Work Text:
"Hayleigh, do you want to hang out tomorrow?"
One simple sentence and Hayleigh's entire world was thrown off kilter. Never one to hide her emotions, she let out a gasp so uproarious she choked on her spit. While she tried to remember how to breathe, be a normal person, and speak English words, her co-worker, Tim, watched on in mild amusement.
"Who are you and what did you do to Timothy Wright?" She strung the question together as soon as she was able to get air back into her bronchioles, the words slurring together in one fast stream.
"I'm me,” he shrugged as if he didn't just propose something so earth-shatteringly wonderful. “I just had nothing to do and I know you're off. We can get coffee or something, it's on me."
If Hayleigh didn't know better she would assume this was some sort of date. For a moment the thought burned her face red with shame as she thought back to her old fanfics written about the very man in front of her. He acted as her favorite character in Marble Hornets, but per his request she was not to ask him about his time on the channel. That didn't mean she didn't update her Tim fan blog every once in a while... But that's besides the point! The furrow on Tim's eyebrows indicated she was taking way too long to respond.
"Sure, yeah!" She chirped, responding before her co-worker could even dare revoke the offer. Beyond her status as a certified Tim Wright fan girl, over the past two years of working together she found he was (obviously) so much more than his character. He was so funny and emotive once you got past his flat voice–the type of guy to tell a joke with a smile on his face and wait for you to get it. He definitely tried to play up a tough guy persona with her at first, but beneath it all he was as just petty and gossipy as she was which made work drama especially fun on their shared shifts.
She had been trying to get her work bestie to hangout with her outside of their shared prison, especially since Tim was decreasing his shifts in order to work on his music career–well Tim told her he specialized in sound design but from the few songs he showed her she concluded that man was a goddamn musician–so she'd be seeing him a lot less. Her advances had been shot down so much so she’d lost hope entirely. For Tim to suggest a hangout means that something big must have happened, something so dramatic, so juicy, so tantalizingly scandalous the words could not be spoken within the walls of their little shop…And Hayleigh was all for it.
"Oh, cool," Tim responded simply, the wrinkle on his brow smoothing out. "I really like this place called Apple Wood Cafe, it's about a 15 minute walk away from here, it's uh- over on 12th I think."
Hayleigh physically shook herself out of her thoughts. "Oh yeah! I've studied there a couple times, cute place,” She hurried to affirm, “But what's the special occasion? You never wanna hang out."
At this, Tim's beautifully expressive face turned bright red. "Uh. Stuff with my uh…" Tim coughed into his fist muttering out the word "roommate," quickly between his breaths.
Hayleigh let out a squeal almost too high for even a dog to hear. "My ship is sailing! No. Fucking. Way!!"
Tim threw a pen at her from across the room and she yelped, barely dogging it.
"Hey!"
"No ships or whatever, just real people and real situations and real advice I need." He paused for a minute, biting his lip in thought before catching Hayleigh's gaze with his own. "Girl talk," he said with a smile, the two snickering at their shared inside joke.
"Okay, Girl Talk at Apple Wood, tomorrow at..."
"12?" Tim responded, pulling out his phone to write down the event.
Hayleigh did the same, giving a final nod after punching the meetup into her calendar. She shot finger guns and a wink towards the unimpressed man before her. “See ya then."
Hayleigh was running late. If it wasn't for her goddamn eyeliner being so fucking uneven and trapping her in the perpetual back and forth langethenting of the wing until it reached her scalp and she had to redo it completely, then she she would have been there on time. She gave her girlfriend a kiss and hopped out of the car, jogging into the store. The click of her cute, knee high, black boots announced her arrival along with the shop's jingling bell. She scanned the place, looking for her friend, catching her breath for a moment. She finally saw him, tucked away in the furthest corner of the cafe, a place that looked cozy and quiet. He already had a hot cup of coffee at the table. He met her eyes and she walked forward, giving him a little wave.
"Hiya!" She said a little too loudly, pulling out the plastic chair to get settled down into.
"Hey, sorry I went ahead and got myself something, wasn't sure when you were gonna get here," Tim teased. His voice was flat but the charming, wonky smile told her it was just the regular, Tim Wright, sass.
Leigh crossed her arms across her chest, playing along with the bit. "Oh well when did you get here, Mr. Punctuality?"
Tim rolled up his sleeve to cast a glance at a watch that wasn't there. "Yesterday actually."
She let out a loud snort, quickly covering her mouth in apology as she looked around. "You did not, liar!" She hissed at him.
Tim mirrored her posture, leaning back in his chair as he did so, eyebrow raised in a challenge. "Did too."
"You're impossible. Does Jay know how impossible you are?"
Tim rolled his eyes, flush creeping up his neck. "You're making me regret inviting you. Now do you want to order something or not?"
Leigh held out her palm expectantly. "Cough it up, pops, you said your treat."
With a harmless grumble Tim rummaged through his wallet for a 20, slapping it down into the palm of her hand. "Keep the change."
"Will do, boss." After giving the exacerbated man a wink, she teetered over to the counter to stare open mouthed at the menu until settling on an iced caramel macchiato and two cake pops. She returned, placing her goods on the table with pride, sliding one of the cake pops placed on a napkin towards Tim. "Gotchu something."
Tim raised a brow, picking up the cake pop. He spun the stick between his fingers, and stared at it with a slight sneer on his lip. "I don't really like these things."
"Well damn sorry, I'll take it then.”
Just as Leigh's words were able to leave her mouth, Tim opened his and chomped down on the whole thing, holding the now bare stick out in his fist while he chewed the iced glob of cake, all the while staring his friend down. He finally washed down the mouthful with a swig of his coffee. "Thanks." He said, face grimacing as he tongued off the remnant from the crevices of his teeth.
"God aren't you the picture of elegance and grace."
"Aren't I?" He deadpanned before quickly breaking into a real smile.
"Okay, princess, time to focus on the topic at hand." The woman put on her best 'business face' as she laced her fingers together atop the table. "Girl Talk."
Tim sighed heavily, sitting up in his chair. He took a moment to gather his thoughts before stating plainly, "well I'm in love with Jay."
The woman in front of him choked on her drink, taking a second to cough out her guts before being able to respond. She sucked in a deep breath, ready to shout at Tim but she paused, letting the breath go stale as she looked around, people already staring at her to make sure she had survived her coffee inhalation. She took a smaller breath and tried again. "No shit???"
"No shit," Tim affirmed gravely.
"I mean I was kinda joking and teasing and- damn." Internally Hayleigh celebrated throwing around a middle finger to all the Brim truthers that tried to ruin her Jam preaching. "SHIP HAS SAILEDDD OMG OMG OMG." she quickly brought herself back to reality. "You like. Love him, love him?"
Tim closed his eyes, taking a deep breath and letting it wheeze through his nose. He already looked exhausted talking about it. "Yes."
"And you're like comfortable saying that out loud- like you just skipped the crush phase and-"
"I've had a crush on him for years, we're way beyond that. I've been in love with him for at least a year at this point."
The eyeliner-clad woman pinched the bridge of her nose, sighting shortly. "Jesus Christ you've been PINING. You poor, sap."
Tim rolled his eyes, "Shut it. Just. Fuck- okay, so for reference Jay's said he's loved me before-"
"WHAT?!" This time Leigh couldn't contain her excitement.
"Hayleigh," Tim warned. She took the hint, motioning a zipping and locking motion on her mouth. "Anyways," Tim continued, pleased with her silence. "That was a couple years ago now, and he said it for all the wrong reasons, because he was scared I was gonna leave him."
Hayleigh's vow of silence had no dominion over her facial expressions, her drawn on brows shooting up to her hairline with surprise.
"Yeah, manipulative I know, we were both going through it and I didn't engage with it. We were kinda trauma bonded- and no," Tim cut off, giving his friend a stern look. "I am not getting into that, so don't fucking ask." He lightened his tone, continuing. "But what's important now, is that he's a lot better, basically perfect or whatever,” he smiled to himself. “He's... Jay. And I fuckin’ love him. And I know he likes me back."
Hayleigh silently sipped her coffee waiting for Tim to continue.
"We do all the coupley shit, we-" Tim stopped himself, the blush creeping up his neck towards his ears. "We haven't kissed or anything." He rushed to clarify. "He's waiting for me to initiate- And it's not me reading too much into it,” he rushed to defend. “He's almost kissed me and he's almost said he loves me. It feels like it's right on the tip of his tongue and then he drops it and leaves the room and I dunno how to work with that. By the time I gain the balls to want to kiss him he's fucking left the apartment."
Hayleigh sighed, shaking her head. "You guys are so messy."
Tim jutted an accusatory finger in her direction. "Hey, I asked you here for advice, not for judgment."
She snickered behind her coffee, watching as the ice churned the creamy contents of her drink. "Well. He probably doesn't wanna cross a boundary. Especially with how bad things were the last time he said he loved you."
Tim sat on that for a second, chewing on the inside of his cheek. "That makes sense."
"I mean if you already know how he feels, why are you scared to just ask him out already?"
"I don't fuckin’ know!" He tensed, becoming defensive once again. He caught a glimpse of her no-bullshit expression and swallowed down his protests with a swig of coffee. "I'm just worried things will change I guess."
"I mean that's fair, that's what I felt about me and my girlfriend. We were kinda friends with benefits- which never works if you're wondering, then, we started doing more than sex and before we knew it, we were basically dating without the label… But I was so damn scared things would like- change, or get complicated if we acknowledged that.”
"So what do I do? How do I stop it from getting complicated? I don't wanna lose him." Tim's voice sounded far away. He was staring out the window deep in thought. Hayleigh softened, a smile gracing her face. This was the most vulnerable Tim had ever been with her. She just hoped she could be a good enough friend to give the advice he deserved.
"I don't think you can stop anything. You can't make anything go your way, dummy. You can control how you react to things though."
Tim groaned, holding his face in his hands. "God, you sound like my shrink."
Hayleigh laughed, loud and light. "And what did your shrink have to say about this situation?"
"Just that. And that starting a relationship takes trust and if I don't have that trust in Jay then I might want to reconsider starting a relationship."
"Harsh."
Tim waved her off. "I like her that way. It's more helpful than pussyfooting around my issues."
"Then just be blunt with Jay! Just say you love him, that you have for a while, and you wanna make things official but be honest about how you're scared things will change. Then the ball is in his court."
"How did you deal with the change?"
"Well uh… Not well. I mean I was so terrified of it happening I started to close myself off just so we wouldn't progress into some unknown territory. Probably some bullshit attempt at self preservation I don't know- but what I do know is it kinda forced us to talk about things." Now it was Leigh's turn to blush. “God I feel so stupid looking back on it now. She forced me to tell her what was wrong, what had been eating me up for so long and why I was pushing her away and I just cracked ya’ know?” She smiled down at herself, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “And so I told her how worried I was and-” she laughed. “And even then I knew it was all so stupid! So we just both burst out laughing. And then she kissed me and said "nothing's that deep" and that if we didn't want our relationship to change, it wouldn't.”
She took a breath, looking Tim in the eyes again as she rammed her message home. “Things get big and scary when you keep it bottled up, sometimes just saying it aloud and seeing their reaction is all you need for assurance. Then there's the obvious aspects, like don't suddenly start to act different or change things just cuz you think you should now that you're dating or something."
There was silence for a moment, Tim taking a moment to undoubtedly chew on all the information. It seemed to process when he let out another sigh. "I hate that you make sense."
"Damn, I take that all back," she flipped him the bird. "Fuck you, stay bitch-less."
Tim lazily flipped her off in return, taking a final swig of his coffee. "As much as it pains me to admit, you're right."
"Thank youu~" Hayleigh sung in petty delight.
"Yeah yeah, cheese it up. Just... I don't know- I still feel fucking anxious about it all but I probably won't feel better until I just do it."
"I think trying to be as casual about it as possible would be good. Like maybe if you're watching TV together, or like, just an activity you're both used to doing together, take a moment during that to talk." Hayleigh paused, twirling her cake pop between her fingers while looking at it thoughtfully. "If you need motivation, think of it this way." She locked eyes with him, a mischievous grin playing at the corner of her mouth. "You're in your 30's and in my professional opinion, that's too damn old to be getting cold feet about a crush."
Tim scowled at her for a moment, "you think I don't already know that?" Suddenly he laughed to himself. "I've done much harder things than this. Communicating my feelings to Jay Merrick of all people isn't gonna be the hardest one."
Hayleigh grinned, "that's the spirit! You're a hunk and he's hot, you guys are like, destined to be the perfect couple. Plus! When you're official that means you can finally go on a double date with me and Ashley!"
"Hey now, I never agreed to any of that..."
"She wants to meet you and I don't wanna make you third wheel, champ, so obviously a double date is the only solution."
Tim wrinkled his nose but his expression quickly smoothed into something fond. "We'll just have to see about that... But uh, seriously thank you for your advice, I'm not really... I don't know, it's weird talking about this stuff."
She waved him off. "Oh don't sweat it, you seemed to know all of it yourself, you just needed someone to back you up. You've let me rant to you plenty, it's only fair you get a turn."
Tim's eyebrows bounced up in surprise, a small, realizing smile made its way to his lips. Yeah, I guess it is…You're a good friend, Hayleigh."
Hearing that made Hayleigh want to jump over the moon. Today shifted the form of their entire friendship. It smoothed out the awkward edges within their circumstantial relationship as co-workers into something deeper and mutually beneficial, something that could exist outside the walls of Ted’s TechShop. Tim Wright was her friend and she was happy to have him in her life.
"I know that." She gave him a mean little smile, one that immediately made him roll his eyes. She closed the conversation for them, gave Tim an out if he wanted to transition to a less vulnerable topic. And the shift seemed to be appreciated, Tim biting out a few harmless insults before the two verbally squabbled back and forth once more, spending another hour at the coffee shop just talking about this and that.
As Ashley drove her home, Hayleigh sent Tim one last message. "Lmk how it goes, loverboy ;))"
