where: jay’s place, 9:20 pm. status: closed / @jacobsgraham.
the scene, all in all, wasn’t an usual one. a friend coming over for dinner was as good an excuse as any to unplug — let the focus of the night, for once, be the menu and not the latest bulletin from the news segment. laughter ringing where pregnant silence would’ve been on a regular day — and it was mostly fake, yes, as thoughts of killers and blood could barely ever leave fred’s mind, let alone jake’s. but maybe it had been the wine — maybe the scent of the food jake had cooked mixed with the gentle breeze touching them, the sweet aftertaste of broccoli still lingering on her tongue, the candles lit to liven up the back patio — she’d managed to escape, even if just for the span of a couple hours. she’d managed to laugh, too: lean over towards their guest (a friend of hers, the only other bartender the day she’d started working at st. peter’s — he’d been her mentor, in a way, a much needed ally in a hard, precarious time of her life), a particular spark of interest as she let her chin rest over her fist and listened closely to his recounting of his hike across the pacific crest trail.
she, of course, was not aware of the ways she’d let herself loosen up just a tad too much in pleasant company. her default was pleasing, as if making herself tempting in any way would make people turn a blind eye to the cracks and the blemishes — it wasn’t a conscious effort to rub proverbial salt in the wound (because as meaningless as this conversation was, it was still warmer than the cold fog that had seemed to wrap her relationship with jake lately; as harmless as her chirps and laughter were, they still looked livelier than the tense, controlled silence that surrounded her time with jake as of late). it was escape, pure and simple: forgetting, for a second, that there were demons they’d forgotten to exorcise, still haunting their home.
laughter ringing to one of michael’s jokes (not a dirty one, just not a harmless one either), freddie pulled back in slight embarrassment, smiling a tight smile to hide the hint of blood flushing to her face. blame it on the wine — she poured herself another glass, then leaned back on her chair, sipping slowly. “you should bring jake along on one of your trips, sometimes” — her voice a sugary, harmless joke, one glance thrown jake’s way with a hint of puzzled curiosity — he looked tense. in an effort of compensation, her smile grew brighter. “he’s got the whole... angry bear vibe going on, he’ll help you scare off predators”.