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“You know, I’m pretty sure that you agreed to let your poor, suffering coworker win at this game.” Carol glances up from her cards, one of her perfect eyebrows flicking up. “Hm?”
Josh half-hides his laugh behind his hand. “I don’t remember saying that.”
“It was implied,” Carol says. She pauses, likely for emphasis, then adds, “Heavily.”
“Well.” Josh shrugs a shoulder, even as he glances down at the cards on the table. The five sitting face up are hardly the ones he wants – they’re doing little for him beyond an eight to match the one in his hand – but two doubles is better than nothing. He smiles, at Carol; it earns him a begrudging smile and a sigh in response. “You know I’m no good at subtext.”
In a more playful tone, Carol says, “You should really work on that, Dr. Nichols.”
Then she tosses her cards down on the table.
“Alright, I’m folding. You win.”
Josh groans and laughs. “Come on, Carol! Are you really giving up so soon?”
“I don’t call it ‘giving up’,” Carol says, prim, as she pushes her chair back and grabs her purse from the table next to her. It’s a soft pink fabric to match her crisp, dark pink suit, and it’s incongruously clean and new compared to the rest of Wolf’s kitchen. The place isn’t dirty, per se, but it’s definitely worn in.
“Oh, yeah?” Josh teases. “What do you call it?”
“A tactical retreat.”
“I’m sure.”
Carol gives him a Look, with a capital L. “Don’t get snippy with me, now.”
That has Josh laughing again, lower this time. Carol always manages to draw the humor into and through her words; it’s so subtle, yet so right. That’s what had first drawn Josh to her, back when he was new to Bronx General and just trying to keep his head down and focus on his work. Luckily, there’s something about him – God only knows what – that Carol had been able to see and like too. “Snippy?”
“Snippy,” Carol agrees.
“I’m pretty sure you mean ‘right’,” Josh says.
“You keep telling yourself that.” Carol shrugs her purse onto her shoulder, brushes her suit off like she’s trying to clear off the dust that clings to every surface of Wolf’s house. “Well, I do actually have places to be.”
She glances back over her shoulder, and up to the ceiling. Josh follows her gaze.
“Just how much longer is he going to take?” Carol says, lower and softer this time; more like she’s muttering it to herself than meaning for Josh to hear it.
He does anyway, though. He can’t help it, sat right there at the kitchen table. “What was it you said you wanted?”
“Hm?” Carol looks back to him, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “Oh, a photo album. From our college days. Maya was asking about my life before Morris, and I thought I could show her some picture evidence.” Carol snorts. “Maybe she’ll believe some of the wilder stories, then.”
That has Josh frowning. He’d been here in the kitchen when Carol had arrived, so he hadn’t heard that part. “Photos?” he says. “I thought Wolf didn’t do those.” That’s what Wolf’s always said when Josh has mentioned it – rather, that’s what Josh has been able to read in Wolf’s grimaces.
“He doesn’t,” Carol says. “I did.” Then she gestures, the motion vague. “Of course, I’m the one who doesn’t do mess, while Wolf does nothing but mess. And he has this whole house to himself, so…”
“…He’s the perfect storage unit,” Josh finishes for her, amused.
Carol points at him. “Exactly.”
That’s when there’s a loud thump upstairs, followed by a string of curse words.
Worry fills Josh’s chest. He goes still, listening.
It means he hears the shout of, “Josh!”
“Oh dear,” Carol says. She draws her thumb along the line of her eyebrow, grimacing. “That doesn’t sound good.”
No, it doesn’t. Josh gets to his feet, but he’s too abrupt, and his chair clatters awkwardly across the kitchen tiles. He internally winces at the harsh sound. “I should—” He jerks his thumb upwards, towards where Wolf is.
“Go, go,” Carol says, waving him off. “Tell me if he’s bleeding profusely. You are, of course, the person qualified to deal with that, but I can offer moral support as you stitch him up.”
Josh’s attempt at a smile is more like a grimace. “Right,” he says.
He begins to head upstairs, and to the rescue of his boyfriend.