The Last Fuck-Up
Summary: when things get crazy at The Bear, Carmy completely forgets about dinner with your parents (with doesn’t help the fact that they aren’t his biggest fans)
Warnings: angst, language, established longterm relationship, communication, fluff at the end
WC: 2k
a/n: I was eager to post this, I hope you enjoy!
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“See you later princess,” Carmy leaned over to kiss your cheek before heading out for work, you were cocooned in the soft comforter of your shared bed.
“Remember my parents are flying in tonight.” Though you weren’t fully awake, you had enough in you to remind him of tonight’s dinner plans. It’s practically become muscle memory to bring it up whenever you talk to him.
He sighed, “I can't wait for this dinner to be over so you can stop reminding me about it.”
You chuckled, knowing your constant reminders were annoying the crap out of him, “well remember when you forgot about our last date night?”
“Hon, I told you that we had the craziest rush that day. Besides, didn’t I make it up to you?”
“Yeah yeah,” you wave him off as you drift back to sleep.
Eventually, it was time for you to head to work as well. As the day went on you thought of texting Carmy about you plans but ultimately deciding against it. It’s dinner with your parents you figured, it shouldn’t be that hard to remember.
You carried on with your day, leaving early to stop home and change. Did I see Carmy with his change of clothes? You wondered. He was supposed to be changing at the Bear before dinner.
You sighed to yourself he’s a grown man, he can remember a dinner reservation. You finished getting ready and ubered to the restaurant.
It didn’t take long for your parents to get there and be seated. While you were naturally happy to see them, the empty chair created a looming awkwardness. It seemed your parents also picked up on the vibe from the lack of Carmen’s presence.
“Did you finally dump that Carter guy?” Your father broke the silence.
“Carmen and I are still together dad,” you rolled your eyes at his eagerness, “he’s coming from the restaurant so there’s probably traffic.”
Was that true? You hoped so. You partially worried for his well being. Was there an emergency that you’ve yet to be told about? The rational part of you reached a different conclusion, one you’ve been fearing since these plans were made:
He forgot
That couldn’t be possible right? You literally talked about this dinner every day, multiple times a day. How could he forget?
You pushed aside your thoughts and endured dinner. You could barely appreciate having both of your parents in front of you because you were so caught up on blowing up Carmen’s phone.
Eventually, Carmy pulled up to the valet in front of the restaurant. As he was about to hand over his keys he noticed you and your parents on the sidewalk. He completely missed it. He parked the car in it’s place and ran towards you ignoring the valet people as they yelled behind him.
“Y/n,” he approached the group composed of yourself, your mother and your father.
“Dinner’s over if you haven’t noticed.” Your father scowled at your boyfriend, picking up on the fact that Carmen made some mistake.
“I see that. I apologize,” he directed his attention towards him and your mother, “things got insane at the restaurant and I lost track of time. It isn’t an excuse but I promise that I wouldn’t have missed this on purpose.”
“It looks like the Uber’s here,” your mom spoke up, “do you need a ride?” She turned to you, hinting at you not staying with Carmen tonight.
“I can drive you home,” Carmy offered.
“Yeah drive her home, it’s the least you could do,” Your father snapped.
“You’re right,” Carmy couldn’t even argue, “y/n, can I please drive you home,” he longed to get you alone so he could properly grovel minus the judgement from your parents.
“Sure,” you forced yourself to give a reassuring smile to your parents and hugged them goodbye.
Once the two of you got in the car, Carmy could barely keep his eyes on the road as he tried to earnestly apologize.
“Fuck y/n,” he rubbed his face, “I really was prepared to leave on time. I did not want to fuck this up. Jesus, they probably hate me even more now. I swear I’ll make it up to them and you.”
You crossed your arms and stuck your head towards your window. Was it petty? Sure. Part of you didn’t even want to give him the silent treatment but you needed to so you wouldn’t cry.
The elevator ride to the apartment was painful. You kept your eyes glued to doors ahead of you. It was hard to keep your head straight while his piecing stare was on you.
When you made it up upstairs you made a b line to the shower.
“I’m so fucking sorry.” He pressed his face against the bathroom door, muffling his apology.
There was no response.
All he could was hear the faint sound of you crying over the water. That completely destroyed him.
Carmen stood against the door and waited while you showered. He only moved when he felt you opening the door.
You slipped out silently and continued your bedtime routine.
Carmy only followed behind you pleading, “bring your parents to the restaurant tomorrow, I’ll close it early and do a special dinner just for them.”
“They might have plans tomorrow, the special dinner was supposed to be tonight.” You pulled the cover back on your side of the bed and sat crisscrossed.
Even though you shot his attempt at redemption down, Carmen was eager to keep you speaking, “Please talk to me, say something.” He sat upright against the headboard.
“If I speak right now I’ll say something I’ll regret,” you we’re being truthful. Right now you’re filled with so much hurt and rage you know that if you start talking you’ll go too far.
“Chew me out!” he exclaimed, practically yelling,“please, I just need to hear your voice. I want you to tell me how bad a fucked up, you deserve to go off.”
You could definitely agree with that,“It’s just that you would get so annoyed with me for nagging you about tonight just for you to,” you choked, “for you to forget... again. You think I want to remind you of every single plan we make?”
“No,” Carmy wanted to kick himself for giving you attitude about your reminders.
“No, but I have to or else you won’t show up. Well,” you scoffed, reminding yourself that after all you efforts, he still forgot, “I don’t even know what I have to do at this point.”
“You don’t have to do anything.” He went to place a comforting hand on your thigh but decided again it.
“I don’t?” You alluded to the fact that this isn’t the first time he’s forgot about something.
“You shouldn’t have to,” he corrected himself.
“I shouldn’t but I do.”
“And I promise that you’ll never have to remind me about anything again.”
“I’ll never have to again? How many times are you going to tell me that Carm? We talk about getting married and starting a family, but how’s that ever going to work?” You sighed, “Will you be late to our rehearsal dinner? Will you be able to make all of my doctor’s appointments? You gonna tell our kid you missed their game because there was a crazy lunch rush?” You felt your face heat up and realized the sudden warmth was coming from tears streaming down your eyes.
Everything about this hit him
He longed to have a future with you. The thought of you being scared of the Bear messed that up killed him. Especially because that was an anxiety he shared as well.
He couldn’t help himself from pulling you into his chest and you couldn’t help but melt into it. He kissed your head, grateful to have you in his arms.
You were rambling at this point but you just had so much built up inside you. Carmen listened, silently nodding as he absorbed everything you were saying.
“I know that it was probably super busy and crazy today but for my parents,” your voice cracked, “I just thought that this would be important to you.”
“It was,” he assured. He wasn’t lying, he really wanted to mend his relationship with them, especially before asking for their blessing but he couldn’t tell you that right now.
“Everything you’re saying is completely right. You know what? I’m my own boss now, I’ll take off whenever we have something just to ensure I don’t fuck up again.”
“You don’t have to do that,” you shook your head, “I would never ask you to put me before the Bear but it just makes me feel really shitty that I’m competing with a fucking restaurant for my boyfriends attention. It really makes me feel unwanted.”
There it was
You finally let out what’s been eating away at you for the entirety of your relationship
“What?” Carmy felt as if his heart was about to stop.
“What?” You got so caught up spilling everything that’s been sitting, you were barely paying attention to the words coming out of your mouth.
“Y/n, do you really think that The Bear is more important to me.” He looked down at you.
Your silence was enough of an answer for him.
His mouth dropped in shock, “That- that’s,” he shut his eyes trying to wrap his head around your logic. That was crazy, ludicrous. How could you not see how much he cared about you? He shook his head, “I mean- you really think that?”
“It’s hard not to,” your voice was barely above a whisper, “if I’m so important, how am I so forgetful?”
“Y/n you could never be forgetful. I think about you all day. The thought of coming home to you gets me through each day. I can’t lose you,” he was crying now.
“Lose me?” You’ve never heard him speak like this before.
“It’s just that,” he sighed and pulled you in tighter, “I’m a fuck up and it looks like I’m about- it looks like I did fuck up the one good thing in my life”
“Don’t say that.”
“No it’s true y/n. I’m a piece of shit that can’t even leave work for the person I love most. I didn’t even know I was hurting you this much,” he slumped his shoulders.
“But you do know now and by the looks of it, you’re going to do your best to avoid this happening again.”
“God I will,” he agreed.
“Baby I was hurt and we talked through it. It’s okay,” you reached a hand up and wiped away his tears.
“It won’t be okay until I make it up to you.”
“True, you owe me a lot of makeup sex,” you smiled. For the first time all night, the two of you laughed.
“So can we go to bed now?” You asked, “I’m fucking exhausted.”
“Yes please,” Carmy could definitely use some sleep right now. Not only was he tired from your emotional conversation, he had a stress full work day as well.
You shut the lights off and the two of you laid down with you in his chest just as before.
“You’d really close early tomorrow? For my parents?” You recalled his earlier pleading.
“Of course. For you? I’d do anything, even take shit from Richie,” he winced.
“So how bad was today?”
“Really?” Carmy was surprised you even wanted to hear whisperings of that damn restaurant.
“Yeah, tell me what happened. I wanna hear about your day.”
“It was a fucking disaster y/n,” he sighed, recounting the shit he had to put up with, thankful to have you to vent to, “I love you.”
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a/n: ignore carmy’s non showering lol, it bothers me sm but I couldn’t think of a way to fit that in