moment to hop onto her back.
Sydney blinks back into the current moment, sighs. “Okay. But the second you need help you tell me. I’m here with you, always. Cool?”
Carmy walks over and places soft hands over the slight swell of her belly, rests his forehead onto hers. “Cool.” His hands stretch to wrap around her back while hers raise up to his shoulders, giving Sydney enough room to leave a tender kiss to the side of his face before pulling him into a hug.
She’s still not entirely sure this is the best idea.
Natalie answers the phone in two rings, a new record he thinks.
“She asked you to plan the wedding? Huh, I’m a little hurt.”
“Not really asked. I offered. I don’t want her to stress so if you really wanna help then…”
Sugar laughs, loudly. “This is on you, Bear. Now that I think about it I’d spend good money to see you plan a wedding,”
Carmy scoffs, stamps down the cigarette he’s nursing outside. Smoking inside is something he stopped doing when Sydney moved in, and though it fucking sucks he’s trying to stop completely. “Thanks a lot, Bear. Really.” His voice is dripping in sarcasm.
Nat sighs over the phone. “Look, this is objectively very sweet of you and I don’t want Syd to stress either. I’ll help with a venue, won’t even have to pay for it.”
Carmy deflates. “You want us to get married at the fucking restaurant?”
“It’d be romantic! It’s where you fell in love! Shut the fuck up this is an amazing idea. I’ll handle the set up and block off the day for it. Give me a sample menu and I’ll handle the rest there but don’t get too crazy alright? No chaos.”
He takes in a sigh of relief. “Yeah, yeah I’ll shoot one over soon um. Thank-thank you for this, Sug. I appreciate it.”
“I love you both and would do anything for you. That includes throwing a fucking fit if you just went to a courthouse.”
Carmy takes afternoons in between services and on their days off calling up each member of Syd’s family asking personally if they can make it to the wedding. He was able to snag a solid list from Emmanuel; aunts, uncles, her favorite cousins, even made him swear up and down this was everyone.
As for his own, Stevie and Michelle are hard to get ahold of but thankfully say they can come, Carmy decides Uncle Lee can go fuck himself, and it’s still restricted to only Neil for the Faks, there’s too fucking many of them.
He’s at a standstill when it comes to his mom, is pulling at his hair in the middle of the night hunched over on the couch over it. Sydney shuffles out of the bedroom and straight to the kitchen, quickly making a mug of chamomile and bringing it over to him. She pulls his face toward hers for a soft kiss to his cheek, leans her head on his shoulder.
“What’s up?”
Carmy sighs, turns his head toward hers to breathe her in. “I don’t know if my mom should be at the wedding,”
“Hm. Do you want her there?”
“I shouldn’t. I shouldn’t, right? I mean… shit I don’t know. I wanna say that I feel obligated to invite her but I don’t. I fucking want her there. I want her to be there. It was different with Friends and Family, I knew that would be a disaster. Somehow it would.
He turns toward Sydney completely and takes her hands in his, taking in her sleepy brown eyes. “But this. This won’t be bad. It can’t be fucking bad because at the end of it all I’ll be married to you. Nothing can fuck that up, and I want her to see that. I-I don’t know if it’s out of spite or love or-or. Fuck.”
Sydney smiles softly, squeezes his hands back. “It might be both. And that’s okay. If you want her there, invite her. That’s uh-that’s probably the shittiest most unhelpful answer but, whatever you decide is right. When it comes to this at least.” He huffs out a scratchy laugh, making her dimples spread across her face. “No, no it’s. It’s helpful. Thank you.”
She nods. “Next time, can you do your big decision making in bed? It’s warmer.”
The table arrangements end up being a little mixed up. Sydney’s cousins with Carmy’s, The Bear crew scattered around the dining room. Sydney thought that her one talkative aunt Tasha would enjoy Chester so really that sets itself up.
Carmy, Richie and Sweeps spend a couple of hours decorating the dining room with fairy lights and daisies, Richie getting annoyed with his micromanaging.
“Cousin, I’m gonna fuckin’ kill you. I just moved those flowers and now you want me to move ‘em back?”
Carmy groans, slams down his clipboard. “It looks uneven in the fuckin’ center like that. If you put it back to the side the color distribution will be better.”
Richie grumbles harshly under his breath while Gary stifles a laugh.
Carmy hands Natalie a simple three course menu consisting of dishes that remind him of Syd. Her braised short rib, the Concord grapes, lamb ragu stuffed into Hawaiian rolls. Sydney scoffs lightheartedly at the last one. “How about we switch it with a chicken piccata? I still can’t look at those rolls at the supermarket.” Carmy agrees easily, and the switch is made.
Marcus makes them a gorgeous four tiered cake, a raspberry lavender compote and simple vanilla caramel buttercream all over. Sydney tears up when she tastes it, hugs Marcus for so long he has to pull her off gently.
Syd can’t make up her mind on her wedding party, mostly who should be her maid of honor, so she decides to split the role between Natalie and Tina.
When he was about 13, Michael gave him this old tie and said he wanted Carmen to have it, said to save it for something big. Carmy asked what that meant and Mikey shrugged. “But don’t wear it to some dumb shit like graduation.”
The night before the wedding Bartholomew insists on sleeping by the foot of their bed.
“We should bring Barry. Give him a little suit to wear, he can be the flower cat.”
Carmy turns his head toward Syd’s drowsily. “I draw the line at the fuckin’ dinosaur costume, Syd. He’s not getting a suit.” She simply laughs when Barry ends up meowing in his face that night because he’s hungry.
The ceremony is thankfully as beautiful as Carmy pictures in his head, Sydney somehow looking more gorgeous than he’s ever seen her, he chokes up watching Emmanuel walk her down their makeshift aisle. His vows consist of a timeline, the moment he laid eyes on her as a stage, when he realized he was in love with her, all of his embarrassing dreams about their future.
Sydney almost knocks him out with hers. “I just really love you. I um. I’m not sure what led you to me and it’s all been. It’s been a lot and it’s been hard. I have a hard time letting people in because I’m scared I’m going to lose them before it actually becomes something. But being with you is worth it. Being with you makes me less scared. I’m so pumped to raise a kid with you and I feel so lucky to exist at the same time as you. You’re everything to me, Carmen. Always will be.” She promptly asks her uncle who’s officiating their marriage to get on with it before they’re both snotty messes.
Donna’s there. Carmy and Natalie agree to sit her with Cicero, he’d at least be someone she’s comfortable enough with. She’s not the most talkative during the ceremony, face a bit unreadable.
She leaves before the reception, and Syd catches her asking for her coat from Manny.
“Oh, Mrs. Berzatto. Are you sure you don’t want to stay? We still have the speeches and food and stuff. Should be fun,” Sydney’s nervous as shit. Never actually having had a conversation with Carmy’s mom that was more than a quick greeting. They’re right outside the restaurant and the night air makes her shiver.
Donna gives her a sad smile. “You. You are so beautiful. And you make him so happy. Thank you.” She turns and leaves with that, Sydney not sure whether she’s relieved at the gentleness of the interaction or wants to cry.
She gets back inside in time for Natalie and Pete’s speech, Richie shouting about being next and Carmy giving her a look that tells her he already knows what happened.
And it’s not perfect, honestly far from it. Most of their family members are drunk giggly messes, Syd’s dad having to volunteer to escort his sisters and brothers back to their hotel. Neil almost crashes headfirst into the cake, Marcus and Carmy both looking like they wanna kill him. But fuck if it’s not everything Sydney’s ever wanted, Carmen too.
When they get home that night Sydney all but collapses on the couch. “I’m exhausted.” She gives her husband—that’s gonna be fucking weird for a while—her signature eyes and Carmy smiles, kisses her forehead and carries her to bed while Bartholomew is curled up waiting patiently for them both.
It’s insane and it’s messy and it’s frustrating. Beautiful and meaningful and difficult. So fucking difficult. And it’s everything. The whole world really.