MM: get what you see

[isaysimplewords]

Today, Cal is vomit-free.

He has a small scarlet feather in his hair, though. He hasn't noticed it yet.

He's at a table with a cup of coffee, half-watching the crowd.

Comments

[prima-sequentem.livejournal.com]

"Now that's familiar."

[isaysimplewords]

"Are they books on your world, too?" he asks, before he really thinks about it.

[prima-sequentem.livejournal.com]

"Of course. And when I told you, you laughed pretty much like that. It's worked out pretty well for us so far, though."

[isaysimplewords]

"Well, there's another world where I'm apparently basically John Watson, so."

He seems to feel that that sentence finishes itself.

[prima-sequentem.livejournal.com]

James cracks up.

[isaysimplewords]

Cal laughs too.

"It gets better," he says. "He's a clone of this guy from a comic book movie, and he's like seventeen. And it's one of those worlds with vampires and things."

[prima-sequentem.livejournal.com]

"...Your Holmes," she fills in. "God, I love this bar."

[isaysimplewords]

"So do I."

He really, really does.

"I don't have a Holmes. Or a Moriarty. I'm starting to think I got ripped off."

[prima-sequentem.livejournal.com]

"Oh, you poor thing. I'd offer to fix that for you, but I'd need to ask my husband first."

[isaysimplewords]

Oh, Jesus, there's a world where he's monogamous? How depressing.

"You could tell him it doesn't count with doubles," he says, very seriously.

Or - very much like someone who lost his ability to keep a straight face somewhere along the way, at any rate.

[prima-sequentem.livejournal.com]

"Oh, don't get me wrong, he'll say yes. It's just polite to let him know."

[isaysimplewords]

Oh, good. That's much less depressing. Cal smiles.

"Is it?" he says. "Deborah and I never worried about it much."

[prima-sequentem.livejournal.com]

"I think we've already confirmed that I'm not Deborah. Communication is important in relationships, you know. Besides, you always know where to find the cute ones."

[isaysimplewords]

. . . Yeah. He definitely got ripped off.

"It's a skill."

[prima-sequentem.livejournal.com]

"Don't I know it."

[isaysimplewords]

"I'm starting to think my doubles have all the luck."

Five minutes into this conversation and it's already obvious that this Mrs Chandler has a very different kind of relationship with her husband. The kind where they won't still be virtual strangers almost twenty years in, for a start.

[prima-sequentem.livejournal.com]

"Luck? I'll have you know I spent four years working for this," she says, brushing her fingers over her ring. "Worth every second. Including all the hair dye."

[isaysimplewords]

Cal smiles wryly.

"So I married my mother."

[prima-sequentem.livejournal.com]

"That joke has not gotten any less awful since the first time you made it, Oedipus."

[isaysimplewords]

The smile turns into a grin.

"I notice you didn't say 'no.'"

[prima-sequentem.livejournal.com]

"Please. I'm not your mother. I have a lot more fun."

[isaysimplewords]

"You know what," Cal says, "that I believe."

[prima-sequentem.livejournal.com]

She's relaxed enough to add, without completely thinking through the consequences, "And Violet Chandler set her sights too low."

[isaysimplewords]

. . . Huh.

"That's not something many people would say."

Maybe James has political aspirations of her own? He can't be sure what year she's from, but whenever it is, it would be more plausible for her to enter politics than it would have been for his mother at the same age.

[prima-sequentem.livejournal.com]

Lightly: "Not many people are me."

She's used to a Cal who knows all her tells; she expects him to see she's hiding something, and that shows.