#oceanfrontward

“You can trust me.”

“No you can’t!” Elaine Burrows, in a terribly untypical fashion for the young woman, teetered back and forth on a bar stool as she pointed her drink accusingly at Ward Eastwood. 

“Don’t listen to him. He’s got good lines. That’s not even a good one so if you fall for it, you’re just utterly dense.”

“Who the hell is that?” the red head down the bar asked as Ward dropped his head into his hands.

“Would you believe me if I said my sister?” Ward offered

“His ex-girlfriend!” Elaine chimed in from her perch.

“She was dropped on her head as a child, you see…”

“Lies! Lies! Don’t trust him!” Elaine laughed, bringing the glass up to her lips and drinking the rest of it through the cocktail stirrer she was currently using as a straw– something she normally detested.

Despite his assurances that the woman down the bar was harmless, the red headed woman Ward had been chatting up was storming out of the bar and Ward was marching directly towards Elaine.

“You know, you said you’d just sit quietly and sober up,” he reminded her. Elaine was sure he was correct, but she didn’t honestly remember speaking those words. He’d found her stumbling outside the Clam Bar at a rather inappropriate time to be as intoxicated as she was and, after her repeatedly resisting his attempts at putting her in a taxi home, brought her to the bar and set her up with a pitcher of water.

“Another gin and tonic, miss?” the bartender asked, approaching the pair. Elaine nodded enthusiastically, but what shook his head to stop the transaction.

“You said you’d only drink water!” he exclaimed, grabbing her empty glass and sniffing it. “Good lord, Elaine, how many drinks have you had?”

“I have… four drinks on a tab for Eastwood,” the bartender assured him. Ward’s brow furrowed and Elaine giggled.

“Another round!”

“No!” Ward exclaimed, slamming down some cash on the counter and shoving it towards the bartender. Not waiting for change, he pulled Elaine off the bar stool, half guiding and half carrying her out to the street.

“Where are we going?” she inquired, her words slurring as she stumbled, Ward’s grip on her arm the only thing keeping her upright. 

“Home, before we have to get your stomach pumped,” Ward grumbled, waving down a taxi and half shoving her inside. He gave the driver her address as Elaine leaned into his shoulder. The world was spinning out of control but she wasn’t sure if that had to do with the alcohol or not.

“What the hell has gotten into you?” he asked once the cab started moving. Elaine shrugged in response.

“Nothing.”

“Elaine Burrows doesn’t drink low shelf gin in her tonics for nothing,” Ward pointed out. Elaine pushed herself away from him, resting her head against the window of the cab, silent. “Fine. We won’t talk about it.”

“Its never me,” Elaine said after a few moments of silence. “They never pick me.”

“Who?” Ward asked, looking up from his phone.

“The men I date,” Elaine explained,turning her head to look at him. Concern splashed across his face.

“…Are you talking about…” he began, but Elaine interrupted him.

“You? Oh, god, no,” she immediately replied, rolling her eyes at him. He instantly looked relieved.

“The painter? What’s his name?” Ward offered..

“Alan? Oh. No, not Alan.”

“Wait– you’re still angsting over Mr. Fix It?” Ward exclaimed, putting the pieces of the puzzle together. Elaine was silent. It was about James and the  rumors of him planning to propose to Natalie Connors that were all over town.

“Elaine, its been long enough with him, hasn’t it?”

Silence.

“Look, I could understand binge drinking away your feelings over someone smart, suave, and devilishly handsome like myself, but not Mr. Fix It. I can’t believe you even dated him in the first place.”

“You don’t even know him,” Elaine mumbled. Ward rolled his eyes at her.

“I know that he’s an idiot to have let you go… as if Mr. Fix It could possibly do better than Elaine Burrows,” he assured her.

“You’re just being nice because I’m drunk,” Elaine retorted. 

“No, I’m serious. You can trust me,” he replied, putting his hand on her chin to tilt her face up at meet him eye to eye. “Because I’m definitely not trying to sleep with you,” he concluded with a half smirk. 

“You’re gross,” Elaine grumbled in what may have been her worse comeback in years. Ward laughed.

“But you keep me around anyway!” he proclaimed as the taxi pulled into her driveway. Elaine fumbled with the door handle, finally managing to open it. “Need help?” Ward offered. She shook her help.

“I’ve already ruined your night,” she hoisted herself out of the car with a surprising amount of grace for someone eight cocktails deep.

“My night is just beginning, don’t you worry your pretty little drunk head about that,” Ward assured her as she cautiously walked towards her front door. “Hey, Burrows?” he called as she pushed the key into the lock.

“Yes?” Elaine asked, turning back around momentarily.

“I’m serious about everything I said.”

so steve is bffs with wards sister so i’m betting these two at least know each other??? though idk how much pippa’s bros know about her ~feels for steve. do they know why she’s bringing all those pizzas home?? in which case they might feel differently about steve??

Liz had wondered, a year ago, if she’d ever get to feel like this again. In the darkness of the time PP—Post-Porter, as it were—Liz had convinced herself that it was impossible. That she’d never again feel like the sun was warmer and brighter than her memory could recall, that the breeze was sweeter, the bird song lighter; that the world itself was a place worth living in again.

And yet all that had changed literally overnight.

A soft smile crossed the young woman’s face as she brushed against the memory, wind playing through her blonde hair as she pulled into the road leading up to Nick’s mansion. The way his face had lit up the moment she had pressed her lips against his own, the music of his laughter joining with hers as they pulled each other back towards the house… The moment she’d known for certain that maybe this time—maybe this time she really had found something good.

It had been hard enough to pull herself away as it was. Even if it really only had been to go home and shower and grab some new clothes—not to mention assure Kristen and Elaine that Nick hadn’t locked her away in his ivory tower for the rest of her life. He’d looked so perfect lying there beside her, so peaceful and happy.

Liz found herself hoping to God that this time nothing and no-one would destroy that, especially her.

“Hey, it’s me!” She called out without really looking, hanging her purse on the back of her usual seat at the kitchen counter before stepping out the open sliding door towards the pool. It was odd to think that Nick was working outside but then again maybe he’d actually taken her advice and given himself another day of reprieve. She’d said she’d be back as soon as possible after all.

“Were you waiting out here for me this whole time, babe?” Liz laughed as she sidled up to the only occupied lounge chair, eyes already half-closed as she placed a hand on the back of the chair and leaned forward to press another kiss to Nick’s lips. “I feel like I should be immensely flattered—“

Yet suddenly, mere moments before their lips met, Liz pulled up short. Her eyes went wide as she stumbled backwards, holding up her hands in a shocked and defensive manner. “You... You are not who I expected, I swear to God.”

After all, Liz would have just broken about fifty levels of Girl Code—not to mention very possibly the heart of the man Liz was pretty positive she was going to marry someday—had she actually kissed Ward Eastwood.

Ok but Lizzy, these two are besties?????