okay so this was hard to find a snippet because apparently, in the 5700 words i have written so far, rachel and stevie barely interact outside of brackets lmao. so here’s a super long one because i couldn’t figure out where else to cut it.
“Well! Shall we?” David asks, gesturing to the hallway. “I’m so sorry about the car service, I know it’s gauche, we rarely use them unless my dad is trying to impress investors, but our driver was picking up the Brewers and—“
“I dunno, David, I can’t be expected to go back to taking taxis like a common pleb after experiencing the good life.”
He smirks. “I like you,” he tells her, before turning to Patrick. “I like her. I’ve decided I’m mad at you for treating her poorly.”
She and Patrick both bark out a laugh, and David grins at them, and things feel easy now.
Until she walks through the doors to the lounge and sees Alexis Rose, face buried in her phone, and Patrick’s parents animatedly chatting with Moira fucking Rose while Johnny Rose fiddles with the television.
It hits her, suddenly, that these are Very Famous People and Patrick is part of this world now. She feels unsettled.
“Oh my god, hey, you must be Rachel!” Alexis Rose says as she stands to greet her, all warm smiles and gentle handshakes.
Before she knows it, she’s being passed around the room for introductions, and is folded into the fray easily.
“I’m so sorry, they aren’t normally like this,” David tells her, apologetically. “Actually, that’s a lie, they are, but they, um… they really like Patrick. And you’re important to him. So…”
She places a hand on his arm. “I’m so glad he has you, David.”
His eyes are shiny, and he just nods.
Marcy and Clint are polite but don’t seem to know what’s appropriate when the woman they thought would become their daughter is in the same room as the man their son loves. So they are kind and catch up, but don’t get too personal.
And it’s fine. The game is about to start and she is having fun, she likes the Roses and seeing how easily the Brewers fold into their family gives her more joy than the first time her family had thanksgiving at the Brewer house, and she thinks that’s saying something.
She’s so fucking happy for him.
“Sorry I’m late!” comes a raspy voice from the doorway.
Rachel turns and is immediately met with a curtain of dark hair hanging around an angular face framing expressive eyes and plush lips, cascading over a long, pale neck and resting gently atop a pair of delicate shoulders, and she feels a tug in her gut that she’s never felt before.
“Stevie! Better late than never, I always say,” Johnny tells her from the corner.
“You never say that,” she jokes back, dropping her canvas messenger bag next to the sofa. How is this woman in flannel and work jeans so at home here?
“Stevie, dear, if you’re getting yourself a cocktail, can you please tell Adelina to stop fussing with the appetizers and join us?”
She smirks. “Sure, but she doesn’t listen to me.”
“I’ll come with you,” Alexis says. “My glass is getting empty. Rachel, wanna join us?”
She feels a spark of joy at being included, and at the prospect of spending more time with Stevie, so she agrees, even though her beer is mostly full.
Alexis breezes through the doorway, and Rachel can do nothing but follow.
She feels Stevie’s calculating gaze on her as Alexis chats about everything and nothing. Rachel tries to nod along and absorb the story about her tryst with Nick Jonas (“yeah it was just like, too weird? David had just hooked up with Joe at a party and it was like, not a cute look for us to both be involved with siblings at the same time. Though that didn’t stop him from flirting with Maggie Gyllenhaal while I was dating Jake after the whole Taylor Swift thing.”) but she can feel Stevie’s eyes boring into her back.
“Oh, shoot,” Alexis says as her phone rings. “I gotta take this. Stevie, can you show Rachel where the drinks are?”
Alexis ignores Stevie’s protestation of, “I don’t work for you!” as she floats back out of the kitchen.
The silence in the room is deafening.
“Are you gonna fuck things up for them?” Stevie asks, her voice easy and curious, as if it's not the threat it clearly is meant to be.
Rachel turns to face her. Stevie’s eyes are full of a protective fire that makes something in her belly twist with want and it’s confusing. She knows that fire is threatening her, but all she wants to do is shove her hands down Stevie’s jeans and see how her eyes can burn Rachel up when she makes her come. “No,” she responds, her throat just a little dry. “I’m so happy for him. And David is kind of great.” She considers for a moment, and Stevie doesn’t blink. “Actually, I might try to fuck things up so I can have David, but that seems like a lost cause, the way he looks at Patrick.”
Stevie barks out a laugh. Rachel wants to feel it against her skin, anywhere, everywhere. She wonders briefly if she should’ve told Patrick that she thinks she’s bi when he told her about David two months ago, sitting on his couch with a bottle of wine and more tears from him in one non-breakup than she’s ever seen him shed over her through all eight of their actual breakups combined.
“I wouldn’t blame you,” Stevie tells her and oh, yeah, they’re talking. “He’s good in bed. Shit at relationships though. Well, until now.”
“Oh, sorry, I thought you two were—“
“Oh yeah I’m way over it. That was years ago. We’re better as friends.”
“He loves him,” Stevie tells her, honestly. “Like, more than I thought he could love someone. More than I thought anyone could love someone.”
She hums. “Patrick too.” She takes a long pull of her beer before continuing, “I thought I knew what love looked like on him but… wow.”
Stevie laughs again and Rachel wants to push her against the cabinets, lift her onto the counter, and bury her face in her chest. God why didn’t Patrick warn her his new friends were all so hot?
Stevie nods, and holds out her drink in a toast. Rachel feels like she passed some kind of test as she proudly clinks her bottle against hers.
whew i had no idea this wip was so far from being done, i’d planned it all out so i really thought it had more hahaha. thanks for lighting this fire under my ass on this one!
[wip game - ask me about my wips!]
