@kingdonmicrofic - day 23: barbecue | rating: t | word count: 500
(now with a writer's cut (1000+ words) on ao3!)
“Excuse me, sorry, but are you two a couple?”
They halt mid-step, startled out of heated (for Frank, anyway) conversation about the overhype surrounding New York bagels. (“Eight dollars for a bagel with cream cheese? Fucking criminal.” “Well, I don’t think picking a premium bagel flavor helped.” “I have to know what all the hype over these rainbow bagels is about!”)
“Oh - um,” Mel glances at Frank, whose surprised gape is already shifting into an easy smirk, mischief glinting in his eyes. Oh, boy.
“Yeah, we are, actually,” he says, shifting the paper bag holding their polarizing bagels from the crook of one arm to the other. The freed arm smoothly snakes around her waist and pulls her close.
“Would you mind telling us the story of how you first met?"
Frank peeks down at her. "We first met at work, and right off the bat, I knew she was a kindred spirit.” He exhales something between a laugh and a sigh. “She also ended up being the only good thing that happened to me that day. And maybe since.”
Mel draws in a breath. “I don’t know how true that last part is,“ she ignores the stern look Frank shoots her, “but the first part - I felt the same way. He just understood - understands - me in a way no one else has before; we just seem to know what the other wants or needs." She shrugs, unsure if there's even a way to properly articulate how Frank makes her feel, this affinity for each other that just is. “I still felt it the next time I saw you, when you came back - like no time had passed, even though it’d been ten months since.”
"After that first day, I had to take leave - I won't bore you with the details,” Frank explains, unprompted. To Mel, “And that may have been when you saw me next, but I saw you a few weeks before that, at Abbott’s Memorial Day barbecue.”
Mel’s eyes dart to his. “What? I don’t remember you being there.”
Frank rocks on his heels, chin tucking. “I never actually went in. I drove there, got out of the car, walked all the way up to the gate to the backyard, saw you -” He clears his throat. “I just couldn’t do it. I thought maybe seeing everyone before I came back might help with the transition, but when I actually got there, I realized I couldn’t face you all without work acting as a buffer.”
“I wish you would’ve come in,” Mel says softly.
“I’ll be at the next one,” Frank says, voice just as soft. It sounds like a promise.
---
Comments
t3santos (2h) *oprah so what is the truth gif*
sammohan (2h) is fake-dating on kingdon bingo??? @therealprincessdc @perlahhhhh
therealprincessdc (2h) @sammohan no but we theres mistaken for bf/gf but thats been hit multiple times already??
m.robby (15m) @callmemel and @frangdon plz file appropriate paperwork with hr if dating irl
