Work Text:
The fourth word that Gwen’s Uber driver has said since she got in the back of his car five minutes ago is, “Shit.”
The first one was, “Gwen?” when she first opened the door, and the second and third were “Water bottle?” with a gesture to a pouch with water and snacks as she was buckling her seatbelt.
“Shit,” she echoes without really meaning to, a bit startled at the sight of the traffic ahead of them, interrupting her train of thought on said snacks for just a second as her fingers dance across her phone screen.
who the hell is organic fruit leather i would kill for some gushers rn oh fuck
we just barely got on i-10
traffic is at a dead stop. thumbs up emoji.
Her driver glances at her through the rearview mirror. “Don’t you need to be at the airport?”
Gwen looks at his phone, clipped in a holder near his steering wheel, the map displayed on the screen. The estimated time when she booked the Uber was a little less than thirty minutes. His map now claims they are 57 minutes away, and Gwen thinks that’s a bit generous, considering the solid red line on the screen that is the highway.
“Yeah, but I’m not pressed for time,” she says dismissively.
He nods. “My best friend, Buck, he’s the same way. If he’s not stupidly early to the airport, he’s late. How much time are we working with here?”
She glances at the time and does some mental math. “My flight is in seven hours.”
He gives her a disbelieving look, over his shoulder this time. “Does it normally take you that long to get through security?” he asks dryly.
Gwen lets out a long breath. “Nah. Just wanted to get out of there.”
The driver nods again without pressing further, and normally Gwen would be fine with it and use the silence to continue to rant to her best friend about her shitty morning, but she feels a buzzing under her skin that’s making it hard to shut up. She glances at the text Charlie sends in response (Yikes. Have fun with that.) and takes a break from where she’s been texting her stream of consciousness all morning to open the Uber app and double check the guy’s name.
“So, how long have you been driving for Uber, Edmundo?” she asks, then immediately cringes. She’s usually better at this, usually she is great at making conversation with strangers, even. Hopefully the guy hasn’t been asked that question a dozen times today already.
“Call me Eddie,” he says. “And just a couple weeks, actually.”
“Is that why you only have 3.2 stars?” Gwen asks, eyes still on the screen, then immediately slaps her hand over her mouth when she realizes that she actually said that out loud. “Oh my god, sorry,” she says, voice muffled.
gwen’s social skills: 0 she texts, telling herself it’s not cute when Charlie just sends the millennial laugh-crying emoji in response.
Eddie laughs, thankfully. “I had a learning curve. Apparently most people don’t like talkative drivers, and they reflect that in their reviews and tips. Buck — my best friend, Buck — laughed at me when he heard. He’s usually the one making conversation when we take a car together. We threw our buddy a bachelor party a couple years back and when we took an Uber to the hotel, this guy managed to convince our driver to join the party. It was wild.”
Gwen snorts. “Impressive. We once took an hour-long Uber through Philadelphia and by the end of it we had a wedding invitation and an Instagram follow from our driver.”
“Yeah, sounds like something that would happen to Buck,” Eddie says, voice oozing tenderness.
“Charlie — that’s my friend — kept cringing at the beginning when I was trying to come up with conversation topics. The joke was on her because it turned out that the third obscure bird I mentioned was one that our driver did a report on in the seventh grade, and the conversation kept going from there.”
Eddie chuckles, and though she can only see his side profile, she can tell he has a fond expression on his face. “Buck would absolutely do that. He’s always learning these weird facts and stories related to whatever my son is interested in that week. I swear he could write a book on all the animals at the zoo they like to visit.”
Gwen wants to meet this Buck guy. She has the feeling they’d get on like a house on fire.
i’m actually not coming home, sorry. i’m staying here and stealing this guy’s bf. he sounds awesome.
Gay uber driver real?
i’ve been telling you!!! it’s a pandemic!
third one this month
Can’t believe you would leave me for your driver’s boyfriend. I bet he’s not nearly as bad at cooking as I am
i told you your complete lack of cooking skills is endearing <3
“Seems like you get your fill of animal facts then. I’m sure I’ve got something else up my sleeve," she says.
“If you’re fishing for another wedding invitation, sorry to disappoint, but that’s not coming any time soon,” he warns her.
She shrugs, noticing his empty ring finger and distantly wondering what is going to take so long with Buck. “I can be patient. Besides, since that has happened, I’ve pretty much peaked in Uber interactions. Now, I just need a distraction. We might be stuck together for a while anyway.”
Eddie frowns at her through the rearview mirror. “What do you need to be distracted from?” The traffic in front of them is inching forward and Eddie’s car rolls ahead slowly.
Gwen lets out a long, slightly shaky breath. “The fact that I just spent a week with my homophobic family and now I’m going to go home and tell my best friend I’m in love with her.”
Eddie stops a little too suddenly, enough that Gwen’s seatbelt tightens and stops her from flopping forward. “Ah.”
Gwen elects not to comment on the driving. She’s not a hypocrite.
“You’ll have to give me more than monosyllabic answers to distract me, man,” she says with a forced chuckle, leg bouncing with nervous energy.
Eddie lets out a surprised noise. “Sorry, I was just not expecting that. Tell me about your friend? Unless you don’t want to talk about her.”
“She’s the only thing I ever want to talk about,” she says immediately, willing to bet that is something Eddie can relate to, considering he has brought up his Buck at least four times. “She’s beautiful and so freakishly smart and so unbelievably patient with me and I’ve been in love with her for longer than I probably realize but the last couple months of not doing anything are actually driving me crazy, so here I am, doing something.”
“By leaving your family to go be with her?” he asks.
“Exactly,” she nods. “My parents may still be trying to get me to change into the little girl they always wanted, but at least they haven’t changed their credit card information. We had a big fight this morning so I used their money to buy a flight two days earlier than originally planned and booked an Uber right after, so. Thanks for being my getaway driver.”
Eddie whistles. “I can’t wait to tell Buck about this. This is probably my most exciting ride yet.”
“Happy to be of service,” she says. “I had to decide between you or a Tesla and not even the threat of your 3.2 stars was enough to make me get in one of those death traps.”
AND I QUOTE. “This is my most exciting ride yet.”
Wow. High praise from a guy who drives around strangers all day.
right? like i wonder if he has ever unknowingly driven a serial killer around
Of course that’s your first thought
“So did you grow up here in Texas, then?” he asks.
“Born and raised,” she confirms. “Decided I wanted to leave when I was getting ready to enter my senior year. Catholic school. So triple whammy of living with a conservative family in a conservative state and going to a conservative school. Not exactly the ideal place for a young lesbian — who hadn’t even had her first kiss yet — to thrive.”
“Makes sense,” Eddie says neutrally, and Gwen hates that she feels a familiar tightening in her chest. She feels pretty confident in her gaydar these days, but he successfully plants a seed of doubt in her with just those two words.
homophobic uber driver real??
“Are you—“
She isn’t sure how she wants to finish that question. Is he a Texas native? Is he one of the homophobic people she tried to escape? Worst of all, is he going to keep giving her bland answers until she stops talking?
“I came here from LA,” he answers before she can decide how to end her sentence. “Born and raised in El Paso, but moved there a few years ago. Very, uh, accepting city,” he adds, finally giving her a smile. “Buck took me to pride last summer, it was a ton of fun.”
Gwen relaxes. She had made assumptions, but the verbal confirmation is nice, even if it’s giving “you can trust me, I’m an ally!” vibes.
“You should take your boy to Philly Pride someday,” she says. “I imagine the weather is better. And I would say it’s the best weekend ever, but I usually don’t remember most of it. Always find a lot of new phone numbers in my contacts afterward, though,” she adds, earning a chuckle from Eddie.
Wait which one.
Is he gay or European (homophobic)?
Or both?? Both is the worst.
false alarm. no homophobia just me being paranoid hashtag raised in texas
i’m so proud of your legally blonde references. my work here is done.
Well there are still a few things you could teach me.
“Wait,” she frowns, looking up, processing the fact that this man willingly chose to come back to Texas. “What are you doing back here, then?”
Eddie hesitates, and Gwen is about to tell him he doesn’t have to share, but he’s already talking. “My son has been living here with my parents for the last few months. I got tired of the distance.”
And that sounds like a can of worms, but before she can decide whether or not to ask about it he lowers his visor and there are several pictures taped there of a young teenager with curls and glasses.
Gwen immediately gives an “aww” in response, then notices that the only other person in some of the pictures is a man with similarly curly hair. She can’t make out the details very well but he has a bright smile in every photo as if there is nothing else in the world he’d rather be doing than posing in front of a fossil in a museum with this kid. “Is that Buck?”
“Yeah,” Eddie grins.
boyfriend pictures!! he’s so cute.
eddie=driver buck=boyfriend
Taking notes.
“Your son is the spitting image of him,” she comments.
Eddie snorts. “You should see them together. Buck has been there for half of his life, at this point I swear Christopher is taking after him more than me.”
Gwen had kind of guessed the boy was Buck’s biological son, but she masks the surprise on her face.
christopher=son
They have a son??
yes!!
Love wins.
“How did you and Buck meet?”
“Work. We were firefighters at the same station, became friends and partners pretty much right away.”
Gwen beams. “That’s so sweet. I met Charlie at work, back in our freshman year of college. We’re both graduating next year. We didn’t get along at first, but after you work midterms week at a campus coffee shop, you’re pretty much inseparable.”
Eddie laughs. “Yeah, the same thing basically happened between me and Buck. Except with a grenade.”
Gwen rolls her eyes. “Yeah yeah, okay Mister Firefighter. I’d argue that we had the more romantic setting, so take that.”
Eddie’s fingers stop from where they were tapping a pattern on the steering wheel. “Romantic?”
“Yeah, a coffee shop meet cute? Classic. Even if we were both the baristas in our case. But hey, we’re still not together, so maybe you could give me some advice on that front. How did you make the leap from friends to partners?”
Eddie seems to have not heard her, and then he laughs. “Oh. Buck was— we worked together. He was my partner. At work. He’s not— we’re not— Buck isn’t—“
Gwen truly does not know what is happening and just stays silent to let Eddie deal with whatever the fuck he is dealing with as he continues stuttering through an explanation.
Eventually Eddie settles on, “He’s just my best friend.”
Gwen blinks. She would like to rewind this ride from the beginning because it feels like everything she has ever known (for the last ten minutes) is a lie. “Oh. Sure, man.”
“We’re just really close,” Eddie adds. It sounds like he’s trying to convince her.
“Okay.”
omg
omg charlie what have i done
Sweet Jesus what have you done.
ABORT
apparently buck is NOT
“And I’m straight,” Eddie adds, almost like an afterthought.
That makes Gwen look up from her phone before she can finish her sentence. “What?”
“I’m straight,” Eddie repeats, sounding slightly less confident than before.
“Huh,” she says.
“What?” he asks, glancing over his shoulder at her.
Not what??
I’m on the edge of my seat
She shrugs. “I don’t know. I just thought…”
NOT THE BOYFRIEND
AND EDDIE IS SAYING HE IS STRAIGHT????
GAY UBER DRIVER NOT REAL??
Oh Jesus fucking Christ, Gwen
“It’s nothing,” Gwen winces.
“It’s not nothing. That tone wasn’t nothing.”
She scratches the back of her neck. “I don’t know, man, that’s just not the vibe I was getting from you.”
Eddie doesn’t say anything.
“It’s not a bad thing,” she says quickly. “Sorry if it upset you but it’s not, like, an insult. If anything it should be a compliment. I don’t open up to all random men in their thirties like this, you know.”
She’s gotta hand it to him. This conversation is successfully distracting her from dwelling on her mother’s look of disappointment that morning.
Eddie’s fingers resume a quick pattern on the steering wheel. “What was it that…”
He trails off, and she takes pity on him. “Well, first of all, the only person in your photos that isn’t your son is some guy, and every time you’ve talked about him, I swear I could see cartoon hearts circling your head. And you’ve found a way to talk about him every time you’ve opened your mouth. Second of all, when you tried to correct me, it took you like an entire minute to speak in full sentences and to tell me that you’re straight. Oh also, you drive a Prius and you’ve lived in LA for the last few years. Neither of those are helping your case, honestly.”
Eddie is quiet for so long Gwen wonders if he’s icing her out, and she nervously stares out the window at the stunning view of annoyed people in dirty cars not moving.
maybe i should just walk to the airport
It would probably be faster
And less painful
“So this Buck guy. Is he here in Texas too?” she asks, because apparently she can’t shut up until he tells her to.
“He’s back in LA,” Eddie says quietly.
“Ah.” Gwen is starting to connect the dots. “You left him behind to go after your son.”
“I wasn’t going to choose him over my son,” Eddie says tersely.
Gwen’s eyebrows furrow. “Why does it have to be a choice at all?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean.” She frowns out the window. “He wasn’t everything you left in LA, right? A career, some friends I hope, a home you lived in for a few years…why are you saying it was a choice between Buck and your son?”
Eddie doesn’t seem to understand, so she continues.
“Did any of your other friends in LA make you feel like you had to choose between them and your son?”
“No.”
“Did Buck ask you to choose between him and your son?” she asks, suddenly worried this guy kind of sucks.
“No!” Eddie answers quickly. “He loves Christopher as much as I do, he would never ask that of me. He knew I had to come here for him.”
oh my god oh my god OH MY GOD
“He loves your son as much as you do?” Gwen repeats, baffled. “Your coworker loves your son as much as you do?”
“Well,” Eddie flounders. “He’s not just my coworker...”
“He’s your best friend,” she finishes for him.
“Exactly.”
“Who takes your son to the zoo.”
“Right.”
“And learns about all the things your son is interested in.”
“Yeah,” Eddie says softly.
“And is on the school’s PTA.”
Eddie frowns and turns to look at her. “How did you—?”
“Oh my god!” she practically screams. “I was joking! Are you telling me—“
Eddie turns back to face the road and focuses very hard on moving forward two feet, his shoulders tense.
“Oh my god,” she says again. “Dude, are you aware that you are coparenting your son with your coworker?”
“Stop calling him that,” Eddie says, sounding tired. “He’s not just my coworker. He’s my…best friend. Best one I have ever had. He’s Christopher’s best friend, too. That’s why…”
“Why what?” she prompts.
Eddie sighs. Looks at his phone. It still says 57 minutes. They’ve moved maybe fifty feet since they actually started talking.
i wish there were oncoming traffic
then i could walk right into it
Please don’t do that
Not before you give me your secret recipe for those chocolate chip cookies
wow i feel so loved
You know I love you for more than that
Why do you want to walk into traffic?
Is he being quiet again
You’ve been strangely quiet for a bit what happened
i wish
this is somehow worse
i shouldve been recording the last ten minutes you are never going to believe me
and then i could play the recording for him and ask if he thinks this is normal straight bro behavior
What did he say??
ok ok i’ll tell you more details later
long story short
eddie put in his will that if anything happens to him that his SON christopher
will go to BUCK
BUCK WILL HAVE CUSTODY OF HIS SON
THE SON WHO IS CURRENTLY LIVING WITH HIS GRANDPARENTS
CHRISTOPHER WOULD GO TO HIS DAD’S COWORKER
also eddie gets mad when i call buck his coworker
but they are both firefighters
so this isn’t “haha what if”
this is
“every time i leave the house there is a very real chance i could die on the job but i can rest easy knowing that if that were to happen then my own flesh and blood will be in the best hands”
the hands in question? not belonging to anyone he’s bound to by blood or law. just some crazy near decade long situationship.
My god…
Lot to unpack there
All I can think about though is what is it about you that compels complete strangers to bare their souls to you
he’s on his second energy drink of the morning i think that’s mainly why
also i basically just told him no when he told me he’s straight and i guess he just needed to hear that?
who the fuck knows
“So,” she says eventually. “You trust Buck with your son’s life, Buck took care of him during a tsunami and after you got shot and he regularly participates in your son’s life and makes you guys meals all the time...Sounds like the perfect partner.”
“Yeah. Only an idiot would break up with him,” Eddie mutters.
Gwen frowns. Maybe their relationship is more complicated than she thought.
“Not— I’m thinking about his ex. They broke up a few months ago. Buck had a hard time with it,” Eddie clarifies when he notices her confused silence.
“And you were there to pick up the pieces?” she guesses.
Eddie runs a hand through his hair. “I was there to be a good friend and remind him that he deserves better than Tommy.”
The plot thickens.
“Tommy is his ex?” she asks.
“Yeah.”
“So Buck is…into dudes?”
“Bisexual,” Eddie confirms.
Gwen frowns, staring at the snacks again and going for a plastic water bottle. “So wait. Back up. Why aren’t you dating him?”
“I’m not gay.”
Gwen picks at the water bottle label. “Is that your only reason?”
“What?”
“I mean, you could’ve said he’s not attractive, or you’re not compatible, or you don’t think he’d make a good life partner or be good in bed or—“
“I don’t think any of that,” Eddie says, then pauses. “Not that I’ve thought about—“
“Sure you haven’t,” she says breezily. “I’m just saying, not being gay is kind of a flimsy excuse.”
“It’s kind of a prerequisite to dating a man,” he says in a monotone.
“No, listen. How do you know you’re not gay?”
“What?” he asks, disbelieving.
“How do you know,” she repeats slowly, “that you’re not gay?”
“I’ve dated women before,” he answers.
“Okay,” she says, now searching through his snacks again. “Interesting choice of words. Not that you’ve been in love with women before, but that you’ve dated them. So were you in love with these women?”
“Of course I was,” he answers quickly, then pauses again. “Well…I was in love with Shannon, Christopher’s mom, until she died. She was my best friend.”
Gwen’s eyebrows shoot up. “Just like Buck is your best friend?”
Eddie scowls. “It’s different.”
i’ll be honest this organic fruit leather kinda slaps
hey remember when i caught you googling am i gay quizzes
We agreed not to talk about that
maybe you did
but i’m serious
can you send the one that you said was helpful
if it worked for you maybe it’ll work for him
Are you…
Are you about to Am I Gay Quiz your Uber driver?
PLEASE
CHARLIE
Ugh
One sec
[Attached: link]
Keep me posted.
thumbs up emoji
“Wouldn’t I know by now if I were gay?” Eddie asks.
She shrugs. “People realize at all stages of life. I’ve known since I was a kid. Charlie only realized a few months ago.”
“Charlie is gay?” Eddie asks incredulously. “Your best friend that you are in love with?”
“Well, yeah, bisexual, but—“
“Charlie is into women and you haven’t done anything about it?” he asks.
Gwen scowls. “Why are we turning this on me?”
“You’re lecturing me about how I should date my best friend that you decided I’m in love with when you are in the same situation but haven’t done anything?”
Gwen catches the Freudian slip but is too busy defending her honor to say anything about it.
She throws her hands up. “Well excuse me, sometimes it takes being around your horrible family to realize that you don’t want to go through life without your best friend slash love of your life always by your side and you want to kiss her about it so you decide you can’t wait any longer to finally do something!”
Eddie’s entire body tenses. “Oh.”
Gwen frowns at the sudden change. “Oh?”
“I…” Eddie swallows. “Am I gay?”
“What?” Gwen asks, thrown by the sudden change in topic. She could’ve sworn they were just talking about her, but, whatever. “I mean, aren’t you?”
Before Eddie can answer, his phone starts ringing, startling them both. Buck’s name is displayed at the top of the screen and—
“Oh my god,” she says loudly. “That’s the photo for his contact?”
“What’s wrong with it?”
What’s wrong with it is that it’s a photo of the hottest man Gwen has ever seen. She couldn’t tell much about him by the pictures on the visor, but this one gives her a clearer image of his nice smile, his blue eyes, a cute birthmark by his eyebrow, streak of flour along his jaw. His biceps are on full display in a small shirt and he’s wearing an apron that is tight across his chest, smiling at the camera while he holds up a loaf of bread with all the pride and joy but none of the arrogance of some guy holding a fish in his dating profile.
Eddie declines the call and the photo goes away.
“Jesus Christ,” Gwen mutters. “That felt more intimate than a nude.”
Eddie sputters but the phone is ringing again and he inhales sharply. “It might be an emergency,” he tells her, voice tight with tension.
“Answer it, answer it,” she says quickly, turning to her phone and typing away to give Eddie some semblance of privacy even as he puts it on speaker.
buck just called and his photo is straight up out of a dead wife montage
which is probably insensitive to say considering eddie actually has a dead wife
“Everything is okay!” Buck says the second Eddie answers, and Eddie lets out a sigh of relief. Good lord. These guys and their tsunamis and shootings and what the fuck ever. “I’m fine, everyone is fine, sorry, are you working?”
“I have a passenger, yes,” Eddie says, voice still tight with lingering tension, and Gwen keeps pretending to not listen. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, Eddie,” Buck repeats, smile evident in his voice. “I just can’t get into the garage. It’s Christopher’s birthday, right?”
“Yes, but you have to click the pound key before and after the numbers.”
“Before and after? Damn,” Buck says. “That’s what I missed. There we go! Thank you, sorry to bother you.”
“Not a bother,” Eddie says, smiling now. “Did you lock yourself out again?”
“Excuse you, that was one time, and I was drunk. But yeah, I locked my keys in the car by accident, and my spare is in your— my bedroom. All good now.”
Gwen freezes and looks up, meeting Eddie’s eyes in the mirror.
“Okay, great. Talk to you later.”
“Bye!” Buck says.
The car is dead silent.
“Why is Buck at your house?” Gwen asks slowly.
“It’s his house, now,” Eddie says, which just raises more questions.
Gwen opens her mouth.
“Can we go back to you interrogating my sexuality?“ Eddie asks tiredly.
Buck. Is. Living. In. Eddie’s. House.
I thought Buck is in LA?
when eddie decided to move here
to be with his son
Christopher
yes
good job
Thank you
he needed to sublet his house
and couldn’t find anyone
so BUCK ended his lease and moved in
so that eddie could be with christopher without worrying about the house
…Which could mean nothing.
Actually no I don’t think it can.
Do they know it’s legal now?
“Okay,” Gwen starts, glancing at the map. She had left Eddie to sit in contemplative silence while she updated Charlie, hoping he would think back on some of the shit he said and realize that it is not normal behavior.
They’ve been making some slow but steady progress on the highway, and apparently they have thirty five more minutes. She can work with that. “I’m going to ask you some questions and you are going to answer them honestly. And there’s no fucking point in lying because we will never see each other again. So don’t bother to act straighter than you are for this.”
Eddie doesn’t answer so she begins.
“Have you ever had feelings for a close friend of the same gender?” she asks.
“Define ‘feelings’.”
“Oh my god. That’s a yes. Have you ever kissed or wanted to kiss someone of the same gender?”
“I think everyone gets curious—“
“You are so annoying. No, Eddie, they don’t. I’ve never looked at a man in my life and been ‘curious’. Not even with how hot Buck is.”
Eddie doesn’t respond. She clicks ‘I want to try it.’
“How do you feel about queer characters in tv shows and movies?”
“It’s great. Representation matters. I want my son to see that.”
“When someone asks who you’re crushing on, what do you say?”
“I’m in my thirties,” Eddie scowls. “Nobody asks me that. They just pester me about when I’m going to start dating again.”
“And you say…?”
“I don’t know,” Eddie answers, running a hand over his face. “Last time my friends brought it up I explained that dating feels like a performance.”
“Oh my god. Oh my god.”
Gwen’s fingers fly as she opens a new tab.
“What?” Eddie asks.
“I have something better than that quiz,” she answers.
“You were giving me a quiz?” he asks.
“I was, but now…” she bites her lip as she scrolls. “Okay. Let’s try this instead. Eddie, do you think women are good in theory but terrible in practice?”
Eddie frowns. “Uh..”
“Do you lose interest in a woman once she shows interest in you?” Gwen continues, only giving him a few seconds to think about it. “Do you feel like you can’t imagine having a fulfilling future with a woman?”
Eddie winces. “Well, actually, one time I was buying a suit and—”
Gwen doesn't let him finish, overwhelmed by how many questions she wants to ask him. “Do you feel like you’re performing your attraction to women? Do you think your feelings for men don’t count, or that all men have feelings ‘like that’?”
With each question she glances up at Eddie, and it’s hard to tell, but she’s pretty sure his expression changes the more she reads on, his shoulders slowly losing some tension.
“Are you only attracted to completely unattainable women, like it’s impossible for them to like you back? So, think fictional characters, celebrities, dead wives…”
Eddie scoffs. “That last part isn’t listed.”
“Correct, but it feels relevant. It’s easier to convince yourself you loved your wife because she’s gone.”
Eddie rubs his temples. “Okay. So what is this quiz telling you based on my answers?”
“First of all, you haven’t given me a single answer. Second of all, it’s not a quiz, it’s a…” she frowns, wondering how much she really needs to explain this. “It doesn’t really matter. It helped me realize I’m a lesbian, I just changed the wording for you, obviously, to make it about being into men instead of women.”
“Well, if I were to answer yes to most of those, what would that tell you?”
“Do you really need me to tell you or can you guess?” she asks, going for sarcasm but unable to help the note of gentleness in her voice.
Eddie exhales shakily. “I’m gay.”
They both sit in silence for a few moments and Gwen wonders what the hell to do in a moment like this. It seems like a big fucking realization, and not one he or anyone would want to go through with a random Uber passenger.
“Wait,” she says, searching for something on her phone. “Okay. Say that again.”
“I’m gay,” he says again, sounding more sure, and she presses play on a video of some random applause sound effect.
It has the desired effect, surprising Eddie enough to ease some of the tension out of his posture as he laughs.
“Fuck,” he says, sobering up, staring at the traffic in front of them as if it holds the answers to the questions of the universe.
“You good? This is a lot to process with a stranger,” Gwen says gently.
“I’m…yeah, it’s a lot. I think I’m okay, just shocked,” he answers. “Give me a minute.”
Gwen does so, electing to subtly take a selfie without changing her carefully neutral expression and send it to Charlie.
i just wanted a ride to the airport
i did not mean to trigger a sexuality crisis and subsequent gay awakening in my uber driver
final answer: gay uber driver real
I’m speechless
This kind of shit only happens to you I swear to god
You are easily the most interesting person I know
and also the most beautiful and funny and charming
oh oops i stole your line
You’re insane
you’re not denying anything i said though
Great observation
Gwen takes a break from flirting when she hears Eddie take a deep breath.
“And I’m…in love with my best friend?”
She blinks, unable to decipher his tone. “Are you asking me? Wasn’t that the whole catalyst to you realizing you’re gay?”
“Yes. Maybe. I don’t know.”
Gwen considers that. “Do you want me to see if there’s a quiz for finding out if you’re in love with your best friend?”
Eddie lets out a small sigh. “Never mind.”
“I…I’m not messing with you, man, I’m being serious. Would that help? Now that we’ve established things like it’s not straight behavior for you to be really curious about what it would be like to kiss a man?”
Eddie doesn’t answer, and Gwen asks, “You’re thinking about kissing Buck, aren’t you?”
He opens his mouth as if about to deny it right away, then closes it. “Kind of. I’m thinking about how often I’ve thought about it before.” He sighs. “I think I’ve thought about it a lot. The feel of his stubble on my face. Kissing his jaw. His birthmark. His hands.”
Gwen rolls her eyes. “Alright. We can work with that. So, is it just sexual, or do you have those ooey gooey feelings for him too?”
Eddie scowls slightly at her choice of words but only says, “Not just sexual. I want to…yeah, but I also want to, I don’t know, hold him when he’s sad…”
“Grab his hand when he’s feeling nervous?” she prompts.
“Wake up to his smile…”
“Go grocery shopping together,” she adds.
“Eat his cooking…”
“Wash dishes every night.”
“Spend every day with him…”
Gwen opts to let him process what they just said in silence and eventually he leans his forehead against the steering wheel. “Oh my god,” he says softly. “I’m in love with my best friend.”
“Welcome to the club,” Gwen says with a smile.
“This can’t be happening. This is awful.“
Gwen blinks. “What?”
“This is awful,” Eddie repeats, startling when the car behind them honks because traffic is actually making decent progress. “I’m, like, 820 miles away from him and I just realized I’m in love with him. I let him move into my house and I’m in love with him. I left him behind in LA and I’m in love with him.”
he has fully realized that he is in love with buck and no offense but after everything i’ve learned about them how did it take this long and a stranger in his car to realize this
fellas is it gay to know exactly how many miles you are away from your best friend that you lowkey want to kiss
2,085
what?
Nothing
The answer is yes
“First of all, this isn’t awful because falling in love with your best friend is the most amazing thing in the world, even if I haven’t had a good night of sleep in like a month over it,” Gwen tells him.
Eddie groans. “It’s been like that since I moved here. I keep waking up expecting to hear him in the kitchen and then feeling too disappointed to go back to sleep.”
Gwen sighs. “Second of all, it isn’t awful because by the end of today we will both have confessed our feelings to our respective best friends and the world will finally know peace.”
“You’re giving me a deadline?” Eddie asks, eyes slightly crazed when he glances at her. “I just found out, what, five minutes ago, can’t I have a bit of time to process this?”
“Edmundo,” she says patiently, and he scoffs. “Take it from the expert. The longer you wait, the more insane you are going to feel until one day you snap and book a flight so you can go see your person and let it all spill out. Save yourself, and Buck, the suffering. Tell him.”
“Wait,” he says, face pale. “What if he doesn’t feel the same way?”
“Dude.” Gwen groans. “Nothing you’ve said to me in this car ride makes me believe for a second that that could possibly be the case. His voice in that phone call was so lovesick that it made me carsick.”
They finally pass the accident that caused traffic to be this horrible. Gwen winces but still has to look and feels relieved when she doesn’t see anything that seems too serious, the firefighters on the scene tending to injuries and cleaning up the wreckage.
“Hey. Do you believe in signs from the universe?” she asks him.
“No,” Eddie says immediately, and Gwen rolls her eyes.
“Fine. But I’m just saying. With how much driving you do, that could be you one day, and maybe you won’t be so lucky, so. Do yourselves a favor and just tell him before it’s too late. Or before you do something impulsive and crazy about it.”
Eddie hums. “Do you think there are any flights this afternoon from El Paso to LA?”
Gwen is still looking at the accident through the back window but she whips her head forward immediately and Eddie laughs at her.
“You should see your face. No, that’s something Buck might do,” he says, voice soft. “But he knows I’m needed here, and he would rather I be with Christopher at his chess tournament this weekend.”
Gwen scowls. “You are not funny. Almost gave me a heart attack, man. I can talk you through a gay awakening but I am not prepared for being responsible for you spending all your tip money on a last minute flight. But for the record, this ride is under that aforementioned credit card and I will be generous with that tip, even though you have been taking a long fucking time to get me there.”
Eddie scoffs. “Well, as long as we are already taking the scenic route…”
He gets off on the next exit, which isn’t what the map says, but Gwen is too curious to say anything in protest. Eddie turns left at a stoplight, then takes a right, then pulls into a gas station parking lot where a man is at a stand selling flowers. Eddie hops out of the car and Gwen hears him talking to the vendor in Spanish. Eddie gives him money, grabs two bouquets, then places one on the passenger seat and hands the other to Gwen when he’s back in the car, driving away before Gwen can do more than wave at the vendor.
“If you’re going to do a romantic homecoming, you can’t show up empty handed,” Eddie tells her, and fuck, Gwen is not going to cry, she’s not–
Okay, maybe she’ll discreetly wipe away a tear or two, because she has always associated the place where she grew up with so much judgment and hatred, and she was sure that when she told her parents over breakfast that maybe next time she is here she could bring home a girlfriend and her whole day blew up after that, she would never want to return.
But here is this stranger, this ridiculous, oblivious stranger, who doesn’t feel like that to her anymore, not after he entertained her invasive questions and listened to her ramble about the joys of being in love with your best friend. Here is Eddie, who took five minutes out of their drive for a gesture that she is sure she will never forget because it’s not just for her, it’s for the woman she loves. And that will be what she thinks about the next time she considers coming back here. That will be what she remembers about this day that started so unbelievably shitty she had accepted she would be miserable until she was back with Charlie.
Damn, Buck is one lucky son of a bitch.
“Thank you,” she finally says when she is sure her voice won’t shake. “She’ll love these.”
She looks closer at the flowers and realizes they aren’t real, but carved from wood and hand-painted. “Oh. These are stunning.”
“Every time I’m in this area I think that Buck would love them. He’s good at basically everything except for gardening, so,” he shrugs.
“Are you going to mail them, or give them in person?” she asks, smiling.
Eddie taps on the steering wheel. “I don’t know, to be honest. Hopefully in person soon, but…” he trails off, and Gwen watches the emotions flicker on his face.
“Hey,” she says as he gets back on the highway. “I’m sure things will work out. He seems like a great guy and you seem pretty cool too, I guess, even though you thought you were straight when I first got in your car.”
Eddie laughs but doesn’t argue.
“What you and Buck have, it’s too special to be broken by something like distance. So whether he makes his way over here or you and Christopher leave behind whatever shitty family I’m guessing that you have here and go back to LA, you guys will figure it out.”
Eddie takes a deep breath, following the signs that lead them toward the airport. “Thank you, Gwen. Really. Good luck with your best friend, too. Charlie is lucky to have you.”
As he navigates toward the departure curb, she gathers all her belongings, including an extra fruit leather for the trip. He hops out of the car to help her take her suitcase out of the trunk and before she can change her mind, she gives him a quick hug. He seems surprised but pats her on the back.
“Good job, you successfully managed to distract me the whole car ride here,” she says. “Five stars. Great tip incoming. And here, take this.”
She hands him a ripped paper from her notebook that she scribbled on a few minutes ago. “What is this?” he asks.
“Don’t lose it!” she says, and he shrugs and puts it in his pocket, closing his trunk and giving one last wave before he gets in his car.
Gwen takes a deep breath as she stares at the automatic doors, her decision from this morning suddenly feeling more real. She’s never felt more sure about it, though. She grips the wooden bouquet in her hand and wheels her suitcase into the airport.
(The only thing that breaks her stride is the pause she takes to pull out her phone, guess how much it would cost to fly from El Paso to LA, then put that number as her tip for her Uber driver.)
Two years later
Hi baby <3
my love!!!
home in twenty minutes
need anything?
Nope
Do you know an Evan Buckley?
???
is one of my facebook friends making a move on you
some bitch from high school i forgot about
or wait is that the guy from x-men
no charlie i have no idea
Macey messaged me on Instagram to say that we had some mail show up at your old place
I thought it would all be junk but there’s a fancy envelope addressed to both of us, from an Evan Buckley
Like it’s handwritten and everything
open it!!
It’s a wedding invitation?
HUH
It’s in LA?
I’m so confused rn Gwen
send a picture
this bus ride has never been more exciting
[Attached: image]
oh my god
oh my fucking god
he actually kept my address the motherfucker kept it
AND HE BEAT ME TO IT. THAT FUCKER.
i could cry
is this a joke please tell me you aren’t pulling a stupidly elaborate prank on me
Babe I have no idea what’s going on
babe pack your suitcase we are going to LA
The wedding isnt for another six months?
don’t care
pack it
your finest apparel
this is the wedding of the century
Babe. Who the fuck are these men.
i wish i could see your face for this but i simply cannot wait a second longer
remember my gay uber driver
from a couple years ago
(almost exactly two years, actually, since it happened on our anniversary <3 <3 <3)
and the guy he was basically raising a son with
Wait
THIS IS EDDIE AND BUCK?
YEAH
ARE YOU SERIOUS
THATS WHAT IM SAYING.................
WE ARE GOING RIGHT
OH WE ARE ABSOLUTELY GOING
YOUR! FINEST! APPAREL!