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“So can you? Today? Please?” Carmy asks Neil, pushing the green sweatshirt into Neil’s trembling hand.
“I guess,” Neil says, looking down at the fabric. “But why, Carmy?”
He shakes his head as he sighs. “It's time, Neil. And I…there's something else…shouldn't be me…I…can you, please.”
“What's good today, gentlemen?” Richie asks, pulling the sunglasses off of his eyes as he enters the kitchen, already in his suit.
“I can cover your prep so you can take it to her, Carmy. You know, as your best friend,” Neil says, his voice dropping to a whisper, which makes a sound adjacent to laughter burst from Richie.
“No, thank you,” Carmy says.
“Fak, what the fuck?” Richie says. “You don't know how to prep.”
“Pimp and my brother in the house!” Teddy yells, coming out of the basement. “Dude, we look good today,” he declares. “And Richard.”
“Shut the fuck up, Teddy,” Richie says.
“But…why don't you want to go see Claire Bear, Carmy?” Fak asks, looking between Carmy and the shirt now balled up in his nervous hands. “She's the best.”
“Best you’ll ever get,” Ted declares. “I should still beat your ass, like three fucking times over bro for fucking that up. I'm like Claire's horned up older brother in love with her very fucking hot and beautiful sister, so. So.”
“The fuck did you just say, Ted?” Richie asks, barking out a confused and slightly disgusted laugh. “Too much time on Pornhub, there, bud?”
“Kelly's not your sister, I'm your sister! Francie is your sister!” Neil yells, clearly thrown and out of sorts, gripping the green fabric tighter in his hands.
“What?” Carmy asks, shaking his head again. “Doesn't matter. Neil, don't get lost in this shit. You can do this for me today, right?”
“Carmy, are you sure?” Fak asks.
“Pimp is not fucking sure,” Teddy interjects.
“I am fucking sure,” Carmy proclaims.
“Sounds pretty fucking sure to me,” Richie agrees, shrugging as he does.
“Carmy…” Fak asks again, as Carmy's jaw clenches and a red flush of annoyance courses up his neck.
“Really the least you can do…” Carmy trails off.
“What do you mean, Bear?” Fak asks.
“Yeah! What do you mean, Bear?” Ted echoes.
Carmy sighs, and annoyance reverberates around them with the sound. “The least you can do after…”
“After what, Bear?” Neil asks.
“Yeah, after what, Bear?” Ted echoes again.
“After giving her my real fucking phone number in the first place!” Carmy's outburst only quiets the kitchen for a second.
“No, dawg, you barely could pull her ass without us,” Teddy protests.
“Why wouldn't you want Claire Bear to have your phone number, Carmy? She's the best,” Fak says.
“The literal best,” Ted agrees.
“Let him be, guys,” Richie says.
“She's your actual peace,” Fak says, louder. “You obviously need fucking peace, Carmy.”
“Dude wouldn't know peace if it bit him on his tight juicy ass,” Ted insists.
“Claire Bear is the best,” Fak reiterates. “I watched you dance with her at Tiff’s wedding as I ate cake! That means something, Carmy!”
“The dancing or the cake?” Richie mutters, smothering a laugh behind his hand.
“Can you please just…” Carmy says.
“But Bear, you are in love with Claire Bear! You have feelings! I'm your best friend, I would know!” Fak yells.
“And I should beat your ass for your feelings,” Ted says again.
“Guys…” Richie warns.
“Why, Carmy?” Neil asks. “Why?”
“Bro, Pimp, Bear, I knew I have better game than you…” Ted laughs over the top of Fak asking why again.
“Because I don't have feelings for Claire. I have feelings for Sydney,” Carmy yells over the din of their argument. “I have the whole time.”
Silence falls over the kitchen as the Faks and the prep tables and the stoves and the expo desk all take in Carmy's eruption, which settles over the space like a blanket of ash falling like rain after spewing out of a long-dormant volcano.
“Oooooh, shit,” Richie whistles, the expression on his face changing several times in rapid succession as he takes in the new information, and as the Fak brothers begin arguing in earnest again.
“How? Claire is so fucking hot, dude,” Teddy says. “I should beat his ass. Can't wait to fucking tell Kelly about this. And beat his ass!”
“But Sydney is so pretty and she is nice to me,” Neil allows, his voice lilting up as he says it. “Like, all of the time nice and not just some of the time nice.”
“‘Lil Pimp, are you sure?” Teddy asks again, dubiously.
“He’s sure,” Neil asserts. “I would know.”
“Maybe some more time in the walk-in would fix his head,” Teddy suggests as Carmy's head falls into his hands.
“Ted…” Richie warns.
“Carm?” a quiet voice asks, tentative yet hopeful, from near the office door.
“Oh, shit,” Richie says. “Come on, you motherfuckers.” And he herds the Faks out of the kitchen, the sound of their pestiferous bickering trailing after them.
“What’s…” Syd says, before swallowing thickly, adjusting her tote bag on her shoulder, and pulling her green puffer coat more tightly around herself. “What's going on?”
“What did you hear?” he asks, his hands still rubbing at his forehead, his closed eyes.
“Not too much,” she says, before shaking her head. “Everything.”
“Fuck,” Carmy says, finally looking up to meet her eyes. “How was the dentist?”
“Fine. Normal. Had x-rays, almost puked,” she babbles, clearly nervous. “How, uhm, how about your morning?” she asks, stepping the tiniest bit closer to him.
“Oh, uhm. You know. Normal, too.”
“Yeah?” she asks.
“No,” he corrects, red flushing down his neck, a smile he cannot help pulling at the corners of his mouth.
“How about now?” she asks, before pressing her lips onto his quirked ones for an infinitesimal moment.
He immediately pulls her back, deepening the kiss that scarcely stopped, his fingers curving against her cheek. It's heady and honest, and he quickly forces himself to break it again after the scantest of moments as his hand grips into the down of her coat.
“Syd,” he breathes, their foreheads touching. “You…too…?”
She takes in a breath to answer him, but before any words fall from her lips, Fak and Teddy scrabble back into the kitchen; Ted holding out his phone. “Carmy! Carmen! Phone call for you!” he yells, louder than is warranted.
Carmy shakes his head, his eyes never leaving Syd’s.
“Hang up, Teddy!” Fak grits out through clenched teeth. “I'll go find mom...”
“Why won't you bring me my sweatshirt, Carmy?” a tinny-sounding version of Claire says through the speakerphone. “I specifically asked you to.”
“‘M, uhm, I'm busy,” Carmy manages to say.
“You want this. How can you be too busy?” Claire asks.
“I’m busy…I’m busy going forward, actually. In perpetuity,” Carmy says quietly. “Fak will bring your shirt. Goodbye, Claire,” he says, attempting to draw Syd away from the chaos by her hand, so they can talk in the privacy of the office.
“Perpetuity?” Fak asks, as if he’s unsure of the meaning.
“Teddy!” Claire calls.
“Hang up, Teddy!” Fak says. “Carmy! Run!”
“Yes, Claire Bear?” Ted says.
“Ted…you have my permission,” she says gravely. “I’ll see you tonight.”
Teddy rubs his hands together as Fak hides his face in Claire's green sweatshirt. The door to the office slams shut.
“Uhh…sorry about that,” Carmy tells Syd behind the closed door of the office, reluctantly letting her fingers slip out of his. “And, also, like, everything else, I guess?” he says, rubbing his hand against the back of his neck.
“I think Ted is going to try to beat you up,” Syd whispers.
“Sounds about right,” Carmy says, letting himself laugh, just a little, propelled by the feeling that the entire world is shifting on its axis. “I probably deserve it.”
“And…I guess…you have feelings for me?”
“Mmm,” Carmy says, trying not to let his nerves and embarrassment drop his eyes away from hers to his feet.
Syd gives him a heady stare before cocking her head. “Is…so…is…that's why you're leaving? Why you wanted to?”
He shrugs. “I don't know.”
She considers him for another long moment. “You're such a fucking idiot.”
“Probably,” he agrees.
“Carmy…”
“Yeah?”
“Carm…” she says again. “You're the biggest idiot.”
“I know.”
“Shut up,” she says, stepping closer, her hands clinging to him, wrinkling the shirt on his back above the ties of his blue apron. “How’s it going now, your morning?”
“Best of my life,” he says without hesitation, his lips crashing back into hers.