#and i am not patient enough to micromanage lol
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sugar-and-spite · 1 year ago
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i got bg3 💖 waiting on it to download, not sure what i'm gonna play o: my fav in actual dnd is clerics but i'll have to look at how the mechanics translate to the video game
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bitchloveskcbaseball · 3 years ago
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Tripping Over Myself
Pairing: Logan x OC (Charlotte Wheeler)
Summary: Charlotte’s not the best at communicating and it gets her in a bit of trouble. (takes place shortly after Drawn to a Flame)
Warnings: Language. Lots and lots of language. Seriously...so many f-words. lol Also, mentions of her previous car accident (it’s not super detailed, but it is brought up a few times) and her resulting injuries.
Word Count: 5525. I swear ... I was certain this was going to be nothing more than maybe 2k words. And then this happened and the thing that I wanted to happen in this fic didn’t even happen so that’s fun lol
Logan belongs to Pixelberry, but the other two lovelies are all mine.
A/N #1: This was written for @rodappreciationweek​ MC day. And sticking with the theme from the first two pieces in this series, I have pulled the title from the lyrics of Shawn Mendes’s Stitches.
Also... a huge huge thank you to @burnsoslow for reading a piece of this that had me chasing my tail for what seemed like forever and fixing it for me. You are the best!!
“Hey hey hey! The hell you think you’re doin?”
Freezing mid step to turn back around to where Paul was glaring at her from his now-seated position where he'd rolled out from under her car on his creeper, Charlotte scrunched her nose up in confusion. “You were bitchin’ that you didn’t have your 3/8 down there. Figured I’d grab it so you’d stop muttering to yourself.”
“I had one rule for letting you stay after you showed up here today. And I made it explicitly clear.”
“But – “
“No. No buts.”
“C’mon Paul! You can’t seriously expect me to sit on that damn stool the entire time we’re here. I am fully capable of walking to the toolbox and grabbing a goddamn socket!”
“Lottie, sweetheart. You are still healing. You need to take it easy.” Instead of the calming effect she was sure he was shooting for, the soft gentleness of Paul’s voice just reminded her of an adult trying to calm a child who was in the middle of throwing a massive tantrum. And that ratcheted her mild frustration up until she was actually throwing a damn fit.
“For fuck’s sake! I know I’m fucking hurt. But I’m not a complete invalid. I don’t think me taking three fucking steps across this damn storage unit and picking up a tool that weighs a few ounces is going to do me in when a fucking slab of concrete didn’t!” Her hands flew up to steeple across her nose and mouth. “Shit. Paul – “
Gaze firmly locked on his white-knuckled grip on his wrench, Paul cut her off with a slight shake of his head. “Nah. It’s … it’s fine, sweetheart.”
In two shaky steps, Charlotte was across the unit and gingerly kneeling in front of him. Slowly, as if she were approaching a spooked cat, she eased the wrench out of his hold so she could wrap his hand in her own. “No. It’s not ‘fine.’ I … I shouldn’t have said that. I promised I’d stop acting so nonchalant about the accident.” Before he could interject, she nudged his knee with her own. “Shush, lover. I really am so incredibly sorry. I shouldn’t have lashed out like that. You’re only trying to look out for me. And I appreciate that more than I could ever say.”
Finally lifting his head from staring at the floor between them, Paul’s teary eyes met hers, twisting her heart even harder. In barely a whisper, he asked, “The hell did you have to go there for?”
Letting out a harsh sigh, Charlotte stood up and whirled around. It was a motion she instantly regretted when every thing went a little off kilter and her vision started to swim. Ugh! Not this shit again. She fought against the urge to lean against the work bench to her right, not wanting Paul to decide that she needed to be taken home: that was the last place she wanted to be at that particular moment.
“Lottie?”
Finally giving up any thoughts she'd had of blowing off his question with the pretense of being fine, she practically exploded, “Ugh. I’m just … I’m so fucking tired of all the hovering!” Her fist closed around one of the lug-nut caps that were lined up on the bench, waiting patiently for the new wheels and tires that had yet to be ordered to be installed. The urge to hurl it at the closed roll-up door was only eclipsed by the desire to not mar its mirror-like finish: finding replacements that matched the original set from L.A. was hard enough the first time and she certainly didn’t want to have to do it again because she'd briefly lost her damn mind. So she forced herself to replace it into its previous spot and let out another, albeit quieter, sigh. “Look … I love Logan, ok? Like all that head over heels, all my heart bullshit? I feel all of it for him. With him. But fuck it all. He has barely given me six inches to breathe since he showed up in my damn living room. I know it's only been a few weeks, but it has felt like years and not in a good way. I mean, I had to sneak out of my own fucking home just to come down here today!”
“Sweetheart – “
“I know. And I get it. I scared the shit out of him. Hell, I scared the shit outta both of you guys. But … “ Finally turning back around – slowly and carefully this time -- to face Paul again, she let her shoulders sag. “I can’t live with someone micromanaging every second of my day. Every move I make. I … I cannot go back to that kinda life.”
Stepping up to stand in front of her, Paul gently rubbed his hands up and down her upper arms. “Have you talked to him? Told him all this?”
She laughed bitterly. “I have tried. So many times over the past few weeks. But every time I try to bring this or anything remotely related to the accident up, he just completely shuts down on me.” Voice breaking with the tears she was fighting to hold back, she muttered, “I can’t lose him again. But I can’t keep doing this either.”
“C’mere.” Careful of her still-casted arm and still-tender ribs, he wrapped his arms around her. Instinctively she tucked her face against his neck, letting his presence soothe her. After several silent moments, he pressed a kiss to her temple and asked, “You want me to talk to him ‘bout it?”
“As much as I would love for you to do that … you can’t. I have to be the one to get through to him if this is really going to work between us.”
Tightening his hug ever-so-slightly, Paul kissed her temple again. “I’m so proud of you, Lottie.”
“For what?”
“The girl I met a lil over a year ago would never.”
Pushing back from him enough to see his face, she narrowed her eyes at him as she tried to decipher his meaning. When she came up empty, she questioned him, point blank, “The hell nonsense are you talkin’ about?”
“When you first started pestering me at the sideshows, trying to bully me into giving you a spot in one of the races. You had everything so locked down, I’m not sure a stick of dynamite would have gotten you to open up. Even after I succumbed to my still-ongoing case of Stockholm Syndrome oof – “ using her cast to knock him in the stomach may not have been her smartest idea, but it was still an effective form of retaliation – “and we started hanging out more, you kept most of your feelings tucked away in that vault. I mean, sure, you eventually let me in, little by little … but, my point is, I’m proud of you for admitting how you are feeling.”
Despite the way her eyes rolled exaggeratedly, she couldn’t keep her lips from twitching with the smile threatening to break out across her face. “Would you shut up already?”
“Only after we circle back to that bit about you sneaking out to come down here. Thought you said Logan drove you?”
“Um … how ‘bout we go back to you singing my praises?” All she got in response was a stare down from Paul, so she relented with a sigh. “Fine. I noticed Logan had dozed off, so I slipped out and called a cab to bring me down.” When his eyes went wide, she held up her free hand and quickly added, “I left him a note. I’m not the one that just vanishes without a trace.” The venom in her words caught even her by surprise.
“Maybe without a trace. But never without a conversation.”
“Ugh.” Charlotte’s head fell forward so that her forehead was resting against his chest, grumbling, “Thought you were ‘posed to be my friend and stick up for me?” He shot her a knowing look, but she continued on before he could launch into the spiel she'd already heard dozens of times before. “Fine. Ok. You win. Save the damn lecture and put the time to better use. Say … running me home?”
Laughing, Paul retorted, “Bout freakin’ time, sweetheart.”
A short time later, Paul was pulling up to the curb in front of her apartment building. Mind already running through the things that she needed to say to Logan as she reached for the door handle, she jumped when Paul’s hand came to rest lightly on her shoulder. “Don’t I even get a ‘goodbye’ or ‘thank you’ first?”
“Shit! I’m sorry! Thank you so much. For letting me hang. For forcing me to talk this shit out. For bringing my ass home.”
Chuckling indulgently, he told her, “You’re welcome. For everything.” She once again started to climb from the car, but stopped when he continued, “But, I need you to promise me that you won’t sneak out like this again.”
Chuckling indulgently, she shrugged her shoulders and opened her door before tossing back, “I would, but I don’t make promises I’m not sure I can keep.”
The glare she got in response was stern, but the effect was all but negated by the warmth in his voice as he threatened, “Fine. Lemme put it to ya this way, sweetheart. If you do it again, I’m dumping your ass. For real.”
She waited until she’d stepped out and up onto the sidewalk before she turned around to say, “It’s so adorable when you act like you could live without me, lover,” before turning to walk through the front door, blowing him a kiss from over her shoulder.
As she crossed the lobby towards the elevator bank, her eyes caught on the Out of Service sign and she let out a groan. Despite her annoyance, Charlotte didn’t blink an eye before heading for the staircase, figuring it was only a minor inconvenience. Especially since, at her last appointment, the first thing she’d asked once her doctor had mentioned that she was good to start easing back into very light physical activity was if she was okay to take the stairs to her apartment, because the ancient elevators were constantly having issues and she knew that having the freedom to move around more meant nothing if she couldn’t get in and out of her damn apartment. While he wasn’t exactly thrilled at the prospect, he assured her that she’d be fine so long as she took it slowly and carefully. Still, she knew even with the green light from her doctor, it was going to feel like a trek after having spent so long doing little more than traversing the path between her bed and her couch.
True to her expectations, by the time she’d gotten to the second floor, she was definitely more winded than she’d usually be and her entire body was beginning to take on that achy feel of being suddenly being forced to work. But neither of those things is what had her slumping against the wall with a white-knuckled grip on the handrail. No, that was brought on by the way the world had seemingly begun to spin around her, setting her completely off balance.
What could have been five minutes or five hours later, she chanced peeking an eye open, but the vibrant mosaic tile pattern of the stairs was still swirling and swimming about in front of her, causing her to slam it back closed and drop her head back – gently – against the wall. Frustrated that the only change in how she felt was the deep churning and roiling in her gut, she finally acknowledged that she wasn’t going to be making it up the rest of the way on her own and pulled her phone from her pocket to call Logan.
Without opening her eyes, she placed her finger over the fingerprint reader, waiting for the digital clicking sound that signaled it had been unlocked, but it never came. Steeling herself for the unsettling sensations that were about to wash over her, she once again peeled an eye open and pressed the power button to wake up the screen. A loud groan escaped her when the screen remained dark, reminding her that she had forgotten to charge it the night before.
Faced with the unsettling choice of either continuing on in spite of the vertigo – which seemed risky, even by her standards – or staying in her spot for who knows how long until the episode passed, Charlotte couldn’t hold back the sobs building in the back of her throat or the tears welling in the corners of her eyes as she slid down the wall to sit on the step. All she wanted, with a desperation she hadn’t felt since those first few weeks after he'd walked away the last time in L.A., was for Logan to wrap her in his arms. To whisper all of his sweet reassurances in her ear. To be the calm and steady force that centered her through the storm.
Almost as if her longing thoughts had conjured him, he was suddenly there, hands running gently over her arms and then brushing away her tears as he rattled off question after question, not leaving her space to actually answer one before moving on to the next. It was just as well, however, considering her addled mind couldn’t seem to make any sort of sense out of the words, choosing instead to latch onto the strained breathlessness with which they were uttered.
Wanting, or rather needing, to reassure him that, while she felt awful, she was wasn’t in mortal danger, she blindly reached out until her fingers brushed against the familiar, well-worn softness of his favorite denim shirt. As she ran her fingers across what she recognized as his chest, his free hand came up to tangle gently in her hair and she sank into the touch. A beat later, his forehead was resting against hers and she couldn’t have missed the shudder that ran through his body or the shaky exhale that passed his lips if she’d tried.
Charlotte’s fingers curled around the button-lined edge of shirt and she whispered, “It’s okay baby. I’m okay,” so softly she was surprised when she felt his answering scoff fan across her face, confirming that he had actually heard her.
Instead of a snarky retort or censuring lecture she was expecting to hear, the next words out of Logan’s mouth were simply, “You good if I pick you up?”
Her eyes shot open at the almost frigid indifference in his voice and the sight in front of her knocked the wind out of her like a punch to the gut. His brows were deeply furrowed and his lips were pursed together so tightly that they were barely visible. It was one thing to know that he was worried and upset – she’d felt it in his every tentative touch -- but it was something else entirely to see it.
Wanting nothing more than to ease some of his tension, she trailed her fingers up from his chest along the side of his neck and face, across his forehead until she could smooth them along the deep-set lines running between his eyebrows. It was a left-over habit from when she’d briefly moved into his loft in L.A., one that had never failed to relax him. This time, unfortunately, it didn’t have the same effect and her heart sunk just a little bit deeper into her stomach. Feeling defeated, she let her hand, along with her gaze, drop back down to her lap as she answered his question, “Yeah. I think the dizziness is mostly gone now. So long as we take it slow, I should be fine.”
Without hesitation, Logan pulled back enough to push himself up out of his crouch and it took everything she had not to whine at the loss. Within seconds, he was leaning back down to wrap one arm around her back while the other slid underneath her knees. Instinctively, Charlotte wrapped her free arm around his neck and as soon as she did, he was standing back up and tucking her against his chest, making sure to be mindful of both the strap of the sling across her back and the bulkiness of her cast. He spared her one glance with a raised eyebrow, but immediately averted his eyes when she assured him, “I’m good.”
Despite the way that he was cradling her so carefully in his arms as he carried her up the next two flights of stairs, with what seemed like no effort at all, it felt to her as if there was an entire canyon between them. Not once did he look down at her. Not once did he even twitch as if he was thinking of dropping a kiss to the top of her head. Not once did he open his mouth as if to say something to her. Even when she had to drop her head against his shoulder as a wave of nausea threatened to overwhelm her, the heavy silence remained.
As soon as they were back inside the apartment, Logan settled her gently onto the couch then turned to grab his pillow and a blanket from the pile of bedding he made each morning when he folded the pull-out away. Wordlessly, he tucked the blanket tightly around her – just the way she needs to be able to sleep alone. As he was reaching up to place the pillow beneath her head, she caught his wrist in her hand, whispering his name beneath her breath. Rather than make eye contact with her, he simply shook his head once and slipped away from her grip.
Stung by his rejection, Charlotte didn’t try to stop him again as he left the room. Instead, she curled up into as tight of a ball as she could on her good side, letting the scent of him on the pillow and blanket take over her senses until she was slowly drifting off into a blessedly dreamless sleep.
By the time that she woke up, the living room was cast in complete darkness, save for the bright green LED light letting her know her phone was finished charging. Lotta good that does me now. She blinked a few times in an effort to get her eyes to adjust to the lack of lighting, but still could barely make out the outlines of the rest of the furniture surrounding her. Even still, she knew Logan wasn’t in the room with her: she could always feel his presence when they were in the same space and that feeling was noticeably absent as she slowly pushed herself up to sit on the edge of the couch.
After giving herself a couple of minutes to make sure she wasn’t going to be dizzy again, she got up and headed towards the kitchen, figuring that would be his most likely location. Sure enough, she found him there, perched on one of the oversized chairs that in no way matched the tiny, shitty-ass excuse for a dining table that he currently had his forearms resting on. He was staring at the wall in front of him so intently that he didn’t even seem to hear her enter the room. Or, at least, that's what she was choosing to believe.
With just a couple more steps, she was able to close the distance between them, allowing her the ability to wrap arms around him from behind. She never made it that far, however, because as soon as her palms made contact with his shoulders, he startled and tensed beneath her touch. She opened her mouth to apologize for scaring him, but he cut her off before she had the chance, seething quietly, “Don’t you dare pull that fucking shit again.”
“Excuse me?”
“You can’t just sneak out without a word and then not answer your damned phone for five hours and expect me to be okay with it!”
“Okay, one? I left you a note telling you where I went. Two? As you clearly have already figured out, my fucking phone was dead. I didn’t even realize it until I was on my way back up here!”
Standing up from the chair so fast that he nearly knocked it – and her – over, Logan whipped around to face her, eyes wild with fury. “So one irresponsibility is just supposed to excuse another?”
Charlotte gave up all pretense of trying to stay calm, throwing her hands up in the air as she shouted, “For fuck’s sake, Logan! You knew where I was! If you were that damned desperate to get ahold of me, why didn’t you just call Paul?”
“I did. He wasn’t answering his goddamn phone either! By the time he finally did pick up, it was over half an hour after he’d dropped you off.” While he’d started off yelling at her in a volume that rivaled her own, Logan had trailed of into little more than a whisper by the time he was done. And that cut her deeper than the loudest insults ever could.
Unsure of how to respond, Charlotte reached up to fiddle with his spark plug necklace. It was something that had become a somewhat-nervous habit for her when he’d given it to her back in L.A. and she’d picked it up again once she’d begun wearing it almost constantly after their reunion. That simple, unthinking motion ended up being the answer to her loss of words, however, when the cool weight of it in her hand, combined with all the emotions running rampant through the room, sparked the memory of how she’d come to possess it in the first place.
“Logan, baby.” She paused, waiting until he looked up from the floor to meet her gaze before continuing gently, “You remember what you told me when you gave this to me?”
He raised an eyebrow at her as if asking her where she was going with this abrupt subject change. When she didn’t give him an answer, he let out a harsh sigh before replying, “Not entirely. I remember it was before the Grapevine job. Something about it keeping you safe like it did for me?”
“Yeah, that was part of it. You also told me how you came to wear it, too. How you'd survived a crash that you probably shouldn’t have.”
Rolling his eyes and throwing his hands up in the air, Logan sniped, “Okay … so? What's the point of this random-ass trip down memory lane?”
“You told me that you’d almost died. In a car accident. Right before we were about to go steal four very expensive sport cars. And we were going to steal them off a car hauler on the freeway, no less.” As if he had suddenly figured out where she was going with this, his eyes widened before narrowing on her. He opened his mouth, but she held up her hand to stop him. “I’m not gonna lie. As much as I was so touched that you were giving me something that meant so much to you? The story behind it fucking terrified me. Because if you – who had been driving so long and had so much skill at it – could wreck like that, what chance did I have at holding up my end of the bargain? Not to mention, just the idea of you getting hurt almost sent me into a tailspin. And I’m not so sure that that wasn’t your plan all along.”
“I – “
Walking over to wrap her arm around his neck, she kissed first his cheek and then his lips briefly and tenderly. When he didn’t tense up or pull away from her, she chanced nuzzling her face into the crook of his neck. “I know, baby. You were just doing whatever you could think of to keep me safe. I understand that. And I understand that the result of me being a complete dumbass during that race scared the shit out of you. But I’m still here. I’m still alive. And today’s episode notwithstanding, I’ve been feeling really good. So this whole, hovering-over-me thing? The it’s-too-dangerous-out-there-thing you’ve been doing? It’s smothering me and I … I just can’t do it. It took me far too long to escape it with Wheeler. Far too long to find the strength to realize that it was okay – more than okay – to be who I wanted to be regardless of whether the people in my life accepted it. So … as much as I hate worrying you, I cannot go back to that old, boring version of myself, the one that never really felt like me, just because it's safer.”
Logan inhaled sharply and hands tightened ever so slightly where they had been resting on her hips since she'd tucked herself into him. A couple long beats passed before he finally muttered, “You know, you seemed to have skipped over the most important part of that story, though.”
Face scrunched up, she asked, “Yeah?”
“Yeah. That wasn’t just me giving you a good luck token. That was me trying to tell you not only to make sure you’re always in control, but also to make sure you learn from life's lessons.”
“I know.”
“Do you, though?”
Taken aback by Logan’s abrasiveness, Charlotte stumbled back a step, only to be met by narrowed eyes boring into her. “I ... I … I do.”
“Sure doesn’t seem like it from where I’m standing.”
“Logan – “
“Do you even realize how fucking stupid that stunt you pulled today was? What if that episode had hit when you were out there on the streets somewhere? All alone?”
Even though she knew his point was valid, Charlotte couldn’t bite back her derisive scoff. “First of all, I was literally by myself when it happened, so yeah, I have a decent idea.”
“That’s not what I meant and you know it.”
Continuing on as if she hadn’t heard his outburst, she added heatedly, “Second, the only time I was by myself today was on the elevator ride down to the lobby, the walk from my cab to Paul’s storage unit and back here in the stairwell. It’s not like I was fucking gallivanting around the whole goddamn city.”
“For fuck’s sake! It’s not – you know what? Just forget it.” Throwing his hands up, Logan turned to storm out of the room.
“Sure. Just ru … run away. It’s – “ Tears that she refused to let fall clogged her throat and she pressed her lips together in an attempt to gather her composure. She realized, however, that the damage had been done, her stuttering robbing her words of their intended venom, so she pressed on with a watery whisper, “It’s what you do best.”
Practically freezing mid-step, he pivoted back around to face her, hands scrubbing at his face. “Damn it, Char. I’m not running away.” Shoulders falling when she rolled her eyes at him, he quickly closed the distance between them to lace their fingers together and insisted, “I’m not.”
“Then why – “
Without warning, Logan crushed his lips to hers in a kiss that left her short of breath when he finally pulled back just far enough to murmur, “’Cause you refuse to acknowledge how fucking reckless you’ve been and it is frustrating the ever livin’ shit outta me. And it just felt like it was better to walk away than say something I’d regret. Something just to hurt you. I don’t want … I can’t hurt you like that.”
Charlotte pulled back a little bit further to meet him square in the eye. “Future reference? Words are no big deal. You walking away? That’s the shit I can’t handle.”
Tangling his free hand in the hair at the base of her head, he gently pulled her face back so he could feather another kiss across her lips before replying, “Noted.” Another barely-there kiss. “Thing I can’t handle?” A slight tug of her bottom lip between his teeth that pulled a sharp gasp from her. “You not takin’ this shit seriously.”
This time, instead of leaning in again, Logan pulled pack just a bit further. She tried chasing after him, but he maintained their separation until she dropped her head back with a groan.
“You even listenin’ to me?”
“Um … yes?”
“Charlotte.”
“Hey!” She tried to glare at him, but instead ended up giggling, “You were the one distracting me!” When he leaned back in for another kiss, Charlotte dipped back as far as she could. “See! You’re doin’ it again!”
“Answer the question and I’ll stop.”
“What if I don’t want you to stop?”
Shaking his head at her with a familiar and fond smile tugging the corners of his mouth upward, he chuckled, “Okay … Answer the question or I’ll stop.” As if to emphasize his point, he pulled his hand out of hers and untangled his other from her hair to place them both on her hips to keep her planted to her spot when he took a step backwards.
Making sure to soften her words with a smile, Charlotte grumbled, “Ugh. Fine. If you’re gonna be so cruel about it … “ A light pinch pulled another giggle from her. “Okay. Okay. Yes, I heard you.”
“And?”
“And … I get it.” The incredulous look he gave her almost had her flinching. “Look, I get that I haven’t been the most … appreciative for the way that you’ve been taking care of me. And I get that I can’t go back to ‘normal’ just because I want to.”
“Char – “
“Hold up! I’m not finished!” Stopping to heave a frustrated sigh, she continued, “I’m going to do better from here on out. I’m gonna take it easy until the doctors clear me. I’ll do a better job of listening to my body when it starts telling me to take a break. And I’ll stop fighting you so much about it.”
“Not stop all the way, huh?”
“I think we both know me better than that.”
Pressing a kiss to the tip of her nose, he snickered, “Okay, that’s fair. That mean we’re done with this sneaking-out shit, then?”
Raising an eyebrow defiantly, she fired back, “Depends.”
“On?”
“Are you done with all your helicopter shit? Because if you are? Then yes. I’m done sneaking out.”
Logan studied her face with an inscrutable expression on his own for what felt like hours before nodding his head once. “Fine. I’ll chill out so long as you behave.”
Wrapping her arm around his neck with a smile, she told him, “I’m so glad we got that settled. I hate fighting with you.”
“God, me too. Are you as exhausted as I am?”
Charlotte snorted as she dropped her head against his chest. “Oh, my god. You have no idea.”
“Why don’t we call it a night, then?”
The hopefulness in Logan’s voice almost made her snicker, but she managed to smother it by placing a kiss to a spot right above his heart. “That sounds like a great idea, so long as we go together tonight.
The words were barely out of her mouth before he was nodding eagerly and answering, “Done.”
A/N #2: Just in case any one is wondering (since I haven’t written about Paul and Charlotte’s friendship nearly as much as I have wanted to) and also because I just really want to share this tidbit behind Charlotte’s nickname for Paul. When the two of them first started to become friends, the way Paul was always calling her “sweetheart” drove her absolutely crazy for reasons I may actually write about at some point? lol so she decided to retaliate by calling him “lover.” Unfortunately for her, however he didn’t mind, so it obviously didn’t have the desired effect. Eventually, it became a habit of affection and each of their nicknames stuck. Thank you for indulging me in this moment of ridiculousness
Perma Tags: @burnsoslow​ @mvalentine​ @anotherbeingsworld​ @adiehardfan​
Logan Tags: @brightpinkpeppercorn
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whereisthatmutebutton · 6 years ago
Text
How Long
Sitting in the kitchen tearing at 3pm. Husband is still sleeping. We haven't had breakfast or lunch. I fell aslp watching Russia vs Saudi Arabia because I'm too exhausted. Not sure what time he slept as he was also playing LoL.
Supposed to meet my parents for early Father's day dinner later but I'm an emotional wreck. Need to emotional vomit somewhere after holding it in so much.
So i got the job. It's been 3 weeks now since I've started work and the mum guilt is real. Every morning it's so hard to leave him behind and everyday when I get home so tired, I struggle to have energy and smiles for him. I try to read to him and put him to bed with hugs no matter what. I struggle to hold back tears at work whenever I look at him on the CCTV.
I'm not really doing that well at work cause I'm so distracted and tired. Colleagues are ok (except for micromanaging senior manager) but I can't seem to click. I've grown wary of being backstabbed again.
I've had to OT a couple of days and it was pretty sucky to get home and realise that Ethan was still awake and cranky. Muster up all my 1% of battery power to put him to sleep. Working has just made me more busy having to juggle both hats and it's not like the other parent is doing his part to offload more from me. I don't even feel surprised tbh. This was exactly what I expected, hence my apprehension towards working.
But well, working gives me money to support myself and honestly that's what I need right now..to feel independent again - for both myself and Ethan.
I am still struggling with staying status quo for life and being a hollow shell of a person and detonating the biggest bomb of my life. Every. Single. Day. I am dying inside. I just try to block it out and work does help to distract me when I'm not crying over lost time with Ethan.
I can't bear to talk about my marriage problems to anyone anymore because everyone else has problems too and I've taken up enough of their time on a pointless issue that has no immediate solution. It'll just be here if you happen to see it.
Every single time I get happy and feel that things are better, I get disappointed. I'm disappointed again for the __th time. know it can be long process but I just don't think he is taking it seriously and really wanting to try at all.
The most painful thing is probably having to do all these things and stay patient, yet seeing him still oblivious to my pain, never once asking me how I am. I collapse on the bed everyday after doing 1727473726 things upon coming home but he still remains the same. Never once offering any help.
The recent trigger was him ask that female colleague(from the CNY incident in another post) to watch Brooklyn Nine Nine and laughing about jokes that were once our inside jokes with her. Just yesterday he spent a long time at the dinner table just chatting non stop with her and smiling. Needless to say, we hardly spoke.
Does he even smile like that about me? I can't even remember.
He told me she was in depression for awhile last time and that she's v funny. I didn't even think her jokes and puns were that funny.
I guess I'm not interesting anymore enough to talk to other than boring wifey and motherly stuff. I'm not funny enough either lol.
He hurts me in ways he doesn't even know and I seriously struggle to maintain this relationship.
My depression means nothing as compared to hers.
Well.
Is there any point in me speaking up anymore when it doesn't seem to make much of a difference in the end? How we are today isn't any different from how I felt a few months back in the previous entry. We just slipped back so naturally and effortlessly into the crap of a rut again.
Of course things will always remain "OK" like this as long as I can remain a robot of a wife to execute everything according to his plans without a peep. But as long as I don't? The cycle begins once more and I see it happening again.
He's going away for a business trip for 2 weeks again and with that colleague and another..telling me all the travelling plans he plans to make. Can't do anything about legit business trips right? At least I'll be free for two weeks. Nowadays I start to look forward to that.. bigger bed, peace and quiet. Freedom to eat when I want and do everything I want.
I guess this is it. This is how messed up my marriage life is. This is how I'm going to spend the next few years living my life..
Cool. cool. cool. cool. cool. cool.
I can see why people love to use humour to brush of painful things because it does work at making things feel less severe.. until it isn't anymore.
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336863 · 4 years ago
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I don’t think its much of an overstatement to say that it’s been quite a whirlwind first month at my new place. I guess I’m not exactly surprised at the dynamics (in respect to all aspects) of this new role given how lean it is but it definitely still needs getting used to. Got to hope that, at the very least, I’m not falling way behind expectations so that’s something I’ll have to check myself on.
Also, Joe seems to be extremely measured in the way he puts his points across and is very intentional with the things he chooses to verbalise or not. Again, I’m not certain that I’m not being oversensitive (lol just realised the double negative there) but I have this gut feeling that Joe intends to bring across a message with every word he carefully chooses. Makes me feel like I ought to take an additional second to process his intentions. Writing this out makes me realise that it could mean that I’m trying to second-guess but then where should I draw the line between that and actually exhibiting an appropriate level of emotional awareness? Probably not too much I can do but to soldier on and try to pick up more cues. But the other side of it is that I’ve always been a pretty good judge of character so maybe there really is something in there. Anyway, Joe is no doubt intelligent but I’m wondering if he errs on the conservative side. Not that I’m concerned or is it in any way a negative but I’m still figuring this entire gig/industry out so I guess it’s just another data point.
There’s a little part of me at the back of my mind that’s feeling some sort of insecurity that maybe there’s a bit more that I can do, more effort that I can put in, more of me to give... Not sure if that’s a residual mentality from getting pummeled basically all the time for 2.5 years or if its a rational voice letting me know that I’m actually off the pace. If I’m being 100% objective and try to take my emotions out of it, I’m probably leaning towards the former... which then means my oversensitivity is borne off the insecurity/uncertainty of this new job. Hmm, I’m guessing I can’t be too sure but let me continue trying to cop a feel of this entire situation. It also is not helping that for the first time since I’ve started working that I’m actually feeling Monday blues in a semi-consistent fashion - perhaps it has to do with being too comfortable in the tail end of my time at the bank, quiet office set-up, the reversion back to working in the office but it’s definitely something I need to root out and pivot away from. I have to switch gears and get out of this mentality, which I guess is one of the key reasons I’ve set time aside to write this post.
Reading again what I just wrote above, this self-questioning (self-doubt?) is likely to have to do with me jumping head long into something that I very honestly don’t know a great deal about. Everything about this role is different from what I’ve been used to at my old shop - the fundamental change in mindset and perspective to that of an investor from a paper/excel/powerpoint pusher, the workplace senior/junior dynamics, the shorter but more intense hours, the level of expectations, the independence and even the lack of someone breathing down my neck (man it seems crazy to recognise that in a way this provided me with some level of comfort to know that I’m being micromanaged to not fall too far away). 
This entire episode of introspection translated into a lot more words than I had expected but I have to remind myself that this is meant to be a breath of fresh air for me. I’ve spent the last four paragraph letting the more unpleasant (attributed, I think, to a whole new sense of unfamiliarity) side of the experience dominate my thoughts while not indulging the great parts of this new role. If I’m honest with myself, work has been interesting and from a learning perspective, it has been pretty immense. I’m being taught to think critically, examine and evaluate companies and sectors thoughtfully. I’m given challenges when it comes to my technical modelling skills - difficult enough to prompt me to think and grow but also on a reasonable enough timeline for me to internalise what I’ve done in a timely manner. Despite Joe’s natural inclination to introversion and subtle pointedness (at least from what I’ve seen so far), he’s been all around nice, patient, understanding and caring. I wouldn’t pick Joe as someone that would fuck me over comp or rain demands that are not reasonable. It’s definitely a far, far cry from the worst case scenario I had pictured in my head prior to starting work. I don’t get overly bothered outside of market hours and my weekends have been more or less pristine so far, so I really do have plenty to be pleased about. I guess I just need to remind myself, once in awhile, of this very true, very real fact that I am in a very desirable place.
I don’t want to kill myself at this job as I try to recalibrate a whole new balance in my life but I also don’t want to do a unsatisfactory job - guess life is just one giant balancing act huh. I’d attribute this back-of-mind niggles as still settling in and ramping up but I want this post too serve as a mental note that I will not let my insecurities and discomfort with the unknown/new engulf me to the extent that my thoughts are warped irrationally and I forget or deemphasise all the good that’s also associated in this role. I guess if these niggles still take up a material portion of my head space in a couple of months then I ought to revisit it a little bit in the future but for now, I’ll keep this simple and not overthink - I figure if I keep at this, stay humble and open-minded, give a good effort then I think, like most of what I’ve enjoyed in this blessed life, things should work out just fine. Godspeed to me.
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retracing-my-steps · 7 years ago
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Day to day to day
I have this idea like people have their shit together, when really they don’t. People improvise like everything, constantly. And taking good care of yourself is really hard in a society where people work long hours for not enough pay. So it’s not the norm to have well-rounded sleep and eat all the meals, homemade each day..
I suppose they just don’t care. Mostly. And are ok with that? I’m not ok with it for some reason. So I stress myself out, in ways maybe other people don’t agonize at all.
I think what it comes down to is this:
I am autistic and have ADD. I have a very very uneasy feeling when it comes to my self-control and ability to trust myself. Things I do take a lot of effort and I tend to interrupt myself and things take a long time.
Planning and coordinating, time management, and making the steps flow is incredibly hard for me.
Also, things take me a lot of energy. I have managed to get 8 hours of sleep over and over lately. 9 sometimes. I never feel rested. I always feel burnt out mentally. Just from small things. Small actions. Just trying to decide what to eat for lunch makes me feel confused and tired. So balancing my life around work is very scary for me.
So while I might be doing just as well, if not incredibly better in my day to day life compared to some or most people… I always feel like I’m going to slip and lose any and all progress at any moment and then no longer have the momentum to try
Basically becoming a vacuum of depression and eating myself out of house and home* … and then anxiety keeping me awake and feeling like I can never claw my way back up
*(I could eat myself out of house and home, since I have only the money to really cover half of my life despite working nearly full time, [and my hours got cut so it got tighter] since rent is impossibly high here– so I have to stay very strict within my half-my-life budget, I can’t get stuff like out-food)
So for me there’s a huge feeling of dismay and anxiety and uneasiness surrounding my day to day life. Because my brain is already built to run in circles. It’s very hard to go forward.
I think what’s hard is, I must have killer motivation. But damn if it isn’t frustrating as all hell to not see myself ever successfully making it forward and staying forward.
Life is up and down up and down and that’s how it is. But I can’t really feel or sense that graph slowly bobbing upward overall.
Trouble is I micromanage down to the day. Every day feels like a day where I can feel ok or a day when I can’t. A day where I managed or a day where I didn’t. It’s hard for me to see life in a bigger scale. To have trust and patience that my effort adds up. That I put in enough that my life could get better. That I’m not just burning myself out on all this want.
People don’t really care. They survive. They half-ass their days and survive. They improvise. They get through.
But the thing is, it always feels like my exhaustion follows me day in and day out. Like it cumulates. And I don’t know how to fix that. So I feel more and more scared when I can’t take better care of myself. When I can’t seem to get it down. When I fail, the next day is impacted. And the next. And the next. I miss a meal. I lose a couple hours of sleep. The next day I’m more confused. More tired. And fail more.
And then it feels like it just leads straight down to that hopeless mess of losing momentum and depression.
How does one loosen their grip when they are convinced they probably have no grip at all?
I drag laundry to my family’s house every week to dodge paying for laundry here. I just read online that you’re supposed to wash your exercise clothes after every use. That makes me want to panic lol. I only have like two pairs of sweatpants so.. how..?? And I only have time to do laundry once a week.
So it’s just very… ??? Idealisms… I can’t have it all so what matters most? What do I need most?
And can I even pull -that- off?
Will my trying amount to something? Is there a way to let go without losing? Can I do this slowly and will it work, will I be able to eat enough and sleep enough and have more energy someday if I’m just patient through the very slow process of making that work?
Who knows
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