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caleb & teddy

—

THE DINNER HAD went well. Of course, the anecdote about my heritage and adoption was a little bit more of an extra touch than I had asked for, but I gladly was able to smooth it into something else that was more comfortable with me to talk about. Besides, Caleb was a lot more excited to talk about his workouts — a topic sure to make my mouth water — at the local gym. Maybe he didn't know how he was doing it or that he was doing it at all, but something about the way he was talking to me about it with such enthusiasm made it so easy to fall into.

Because in that moment, I think he's more than just a crush. I didn't know how much more, but it was there, the feeling that he gave me being unable to classify correctly.

When dinner had ended — or in other words, when Kevin snatched the last quesadilla before anyone else could — Laney said she had date night planned for tonight, so they left out to go to a movie. I, of course, knew that the date night she planned was meant for Caleb and I and that this was just another scheme on her part, but I didn't fight it. Not when things were going so well right now. Maybe sometimes you needed to just go with the flow.

And the flow had led to us sitting out on the balcony, continuing our conversation with the whistling of the cool, summer's night air and the sound of vehicle wheels rolling on the asphalt below.

"So you're there day in and day out," I asked, twirling a lock of hair around my finger as I watched him sit in the chair opposite to me. "That sure seems like a lot of time for someone with so little to work on. You look amazing, Caleb."

He blushed, directing his gaze out over the balcony. "Thanks, Marilyn, but there are some people out there who don't really seem to think so. A special someone in particular."

My heart fell into my chest, dropping like an anchor to the ocean floor. Of course, he was pining over someone else, it was just my luck. The guy was too damn beautiful to not be emotionally available, it just didn't work like that in the real world.

"My personal trainer is a piece of work," he added as an afterthought. "It's like nothing I do makes him think that I've reached my goals."

Okay, I was back in the game again. I felt my heart swell with joy from hearing that it was a trainer and not a lover he was trying to impress.

"Have you ever considered switching your trainer for a new one," I asked. "You don't want to over-exert yourself, or become one of those body builder types with the scary muscles and the horrid spray tans."

For some reason, at that, Caleb burst into laughter, doubling over at what I said although I only considered it to be on a light-chuckle level of funny. He was gripping the handles of his chair to keep himself from falling over and I didn't know if he really thought I was a comedian or if he was just laughing so hard in order to flirt with me and make me think I was hilarious. Either way, I didn't know what to do about his reaction besides fold my hands in my lap and watch him.

It begged the question: how well did I know Caleb? I wanted to sit there and think about it, but I felt my phone buzz in my pocket. When I withdrew it, I was met with quite a surprise in fact. It wasn't from Teddy or Theo, but my art professor from college. One thing I knew from my eighteen years in the American schooling system was that if a teacher was trying to get in touch with you, then that meant nothing good would be coming out of it.

Opening up the text to expand the details of it, I found that he had sent me a long letter that began with an apology. That only meant that this was the worst news possible.

"Are you okay," I heard Caleb ask beside me, leaning forward with concern. I was too engrossed in trying to skim to the important details of this letter to give him a verbal response, so I just gave him a nod and a wave of my fingers.

I finally made it to the bottom of the letter, my eyes widening to the size of saucers and if Caleb wasn't worried then, he was definitely worried now. But so was I, to be completely honest. As someone who enjoyed the privacy of my art, this was the last news I needed to hear.

I felt Caleb's hand rest itself on my knee and he leaned in even closer, the concern on his face painted in deeper strokes than before, his eyes searching to find what's wrong with me. "Are you sure you're okay, Marilyn? You got a little pale back there."

Pale was definitely an understatement, because I was fully shocked beyond belief. How else would you feel if you got an email from your college professor telling you that they submitted one of your pieces you did during school into an art show? Especially when it wasn't just any old art show, but the art show that I was going to be at with Teddy and Theo. Even worse, Teddy didn't like art, something which was still unsettling to me as an artist. And with everything going on in my life, I still felt a subconscious need to please Teddy Burke. After all, he was growing to be someone I trusted very much.

Caleb however, wasn't just someone who I could unload all of this onto — hell, Laney didn't even know about my involvement with the Burke brothers yet and she was my best friend. So I just kept my mouth shut and nodded in response to his question.

—

TEDDY BURKE DIDN'T seem to know the first thing about women's fashion besides what he thought was hot or not. So thankfully, Theo was here to help us at the mall with picking out what I was going to wear.

How did I find myself shopping Teddy and Theo exactly? It was Theo who had texted me the day before to remind me that I needed to look fancy for this event — remind being the operative word since I hadn't exactly been told this in the first place. All of the art shows I had been to were in high school where a turtleneck and some jeans with tennis shoes and my hair tucked into a baseball cap were apropos for the occasion. But this was a big deal, this was black tie, the type of event you'd see get attacked in a Batman movie. And being a broke, millennial New Yorker who worked as a maid meant that I definitely didn't own anything of the sort. All of my nice clothes were in Boston, and we didn't have that kind of time to just drive up there and collect them on a whim. So Teddy decided to go shopping with me and Theo — thankfully — decided he should be here to offer his judgement.

I was standing in front of the mirror in a dress that Theo had picked out for me, a knee-length black dress that made my skin really seem to pop, admiring how I looked right now. I wasn't fully made up yet, nor was my hair done, but I was startled by how incredible I looked. Not that I thought of myself as some kind of gremlin — I knew that I was at least a little bit attractive — but seeing myself in a dress like this felt like a fairy tale in the making, that maybe girls like me could be princesses.

Reality seemed to come crashing down, of course, when the door of the dressing room opened up for Teddy to walk in only to yelp and cover his eyes with his hands in the doorway. "I'm sorry, I was looking for Theo, but he doesn't seem to be in here. I closed my eyes really quickly so if you're naked, I only saw your face, Marilyn."

I sighed. "I'm not naked, Teddy. You can uncover your eyes now if you like."

He shook his head, his determination to the task resilient. "No way," he said, "I can't look at you anyway, not until the big day. Or else it's bad luck, right?"

"No," I said, my mind trying to grasp at what Teddy was saying and make sense of it, but to no avail. "That's not how this works, man. That's for weddings. You were literally married before, how do you not know that?"

Teddy uncovered his eyes, doing a double take when he finally saw me. And while I was coming in hot with the way I spoke to him, something about the way he was looking at me was enough to make me fall back, the breath not knocked out of me, but like it was prepared for anything else in the world — anything but that.

"Sorry then," he said, scratching the back of his head. "Someone must've not worded that to me properly the first time I heard it, so I just assumed it was anytime a woman was in a dressing room. Besides, my marriage was cursed whether I saw Violet in her dress before the wedding or not."

"That's fair," I said, turning back to face the mirror, now where I could see him in the reflection. "So how do I look, Teddy?"

Teddy took a good long look at me and something about it just sent me all the way to heaven and back. "Like a million fucking bucks, Marilyn."

I wanted to say something, but all the words were gone and everything was coming up blanks. Thankfully, the door was pushed open wider and Theo stepped in around Teddy, a wide grin on his face. "I knew I made the right choice," he said excitedly and loudly on his way in, making the attendant in the room jump, a chain of events that made me remember that there even was an attendant in the room while Teddy and I were talking to begin with.

I felt myself blush, realizing that she had seen and heard everything between the two of us.

"Great," the attendant whose name tag read 'Stacy' said. "Will that dress be your purchase today? Or do you want to look at some of our other dresses in the back? We have some nice selections."

I took one last look at myself in the mirror and I knew. "Don't worry about it. I think this one is great."

"Okay then," she said with a nod, "will you be wearing it out of the store?"

"No," Teddy intercepted before I could decide for myself. "She doesn't want to get sweaty in it before the big event. How much does that bad boy on her cost?"

I wasn't going to sweat in it, something I would be sure to point out everyone who had heard Teddy say that in the room, but Teddy's intuition was definitely right. I didn't want to wear it out of the store, I'd rather not make a mess out of it before my big debut in it. Being in New York meant that there were definitely a lot of obstacles standing in the way between me and getting this dress home while it's clean.

"Five hundred and forty-two dollars," the attendant said, causing me to gasp very loudly and embarrassingly. It wasn't my fault, though, they were the ones with the bright idea to take me to a boutique and buy me a dress. But I still didn't want to owe them anything, besides from them saving me if the Gates family is truly guilty.

Although it didn't really seem like I had a choice, based off the way Teddy pulled out a sleek, black credit card from his wallet and handed it to the woman. She walked out to ring the purchase up, leaving me alone in the room with the two brothers. Teddy grinned at me and I grinned back, unsure of what else to do besides hide how shocked I really was and not hurt his feelings or anything. And something about that moment was so warm, it was like I was really a part of the family like they said in the group chat the night I was on the yacht.

Some people said they couldn't be bought, but the feeling of this closeness, this happiness —

— I was sold.

—

A/N: hey guys! i hate to tell you this, but i'm starting school soon, so updates won't be as frequent (bi-weekly/sometimes monthly or sporadic) because i won't be able to write as quickly and i'm afraid to run out of stock chapters (i have plenty now, so have no fear). this will definitely be the last update of August tho, and they won't be back until September. just letting you know :-)