Please tell me more about Cliff and his extremely terrifying and actually very mean wife,,, she has compelled me,,, and I'm compelled by Cliff more in relation to her
I wrote a damn essay and tumblr deleted it, I thought it posted and it was goneee - that being said. This is probably the better version of my thoughts lmaooo so I guess? It works out lol. I am deeply inspired by you saying she’s like the lead in a Christmas movie that doesn’t change I LOVEEE that phrasing so much
Under the cut I have my thoughts :} AND! If anyone has ideas about names, for some reason none of them are working for me so I’d love to hear any ideas :}}
- Cliff & her meet when they’re both still in high school. She’s at a country club with her family and he’s staying with some extended family over the summer before he gets drafted and they’re start having casual sex pretty soon after meeting. He’s just started in his fuckboy era and she is looking to lose her virginity to a guy that won’t make it fucking miserable.
> I imagine her as the future owner of a huge conglomerate that has hands in just about everything. It’s a company that was started by her grandfather, and she’s dedicated to not being the generation fuck it up. She’s incredibly dedicated, sharp, and is generally not liked by anyone who works with her bc she has a very active bullshit radar and doesn’t care for social niceties. Basically? Shes allowed to be mean + autistic on main bc she’s hot and rich. Good for her.
- For the longest time, she has no clue what Cliff does for work nor does she care. It’s only when he gets traded to Boston (the actors are like a decade apart which I normally love considering but for this .. idk how about Cliff is 3-4 years older) where she works/lives that it becomes relevant enough for her it to matter. Previously, anytime he was in town, they’d meet up very similarly to Shane & Ilya.
> Crucial difference: no feelings. Not even one beyond attraction & annoyance from her for the longest time. He starts really liking how mean, matter-of-fact, & driven she is about 3 years in. Cliff doesn’t have any issues sleeping around still, he just takes those feelings & locks them up tight to not be considered.
- They see each other pretty often when neither of them are busy, and despite Cliff knowing he Does have feelings, he maintains his roster &
[feelings realization] She realizes it’s something bigger for her when Cliff absolutely bodies Shane. They’d made plans to meet up for that night (she was in Montreal for a meeting) and she didn’t watch the game but she gets alerts about the score and if anything happens so she saw that it was him that injured Shane. She’s not really expecting much when he comes in, but he’s absolutely off that entire night. He’s not the funny, chill guy she’s used to seeing. It took them 10 years, but that’s when it really hits her that this is a fully realized person. And he’s upset about hurting someone in a way he hadn’t expected to (not helped by the fact that his best friend is so clearly pissed about it).
> In terms of “classically comforting” someone, she’s not very good at comforting him, but she tries and that proves to be more than enough. He finds her matter of fact statements and stiff demeanor deeply charming, and has the entire time they’d known each other, so this isn’t any different.
- This is a big turning point for them, they’re still not much more then fuckbuddies, but now the “buddies” part starts factoring in. They talk about things, and it’s only really them that it comes up that she will sometimes watch him play. That she likes watching him play. Then comes a night where he comes over and she says, before anything starts, hey I don’t really want to fuck tonight & asks him to just. Hang around. Her chef made too much dinner, so, why doesn’t he just stay? And he does. And it’s good. Shockingly good.
- Cliff starts thinking that maybe they’re heading towards something (he puts a timeline in his head that maybe she’ll let him take her on a date in a year) when she, offhandedly one night, mentions that it’s been strongly recommended to her by PR and her team more generally that she finds someone to date because it would make her more approachable. He’s staring at her, he’s used to her saying shit like (vague) but this feels like a time he should hear it exactly how she means it.
> He asked her, did you have someone in mind? She stares at him. You. But I’m not looking for some boyfriend, I want a Husband. Without thinking, he says yeah I can do that.
> key part? Nobody said shit to her, they wouldn’t dare, but she’s allergic to admitting that maybe this is something she wants. She, years later, will admit to him that she just wanted to marry him but didn’t know how to say it. He looks at her and goes… yeah I know. If somebody had actually said that you would’ve gone to prison for murder. (She frowns. I have a really good team of lawyers.)
And some small details that I’m chewing on: when Ilya leaves Boston: she’s pissed at Ilya for leaving Cliff. Doesn’t really matter his reasoning, she’s not happy that he did that to Cliff and she Lets Him Know. Bc that’s her husband’s best friend what the fuck kind of business does he have LEAVING (she gets it a little more once she meets Shane. She sees it).
Her and Shane are not friends. But they’re not not friends. He and Ilya aren’t out nor have they gone to the cottage yet when she sends Shane an invite to her bachelorette party bc it would “be fucking rude not to invite him.” Cliff calls her asking why he just got a text from Ilya telling him that he needs to get her to back off. She does not back off. She sends another invitation with the words no need to be a bitch about it written at the bottom. He accepts. There is no explanation given for why Shane Hollander is going to the bachelorette party of Cliff Marleau’s soon-to-be-wife and, perhaps more importantly, the owner of several multi-billionaire dollar companies. They get invited to the same parties and only talk to each other but if anyone asked if they were friends they’d grimace. As close as they ever get is her offering to have Hayden killed post-outing.
<3 i love her your honor