Work Text:
Worse Than Strangers
As they navigate airport pick-up and then the entry back out onto the freeway, the silence inside the car grows so thick she could slice through it.
She doesn’t know how to speak to her child in the driver’s seat, let alone what to say; so when he swallows, and his jaw begins to move, she holds herself rigid, like she’s preparing for a physical blow.
“I’m, uh, sorry.” Evan murmurs.
“Don’t—.”
“Maddie didn’t say you’d be bringing your co-worker.” Margaret says at the same time as the man in the passenger seat, effectively cutting him off.
She watches Evan send an apologetic look to the man in the passenger seat before he changes lanes and heads towards an exit she hopes will take them to Maddie’s. As Margaret awaits an explanation from her youngest child, she takes in how the dark-haired man watches Evan. It leaves a strange feeling unfurling in her stomach and she fights the urge to look away. There’s movement in her periphery, her gaze drawn as the other man—Edmund, her memory supplies—shifts, deliberately pressing his arm against Evan’s.
She wonders if maybe…
“He’s not my coworker,” Evan says. Margaret can see the grin warping the planes of his face before she turns to see Edmund blush.
“I thought Maddie had said that he’d returned from—.” she says in an attempt to arrest any further embarrassment, however she’s cut off by Edmund.
“So, Phillip was unable to make it this time?” He asks, and Margaret’s eyes narrow as he leans more against Evan’s arm before he turns his head to watch her.
It’s only when there’s the clearing of a throat that Margaret’s gaze snaps up to meet Edmund’s from where it was locked on the arm pressed against Evan’s. “I… he…” she stammers, feeling her face warming. “No.”
There’s a hum in response before Edmundo is smirking and turning back to face the front as he says, “Shame.”
Margaret frowns when she notices Evan looking over at Edmund, a soft smile turning his lips up at the corners. She swallows the gasp of surprise that threatens to slip out when she sees Edmund grabbing Evan’s hand, pressing it to his lips.
“I think what Buck meant,” Edmund says, “is that I’m his boyfriend, and we’re currently on a date.”
“Oh.” Margaret freezes. “Really, Evan?”
Evan’s reply is to lean across the center console and press his lips to Edmund’s.
The silence that settles over the back seat is stifling now, awkward for all there’s the hush of murmured conversation in the front seat, voices too low for her to hear over the rolling of wheels and the stop-start of traffic.
She expects it to hurt, not knowing information like this about her child; is instead surprised when she feels nothing, that the men in front of her are strangers.
She settles back, looking out the window to avoid watching the men in front of her, and wonders if, perhaps, Evan has ever felt this way.
