#wwawws

Alex wakes up to the sound of George’s voice, a soft hum in their otherwise quiet room. For a moment it feels more like the end of a pleasant dream, but as his brain slowly unscrambles George’s words he’s almost tempted to pull the blankets over his head and fall back asleep.

“...Yes, of course, that’s fine — email it over. I’ll come in late tomorrow to go over the plea bargain, so get Jay on my calendar — yes, we should be back in the city by the early afternoon — yes, 4 o’clock will work.”

It’s still dark outside when Alex wakes up, mouth bone dry and head throbbing. He’s kicked off his blankets at some point in the night and, it would appear, changed out of his button-up and into one of the cotton t-shirts from his suitcase.

The night before comes back to him in a series of unattached, almost random memories and he blinks up at the dark ceiling, suppressing a groan. The little clock on their bedside table reads 5:38 a.m. Far too early to be awake, but hangovers have always turned him into an unwilling early riser. He has to piss, but he’s pretty certain if he stands upright he’ll vomit right onto their bedroom floor. It’s not exactly how he wants to wake George up.

Oh yeah, this is still happening. I can’t believe it’s been 8 months and there’s still about 10 chapters to go. Thanks for sticking with me. This chapter is mostly Vermont fluff, John makes a small reappearance...but I swear we’re getting back to the plot in chapter 28. 

Sorry I’m just now getting around to this. Usually when a parent moves on to a new partner whether it be after a divorce, death, etc. ...regardless of how the kid feels about the new partner (because Angie really does like George), it really does feel like that parent is closing the door on their previous relationship. It’s not an easy thing to process no matter how great the new partner is.

oh lawrence has actually been mentioned a couple times!

George picks the napkin up off his lap, folds it, puts it back on the table. “Well, my father passed away when I was eleven. I lost an older brother while I was in my twenties, and my mother only a few years ago — and she and I didn’t exactly see eye-to-eye. Never quite got along.”

There’s one personal picture on George’s desk — he looks very young in it, standing in front of Big Ben with an arm around a slightly older man. Related to him, judging by the heavy brows and identical smiles. The brother who passed away, he thinks. The one George mentioned over dinner.

They never had a past relationship, no. I’ve purposefully left any romantic feelings between them sort of ambiguous so you can kind of draw your own conclusions. But basically, Lafayette was into him when he was younger and before he met Adrienne and those feelings were never really discussed or reciprocated. I think there are some unresolved feelings there that initially made it hard for him to warm up to Alex. 

George would probably be taken aback and a little freaked out if he found out that Lafayette ever had feelings for him tbh. George has always viewed him more like family and it would, I don’t know, kind of feel like finding out an in-law was in love with you.