#cricket + mack 006

[cricketcampbell]

for: @mackmontgomery

where: x and van's backyard engagement party wedding, october 18th.

Cricket hadn't even made it through the announcement of the surprise before she'd burst into tears.

Well, a surprise to most of the attendees anyways. She'd been one of the few already in the know, considering she'd been entrusted with the daunting task of feeding them all--which only felt like the biggest, most important night of her career thus far, but no pressure or anything.

(And that was just on top of getting to witness the love of two people she considered friends on what she knew felt like the biggest, most important night of their lives too.)

After the ceremony, Cricket had stepped away to the side of the house to compose herself. This was her first time leading a catering team like the one that awaited her back in the kitchen, and she couldn't return to them all tear-stained and weepy or else they'd never respect the authority she'd spent all of the prep for cocktail hour working to establish.

Hearing the sound of footsteps approaching, she was quick to swipe under her eyes, turning to offer the passerby a polite smile that startles into something more genuine when she sees just who it is who's joined her.

She still hadn't quite wrapped her mind around actually seeing Mack here, a colliding of worlds that didn't feel like they should work, but did. At least to her.

"I swear I'm not having a total meltdown." She assured with a laugh, wiping away at another rogue tear. "But the mother of the groom has already made herself a known presence in the kitchen and I got the sense it wasn't just a one off visit, so. There's still time."

[cricketcampbell]

"Seriously?" Cricket's jaw dropped. "You're going to I told you so me now in my time of need? That's actually sooo crazy fucked up of you, Mack. Like wow. I can't even believe."

Despite her incredulity, her grin rivals the one he offers in return, the sight of which had never been hard-won as far as he was concerned. He'd always known just how to get a smile out of her.

(If any pain lingered in this new after of everything they'd been through together, she thought it was more reminiscent of the way he used to make her cheeks ache with laughter than any damage their tongues had lashed out in fumbling anger.)

"See? That's more like it, thank you."

He really would too, she knows, but just the sentiment was enough. The idea of yelling at him, pretend display of authority or not, was not one Cricket had any interest in making a reality.

But when she'd seen the opportunity to help make one of his dreams come true? She hadn't hesitated, then. She'd never even thought twice about it.

Her grin softens into something smaller but just as fond, gaze curious on Mack's face as she nodded to show he had her attention and waited to hear what it was he'd been meaning to tell her.

She never did find out, though she did discover that they were not being as quiet as she thought they were.

Cricket couldn't do much more than stand there in front of the woman, her boss's stepmom, in utter mortification, wishing right about then that the ground would open up and swallow her whole right where she stood…and take Mack down with her, for his part in encouraging her.

Both thanks (for the compliment) and apology (for anything she'd heard before interrupting) are offered before she goes, Cricket watching until she's out of sight before she turns back to Mack with a hand clamped over her mouth.

"Yeah…" She nodded, slowly lowering her hand. "I should probably go make sure they remember how good I am at my job so maybe they won't fire me for that." Though the woman had seemed genuinely cool about it, so Cricket could only hope that it wouldn't come back to bite her in the ass. "But I will, promise."

It's only after they've gone to part ways that she finds herself turning back to call out:

"Hey, Mack? I--" I'm happy you're here, is what she'd meant to say, but when he's actually facing her again, the words suddenly stick in Cricket's throat. She pauses to clear it, but is still smiling as she offers something just as true if not just maybe more cowardly in it's place. "I know you're gonna do great."

@mackmontgomery

"I could have told you you'd get like that," Mack grins after he's exhaled, his head turned away from Cricket to do so so he wasn't blowing smoke in her face. He's seen her get more upset over the love on display of people she shared less of an actual connection with, but he had always liked that about her.

( And there had always been plenty to like about her. )

"They won't but if you feel like they're questioning this new iron fist of yours, you can yell at me in front of them and I'll act all shook by it and we'll restore your authority."

He's only half-joking with his offer, tapping ash off the end of his cigarette and making sure it didn't drop on the unusually snazzy shoes that were on his feet. There was no way he was going to show up to a wedding of this calibre under-dressed or looking slobbish.

There's a thumbs up from him at the hour timeframe, committing to it if it meant rescuing her from what sounded like mother-branded peril.

"I'm feeling very good about it, I'm excited. I'm yatting people I never thought I'd even meet in this lifetime, it's wild. You know, while I got you, I been meaning to say--"

"--I'm sorry to interrupt," The blonde says as she does exactly that, causing Mack to stop mid-sentence so she could speak, curious about what it was she had to say. "I couldn't help but overhear and that one in there is mine."

Mack's unsure who or what she's talking about until Deb continues.

"She's a little bit overexcited with wanting her son's big day to be perfect and she speaks ten words a second with gusts to fifty when she gets like that. I'll keep her clear of the kitchen. You're doing a wonderful job, sweetheart," Her attention turned to Mack then, "And you best steer me in the other direction if start asking about tattoos at two in the morning."

That makes him laugh and he promises to remember it, giving her a wave as she makes her way back inside.

The moment's passed for what he wanted to say to Cricket, and he lets it go by as he stubs his cigarette out.

"On that very Southern note, I better head back inside. But you know, if you want a tattoo or you just have a second, come find me."

He's surprised by how much he hopes she does.

@cricketcampbell

[cricketcampbell]

Cricket's own index finger and thumb are held up in a mirrored gesture, squinting one eye as she attempted to look through the gap and squish Mack's head where it was framed between them.

"Maybe just a little." She laughed, dropping her hand back to her side. "I just, like, didn't expect it to get to me like that, I guess. Which is actually so stupid, because I can't watch a single wedding vow TikTok without total ugly crying about strangers."

And that was without most of those couples being Grammy awarded lyrical geniuses. Cricket had never even stood a chance.

"It probably doesn't help that I also realized this is actually, like, the first real wedding that I've ever been to, like…ever."

(Real as in she actually knew the bride and groom as opposed to simply being hired to walk around offering their guests mini caprese skewers and cocktail napkins like she had for extra cash during culinary school.)

There was an added pressure that came with being the one charged with putting together these (in this case, metaphorical) mini caprese skewers, but just Mack's reassurance that she was doing a good job was enough to relax her shoulders some.

"Thanks. That's why I have to get all this," she gestured up to her face, "out now so they don't see me, like, crying into the salad and think they can just totally walk all over me. I'm trying to channel my inner Gordon Ramsey."

She hadn't had to make anyone into an idiot sandwich so far, which was both a relief and a bit of a disappointment. She could get definitely used to being the chef on the other side of the chorus of yes, chef's though.

The sight of the cigarette between his lips has her instinctively reaching for where her vape would have been in her chef's coat had she been wearing it. There's a brief moment where she considers asking for a drag of Mack's, cigarettes never having appealed to her more than when he smoked them…but until she remembered how they tasted, and the urge fizzled out, even as her gaze lingered.

(She'd just sneak a hit of her Strawberry Lush Puff Bar in the pantry like she knows the others are doing.)

"Huh?" Cricket asked, his offer lagging a second behind as she snapped out of it. "Oh, ha, no, I think I can handle it." Though, as she thought about it… "But maybe come ask me again in like an hour. Or if you hear the sound of glass shattering from the kitchen. Whatever comes first."

She was mostly teasing anyways. Putting more on Mack's plate when she knew it was just as big of a night for him as it was for her was something she'd never dream of doing.

"What about you, though?" Her smile was soft as she asked, nudging him gently. "Feeling good about tonight?"

@mackmontgomery

"Are you having a little bit of one?" Mack asks, his index finger and thumb pinchinh the air with a miniscule gap between them to display how little of one he was talking about. It had been hard to miss her getting emotional during the ceremony, mainly because he had spent the majority of it glancing her way while she watched the newly minted Mr. and Mrs. Matthews become that.

He's not sure why that was.

It's not that he had been disinterested in the wedding itself -- he loved weddings, he was happy for the newly married couple -- he just couldn't quite stop himself from looking her way.

( How could he not? She was the whole reason he was even there. )

"Looks like you're running a tight ship though, that's dope."

He had never been in a situation where he had seen her be that authoritative but it was proving to be fun to watch.

Retrieving a cigarette from the pack he had brought with him, he knows better than to offer her one as he holds one between his lips to light it, taking a long a drag as he gives a greeting nod to an older blonde who had stepped outside to do the same.

"You want me to come get rid of her? You know once I start yapping people usually start running."

@cricketcampbell