archived

👒 ⠀  ⠀ ⠀  ⠀ ────────────  giselle had to avert her eyes and suck her lips between her teeth to stop another light laugh. there were times ( a lot of them ) where grace took a miniscule incident and made it more dire than was necessary. any sign of light poking tended to cause her to double down on her take and as amusing as it was, giselle didn’t want to find herself on the receiving end of the blunt object that could be grace’s words. so she did her best to conceal the laughter that wanted to spill, and nodded along. but there were also times ( much like now ) that grace would take what giselle was saying and agree in her own way. soft smile coming on her features as the need to laugh dissipated. “ well clearly, you tolerate me every day. ” she taunted again with a small nudge given to her. “ and i’m not saying i don’t understand where you’re coming from, from a professor’s perspective. you’re just doing what you think is right at the end of the day, can’t completely fault you for that. tough love is still a form of love. ”

it was that same kind of love that giselle had gotten use to when it came to grace. her unamused remarks and eyerolls she didn’t try to hide when the jackson topic came up. giselle knew grace was just looking out for her in her own way, no matter how brash it came off. at the end of it, grace respected her enough as a person to allow her to make her own decisions. though it certainly wasn’t without the sharing of her opinions. “ i think it’s sweet. ” she was quick to combat. “ besides, it doesn’t have to be creative because it’s not a date. ” not that giselle wanted reminding of that fact. but if it would get grace off her jackson hate train for a few minutes she’d make the sacrifice. “ don’t make that face at me, and it does need some consideration of the deep… variety. ” it may not be a date now, but that didn’t mean giselle didn’t want it to eventually become one. “ the color on this one’s really pretty ! ” she exclaimed as she held it up to her frame. “ i don’t wear darker colors often though, do you think this will look like i’m trying too hard ? ”

       ( ─── :: grace had never been allowed to be wrong. even as a child, when mistakes were supposed to be something that was just a part of learning, she had never been granted the same luxuries as her brother. while he was off figuring out who he wanted to be and how he wanted to go about it, she was suffering under the immense pressures that had been placed on her. she was the oldest, and the daughter, and therefore there were requirements of her that maxwell bao never dealt with. straight back, polite smiles, perfect hair, well-timed, intelligent remarks ── all of her had been curated in order to please her parents. even now, almost thirty-eight, grace found herself still trapped in the same place that she had been when she was sixteen ; every step she took, she took with her parents criticisms in the back of her mind. make the right moves qīn ài de, they warned, or else. she couldn’t come off as anything less than confident with her decisions, because that opened the possibility that she wasn’t making the right ones. and grace couldn’t afford that. 

      “ you’re not even close to the worst person i’ve had to tolerate, gigi. not even today. “ she reassured. giselle’s playful criticism was always taken lighter than anybody else, though. if there was anybody who grace felt as though it was okay to let her guard down around, it was her. never once did she feel as though there was judgement in giselle’s thoughts about her, despite the fact that grace knew there was plenty room for it. there were difficult parts of her personality that she never bothered to hide ── they were the ones that had gotten her this far in life, after all ── and gieslle accepted them with nothing more than bashful smiles. it made grace fiercely protective of the other woman ; her opinions were offered as she tried to help, because that was the only way that grace knew how to love. ( it had been the only way it had ever been shown to her. ) “ i wouldn’t call it any kind of love. just. . .  doing my job. what kind of lawyer would i be if i didn’t uphold that kind of thing ? “

👒 ⠀  ⠀ ⠀  ⠀ ────────────  giselle couldn’t help but release a string of laughter at grace’s exaggerations. she had a talent for taking a small situation, and making it much bigger. her writing her own exam turning into an action that single handedly diminished a vast amount of malpractice cases was the perfect example of that.  “ their negligence is their fault, i agree. i’m sure any future employers will thank you for helping them dodge a bullet. ” she taunted with a sweet smile as she gave the other a soft nudge. “ but maybe, and hear me out, you could go just a tiny bit easier on them ? i mean not even bothering to read the question is a nightmare in and of itself, but we both know how heavy academia of this degree can be. they’re not going to always get it right. i know i didn’t. just something to consider, i hope. ” though even giselle knew ( as dramatic as the train of thought was ), there was still validity to be found in grace’s comments.

it was a tricky thing asking grace for assistance. while she knew she could always depend on her, and that the other would accompany any time she asked ( even if she wasn’t too enthused about the why ), giselle knew there would always be an inability to understand why it mattered to her so much. it wasn’t like giselle could explain it either. how willing she was to always play the fool if it meant jackson would look at her for a few minutes…── how could she ever explain that ? “ well now you do. ice skating, and then he’s taking me to see the tree in rockefeller center. ” she recounted their plans with a wide smile spreading across her face with ease. one look at grace’s unamused stare however had her quickly wiping the smile away. “ casual. ” she concluded. “ okay, i’m not over thinking the dress i’m just… deeply… considering it ? weighing out all the scenarios. it doesn’t have to be conservative, just not too obvious…── i trust you ! ”

    ( ─── :: giselle teased her lightly, and once again grace was shooting her a look, eyebrows raised slightly. “ they will. “ she informed her simply, before turning attention back to the rack ahead of her. “ listen i’ll tolerate a lot. “ grace said ── and despite the slightly vain tone she took, grace knew it was true. part of what had made her such a successful lawyer ( and daughter ) was the patience that she carried. silence could be a virtue. if you sat there long enough in quiet, people would offer you more information than they would if you asked in order to fill the space. she didn’t like dishonesty, though. some things she ended up being irrationally hard about. “ but there’s a difference between getting a question wrong or failing a test ── not always getting it right ── and cheating. “ she argued, but not heavily, offering a small shrug once more as if she had made her point. 

gracelyn bao: ( noun. )