#carlowe

Carlton already had the coffee pot started, Marlowe seated at the table.

As Carlton moved to grab mugs for him and Marlowe, his elbow knocked the pot; a wedding gift from his moms.

He didn’t move quickly enough to catch it, and the pot hit the floor and broke.

“Shit.”

Marlowe moved to get up, quickly offering to help.

“Here, I’ll grab a towel—”

“No, no, I’ve got it.”

After fifteen minutes of Carlton cleaning up, the mess was finally gone. He silently swept up the broken glass and threw it away.

Carlton sighed, bracing himself before he turned to Marlowe.

“Honey, I’m really sorry—”

In an instant, Marlowe was up and holding Carlton’s hands firmly in her own.

“It’s just a coffee pot, sweetheart,” she said gently. “We’ll just tell your moms and get a new one; nothing to be sorry about.”

Carlton laughed, though it was without humor.

“No, I messed up,” he said. “This is the part when you don’t talk to me for days. Or yell at me.”

He paused.

“Both, actually. In that order.”

Marlowe laughed, taking it as a joke. When she saw that Carlton was entirely serious, she stopped, her expression serious and concerned.

“Carlton, that’s not normal,” Marlowe said, squeezing his hands. “Who ever told you that?”

“Oh, Vic didn’t need to tell me,” Carlton said, smiling as though this was normal. “It happened every time I said something wrong. Or did something wrong. Or bought something wrong.”

“Carlton,” Marlowe repeated. “That’s not right. She shouldn’t have done that.”

Carlton’s expression changed to one of confusion.

“No, the mentors at the station said that was normal,” he insisted.

“Carlton, the mentors there were all old men!” Marlowe said, her voice rising with concern.

“Sorry, sorry!” Carlton said quickly, quickly slipping his hands out of Marlowe’s to raise them in surrender.

“Carlton—”

Marlowe paused, thinking over her next words. If raising her voice would make Carlton agitated, for whatever reason, she’d talk in a level tone.

“Carlton, I don’t think your relationship with Vic was a healthy one,” she said, gently lowering Carlton’s hands. “It’s not a healthy relationship if she didn’t talk to you for no reason at all!”

“No, remember, there were reasons,” Carlton began to say, but quickly stopped after Marlowe’s stern look.

“And those were shitty reasons, Carlton,” Marlowe argued, her tone still calm. “Your relationship with Victoria sounds abusive.”

Carlton opened his mouth to interject, but stopped.

“I… I guess it was,” he said, his voice close to a whisper.

“Carlton, I’m not going to get mad at you if you talk about it,” Marlowe whispered, her volume matching Carlton’s. “How about we sit down and talk about what we’ll do in some different situations?”

Carlton nodded wordlessly, sitting down at the kitchen table next to Marlowe.

“So, say that I break a glass,” Marlowe started. “What would you do?”

“Clean it up,” Carlton answered easily.

“And if you break a glass,” Marlowe said, quickly finishing before Carlton started to speak. “I’d help clean it up. We do nice things for each other, regardless of the mistakes we make.”

“…Yeah, alright,” Carlton affirmed softly, clearing his voice and repeating himself. ”Yeah, that’s what we do.”

Marlowe smiled, reaching under the table and squeezing Carlton’s hand.