Sutton D Brady is an actual angel on this earth thats all i really have if you want to do something with that
[ok honestly this is like five times sutton accidentally is a third wheel on a date w kat & adena + one time she isn’t (she hangs out w kat as her best friend pls don’t be weird pls do not) lmao poor sutton but don’t worry its cute]
//
1
you don’t really realize that kat had invited you as a third wheel on this date until it’s too late. you had had a really slow day at the office and kat had made up some excuse for both of you to have to leave, which you don’t think oliver or jacqueline had really bought but it’s a beautiful day and you had been a little down that morning about richard—it comes and goes, who knows why you were sad today—anyway.
kat takes you out for a late lunch somewhere in north bedstuy that serves southern comfort food and when you ask her how she knew about it she just shrugged, smiled, got you a bottle of rosé to share.
you’re definitely a little day drunk and feeling a lot better, because kat had made you laugh a lot with distracting dumb stories and reports from this focus group she’d had to run, and you walk to the C afterward so you can go to the piers and get ice cream, even though you’re so. full.
you’re almost at ample when you see who you’re 99% sure is adena from a distance, and kat grins, this huge smile lighting up her face.
it definitely is adena, who is in a pretty hijab and these killer flowy dark green pants, and kat gives her a quick kiss.
‘i was nearby at my friend’s office in dumbo,’ she explains. ‘i hope it’s okay?’
she genuinely says it like a question, like she would leave if you said no, and kat scoffs but adena looks to you.
‘it’s definitely okay,’ you say, and it is, because you want to spend more time with your best friend’s girlfriend; from what you can tell, kat is definitely in it for the long haul. ‘i’m glad we get to hang out.’
‘me too,’ adena says, and asks about your day. kat jumps in so you don’t have to tell her how you’re ditching work because you were a little upset and you could hug her for it, but she’s holding adena’s hand and they walk beside you, both paying complete attention to you, but their hands are linked and they’re quite literally the most beautiful couple you’ve ever seen, you’re pretty sure. it makes you ache a little more but adena buys you all ice cream and you sit at pier three in the gardens and the city is beautiful behind you; it’s quiet.
kat licks melting ice cream off of adena’s hand and it makes adena roll her eyes and it makes you laugh and you definitely realize this part of your day was absolutely a date.
but then, after you’ve finished your ice cream, adena leaves to go do some editing on a shoot she’d finished last week; she kisses kat goodbye and gives you a tight, heartfelt hug.
‘good to see you, sutton,’ she says.
‘yeah,’ you say, ‘you too.’
kat is a little stunned watching adena walk away, you think, from her wide eyes and dumb ass little smile.
‘i’m definitely falling in love,’ she says.
you laugh at your friend and she helps you up and then shoves you a little, cheeks turning pink.
‘you’re absolutely already in love,’ you tell her, wrap your arm around her shoulders as you walk toward high street.
‘yeah, i guess.’
‘you are.’ you bump her hip and she smiles. ‘it’s great though, kat.’
she lets out a deep breath and goes to hold your hand, but you swat it away. ‘i don’t know where that thing has been.’
‘i’ve washed my hands today, sutton.’
‘ah, so you have had sex.’
kat lifts a brow and strides off in front of you. ‘i like to start my mornings with cardio, what can i say?’
‘you’re terrible,’ you grumble, but it’s fond and you and kat fall asleep on your couch once you get home, trying to get through the staircase in like your fifth attempt.
you wake up to jane taking a series of pictures of the two of you and you groan and kat just burrows into the pillows.
‘she’s tired,’ you explain, ‘from her sex fest this morning.’
‘whatever,’ she says. ‘be jealous all you want.’
//
2
it’s very clearly a date to you this time about ten minutes in, even though this is the most ridiculous date ever.
all you had wanted to do was get bread, milk, eggs, and ginger beer from trader joe’s and you were already near downtown brooklyn anyway, because jane had some weird work drinks thing at kimoto and you could both just take the train back from hoyt. you had been at target with kat because it’s like the most pleasant dissociative episode ever, each time you’re there, and somehow adena finds the two of your in the middle of the home decor section, kisses kat hello and then manages to find the ugliest mirror you have ever seen in your life, which had made you both laugh.
you’d met jane in the grocery store and of course the line is long as shit, and kat and adena wander off to find halal chicken nuggets, apparently, and you and jane watch them with a synchronized sigh as the white dude with dreads in front of you fumbles with his kombucha.
‘did they just turn a grocery run into a date?’ you ask.
‘kat has been on a melodrama loop lately. you know, hard feelings.’
‘i honestly thought that was because of liability.’
jane waits a beat and then lets out a big laugh, a good laugh. ‘incredible,’ she says. ‘what a drag.’
you shrug. ‘what can i say? the library is open.’
kat and adena come back and kat says, ‘paris is burning,’ dramatically and with absolutely zero context.
they’re holding hands and have found the halal nuggets in dramatic fashion because the box adena’s holding is gigantic.
‘we were reading you,’ jane says.
kat rolls her eyes. ‘about what?’ she asks. ‘i’m perfect.’
‘chaotic neutral big dick energy,’ you say.
kat grins and adena laughs.
‘that’s not a read,’ kat says, and you and jane have an unspoken agreement, you’re sure, to never tell kat about how you know she’s really terrified she’s going to fuck everything up with adena because you can see what sh’e listening to on spotify—blond and ctrl and melodrama, yikes—so you let her have it.
‘here, ms big dick energy,’ jane says, handing over the ginger beer which is admittedly a little heavy. ‘hold this.’
kat sighs and hefts it up like she’s doing a bicep curl only her arm shakes a little and it’s adena who laughs first.
you and jane grin and start laughing too and it’s not the worst date ever, you guess.
//
3
you’d definitely made plans to watch nanette with kat at 7 pm thursday night, because you’d seen it and you knew sacrificing your own tears a second time would be vital because kat’s really been through a lot of ‘identity politics,’ as jane calls them, the past few months, even though she acts like it doesn’t affect her very much.
you’re sure these were your plans because she’d put them into your phone herself, so you’re a little confused as to why she’s not answering her door and you’re holding a bottle of wine and a bag of truffle butter popcorn you’d stollen from a shoot earlier and it’s hot as shit in her hallway.
when you try the door, though, it’s unlocked, thank god, even though you’re a little worried, so you go in.
you are, sadly but also hilariously, not surprised when you see kat completely naked in bed, her computer propped up next to her kind of clumsily, and her head shoots up in your direction and says, ‘shit, adena, i’m sorry, i gotta go,’ and slams her computer shut.
you start to laugh and she tries to wipe her hand on her sheets without you noticing and scrambles around to find a pair of underwear.
‘i’ve seen you naked, like, a thousand times,’ you say, getting out wine glasses, because you’d definitely just walked in on your best friend having facetime sex with her girlfriend but honestly you’re surprised it’s taken you this long at this point. ‘don’t hurry on my account.’
kat throws on a t-shirt and walks over to you, a little smirk on her face. ‘i lost track of time.’
‘you sure did.’
she laughs because you’re smiling and goes to grab a handful of popcorn.
‘are you kidding me?’
‘i’m hungry.’
‘wash your hands, kat.’
‘it was the other hand, i swear to god.’
you lift a brow and she grumbles but dutifully scrubs at her hands while keeping eye contact with you. the back of her hair is coming out of its bun and her cheeks are flushed and she dries her hands with a flourish. ‘happy now?’
‘not as happy as you.’
kat has the courtesy to blush even more. ‘adena’s been gone for two weeks shooting in indonesia—’
‘—oh, we know—’
‘—so i just, you know, missed her.’
‘gay.’
kat huffs. ‘i’m bi.’ she thinks to herself. ‘queer?’
you kiss her cheek, start to pour the wine. ‘i can’t believe i crashed a date when your girlfriend isn’t even in the country.’
kat takes the glass of wine you hand her and lifts it in a toast. ‘i’m sorry.’
you shrug. ‘don’t be. i’m glad you’re happy.’
you clink glasses. ‘me too.’
you sit down on her couch and she grabs popcorn and this time you don’t mind.
‘this is going to ruin your mood for sure, though.’
kat sighs. ‘so i’ve heard.’
you’re both crying by the end and kat burrows into your side, sniffling.
‘stay here tonight?’
‘buy me coffee in the morning,’ you say, even though you have a full outfit for tomorrow and all of your makeup in your bag anyway, because you know her.
‘breakfast too, even that disgusting sandwich with sausage if you want.’
‘deal.’
kat smiles a little and you go to get in her bed wearily before you remember exactly what activity she was doing earlier.
‘change the sheets first, kat.’
‘i’m so tired,’ she pouts.
you raise your brows.
‘so sad, sutton.’
you stand your ground and she rolls her eyes and stomps around but you help her change the sheets.
‘i love you,’ she says, once you’re both situated.
‘i love you too, kat.’
‘you’ve been, just, really important to me in all this, really good, you know that?’
‘yeah,’ you say. ‘i’m the best.’
/
you wake up to pee in the middle of the night and it’s like 2 am but kat is texting adena, you know, because she’s turned over in bed and there’s a little light radiating from her phone. you don’t say anything because you understand mostly but maybe a little you don’t, and she puts away her phone.
‘time difference,’ she says, and you know it’s about comfort and love but you let her have it.
‘tragic.’
‘she’ll be home in a few days.’
‘great,’ you say, ‘because i really don’t think facetime is fully doing it for you. you’ve been a tightly wound pain in the ass to all of your interns lately.’
you’re both a little delirious so you end up laughing and it’s warm and safe and you fall back asleep.
//
4
you’re walking back to kat’s apartment from chelsea, where you’d been to see adena’s latest gallery show—which was really stunning and featured your best friend, a lot, so you cannot wait to tease her later—and they’re holding hands and they keep kissing, light little kisses and it’s cute and really sweet and you love them a lot.
jane is talking about the paintings that were at the show too and it’s a beautiful night, a little chilly after a rainstorm, and it’s late, but there’s really no place you’d rather be.
it’s awesome and peaceful and sort of perfect until some random dude walks past the four of you, takes one look at kat and adena, and says a word that makes adena grit her teeth and jane stiffen and you’re absolutely positive kat is going to get into a fight when she turns around immediately.
‘what the fuck,’ she says, and you’ve seen kat angry and you’ve seen kat hurt and you’ve seen kat genuinely confused and this is all of those things at once, which is. not great.
adena tugs on her hand. ‘kat,’ she says, and from the immediate weariness in her voice you can tell this is certainly not the first time someone has called her a slur. it makes your heart ache and jane is so tiny but she’s already stepping between kat and the dude, and you do too.
he doesn’t seem fazed at all and says it again and you swear to god kat is about to lose her fucking mind and you feel furious too, but it’s not safe for any of you to get into an actual physical fight with this dude and you’re also really fucking terrified.
‘kat,’ you say, tug on her shoulder hard. her jaw clenches and she swallows and then says, ‘fuck you,’ at the dude and to your relief turns around.
adena takes her hand again but it’s not the same gentleness they’d had just a few seconds ago, because mostly she just pulls kat down the street quickly.
jane is absolutely your favorite person in the world because she stands her ground until you can tell they’re far enough down the block.
‘i’m going to call the police,’ jane says, her phone already on 911, all she has to do is press call.
the guy narrows his eyes, looks at her brightly lit phone, and turns around, starts to walk away quickly.
‘oh my god,’ she says, puts her phone in her pocket and you hold her hand immediately because it is shaking.
you both take a few deep breaths and walk toward where kat and adena had gone, and you’re really not surprised when you see kat pacing back and forth around the next street corner, holding her phone in a white knuckled grip, while adena just stands calmly, quiet.
she sees the two of you and launches into a hug and she’s crying and shaking and it makes you really fucking sad and really fucking angry that her life is going to have shit like this in it.
none of you says anything and you go back to her apartment and open a really good bottle of whiskey her parents had gotten her for her birthday and you and jane busy yourself making sandwiches for everyone while kat and adena talk quietly in the corner.
you glance over and kat brushes some of adena’s hair behind her ear and adena rubs her hand under kat’s eye, wiping some tears. kat takes a deep breath and kisses adena deeply and you and jane wait for, like, a full minute before loudly announcing that you’re done with the sandwiches and would definitely like to do a shot.
it gets a laugh out of kat and adena smiles in thanks at the two of you and you get drunk watching every single hayley kiyoko music video on youtube.
/
the next day you and jane get to work before kat and the little rainbow flag fits perfectly in her mason jar of styluses—weirdo, but you let her have it—on her desk.
you meet her in the lobby thirty minutes later and buy her coffee and you’d left late last night sufficiently drunk so you’re all hungover but you hug her tight and you and jane watch when she goes to her desk.
she smiles, soft and tender and big, and looks over to the two of you.
jane winks and you do finger guns and you hear kat laughing as you walk toward the fashion department.
//
5
you don’t realize that kat took you to a queer night at union pool until you’re there, but you honestly don’t mind at all because not one person has touched your ass or just assumed you wanted another drink.
kat and adena hang out with you long enough that you and kat finish two drinks and then kat’s eyes start drifting down to adena’s boobs and adena’s hand snakes around kat’s back and you laugh and tell them to go dance, that you’ll be fine.
and you definitely are totally fine, because someone super cute—reggie, you find out—comes up and sits next to you, buys you another drink after they’ve asked if you want one.
you’re verging on drunk but suddenly you remember some fucking soliloquy kat had gone on the other day after a queer panel jacqueline had had her speak on while you were all doing face masks before grey’s anatomy and so you ask, ‘hey, what are your pronouns?’
reggie smiles and says, ‘they/them,’ and you nod.
‘cool,’ you say. ‘she/her.’
distantly you think kat would be really proud but reggie smiles at you and asks if you want to dance and you try to find kat and adena for a second but you have no idea where they went off to, but you definitely do want to dance.
it’s fun and reggie is handsome and has braids that might be even better than kat’s—you’d never tell her because she wouldn’t talk to you for, like, a day probably—and tomboy by princess nokia comes on and it’s fun and you’re laughing and you’re sure your best friend is living her best fucking life because you have heard this song more times in the past two weeks from her spotify than you have in years.
reggie grins and it doesn’t feel odd at all to kiss them, because you’re dancing and it’s sexy and you’re having fun. you dance some more and go to the bar to get some water, eventually, and kat finds you there, her lipstick definitely more adena’s shade now than it was before they went off somewhere and adena is trying to fix her hijab.
they’re ridiculous and in love and kat grins at you while she closes your tab and you’re really fucking tired but you get reggie’s number before you head out with your friends.
‘who was that?’ adena asks, squished between the two of you in the back of a lyft but she’s resting her head on kat’s shoulder and they both look far too sated for having just danced.
‘reggie,’ you say. kat winks. ‘they’re cute.’
kat reaches across adena to give you a high five and then definitely performs a very clumsy and incredibly obvious boob graze on her girlfriend and they make eyes at each other and you clear your throat for posterity.
you don’t mind at all, though, really, not even a little bit.
//
1
shit with your mom has been fucked up and exhausting and dating is fun but kind of lonely, really, and it’s so nice outside but jane is knee deep in an article about neighborhood segregation and public school districts and you’re just.
a little achy.
kat texts you and asks if you want to go to prospect park for a picnic and you almost say no, because you fucking love adena but they’re so in love and so happy sometimes they just make your loneliness worse, even though that’s a shitty thing to think—they do.
but you say yes because you definitely need to not watch dark tourist all day and you get ready and are remarkably there on time even with delays on the Q.
you’re surprised when kat is waiting for you by herself, lounging on a bench near the market with sunglasses and an actual, honest to good book.
‘hey,’ you say, and she stands to give you a hug. ‘where’s your girlfriend.’
‘i don’t do everything with her,’ kat says. ‘but she’s at her office today. she got nominated for some big award and instead of wanting to celebrate she just went right back to work.’
‘ah, so that’s why you get along so well,’ you say, take off in the direction of your favorite bread stall. ‘workaholics.’
kat scoffs and pushes you but she doesn’t bother to argue.
‘so i’m second choice, then.’
you say it as a light joke and you don’t think that at all but you’re in A Mood and it comes out more serious than you intended.
‘what?’ kat says, grabs your arm and turns to face you, flicks her sunglasses up. ‘you’re never my second choice, sutton. i love you so fucking much.’
you sniffle and you hate that you’re going to cry all of a sudden and kat frowns and pulls you into a hug.
‘i’m sorry if i’ve ever made you feel otherwise.’
you shake your head into her shoulder and your, ‘you don’t, you haven’t,’ comes out a little muffled but you feel her nod so you know she heard.
‘okay.’
you sigh and back up and wipe under your eyes. kat still looks concerned so you shake your head. ‘just—stuff with babs, dating sucks, all of that.’
‘yeah.’ she heads toward the bread stall too, even though you hadn’t said anything.
‘do you want to talk about it?’ she picks out an olive oil and rosemary loaf and you really fucking love her.
‘not right now,’ you say.
she nods. ‘well, i brought champagne.’
‘incredible.’
you buy cheese and fruit and walk to a place near the lake, lay out the blanket kat had brought, one she’d gotten in peru, which makes you grin because you know she’d thought of you and jane and your picnics when she’d found it.
she talks about her latest project at work and you lowkey want to inform her that she’s an influencer now but she’s a little arrogant enough already honestly so you just let her have this one. you make little sandwiches and you make her put sunscreen on even when she whines about it because the UV index is 10 today and jane would kill you both if you got sunburned.
you lay down and talk about music and the actual paper copy of a book she was reading and how she might want a tattoo and you pet like six dogs and eventually you sit up and grin.
‘this is wild, but we’re already on the Q so do you want to go to coney island?’
she laughs and shrugs. ‘why the hell not?’
you gather your stuff and she leans against you on the train, sundrunk and exhausted, and you’re both sweaty and not at all glamorous and this is exactly what you needed.
she patiently stands in line with you at nathan’s and only moderately complains about all the tourists, and you’re both in denim shorts but she stands with you in the ocean eating her hot dog and laughs when you take a boomerang and you walk back to the train eventually, so tired and much, much lighter than you’d felt this morning.
you ride together and are quiet, and it’s easy and you’re both way more grown up now, but you’ve been best friends for five years and you think you’re really fucking lucky.
she gets ready to get off at canal, before you at 14th, and gives you a weirdly positioned hug—you’re still sitting and she’s stood up—and it makes you both laugh.
‘that was the best day,’ she says. ‘thanks.’
‘have fun celebrating tonight.’
‘are you kidding? i’m so tired i’m just going to watch dark tourist and go to sleep.’
you laugh. ‘love me some good problematic binge watching.’
kat grins. ‘always.’
the train comes to a stop and she waves. ‘love you, sutton.’
‘love you too, kat.’