Not Letting This Drop Who: Darcy and Patrick Where: The pub When: evening
Darcy had thrown herself into work, fake smiles for the customers, quickly handing out orders, giving everyone what they needed and wanted. Then it started to slow and she realized it wasn’t going to keep her busy and her thoughts were back, swimming over her, making her think of Liam and how horribly that had gone. She was sure he’d never see her again, even if he said he just needed time. And she wouldn’t blame him. Setting down the last round of drinks at a slightly rowdy table and went back to the bar, pushing up to sit on it and wait until someone needed her again or until Patrick showed up.
Even after a night like the one before, Patrick still needed to talk to his family. He needed to know what the hell Darcy was thinking and why she decided that moving in with a boy was the right choice to make. He already felt strange considering how not-really-that-strange he felt after the change. He mostly just felt caged in, frustrated that he couldn’t go explore and feel his paws….feet….on the ground. But right now, his mind was shifting from his experience the night before to Darcy, totally focused on figuring out what was going on with her. He headed to the bar and saw her there behind it, coming directly up to her. “...You’re taking your break now. We need to talk.”
Darcy made a face and looked at him. “Are you already angry?” she asked, really hoping they could have built up to the angry and not just started there.
“I’m not already angry, I’m just...Let’s not have this conversation here,” He said, starting them toward the back to the office he hadn’t been in in what seemed like forever. “I’m very interested in why you think moving in with a boy is a good idea.”
She made a face and left her tray on the side of the bar following after Patrick and dropping into one of the chairs once they were in the office. “I’m not sure why it’s a bad idea.” The situation was already solved, considering Avery wasn’t moving out and Darcy wouldn’t be left alone, but that wasn’t the point. She was eighteen. Technically she should be allowed to move out if she wanted to.
“...Really, Darcy? Who is this boy? Give me a name. Who the hell is it that you think it’s such a good idea to move in with? Your family hasn’t even met him!” And he wasn’t about to sign off on this when he’d offered her a perfectly good place in his home and she was choosing some random boy over her family.
“Aidan’s met him,” Darcy said, even she was plotting a campaign against Aidan’s judgement of character. “It’s a friend.” Sort of. Noah was really more than a friend these days, but that wasn’t her call to make at the moment and she figured ‘the guy I had sex with last night’ was not going to go over well with Patrick. “Am I supposed to bring him over to dinner or something?”
“Oh great, Aidan’s met him so I shouldn’t be concerned at all. No way, Darcy.” Patrick sighed. “Yes, that would be a start! We’re at least supposed to know who the hell he is and know his name, Darcy! I’ve asked you before, what is his name?”
At least she and Patrick agreed on Aidan’s judge of character. Though she did wonder why he thought that. “Avery knows him too.” Darcy let out a noise and blew her hair out of her eyes. “I don’t want to tell you because you’ll hunt him down and threaten him or something. And I don’t want to lose him because of it.”
“Darcy, it is really not ok for you to move in with a boy that your family doesn’t even know the name of. What do you know about this kid?” He asked, looking back at her. “I want you to be happy, Darcy, really I do. But I don’t want you to jump off a cliff to do it.”
“There aren’t any cliffs in Delphi,” Darcy said trying not to roll her eyes. “I know I like him. I know he gets me and he likes me and if you want me to bring him to dinner I will, but you aren’t allowed to threaten him and run him off.”
That was progress. “Yes, I want you to bring him to dinner. And I want a name. And I, in turn, won’t be cleaning my metaphorical gun when he shows up.” He shifted in the chair he was sitting in and looked back at her. “I worry about you, Darcy.”
She wasn’t actually going to have to bring Noah to dinner, was she? Oh god. This was not going to end well. “No one touches him. Not Lochlan, not Eily, not you. Okay?” She sighed and sunk lower in her chair. “His name’s Noah. I go to school with him.” When he said the last part, she looked up at him, confused. “Worry about me? Why?”
Noah. He had the name now and he was definitely going to be putting feelers out about this boy, but for now he had promised that he wouldn’t track him down and if he tried it, he’d probably forfeit that dinner plan. “Because you’re my family, Darcy. I always worry about you. And no one knows anything about this boy except you. Not that you can’t make your own decisions, but it would be nice to know who the hell you’ve decided to move in with and why.”
“I told you, Avery knows him. They’re best buds now and Aidan knows him.” Darcy ran her fingers through her hair and shrugged. “Because I like being around him. He makes me feel...safe.” And a million other things she only just barely kept from admitting to Patrick because she wasn’t the best with filtering her words. The blush that crept onto her cheeks was evidence enough though. Darcy pressed the heel of her hand against her cheek and shook her head. “He’s just a guy Patrick. I’m not going that far.”
“I want to know him, Darcy. I don’t care who else knows about him. I want to know him.” He watched her, watched her cheeks flush, and tried not to outwardly groan. Jesus Christ, she was moving in with her new boyfriend?! She definitely needed to bring him in for a dinner. “He’s a guy that’s coming to my house for dinner. Very, very soon.”
Really Darcy wasn’t going anywhere, but she hadn’t found a place to drop that part into the conversation. Patrick seemed really hung up on meeting Noah. “Why do you have to know? Is it just because I might move in with him?”
“It’s because you’re interested enough in him to bring him into your life. I want to know the people in your life, Darcy. Why is it such a bad thing that I know him?” It instantly made him wonder what kind of kid this Noah was but Pat didn’t voice that.
“Because it depends on how you want to know them!” She sighed a little and ran her hand through her hair. “But if it helps, it turns out I’m not moving in with him right now. Avery’s not moving out anymore so there’s no being left behind or anything.”
That did help. That helped a lot and it visibly showed as Patrick felt a small amount of tension leave his body. “I still want to know him, Darcy. I want to meet him. You already said you’d bring him to dinner and you aren’t going back on your word. So make it happen.”
Darcy sighed and sunk lower in the chair. “You’re gonna scare him off aren’t you? He’s already afraid of you.” Which now Darcy was thinking was valid. “You going to make Avery’s boyfriend come have dinner at your house too?”
"First off, yes… About Avery, yes…" Had he know that Avery had a boyfriend he would have gotten to this sooner. But yes, she was going to have to bring him to dinner too. "Secondly, I'm not going to scare him off but he is going to meet me and anyone else in the family that wants to meet him too. It's part of who we are, Darcy. We are a part of each other's lives. We meet him. Thirdly…you didn't say he was your boyfriend."
“Good,” Darcy said, not wanting to be the only one that had to suffer. “They don’t want to meet him Patrick. Come on...Lochlan’ll give him shit and lord only knows what Fiona’s gonna do, and Eily...she’s not going to approve on principle.” This was going to end badly. She looked away from Patrick and shrugged. “Because he’s not.”
“Darcy, stop fighting this. It’s happening. Normal people bring their...friends over for dinner with their family. It happens. And you are bringing him. That’s it.” He shrugged a little. “You should stop looking like it’s the worst possible thing in the world to happen. We all just care about you.”
Patrick stumbling over the word made Darcy smile a little because she’d do the same thing when faced with it. “If he breaks up with me because of it, yeah. It’s not exactly a good thing.”
“You’re not dating,” Patrick pointed out again, lifting an eyebrow. “Or if you are, you can just admit it so that we stop dancing around it. But then his ass is definitely coming to my house for dinner.”
“I don’t know what we are. We’re...something.” She was sleeping with him was what was happening, but Darcy wasn’t saying that. She just blushed again and got up from the chair. “Fine. Dinner. I will ask him if he will come. Can I go back to work now?”
“No, you will make him come to dinner with your family. You can ask, but if he gives you shit about it, that is something seriously worth considering, Darcy…” Patrick said, watching her. “You can go back to work if you understand that this is important to me.”
Darcy sighed and looked at her older cousin. They had such a confusing relationship and while he didn’t need to, at times he seemed to fill the gap her father had left behind. And at times, like now, he was a giant pain in the ass. “I’ll make him come. And I get it. You want to meet him. I don’t know why it is, but I get that you’re not letting it go.”
Patrick nodded a little. “Not letting it go.” He stood up and rotated his shoulders for a moment before starting toward the door. “You can go back to work now, if you want. Thank you for taking your break with me. And don’t worry, Darcy. We’ll be nice to him.”
Darcy gave her cousin a look that said she didn’t fully believe him, but she wound up nodding. “Fine. I’ll let you know when he can come by.” She got up and headed towards the door, letting herself out and back into the pub so she could go back to work.