#carmen thatcher

[buckleysims]

Carmen’s housewarming party proceeds in the most predictable fashion. They eat and talk and drink and laugh, but despite the jovial atmosphere Westley wants nothing more than to leave. He feels lost here, his mind- and his heart- trapped miles and miles away. Locked, it slowly dawns on him, with a new mother and her baby daughter in a hospital room across town.

“What’s wrong? Where are you going?” Eugenia pouts as Westley extricates himself from her grasp. All night she has clung to him like glue, but this time as she rises to follow him West shakes his head and pointedly motions for her to sit back down.

“I need to make a phone call,” he explains. “Alone.”

“Are you coming back?” she whimpers.

Westley hesitates, but glancing around the room full of strangers he smiles and says, “I sure as hell hope not.”

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[buckleysims]

“Welcome to my new apartment!” Carmen beams, beckoning Westley into her housewarming party. “Come in, come in. I have a surprise for you!”

West pauses, suspicion emanating from his narrowed gaze. “For me?”

“Yes!” she exclaims, and grabbing his arm Carmen lowers her voice to a brisk whisper. “I heard about you and Gena. She was furious with you, and frankly I can’t blame her. However, she and I had a little chat yesterday, and...”

“Hi, West,” Eugenia waves to him from across the room. “I was hoping you’d be here. Carmen said you would, but I wasn’t sure that you’d want to see me again. I wasn’t sure that I wanted to see you again either, but I guess I’m more forgiving than I realized,” she laughs and exchanges a smile with Carmen. “Anyway, do you think we can talk sometime tonight? Y’know, privately?”

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[buckleysims]

“West? Babe? Are you listening to me?”

Westley grunts and nods, his eyes flickering up from his cellphone for a split second before drifting back down to the screen.

Carmen scowls at him from across the table, and sliding out of her seat she grabs the phone and cigarette from Westley’s hands and perches herself on his lap. “I don’t like to be ignored,” she tells him in a pouty voice. “Who were you texting at this hour anyway?”

“No one,” he replies, flashing Carmen one of his most charming smiles. “I was just reading some work emails.”

“On a Sunday morning?”

“My boss doesn’t understand the concept of a weekend,” West shrugs. “Why do you care so much?”

“I just want to make absolutely sure that you’re okay with this. I know we’ve worked together before, but...” Carmen hesitates, uncertainty etched in the lines on her face.

“But we weren’t sleeping together then?” he chuckles.

“Well... Yes. I don’t want things to get complicated between us.”

“I think it sounds like a great opportunity for you. As long as you’re okay with it, then by all means I say accept Blackwell’s job offer. Don’t let me hold you back.”

“Do you mean that?”

Westley nods. “Absolutely. It will be interesting to have you living here in Bridgeport. Different, but interesting.”

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[buckleysims]

“Good morning.”

Carmen glances over at Westley, her pulse quickening as she runs her eyes up and down his body. “Good morning babe. Did you sleep well?” she asks.

Sliding out of bed, Westley grunts and nods. “Yeah, fine. How about you?”

“I hate your mattress,” Carmen sighs dramatically. “It’s too hard! I feel like I’m lying on a pile of rocks.”

“Do you ever have anything positive to say?” West demands, rolling his eyes in exasperation.

“I positively hate your mattress?”

“Smart ass,” he retorts, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips.

“If my ass were smart, I’d know better than to get mixed up with a guy like you,” she shrugs. “But hey, do you want to go grab a cup of coffee before my flight leaves this afternoon? There’s something we need to talk about.”

“Something important?” he frowns.

“Well yeah, sort of. I spoke with Mr. Blackwell last night at the gala, and he had an interesting proposition for the two of us.”

Westley’s whole body tenses at the mention of his boss. “An interesting proposition... for us?” he repeats skeptically.

“Don’t look so scared,” Carmen smirks as she reaches up to kiss his cheek. “We can always tell him no if you don’t think it’s a good idea, but at the very least we need discuss it first.”

“What is ‘it’?” he demands, uncertainty written all over his face.

“I’ll tell you over coffee. Relax, babe,” she grins and kisses him again. “I promise it’s nothing bad.”

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[buckleysims]

“This doesn’t change anything between us, you know.”

“I know,” West grins.

“I’m still mad at you.”

“And I’m still mad at you,” he counters playfully.

Carmen shakes her head but does not argue with him, instead reaching up to silence him with a kiss. “Come on,” she yawns as she snuggles next to him. “Let’s get some sleep. I have something important to talk to you about in the morning.”

But Westley doesn’t hear her, his quiet snores already echoing off the bedroom’s cold brick walls.

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[buckleysims]

Westley and Carmen walk home hand-in-hand, only the sounds of distant highway traffic and the occasional passerby punctuating their stony silence. As he leads her into the lobby of his apartment building, Carmen swings around to face him, and strategically positioning herself between West and the buttons on the elevator she summons her fiercest scowl and mentally prepares herself for a battle.

“You don’t own me,” she tells him through gritted teeth.

“I never said I did.”

“I really liked that guy, West, but I doubt he’ll even give me the time of day now after that performance you just put on.”

Propping himself up against the wall, Westley shrugs. “I didn’t want him to get the wrong idea about you. About us.”

“Well maybe I did!” she snaps. “Is what I want even a factor for you here, or are you so incapable of thinking about someone else besides yourself for a half a minute that you can’t even bother to consider how I feel?”

He pauses, a hint of regret flickering in his eyes before abruptly disappearing beneath his usual mask of cocky smiles and slick lies. “Okay. Fine,” he nods, and leaning in to within an inch of her face Westley ever so gently tucks a stray strand of hair behind her ear and whispers, “What do you want, Carmen?”

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[buckleysims]

“You’re mad,” Westley greets Carmen with a quizzical smirk, wondering if she noticed his prolonged absence.

“What was your first clue?” she hisses.

“You seemed perfectly happy earlier when you were dancing with my boss? Or did you tire of Blackwell’s company already too?”

Carmen’s mouth falls open. “I was only trying to help you,” she snaps. “Not to mention how rude it would have been to say no!”

“But three songs in a row?” West begins to retort when a handsome young man no older than himself suddenly appears in front of them.

“Carmen?” he flashes her a wide, cheerful smile that leaves Westley itching to knock a few of his pearly white teeth out. “Here’s that drink you wanted. I- Is this a bad time?”

“No, not at-”

“Actually,” West cuts her off in a brittle voice. “Carmen and I were just leaving. Isn’t that right, sweetheart?”

“Already?” the man deflates. “Can I at least have your number?”

“Absolutely!” she exclaims, jumping in before Westley has a chance to intervene. “I look forward to hearing from you. And don’t forget you promised me tickets!” Carmen flirts as she enters her number into the man’s phone.

“I could never forget you,” he grins, his gaze lingering far too long on Carmen’s chest for Westley’s liking.

“Yes, well, I wish we could say the same, but we really must be going now.” And with that, he turns and ushers Carmen away.

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[buckleysims]

“Are you going to tell me what’s bothering you, or do I have to guess?” Carmen purrs as Westley ushers her onto the dance floor.

He shrugs, a fake smile plastered across his face. “Nothing. I’m fine.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Would I lie to you?”

“Is hell a fiery pit of sin?” she counters, scowling at him impatiently. “But really, babe. If you’re already sick of me, then I’ll just leave. Because I’m beginning to feel like you'd rather be anywhere else but h-”

Without warning, Westley bends down and sweeps her into a passionate kiss.

“Have I told you how beautiful you look tonight?” he murmurs as their lips part.

Carmen gulps, trying in vain to remember why she was so annoyed with him before. “Th-Thank you,” she mumbles. “I wasn’t sure about the dress, but it didn’t-”

“Pardon me,” a steely voice slices through their conversation like a blade. “May I cut in?”

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