Oh Kate, You Stupid Walrus

I’m just imaging someone saying “And will your wife be joining you?”

And Anthony’s just like “My Wife? Kate? My better half? The light of my life?!”

Kate feels genuinely sick to her stomach the whole drive to Vancouver. Now she feels bad for teasing Anthony when he changed his shirt 16 times before they went to dinner with her parents. Violet Bridgerton just… seems intimidating. She’s met some of Anthony’s siblings on FaceTime before but that felt different. That felt vague in a way that this doesn’t. Plus there’s the way Anthony snapped his mouth shut when his brother threatened to tell his mother something. And she’s raised eight kids. She doesn’t imagine Anthony was an easy teenager for a single second. Violet must be one hell of a woman.

Of course there’s also the fact that this feels like it matters so much more. Anthony loves his family, he‘d do anything for them and Kate wants them to like her as well. She wants to look like a good match for Anthony.

Violet of course couldn’t care less whom Anthony is bringing home. It’s more the fact that he is in fact bringing someone home. God, she never thought it would happen. And Anthony seems incredibly smitten with Kate. You can practically see the hearts in his eyes in all the pictures they post together. And she’s never heard Anthony refer to himself as a we before.

“We’re going to grab lunch today.”

“We’re thinking about going to the cinema.”

“We went by the grocery store.”

It’s sweet. Because Violet remembers what a sweet boy Anthony was. He would curl up on her lap and tell her about his day and she still remembers when he was holding Daphne as a tiny baby and he looked up at her and said

“I’m gonna be a daddy one day. I gotta practice.”

He was so sweet. But he seemed to push all that aside after Edmund died, or maybe he just never found the right person.

Within about five minutes of meeting Kate Sharma though Violet can tell that that part of his life is over. She watches Anthony kiss the top of Kate’s head casually while Gregory sets up some enormously complicated board game he clearly intends to win. She watches Kate roll her eyes teasingly at him.

“Stop trying to distract me. Focus on the rules so my victory’s not hollow.” Then she kisses him anyway, and Anthony’s cheeks flush a little but he drops his chin onto her shoulder.

It’s sweet. It’s also sweet how Anthony starts to get annoyed halfway through the game because he’s definitely not winning and Kate taps the end of his nose.

“Don’t be grumpy because Gregory and I are a better team than you and Hyacinth.”

Mate… the scream I let out looking at Charles in the barrier near Rasscasse ten laps before the end of the race.

At least George Russell’s numerous penalties are keeping me entertained and we have the potential of a standing restart.

These last few seasons have been… painful. Brutally painful actually.

“How have you got this woman calling you a cutie pie?!”

Anthony gave him a smug smile, “It turns out: I’m a good boyfriend. She likes me.”

“God this poor woman.” Benedict tutted.

“She introduced me to her parents. I’m having dinner with Mary and Tharman on Wednesday.”

“And we’re all just not going to tease Anthony about this at all are we?!” Benedict huffed.

“I think it’s kind of cute.” Daphne sighed. “He’s being pretty sweet. Did you go to that bakery I recommended?”

“We did!” Anthony leapt in. “We shared a couple of different things. We loved it.”

“Mother! Your child is sharing pastries with a woman! He’s saying he’s part of a we! Thoughts?!”

“Leave your brother alone, Benedict.” Violet tutted, “Or he’ll never let us meet her.”

“Why am I the only person freaking out about this?!”

“Because you’re tragically single?” Anthony snorted. “Kate has a friend from work that seems nice. Come to Seattle, we can double date.”

Hockey Hockey Hockey

To

Certified Lover Boy Certified Cutie Pie

Thanks for sharing with us 🩵

Anthony’s response is not going to be at all composed I can tell you that for nothing. He’s most probably going to launch himself headfirst into accidentally breaking up with first.

But, they’ll figure it out. At the end of the day they’re just two people who are falling for one another pretty quickly and that scares them a little. Anthony’s literally never even met another girl’s parents before. He’s not sure she’s doing any of this right he just knows that he wants to spend as much time as possible with Kate. All he thinks about is her.

Kate’s scared because she’s falling for Anthony and maybe he’s just killing time until he leaves Seattle. It’s not even that she doesn’t want him to leave. Would it be great if he stayed? Sure. But distance can be overcome one way or another. She’s kind of mostly hurt that he hasn’t brought it up himself.

They’ll get through it though. And Kate will have to endure a full 20 minutes of her Dad asking her to show him around Madison Square Garden on FaceTime.

It also feels really fucking good to be sitting in the airport lounge and get a notification that Anthony’s tagged her in a post. He’s never done that before. The entire carousel is photos of them. Her hand dragging his through the crowd. Him holding her handbag while they take a photo in the mirror of a store his arm around her waist. Kate beside him in the ice at morning skate, Anthony’s sweaty hair hanging in his eyes. Kate across the table at lunch. Anthony reclining on the bed with a rose between his teeth.

😍In my Lover Boy era 😍

And that’s why she smiles at her phone and types out her comment.

Like fucking… please. We need this

“As the head of this family-“

“Mmm would we say that?” Benedict interrupted, lounging against the sofa.

Anthony blinked at his brother, “As you are very fond of reminding me; I am the Viscount.”

“Oh, I’m not debating you’re in charge of me. You’re in charge of all of us.”

“Yes, because I’m the head of this-“

“But Kate’s in charge of you.”

Anthony stopped, opening his mouth to argue before sighing, “Yes, Well… Kate’s upstairs resting. So I’m the head while she’s napping!”

“Not even going to try and deny it?”