[OTA] It's the Best of Times

[dreamsofwords]

All things considered, one hasn't seen Alasdair writing much lately. He has been, of course - he's got deadlines - but he's been keeping it to late at night at his house, not so much in public. In light of things, though, school has been called off for the first few days of the week, and sitting in his house feels a bit oppressive just now.

So despite the cold, he goes out with his laptop, dressed for the weather in a coat, a scarf and fingerless gloves, and parked himself at a cafe table with a bottomless cup of coffee. He's tapping away, paying virtually no attention to the world outside.

Storms came and went in Chicago all the time, especially in the winter months. But this system was different. It loomed over the city like a bad mood, and wouldn't be banished, turning from rain to ice to snow and back again. Who knew, Dabney Rush thought as he watched the precipitation pummel the glass of his Gold Coast house, what this kind of weather would bring.

Absolutely, totally normal.

Comments

[standlikestone]

She brings her hands up to her mouth to try to hide her wide grin. She fails. “If you think so. S'just... sorta nerve-wracking.”

[dreamsofwords]

"The whole love thing? Yeah, it definitely is. I've fumbled it enough times to know that one for sure. But you don't have to worry." Alasdair smiles. "He loves you."

[standlikestone]

"I-- hope so. I really hope so." She sighs happily, then presses her hands to her cheeks. "I'm going to become domestic, Allie. It'll be weird as fuck."

[dreamsofwords]

"If you start obsessing over sparkling clean dishes and the perfect chicken pot pie, I'm warning you, Riley. I'll tell your mother."

It would be an interesting expression, to say the least.

[standlikestone]

"My chicken pot pie is pretty damn good already, thank you very much," she says with a grin. "And we'll see. Not that domestic. Just... maybe a little more open to the idea of monogamy. Though, you know, the not having sex part actually sucks balls."

[dreamsofwords]

"Maybe you should use it as incentive," Alasdair says. "To get him to come home a little more often, since you're waiting for him."

[standlikestone]

"I would... like that," she admits, running a hand through her hair. "Though I don't know how fair that is, with his school and all. I just... hope he won't be too busy to come for my birthday next week."

[dreamsofwords]

"He's in some kind of accelerated program, right?" Alasdair's not entirely sure how that works. He started teaching when he was twenty-one with no college under his belt; he's cobbled together most of an English degree by now, but it's not like he really needs one.

"So it can't go that much longer."

[standlikestone]

"Something like that. I... just want him back home. -And I know how much that makes me sound like a housewife, oh god." She laughs. "Blah. I'll go back to my more interesting self eventually, I promise."

[dreamsofwords]

"It's fine," Alasdair says, laughing as he closes his laptop and leans his elbows on the table. "Happens to everyone. I've heard the same thing out of all my sisters." He'd learned to keep the rapturous parts of love to himself after Edie, though. He doubted that was what she wanted, but it had seemed the best way of coping after they broke up.

And now? Well, Elani was the dancing and singing one among the two of them.

[standlikestone]

"I know, but-- It's weird for me. It..." She lets out a breath, then asks slowly, "it'll be okay if he rejects me, right?"