(hi friends! it has been an absurdly long amount of time. a lot of shit going down for me right now and real life's got me in a chokehold but it's whatever. so. i'm calling this one the phone call chapter because we've got about 3 calls throughout the course of it. so. it's excruciatingly dialogue-heavy. hope that's alright.)
(also. this happens to be more on the plot-heavy side, but somehow manages to be filler at the same time. i don't know how i did it. i'm a marvel to the art of writing. but yeah, this shit was so fuckin hard to write bro, which is part of the reason why it took so long to get this up. anyway. enough about me. let's get to the good part.)
(hope y'all enjoy this unedited piece of trash! love you all tons! -mags)
✧✧✧
THE DAY BEFORE Jess left for San Fransisco to go meet with their asshole writer client Calloway, Marley received a call from Oliver McCrae.
She was walking home from class, bitterly questioning why she hadn't pulled a Courtney and dreamed of going to school in a warm climate and had instead decided on Philadelphia of all places. It was below freezing outside and Marley had cocooned herself into her jacket, attempting to find some sort of warmth as the wind practically assaulted her. She quickly found that this was most definitely a lost cause, but that didn't stop her from trying. Though, it only got harder once her phone starting ringing in her pocket.
She struggled to get her phone from where it was stored, but managed to grab it just before it stopped ringing. Marley didn't have time to look at the contact before she flipped it open and answered it. "Hello?"
"Hey, Marley," Oliver greeted. She recognized the calm voice immediately and a small smile came to her lips, knowing by the tone of his voice that he only had good news to give. "How are you?"
"Hey! I was gonna call you this week to follow up with you," she told him, stuffing her free hand in her pocket in hopes to warm it up a little. "But I'm good! How's everything with you?"
"Can't complain," he said. "Listen, I've got a super random question before we talk about what I actually called you for."
Marley paused. "Uh... okay? Shoot."
"How do you know Colin?"
The laugh that left Marley was completely involuntary and unexpected. A man she passed on the street stared at her strangely simply because of how loud it was. Out of everything Oliver could have asked, she hadn't been expecting that. She figured they'd talk about it at some point in time, but not now. She nearly groaned as she attempted to figure out the best way to explain how she knew his half-brother.
"Oh, my God," she muttered. "First of all, how the hell did you figure out that we knew each other?"
"We talked a couple of days ago about the position I told you about. He asked me if I liked anyone already and I dropped your name and he almost freaked out," he explained. "Said that you were a friend of a friend or something like that."
Another chuckle escaped her lips. "Yeah. Logan Huntzberger's a pretty good friend of mine."
"You know Huntzberger?" Marley wasn't expecting Oliver to sound as surprised as he was.
"Yeah," Marley replied. "Long story, but our fathers got into business with each other like a year ago. The two of us kind of just hit it off when we met."
"God, what a small world."
"You're telling me," she muttered. Small world situations ruled her goddamn life.
Oliver chuckled, obviously not fully grasping how loaded her statement was. She heard his laughter die down shortly as things seemed to come together in his head. "Wait," he said, "your dads started working together? So that means—"
"Yeah." She was quick to cut him off, wanting to say his name as few times as possible. She had no intention of being caught up in some sort of Beetlejuice situation. "Gabriel Acosta's my dad. Tragically."
He didn't even make an attempt to hide the shock in his voice. "Gabriel Acosta's your dad," he repeated. She thought she could hear him shaking his head against his phone. "I don't know how I never put that together. You've never mentioned that before."
"I try to talk about it as little as possible. He's not exactly Danny Tanner."
"Apparently so. And you interned for the rival."
"If he's not gonna be Danny, I'm not gonna be DJ."
Marley wasn't expecting Oliver to laugh, but she was pleasantly surprised when she heard him snicker on the other line. "I hear you on that one," he said, sighing softly. "It's funny how we always end up back with them despite all the shit we say." Marley's steps faltered at his words, mouth parting to say something in response to that, but coming up with nothing. She looked at her apartment building that she was approaching from across the street as she attempted to come up with something to say, a shaky breath leaving her lips as nothing came to her. She didn't have much time to think of a response, as Oliver continued talking and the 'walk' signal for the crosswalk she was at began flashing. "Anyway, on to the actual reason, I'm calling. The meat and potatoes of the conversation, if you will."
"I will not," Marley instantly replied, too in her head to filter herself right now.
Oliver snorted, making her feel less bad about her answer as she started to realize the probable seriousness of this situation. "Understandable," he said. "Whatever you wanna call it, here it is; would Thursday or Friday of this week work better for you for an interview?"
Marley broke out into a wide grin, cradling her phone between her ear and her shoulder as she freed up a hand to open the door to her apartment complex. "You're still offering me an interview after I was a bitch about your joke?"
"Yeah, well, I know you and what you can do. I also know you're a tough crowd. The only guy whose jokes you have to laugh at is your potential boss's."
"That I can do," she told him, giving a smile to one of her neighbors that was exiting the elevator. "I did it at Harperch for a year."
"You did."
"Passed that shit with flying colors, too."
"It's the only reason they kept you around," Oliver joked, laughing softly as Marley let out a loud, over-exaggerated gasp once the elevator doors closed. "Kidding."
"No, you're right," she said. "Joe from Accounting didn't rat on me for breaking the copier once because I used to laugh at his shitty balance sheet jokes."
The elevator dinged as Oliver's laughter turned into a sigh, doors revealing Marley's floor. "Alright, I'm getting tired of staring at this calendar. What day works better for you? Thursday or Friday?"
Marley thought for a moment. "What time would it be at?"
"Like, two o'clock? The guy that'll be interviewing you has some sort of meeting every day next week until one-thirty and then is free from major commitments until three-fifteen," he explained. "We can move things around depending on what day you can do it."
She hummed non-committally, letting Oliver know that she was trying to process her upcoming week. It got a bit harder to do as she fumbled to get her keys in the lock to open her door. "I'm thinking Thursday will end up working better for me. I'm done with classes for the day by twelve, so I could definitely make that work."
"Perfect." Marley silently cheered to herself as she got the door open, hearing Oliver write something down on the other line. "You'll be meeting with a guy named Patrick Selman. He's a super nice guy, so nothing to be worried about on that end. I've also already talked you up to him, so he definitely knows who you are."
There was a smile that twisted at her lips at his words, one that grew bigger as she walked into her apartment to see Jess sitting on the couch, staring intently at the laptop propped upon his knee. He glanced over at her, offering a soft smile in greeting as he saw that she was on the phone. "I'm hoping you didn't hype me up too much," she replied, taking off her shoes before dropping her bag on the floor and flopping dramatically into the couch beside Jess. "Don't wanna give this guy false hope."
"I hyped you up the amount I think you deserve."
"Oh, great. So this guy thinks I'm the second coming of Christ."
She bit back a grin as she heard Oliver laugh. It became harder to do as she maneuvered her body to lay back on the arm of the sofa and put her freezing cold feet in the small space behind Jess's back and the couch. The hiss that left him was accented by a glare that made her bite her lip to hold her snicker in. "I had described you as pretty humble, but—"
"Oh, no. I am humble. You're the one who hyped me up, Oliver."
Jess's eyes were on her immediately. Whatever he'd been invested in was completely sidelined as soon as that name left her mouth. She avoided eye contact purposely, finding it even harder now not to smile. "Anyway," he continued through a friendly sigh, "I'll email you the building address and the exact time of the interview when I talk to Patrick later today. If you need anything else just shoot me a text or call, alright?"
"Will do. Thanks again for this. I owe you one."
"You owe me nothing. This was all you, Marley. I just happen to know you."
That genuinely made her smile. Gone was any sort of teasing that had been directed at Jess. There was something earnest about his comment that just made everything about this situation seem more authentic. "Well then," she said softly. "Thank you for everything else."
"Of course. See you Thursday," he told her.
"See you then."
Marley ended the call with a grin, glancing over at Jess as he squeezed her ankle to get her attention. He looked at her expectantly. "What was that?"
She bit the inside of her cheek, lips twisting upward. "That was Oliver."
"Yeah, I figured that out." His tone sounded as though he was ready to roll his eyes, but he refrained from it. "What did he want?"
A bit of mischief crossed Marley's expression and Jess recognized it immediately. "Just to talk."
"About what?"
"His undying love for me."
This time, Jess did roll his eyes, a soft chuckle escaping his lips. "Yeah?"
"Yeah. He told me he hasn't stopped thinking about the night he met me. He also said he wasn't phased by my asshole roommate who tried to Anton Chigurh his way into our moment."
"Please."
Marley couldn't keep the smile off her face as she suppressed a laugh. "You were very brooding that night. All bitter and snarky. The testosterone was off the charts, man. I was getting Dean flashbacks when you were trying to do that weird establishing dominance thing that guys do to a dude who's seven inches taller than you."
"No way in hell he was seven inches taller than—"
"I felt like I was watching Animal Planet. If I wasn't so mad at you I would have made a joke about you guys beating your chests or ruffling your feathers or whatever animals do."
"I don't think it's possible for you to be more dramatic."
"Mr. Peacock, in the hallway, with the dick measuring stick."
Jess didn't seem to find Marley's joke as funny as she quite obviously did. He sighed in what sounded like amused disappointment, wiping a hand down his face. "Seriously," he said. "What did he call about?"
Marley's laughed subsided until there was a small grin on her lips. "I'm interviewing for the company he works for on Thursday."
Jess's eyes shot open. "Really?"
"Yeah," she replied, mentally hitting herself upside the head as it finally registered for her that she'd never actually told Jess about the job. "I just realized I never told you about this. I was a little distracted the day it happened. Whoops." Marley waved it off. "He called me the day before your party and told me that there's a spot opening up on his team and that he managed to set up an interview for me because it sounds like it's similar to what I was working with at Harperch. Minus the extensive time in the copy room. Hopefully."
When she looked up at him, she was almost taken back by the pride written across his face. Jess shut his laptop and shook his head in disbelief. "I... That's..." He trailed off with a smile. "...that's so great. That's incredible."
Marley pressed her lips together as if she were trying to hide her excitement. "You think so?"
"Are you kidding? It's February and you're already interviewing for a job. Do you know how many people that happens to?"
"I feel like it's more people than you'd think because—"
"Marley," he said firmly, the smile on his face telling her everything she needed to know. "This is huge. I mean it. I'm... proud of you."
She could feel her cheeks heat up at his words and she shrugged with the shake of her head. "I don't know. Oliver said I've got a pretty good shot at it, but I'm hoping he didn't try to build me up too much to his boss, or whatever. Disappointing potential employers is not on my agenda for the week."
"I don't understand how you could ever disappoint them."
Marley huffed a laugh through her nose. "Watch me."
Jess placed his laptop on the coffee table, turning to face her with a stern look. He sighed as if he couldn't understand her rationale. "Okay," he said, sounding a bit too much like Luke for her liking. "I'm leaving tomorrow, and even though I know you're gonna call me at 3 AM the night before, you're only gonna be able to get this pep talk in person from me once. So, here we go."
He leaned over and took her face in his hands, squeezing her cheeks together in a way that made Marley afraid she'd have a perpetual fish-face. "Jess!"
He paid very little mind to her barely coherent words. "For fuck's sake, Acosta, you need to get out of your head," he told her, looking her directly in the eye. "You are one of the smartest people I've met in my life, but the more time you spend up there, the stupider you become."
"Hey!" she whined.
"And it's only because the more you think, the more you end up questioning yourself. And I can't think of anything stupider."
Marley's words were mumbled as she glared at Jess through the current placement of his hands. "I certainly can."
"You need to stop psyching yourself out. You know that you're smart and likable. You know that you're qualified, and you know that the odds of you getting this job are pretty good. I know it too. Everyone knows it. And that guy that's interviewing you is going to know it as soon as you walk in." Marley's eyes softened and she deflated slightly, looking away from him. Jess knew he'd brought her back down to earth. With a ghost of a smile, he loosened his grip on her face but kept his hands there. "You got it?"
She scowled at him. "I guess."
"I need you to say it."
"Why?" she groaned.
"Because maybe I'll actually believe you."
Marley snorted, giving in with a long sigh as she leaned into one of the hands cupping her cheek. "Fine," she muttered. "I got it."
"Good," Jess said, his eyes flicking from hers to her lips. "Now, c'mere."
She couldn't stop herself from smiling as Jess pulled her into a soft kiss, muting any sort of worries she had for the moment. It was still hard for her to believe the two of them were doing things like this, and so casually too. It'd only been about a week since the night of Jess's party, but with the way that things were progressing, she could have sworn it'd been longer. Her mind kept going back to the thought she'd had that night, when she'd realized that everything had changed yet had still remained the same. Everything was the same. Except for the fact that they kissed a hell of a lot more now.
Lauren had said that it was because the two of them were practically dating for years before she realized she had feelings for him when Marley brought this up to her. She didn't let Marley disagree with her conclusion. It felt different because literally nothing had changed except for the physical things.
But they weren't dating, Marley had said, making Lauren roll her eyes. And that... wasn't a lie. She didn't think at least? It'd only been a week, but the two of them hadn't exactly given a label to whatever the hell this was. She knew it was absolutely not casual, but she wasn't sure what Jess was comfortable calling it. She supposed she didn't need a label, but with the way her mind worked, she was always thinking ahead. And that meant she was thinking about what would happen if she did get the job she was interviewing for, and she had to go to events and bring Jess, what would she introduce him as? Her friend? Her special friend? Roommate?
The more logical part of her mind knew that she was being completely psychotic this early in the game. She just had to enjoy it and not worry about that for now. She figured she'd have no issue doing that.
Jess was the one to pull away first, breathing a bit harder than he had before. He placed his forehead on hers. "Just so we're clear," he began, resting his hand on her thigh, "I wasn't... establishing dominance or whatever the hell you said."
Marley leaned forward and pecked his lips, humming against them. "Mmhmm. Sure you weren't."
"I wasn't," he said, pouting slightly as she pulled away.
"You sure? I can call Oliver back and ask him what he thought."
"Not a chance you're calling him back right now."
Marley bit her lip to suppress her smile. "Really, it's not an issue. I can ask him if he thinks he could take you too." She ignored the way that Jess's hand was slowly creeping up her thigh.
"He couldn't. Guy's never been in a fight in his life."
"And how would you know that?"
Jess shrugged, hand moving from her thigh to the place where her jaw met her neck. Marley faltered at the action, blinking twice as if to readjust. "I could just tell. Too nice looking."
A smirk twisted at her lips. "He is nice looking," she said lightly.
Jess, who looked as though he was getting ready to kiss her, pulled back as soon as the words left her mouth. The blank expression he wore nearly made her cackle. "That is not at all what I just said."
"I'm pretty sure it is," she replied with a teasing smile. "He's a nice-looking guy. It makes him even hotter than he can pull off the whole beard thing. And he's tall. Sweet too. And he was super into me—"
Marley interrupted herself with a yelp as Jess flipped her to lie horizontally on the couch, unable to keep from laughing as he moved to hover above her. "Go ahead," he said to her, cracking a smile as he watched her laugh. "Keep talking."
"I'm just saying," she giggled. "I'd be intimidated by him too."
"Please," he said for the second time today, way more sure of himself than she'd been expecting.
Marley raised her brows. "Oh, what? You're not?"
"No."
"And why's that?"
"Because," he said simply, pressing a searing kiss to her jaw. His breath was hot against her skin as he said, "One of us has got you on your back right now and the other's making copies for his boss."
Marley didn't have any time to react to that, because his lips were suddenly on hers and her mind was running a million miles an hour in the best way possible. She found that every kiss seemed to rival each one before it, and Marley was thankful that she was lying down for this one. She wasn't sure she could have handled it.
As if to regain very little of whatever composure she had left, she moved back from him, taking a moment to look at him and adjust before her eyes narrowed. "Wow. Peacock with the dick measuring stick's got a double homicide under his belt now."
Jess rolled his eyes. "You always got a comment for everything, huh?" he muttered, sucking at the skin just below her jaw.
"Y-You'll miss it when you leave," she stammered.
"It'll follow me to San Fransisco."
Marley had enough dignity to scowl at him. "You make me sound like that girl from The Ring."
"Oh, my God, shut up," he said good-heartedly, pressing his lips to hers once more and effectively making her do exactly that.
✧
THE WEEK FOLLOWING Jess's departure flew by.
Lauren had taken it upon herself to move into Marley's apartment for the week, wanting nothing less than to live in an empty Truncheon while the boys were in San Fransisco. The building creaked worse than Marley's car on the highway and always made Lauren feel like someone was walking around when she was sleeping. There was no way in hell she was risking that feeling alone for a week.
Marley didn't mind at all. She herself had gotten used to always having someone else in the apartment, and if she were being honest, she missed Jess' presence more than she'd like to admit. She liked to think of herself as independent and didn't love the idea of feeling a bit lonelier with him gone. But Lauren being here was helping that stupid nagging feeling she had.
Despite this, she managed to not pay much attention to it. Her interview pretty much occupied every space in her mind and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't get rid of that bit of anxiety about it. Lauren had given her a similar pep talk that Jess had, one that came with a smack upside the head instead of a kiss. Lauren's also had a comment about her being a stupid fucking moron for worrying about it as much as she was, agreed upon by Jess who happened to be on the line when that lovely name was dropped.
And a stupid fucking moron she had been. Because as soon as Thursday rolled around and Marley saw Oliver waiting for her when she walked through the doors of the giant building she'd been directed to, she felt an innate sense of calm wash over her. One that only got better as someone in the elevator complimented her skirt as Oliver talked her through the layout of the building and talked up his boss a bit more.
The interview went better than Marley could have imagined. Her potential boss, Patrick, was as nice as Oliver had said, and he and Marley ended up clicking right off the bat. It had ended up being nearly an hour, something of which she knew only could have been a good sign. With a smile and a wonderfully optimistic, "you'll be hearing from us soon," Marley was sent back into the world with a massive weight off her shoulders. She would have skipped home if she didn't fear the looks she'd get from people.
Skipping was... well, skipped in lieu of Marley and Lauren getting drinks to celebrate. They'd gone to their favorite bar where Bartender Ben gave her a drink on the house to congratulate her on her first job interview. The entire evening went downhill from there.
The two of them had wound up running into a couple of girls they'd lived on the same floor as Freshman year and ended up barhopping with them for the night. In hindsight, it probably wasn't the best idea for them to be drinking like this on Thursday where it was 'quarter shot night' at the Irish-themed pub down the street, but they figured that they'd be fine because neither of them had classes on Fridays. They were wrong.
Instead of feeling fine like Marley had been hoping and anticipating, she was currently experiencing the worst hangover of her life. She'd been throwing up since 3 AM and had spent the night on the floor in her bedroom. Around 7 she'd finally been able to stable herself enough to regain some dignity and move to her bed. She sulked past Lauren who'd passed out on the couch and called it a win when she managed to drape a blanket around her and didn't end up yacking at the sudden movements.
She was woken up at approximately 11 o'clock to her phone ringing on her bed table beside her. She grimaced at the sunlight peeking through her blinds and let out an audible groan as she reached blindly for her phone, thoroughly unamused when he eyes finally refocused to see who was calling her. There was a long period where she considered not answering.
Tragically, Marley was a good person. And she knew they'd just end up calling back later in the day and she didn't know if she could handle that even then. Her mouth was dry when she answered, "What?"
Logan's voice was annoyingly loud and outrageously light. Or maybe it was normal. She didn't know. All she knew was that it made her wince. "Hello to you too."
"What do you want from me?" she grumbled.
"What happened to you?" he asked, sounding intrigued by her current state. "You sound like you're about to start writing your will."
"I am. You won't be included."
"Fine by me. You don't have much I'd want anyway."
Marley seriously began to consider the logistics of sending a bomb to London. "I'm hanging up now."
"Oh, c'mon," he chuckled. "I've actually got a question for you."
A heavy sigh escaped her as she shoved a pillow over her face to block the light in the room. "Make it quick," she said, voice muffled.
"You gotta tell me what happened first," Logan pushed, to which he earned an annoyed groan. "I've never heard you like this. You always sound like you want me dead, but you're usually a bit more Kenneth Parcell about it."
Begrudgingly, Marley readjusted the phone on her ear. "You said it. I'm dying," she muttered. "I've been throwing up my left lung for the last nine hours."
She could hear the smirk in Logan's voice when he said, "Don't tell me you're pregnant, Penn."
Shipping and handling for a bomb couldn't be more than twenty bucks, right? Marley made a mental note to look that up later as she rolled her eyes. "Oh, yeah," she replied. "Totally am. It's a boy."
"Well, congrats. You decided on any names yet?"
"I've actually been thinking that I'll name him after you. Call him Fuckweasel."
"I've never had someone name a kid after me."
"You sure about that one, Wilt Chamberlain?"
Logan finally laughed at that, and Marley heard him shake his head against the phone. "So, I'm assuming you're either hungover or you've got the flu or something. I hope you didn't pass it on to anyone at your interview yesterday."
Marley froze in confusion. "How did you know about the interview?"
"Oliver called Colin after you set it up on Monday. Word travels fast in the McCrae industry."
"And it got to you that quickly?" Marley asked. "God, you guys gossip like thirteen-year-old girls."
"I'm in the newspaper business. I tend to stay in the loop. So are you hungover or sick?"
"Hungover. Now, ask me what you wanted to ask me so I can finally die in peace," she replied.
"Fine, fine," he said, sighing softly. "What are you doing the third weekend in April?"
Marley scrunched her brows from beneath the pillow, head aching as she attempted to think. "You know that it's the middle of February, right?"
"I do."
"And you woke me up to ask what my plans are for the middle of April."
"I did."
"Okay," Marley said. She finally took the pillow off her face and sat up groggily, squinting at the light in her room as she angled the pillows behind her to support her sitting up. "Just making sure we're on the same ridiculous page."
"I'm coming to Philly for a meeting and wanted to make sure that you were around," he explained, finally giving some context for his question. "I thought we could get dinner or something one of the days. I'm coming down with one of my coworkers and I'd love to introduce you to her. I think you'd really like her."
Marley would have perked up if it didn't feel like her entire body was being weighed down. "Which one? I've basically stalked your entire company on LinkedIn."
"That's not creepy at all."
"Whatever. Your profile needs some work by the way. You need to cut down some of your descriptions. Nobody needs three paragraphs of you bullshitting the work you did at the Yale Daily News."
"I didn't bull— Hold on a second, you're seriously gonna talk to me about cutting down? You. You and your five commas per sentence?"
"I'm still not understanding how I'm the hypocrite here. I usually am. But I think you started this one when you called me out last time, bitch."
Logan paused for a moment, then sighed, knowing that the current conversation was a battle he had no way of winning. "Juno Bishop," he finally said. "That's who's flying over with me."
The name immediately rang a bell for Marley. "I've definitely seen her page. She went to Cambridge, right?"
"Yeah. She reminds me a little of you. Mostly just the wanting me dead most of the time part, but I'm sure you'll get along."
"I'm confident I can bond with anyone by shit-talking you."
"I don't doubt it," he said. She could tell that he was smiling. "So. Do you think you can make it?"
Marley sighed. "Well, I'm ninety-five percent sure that I've got some sort of family reunion that weekend, but I'll have to ask my mom again. If it's any time before then I can probably make it work. Just let me know."
"How about that Friday?" Before Marley could answer, Logan added, "Or are you gonna hungover then too?"
"I'm going to strangle you."
"So, that Friday?"
Marley nodded. "Yeah. I'll choke you out that Friday. Sounds good to me."
"Perfect," he said. Marley heard a bit of commotion in the background, followed by a muted promise from Logan telling whoever it was that he'd be there in a second. "Listen, I've gotta run. But I'll talk to you soon, okay? Drink some pickle juice. Sunday Brunch it up."
"I'd literally rather die."
"Fine. Your call. But don't die before April. I'd like to see you," he told her. The tiniest bit of a smile twisted at Marley's lips. "And don't stalk Juno's page any more than you already have. She doesn't need the ego boost."
"I'll do whatever I want. Bye."
Logan chuckled. "Bye, Penn."
And with that, Marley slapped her phone shut and closed her eyes once more, leaning further into the pillows behind her. She heard her stomach grumble and she groaned, wanting nothing less than to throw up again. She soon found herself in a pathetic excuse for a fetal position as her stomach screamed obscenities at her.
Despite all of this, there was one question that parked itself in the front of her mind that she honestly had no answer for; why had Logan called her now about meeting up in April? There had to be some reason for him to pick up the phone now, right?
Whatever it was, Marley really didn't give a shit. All she wanted to do was go back to bed.
So she did. And it was, in fact, the best three hours of her life, until Lauren woke her up and physically carried Marley out of the apartment to go get bagels with her.
(They were great bagels. But Marley had no intention of ever telling her that.)
✧
THE FOLLOWING NIGHT ended in a way that could only be described as sweetly chaotic.
Marley and Lauren had made the predictable decision to stay in for the night and had taken to sitting on the couch and watching movies while eating copious amounts of takeout they'd ordered from the Mexican restaurant two blocks away. They were currently on the second movie in their Lord of the Rings Marathon, as Lauren had never seen them, something of which Marley genuinely considered a crime against humanity. Lauren didn't exactly see the issue the way that she did.
At the end of the day, it proved to be a fruitless endeavor. Lauren ended up falling asleep almost immediately after The Two Towers began, and now Marley was watching Gollum attack Frodo and Sam alone. She debated on kicking Lauren awake but ultimately decided against it. She figured that the girl needed her sleep.
In all actuality, Marley found herself falling asleep about a half an hour later. The only reason she didn't end up knocking out like her friend was that her phone started ringing for what felt like the fiftieth time today. This was an exaggeration, as she'd truthfully only heard from Logan today, but the call took a lot out of her. No, she was not being dramatic.
Marley struggled to reach her phone from her position on the couch, but eventually made it to the coffee table before Lauren could wake up. Her eyes opened a bit wider as she saw that Jess was calling. They'd had their big meeting today. Her stomach churned at the idea of this being a negative phone call.
Sending a quick prayer out into the universe, Marley opened her phone. "Hey," she said, glancing over at Lauren to make sure she wasn't being too loud. "I was wondering when you'd call."
It was loud on Jess's end. It sounded like he was in a bar or some sort of place with a ton of people. "Hey," he said, barely audible over the noise. "Give me one sec, I'm trying to get out of this--"
It sounded like Jess had moved away from the phone, leaving Marley to only hear the muffled noise slowly get quieter and he walked out of wherever he was. "Please be good news," she muttered, sinking into the corner of the couch.
It took a moment for her to hear Jess again. "Hey. Sorry about that. It's loud in there."
"Where are you?" Marley asked with a quiet chuckle.
"Some bar that Calloway took us to." There was an unintelligible voice that suddenly yelled at Jess in the background. "Sorry. Sorry. A speakeasy. My fault. Apparently they're not interchangeable. It's not like they're the same fuckin' thing," he muttered that last part, obviously not wanting to be reprimanded again.
Marley grinned. "How bad is it?"
"I think Matthew's found his Cedar Bar Redux model." Jess let himself smile as he heard Marley snort. "Everyone here looks like the vegan lovechild of Luke and Dave Grohl. They've proudly got over fifty IPAs on tap. Because apparently, that's a draw."
"Oh, God. Matthew must be having a field day."
"He's already blueprinting plans for Truncheon."
Marley let herself laugh before she asked the fateful question. "So, how'd it go?"
Jess sighed in a way that she wasn't sure how to read. "Well," he began. "Calloway's planning on signing with another publisher once his contract's up."
Marley shut her eyes. "Oh, Jess—"
"We knew that coming out here," he continued. "He talked to some indie book website about the possibility. He's got a friend at one of the big five who really likes his stuff and has been trying to get him in for a while. I don't blame him. The guy wants to go big. Truncheon isn't exactly that."
"I'm sorry. That's sucks. That's so annoying that he brought you guys out there to cut you loose. And he dragged you along for the week? That's—" Marley stopped herself, brain finally catching up. "Wait. Didn't you just say you're at a bar with him?"
"A speakeasy," he corrected.
"Mariano, I'm serious."
"I'm serious too. I'm gonna get jumped by a whole bunch of Neutral Milk Hotel groupies if I don't call it a speakeasy."
"Jess."
Jess laughed softly, exhaling through his nose after a moment. "The article he did just, like, took off on this website. And because he mentioned Truncheon, our name kinda got out there. We ended up meeting a whole bunch of writers who had heard of us through Calloway. One of them was a guy he went to college with, the other three were just people he happened to know in different circles," he explained. "As it turns out, there are a lot of people that want to try to sign with us."
Marley's lips parted, stunned by the sudden development. "What?"
"I know. It's been so weird. Usually, we get one or two inquiries a day or we get some emails for random Zine pitches or whatever, but these past two weeks have been crazy for us. Aaron called Chris today and said he got almost forty inquiries. Today."
"Oh, my God." Marley couldn't keep the smile off her face. "That's... incredible. That's huge."
"And some of these people have agents, too. Like actual agents. They're not just random guys like me who pull up with a manuscript and beg for us to publish it." She could hear the grin in his voice and it warmed her heart. "We knew that Calloway was gonna be big for us, but... I don't know. I never expected this."
Marley bit the inside of her lip, eyes flashing to Bowie as he made his way toward the couch. "I hate to think that you owe any sort of thanks to that hipster douche."
"Yeah," he drew out briefly. "He's not too bad once he gets down from the high horse. Matthew actually really likes him."
"Hey, Matthew's got a thing for douchebags. He was the one who picked you, right?"
"Cute."
Marley hummed in agreement, pushing down the strange giddy feeling that rose in her stomach. She bit back a smile, patting the sofa cushion as if to invite Bowie up as he stared at her. He accepted the invitation immediately and promptly curled up in her lap. "So, you'd call the trip a success?" she asked.
"I think you could call it that," Jess said. "Not upset to be leaving, though."
"Really? Not a San Fran Fan?" Marley snorted at her own joke. "Say that three times fast."
Jess ignored her with a sigh that sounded a bit like a laugh. "The city's pretty cool. Just not my scene. Not a lot for me over here, y'know?"
"Yeah, I get it. Even Courtney, who you know is like, Miss Malibu, is thinking about moving back after she graduates."
"Really?"
"Really. Freshman year she was sure she was never coming back. But now, I don't know. She says she misses home." Marley perked up as she thought of something absolutely magical. "Imagine she moves to Philly too."
"I'd leave," he said without missing a beat. Marley slapped her hand over her mouth to stop herself from laughing. "I mean it. I'd drop everything and leave."
"Well, I'd stay."
Jess was quick with this response too. "We can find a way to make long-distance work."
Marley shook her head. "Long-distance never works. How sad is it you'd rather leave me than try to be friends with Courtney?"
"Not sad enough to make me stay."
"Asshole."
Marley's insult had absolutely no fire behind it and it made Jess grin. "How are you feeling, by the way?" he asked. "I got distracted and didn't get to read your text."
Bowie shifted in Marley's lap as she shrugged. "I'm better. We got takeout from Pedro's and our stupid cat got into the enchiladas. Lauren's currently passed out on the couch in the middle of Two Towers."
"Glad you found someone else to torture with those movies."
Marley gasped. "You take that back."
"Or what?"
"... I don't know. But you better take it back."
In the middle of her sentence, she heard someone call Jess's name. The voice wasn't familiar to her at all, but she figured it'd be hard to actually identify someone by their voice this way. "Yeah?" Jess asked whoever was calling to him. There was a subdued, excited-sounding shout, but Marley couldn't make out what was being said. "Okay. Yeah. I'll be right there, give me a minute."
The voice was much louder now, and Marley could hear every word. "Who're you talking to that's so much more important than us, man?"
She heard Jess sigh, walking the fine line between humored and annoyed. "I'm talking to my girlfriend. We can leave in a sec. Just go back inside, Cal," he said.
Marley completely froze up, blocking out almost everything else in the world and instead deciding to focus on the name that he'd just called her. Her cheeks were burning up and she tried her damnest to keep the stupid smile off her face but found that she absolutely couldn't.
Girlfriend. Interesting.
It was thrown out so casually, too. It wasn't clunky. He didn't stutter or think about what to call her. It was like he'd said it before. Had he said it before? Had he called her that to other people lately? Had he been talking about her on his trip?
Jess's voice brought her back to reality. "Hey, I've gotta go. I—"
"Girlfriend?" she blurted, too shocked to care that she'd interrupted him.
The line was silent for a long beat. It was like Jess had realized his mistake and was unsure of how to recover from it. She could picture him with his face in his hand right now. "You heard that?" he asked. He sounded mortified.
Marley bit her lip. "You weren't exactly quiet about it," she teased.
Jess sighed yet again, though this one had a hell of a lot more weight behind it. "I... I don't— Fuck, I was gonna—"
For once in her life, she decided to let him down easy. She wouldn't tease him about this in the way that she probably would have. She interrupted him with a couple of questions. "So, we're not doing pet names, right? Because as much as I'd like to call you Pooh Bear to all my friends, I'm not sure you'd be into that."
Jess paused. "What?"
"I mean, if you're going to be my boyfriend, I gotta know the ground rules. You don't seem like a cutesy-name kind of guy. Unless you're holding out on me," she said.
The sigh of relief that left his lips was nothing like she'd ever heard. He didn't say anything for a brief second. Then, "No. I'm not."
"Phew. Thank God."
"I'll stick with Acosta, if that's alright with you."
"That's good with me, sugarlips."
Jess groaned softly. "That's the worst thing you've ever said."
"Doubt it."
There was a brief period of silence between them, simply because Marley felt a question coming on. She wasn't sure if Jess knew how to ask it. Eventually, he found the words. "But that's alright?" When Marley hummed in question, he continued. "Calling you that?"
She'd showed mercy a minute ago. She'd done her charity word for the day. "Calling me what?"
"Don't be a shit. I have to go."
Dramatically, Marley gave in with a sigh. "Fine," she drew out. "Yes, I suppose it's okay for you to call me your girlfriend. I'll allow it."
"Good," he said, a small smile coming across his face. "I'll call you this weekend. Drink some water. Get some sleep."
"Oh, wow, thanks, Mom. Will do."
"Talk to you later. Love you."
"Love you too, Schmoopsy."
"Oh, good God—" Marley quickly shut her phone, trying to subside her laughter as she caught the beginning of his response.
There wasn't much she could do to fight off the grin she was currently wearing. She honestly didn't know if she wanted to. She was happy. Happy people smiled. She was here for that.
Bowie was softly snoring in her lap and she stroked his head, turning back to the TV playing a movie she no longer had any interest in. Her cat purred into her hand as he slept, peaceful and unaware of everything going on.
Lauren's groggy voice made Marley jump. "That was cute, Pooh Bear."
"Jesus Christ," she hissed. "I thought you were asleep."
"I was. Still kind of am. You've never been good at being quiet."
Marley glared at her. "Well, go back to bed."
"I will," Lauren yawned, turning to face the back of the couch. "Congrats on being a girlfriend, Pookie."
Marley's eyes narrowed impossibly further at her friend on the opposite side of the couch, but found it harder to maintain it as the name 'girlfriend' sunk in for her. She was a girlfriend. Officially. Oh boy.
She'd been a girlfriend before, but it hadn't felt like this. She supposed that the same sort of giddy feeling happened for her with Ryan (fucking) Moreau when he'd first asked her to be his, but that was her first boyfriend when she was fifteen. And that hadn't lasted. That feeling was over within the first couple of days. The feeling with Jess had lasted since their first kiss. And it happened to get stronger as the days went on.
Before she could put her phone back on the table, Marley got one more alert for the night. It was from a contactless number, but it looked vaguely familiar. She squinted at the small screen and flipped her phone open, revealing a text she genuinely hadn't expected to see again.
Hey, Marley! It's Andy (car guy). Carla and I were wondering if you and your friend wanted to come over for dinner sometime? Call me tomorrow. -Andy
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author's note: phone call chapter in the bag! evEN MORE is gonna happen next chapter. strap in. it's gonna be... a lot. i'm very excited for it. y'all should be too.
also. if u see this.... i'm planting the seeds for a new character. not necessarily just for this fic but.... get excited for juno friends. you don't know her yet but......... she's coming(:
thank you thank you thank you thank you so much for all the recent love on this story. i know it's been a while but the fact i've got some of you rereading and shit legit warms my heart. alSO I LITERALLY GOT A TIK TOK ABOUT THIS FUCKIN FIC ON MY OWN ACTUAL FOR YOU PAGE??? HUHHHH???? I DIDN'T COMMENT ON IT BC IM NOT TRYING TO EXPOSE MY PERSONAL SHIT OR ANYTHING BUT HOOOOOOLLLLYYYY FUCK THATS SO INSANE I LOVE Y'ALL
anyway you guys are the best i hope u enjoyed. love u all tons.
-mags