#i love tefi so much; she just gets it you know????

[vulcanette]

-tefi pessoa

[tefibetancourt]

her head tipped back in a paroxysm of unladylike, undignified guffawing. “oh god! you know i saw him at the once upon a time in hollywood premiere? i had a friend that had tickets, she knew how much i love sharon tate.” tefi reminisced with a sigh. “too bad i didn’t know back then it was my one chance to be with him.” not that she ever would have, because leonardo hadn’t been cute since catch me if you can. not in tefi’s opinion, anyway. “we’ll say you’re twenty-five, too, because they can’t prove that we aren’t.” tefi thought she still looked young—largely in thanks to her routine preventive botox injections—but not enough to pass for seven years her junior. and, well, her birthday savior looked youthful, but not twenty-five.

she nodded at his teasing, eyes narrowing playfully. the tears that had run down her face dried, leaving track marks in their wake, and they looked a little grotesque underneath the growing mirth in her eyes. somehow, the decades of neglect she hadn’t even realized she suffered faded from her mind, no longer trapped in memory. she was only thinking about the here and now. just the way that tefi preferred it. she shrugged at his question. “yeah, it’d be nice to go to the beach down there again.” she realized that sounded a little impersonal, “it was just never really… like, a home to me? if that makes sense? i only went a few times as a kid and it was kind of just, like, a nice vacation and not really this is where your family is from, this is a monumental… moment sort of thing.” tefi shot him a sidelong glance. “i am a no sabo kid, too, if you haven't figured that out yet.” not entirely, as she knew plenty of terms and slang in spanish, but not enough to have a string a full sentence together. not a grammatically correct one, at any rate.

“maybe it’s like casino chips or something. you know, you throw them in the air and then they just fall on the floor or the table or whatever.” that made perfect sense to tefi, but she seemed to always get her idioms mixed around. it made people think she was stupid; she just hadn’t cared enough to get them correct. tefi inhaled loudly, turning the cupcake around in her hand. she knew that she wouldn’t be able to eat the whole thing, and didn’t the man deserve a gift in repayment of his kindness? tefi messily split the dessert in half and handed the smaller piece—because it was her birthday, after all—to him. “thank you. for being nice to me. not a lot of people are.” not without expecting something in return. tefi supposed she didn’t deserve kindness, she knew that she wasn’t a good person, but how were others so easily able to tell? she thought she was nice to most, and she had perfected her customer service persona years ago. maybe it was like putting frosting on top of mold: easy to see once you scrape off the sweetness.

a bit of self-reflection wouldn’t fix her, though. not overnight.

Let’s say twenty-five. Antonio smiles, happy to indulge the crying girl. “Twenty-five it is,” he says. “Happy twenty-fifth birthday. You’re officially too old to date Leonardo DiCaprio.” He knows that’s mostly an industry rumor, but he’s met the man. Antonio knows for a fact it’s more than a rumor. Still, that’s probably not something he should advertise to a stranger. He likes when people don’t know who he is, or where he comes from, or who he might know — it makes him feel as mundane as anyone else walking down the street, just as unremarkable, and he feels most at home in said anonymity. He’s got a good feeling about this girl not recognizing him at all, even when she feels better — there’s something about her that certainly screams not a big indie rock fan, which is just as well. 

Antonio raises an eyebrow at her admission. “Puerto riqueña, eh?” he teases. “I’ve been there a couple times. It’s beautiful.” Weird that he’s been there more than he’s been to his birth country, but he thinks that’s mostly been on purpose. He’s not so sure what he was afraid of, back then, when it came to visiting Mexico — and he supposes it doesn’t matter now, that he has an actual reason to avoid it for the foreseeable future. “You ever feel like visiting again?” It doesn’t sound like she has the same issues he does with his own country, but it also doesn’t sound like she’s clamoring at the chance of going back. Then again, Antonio thinks it’s unfair to judge that sentiment at the moment, when she’s clearly more preoccupied with whatever’s brought her to a sidewalk in tears on her birthday, and not whether or not Puerto Rico is in the cards for her anytime soon. 

Attainable. None of Antonio’s wishes have ever felt that way before. So she’s certainly several steps ahead of him in that department. “Good,” he nods, and he means it. He hopes things look up for her. He hopes she finds some kind of peace — he thinks there’s enough bullshit in the world already. Someone should get what they want. “That’s the saying, yeah,” Antonio replies to her inquiry, smiling slightly in amusement. “Though I can’t tell you where it comes from.” He thinks about this for a moment — her willingness to believe things can work out for her, if she allows fate to take control. He thinks he’s been just as passive in his life, but never in such a meaningful way. Mostly, it’s been out of fear — fear that he might hear words he doesn’t want to hear, fear that he might ruin the best thing that’s ever happened to him, fear that he might sound petty, or sad, or pathetic. That’s the difference here, he realizes. She seems to let fate be ruled by her hope — Antonio’s let fate be ruled by his fear. “I hope it comes true for you.”

[funkymbtifiction]

What do you think causes people to overestimate how many characters are INTJs? I’m not just talking about sensors being mistyped as intuitives (Katniss Everdeen, Black Panther and Spock come to mind), but (also) other intuitives who are mistyped as INTJ (Gregory House, Rodney McKay, Samamtha Carter). Why do you think that occurs? It’s really easy to do. Even I struggle with it a lot -- going, is this character INTP or INTJ? -- especially when the movie doesn’t really make the character strongly defined in their typing. House, for example, seems like an INTJ (mostly because of his intuitive leaps and tendency to shoot down everyone else’s ideas, which he needs them to generate for him so he can say no) -- except TeFi does not screw with people for its own amusement, which is his primary method of operation. He will needlessly buck authority and do things just to tick people off and even if he were an 8 core NTJ, they still don’t do anything that has no external factual impact. It’s low Fe that likes to mess with people when it gets bored, because it feeds off getting some sort of an emotional reaction from “less rational people.” While Katniss is often typed iNTJ, she is also widely typed ISTP, but she’s really rubbish at Se -- she has her one thing (hunting/archery) that she is good at and mostly does that. And she has zero Ni. Girl has no big picture focus, it’s just about her experiences and those she loves, and a lot of inferior Ne anxiety about things going wrong. Black Panther is extremely traditional - an INTJ Black Panther would have a vision for his country and let nothing stand in his way, but he passively allows himself to be replaced out of respect for ‘how things are done here’ (IMO, 9w1 ISJ?). People assume “smart = INTJ.” People assume “interesting = INTJ.” People assume “cool = INTJ.” And it doesn’t just happen with INTJs, either. Villains are often typed NTJ, even if they show zero Ni. A lot of villains seen as ENTJs are actually ESTPs (reckless, opportunistic, and use tert-Fe to screw with/play mind games with the hero). There’s also way, way too much over-typing of strong, interesting female ESTJ characters as NFJs. People think somehow because a female protagonist or side character isn’t an asshole, and cares about people, that she must be a feeler, and they mistake grounded realism (don’t do that, it’s stupid and will backfire) is ‘intuition.’ No, Ni is specific, not general “that’s a stupid thing to do, Harry Potter.” ;) INJ in fiction is usually best seen in a character who only has ONE life’s goal or purpose, and who cannot back away from it, even when it goes wrong, because they have nothing else, they have this thing pictured in their mind, and their inferior Se is too poor to read the situation and realize they were wrong. Like the guy in Prometheus who refuses to realize the aliens are dangerous and will kill him, instead of what he wanted them to be -- or Doc Oc in Spider-man 2, who when everyone is screaming at him to turn his invention off, refuses, and continues insisting it is going to ‘stabilize’ -- in the process, ignoring all the direct evidence he is wrong (literally, it is peeling the steel paneling off the walls and becoming a black hole). It kills his wife, and he still wants to build another one, because he just ‘knows’ it is going to work this time. He’s pictured it!!! THIS IS MY LIFE’S WORK!!! Basically, I’d look for evidence of singularity and an inability to turn aside when things go wrong (another example -- Amelia Brand in Interstellar, who heads off the ship to pick up parts and doesn’t turn back even when confronted with a dangerous, destabilizing environment, because her Ni-dom is locked into ‘this is what I am GOING to do’ despite the ISTP screaming at her not to be stupid). That is, fundamentally, what INJ is -- a preference for a single course of action, viewpoint, or belief, that devalues any and all information in the sensory environment that proves them wrong. (Or in the case of Alien’s heroine, instinctively knowing she ought not to let her teammates back on the ship, even if everything sensory around her indicates ‘it’s fine.’ Intuition >>>> proof.) If the character is generally intuitive + thinker + introvert but doesn’t show this kind of arrow-focus / absolutism, assume they are INTP instead. And you should always start off by assuming the characters will all be sensors -- the intuitives then really stand out because you soon realize they’re making connections no one else in the story is generating. (EG: Stiles in Teen Wolf.)

[funkymbtifiction]

Detective Contrasts

So, a friend has been nagging me to do this for weeks. :P

Since there is so much confusion over Sherlock’s type online, he suggested I compare / contrast four different introverted detectives with good N usage to show different cognitive interactions. The four I’m going to use are Morse from Endeavour (INTP), Hercule Poirot (INFJ), Sam Ryan from Silent Witness (INTJ) and Sherlock Holmes from Sherlock (ISTP).

The NJs:

Ni/Se means a preference for intuitive insight / singular conclusions / reading between the lines imbalanced with detachment from sensory reality (Se). INXJ characters all struggle with making impulsive decisions under pressure, never knowing when the right moment to act is, and often, a sense of fussiness and/or unrealistic demands from sensory reality. This is extremely apparent in Poirot, who must have everything ‘just so’ / is a total perfectionist, trying to force reality to conform to his higher ideal. It is also, to an extent, seen in Sam whenever she proves inept in her sensory environment / misjudges situations.

Poirot has a habit of forming an internal impression about a crime and then either waiting for it to happen as he predicted (so he has a case) or in sitting everyone down and impressing them by airing his final judgment -- with a Ni, that’s all you see: the end conclusion, not the audible process. Because he is a Fe, he wants to impress other people with his intelligence, and he is influenced by emotional appeals, as well as completely understands human nature. Poirot is good at understanding emotional motivations and not discounting them.

Sam has a similar methodology in the sense that her impressions are all internalized and do not often change course, but unlike Poirot, she does not care about the credit -- her Te/Fi objective is to solve the crime, and put the bad guy behind bars, and it does not much matter to her who gets the credit. Her ego is not based on the opinions of others, and she sees no reason to use emotional appeals -- instead, she finds one or two cases with which she can relate (Fi) and becomes intensely internally emotional because it resonates. She can defy authority to close her case, because her ‘hunch’ overrides her respect for political hierarchies.

Where Poirot wants credit and affirmation and airs his feelings freely (FeTi), Sam wants progress and closure and does not air her feelings (TeFi). Where Poirot will target someone’s emotions (Fe), she does not (Te).

The IPs:

Ti/Fe detectives have a habit of discarding any potentials and/or evidence that does not make logical sense to them -- and we see this both in Sherlock and in Morse; Sherlock refuses to even consider that a hell hound might exist, or that ghosts could exist, because in his mind it’s not rational (judging dominant). In episode one, Morse is berated by his superior officer for not including all the evidence in his investigation and report because “I judged it as unimportant.” It made no rational sense to Morse, so he threw that line of possibility away.

Their approaches differ; Sherlock becomes aggressively sensory-invested in his environment whenever something takes his fancy, where Morse remains detached and somewhat awkward in his environment. Sherlock notices the smallest possible detail (Se); Morse speculates and theorizes on motives (Ne). Sherlock reaches immediate conclusions based on the sensory evidence (SeNi) and Morse reaches likely conclusions based on instinct (NeSi). Sherlock becomes so fixated on a single conclusion that something he did not expect catches him off guard / throws him for a loop and he resorts to physical violence to counter-act it (SeNi). Morse... changes his theories completely; it was you for this reason... no? Okay, then it was him for that reason.

Both men have inferior Fe issues, but they dramatically differ given the aux-function; Sherlock is prone to violent / erratic outbursts / bad sensory behaviors / tantrums (Se with poor Fe) and Morse is prone to occasional mope-sessions in which he relives past hurts / girlfriends who have gone (Si loops). Sherlock has a constant need to show up other people / have others impressed with his intellect (similar to Poirot) and baits / manipulates / emotionally torments people sometimes to provoke emotional reactions (unhealthy inferior Fe); Morse on rare occasion moralizes at someone and/or tries to establish an emotional connection to them to earn their trust (healthy inferior Fe).

Not surprisingly, since shows love contrast, both Sherlock and Morse have STJ higher ups to keep them in line; Morse and Sherlock want understanding / have little regard for the hierarchical rules (TiFe) and their bosses (for Sherlock, Mycroft) want closure / bottom lines / mature behavior from them, similar to what Sam demands from herself and her working companions (Te/Fi).

- ENFP Mod

[mayanoelle]

It felt good to see Phoebe smiling, even if it had to be pulled out of her at the moment. It was a much more natural expression on her face than the frown she’d been sporting. Maya tilted her head, giving Phoebe a soft, understanding smile. “Well, if you ever decide to make the switch, I’m sure you’ll give every lawyer in town a run for their money,” she teased, her expression softening as Phoebe explained herself. “Hey, you don’t owe me an explanation for anything. I’m just glad you’re here now.” Maya could see Phoebe’s mind racing with whatever thoughts she was hesitant to say out loud. Somehow Blue Harbor had a way of tangling lives together than Los Angeles did.  “As for Tefi, I get it. Things happen, and it’s not my place to push or pry,” Maya continued, resting her elbows on the counter and leaning in closer, her voice dropping. “But just so you know, this place is always open for you. And if you ever get a craving for a Latte Love pastry, just text me. I could be convinced to make a delivery,” She flashed a reassuring smile. “And for what it’s worth, I’m really trying to give everyone a clean slate here, including Tefi. But if things ever get uncomfortable, you let me know. I don’t want you to feel like you have to stay away.”

Pink dusted her cheeks as Maya complimented her smile, rolling her eyes good-naturedly, though admittedly, she did feel better. She didn't want to be this sad imitation of herself, moping around town like a ghost. The last thing she wanted was to make anyone worry. And, even if the smile was coerced from the barista, it did help a little. "Hey, hanging out with a lawyer now and again means I've picked up some tip-top legal tips, maybe I'm due a career change." She teased.

Slightly surprised that Maya and Tefi had history, the intern swallowed down the biting comment on if Maya had any boyfriends that Tefi was previously married to, because that wasn't who Phoebe wanted to be. And ultimately, it wasn't fair to the woman in question. "No, not a problem. Curious mainly," She assured her, worrying her lip. "I mean, um, Tefi is the reason I haven't been in here recently — I don't really wanna get into it," She quickly added, because the why wasn't important, not until she could sort something out between the other parties involved. "I just didn't want you to think you did anything, why I haven't been in. But like, I'm glad you gave her a job." Because Phoebe was. Despite what happened, she wasn't going to run around town bersmirching Tefi's name like the former waitress tried with Foster to limited success. She wasn't that vindictive.

[tefibetancourt]

it was sort of… sad when she thought about it. that their marriage—which was still legally valid but had died a decade ago—had ended up this way. there had been a time in her life, long ago as it was, when foster was her life. they were swirled up in a toxic cycle where they fought more than they loved, but tefi had never been in love before. she had thought it was love, at least. she knew she didn’t love ralph, her now former fiancé, but her next marriage wasn’t supposed to be built on such a foundation; she had wanted someone to bankroll her lifestyle, and ralph wanted someone to play trophy wife. it was mutually beneficial, until it wasn't. there had been, in the end, nothing beneficial from her marriage with foster. even now, this promise of money from his dad’s estate thingy hadn’t seemed adequate. it was a divorce settlement ten years too late, and she didn’t even have the fucking money yet. any monetary value wouldn’t salve over her emotional pain, anyway! it was the least foster could do, right? give her money for her pain and suffering, or at least to keep her mouth shut?

“okay!” tefi repeated, nodding shallowly. there was a bloom of satisfaction in her chest and a small smile had found its way to her face. maybe she would actually stick to her word. maybe she’d let foster go on with his little charade! he could play house with phoebe as much as he wanted, because wouldn’t his relationship crumble without her interference anyway? foster was still lying to phoebe about his marital status, and knowing how he loved to avoid difficult things, he’d probably keep her in the dark until the last possible second. she could see it now, foster at the altar with phoebe in a pretty white gown, giving furtive glances down the aisle to make sure tefi wasn’t going to burst in the door (so very days of our lives!) and expose his deceit with an objection. he couldn’t marry phoebe without first divorcing tefi, and even the meekest girl alive wouldn’t just be okay with her boyfriend lying about being frickin’ married for the entire duration of their relationship. foster had built up a perilous, unstable house of cards and it would really just take one push from tefi to make it all come crashing down. 

until they signed the divorce papers, foster was going to be held hostage as her lawfully wedded husband, whether or not he actually coughed up the money. “fine. i’d shake your hand on it, but i really don’t want to touch you.” god, she felt better now than she had in weeks! tefi gave him a dazzling smile and cocked her head to the side. “now, get the fuck out of my section. ‘kay?” she slid out from her side of the booth and pointedly looked down at foster. “but i want my money. just try not to run out on her like you ran out on me, fos’.” with that, she turned, ponytail swishing behind her, and returned to the server’s station.

Money was the only real bargaining tool he had, and considering he didn't actually have the money now, that left him pretty damn powerless. It wasn't enough that he was just sitting on it — that he'd had nearly a year to get it all sorted, but instead he'd gotten distracted by Phoebe and the idea of finally having a home. Foster never thought he could think of Blue Harbor that way, but this place was important to him. Phoebe, and Leon, and Ash, and Lucia and the restaurant... He'd finally found his home. Once, he imagined he could build it with her — and he'd be damned if she was the one to take it away now.

It wasn't a perfect arrangement, but it was better than nothing. Better than Tefi walking around like a ticking timebomb. "Okay," he nodded. "That's fair. I swear to you, you'll get your money, and in the meantime, just... don't talk to anyone." His run-in with Thalia had scared him half to death. And while his promises might not mean much to Tefi, as she said, but there was a steely determination in Foster's tone that he'd never had when taking their marriage vows. He was a different person than he'd been back then, and he'd learned the importance of putting value behind his words.

If he was smarter, he might've asked some follow up questions — like who she'd told already or (more telling) where she was even staying in town. But that thought never occurred to him. Because keeping the past closed meant never opening it up to even the possibility of a conversation. He had never been good at thinking strategically when avoiding emotion was so much more important.

[sawyermarshall]

"i do." sawyer chuckles. "perks to living in and out of chicago the last few years." of course, her reasonings for coming closer to blue harbor were probably ones she wouldn't share with anyone. at least, not someone who could look at her differently for the choices she made and why she made them. it's why she still hasn't had the guts to fully disclose everything to dante either. plus she knows how much it would hurt him and it's so easy to pretend she's not some fucked up girl from new york city. she brushes her tongue along her lower lip, a laugh leaves her.

"i guess when you grow up there, you don't feel as close to it as you should." she teases. she doesn't expect the other to tell her what exactly she was doing and the blonde knew it was something big by the way the other seems to hold herself back from fully speaking the truth. "i do miss the la days," she admits with a soft laugh. it was like a bubble that was never meant to be popped, a bubble she exploded herself when she went her own way after dante went back on tour. she probably should have just followed him. none of the stuff that happened would have if she didn't get curious.

"well, i'll have to get in all the time with you before you go again." she says. "all we need is a little support." she chuckles. "i'm working, i work at latte love. maya is one of the best." she smiles. her eyes roll playfully at tefi's words about her arrival being about a certain someone. she can't say it's not. he's one of the reasons she's back here. "that certain someone might have a small slice of why i came to blue harbor." she laughs. "but don't read too much into it."

@tefibetancourt

“well, i hope you’ve bought a nice, big coat and snow boots.” tefi shuddered at the thought of the midwest in november. her childhood in philly was frigid enough in the fall and winter, growing up in a place where she’d always have to wear a heavy coat over her halloween costume. maybe it would be kind of nice, though, around thanksgiving and christmas. halloween, too, her favorite of the three major end of year holidays. after ten years in los angeles, it might be nice to see the leaves changing, or maybe even go to an actual pumpkin farm like she saw tiktok influencers do last year. none of that trumped the idea of still being in illinois, though.

her eyes bugged out at sawyer’s next statement. “you’re nuts!” new york city, while not tefi’s favorite city, having only been once as a teen with some friends, was practically valhalla compared to blue harbor. it was much too wintry for her, now accustomed to the dryness of southern california. next, the dreaded question of why she was in town. she rolled her lips together firmly as she considered telling sawyer the truth. that all hinged on whether her friend knew foster or phoebe. “i’m from philadelphia, actually.” tefi answered, shrugging. “i hated it, so i moved out to l.a. where i met beautiful you!” deciding it was better to keep her true purpose a secret, she shrugged sheepishly. “i’m here on business. i have some things to attend to here before i can leave.” after that, though? tefi wasn’t exactly sure. back to l.a., most likely. “i will support your club, but not join it.” she joked, smiling. “are you working in town, or going to school? and does your arrival have something to do with a certain rockstar?” she asked, teasingly.

@sawyermarshall

[tefibetancourt]

tefi gave a firm nod. “it’s the best philosophy.” it was the only philosophy she had, actually. she knew no other way than to do whatever she wanted. rules didn’t apply to her and consequences be damned! that had been harder and harder to get away with now that she was older, though. she wasn't twenty-four anymore; no one thought it was charming if she was late to work because she was hung over or laughed when she told them stories of how she’d get stranded on pico boulevard because her date kicked her out of their car for not seeing some tarantino movie. perhaps it wasn’t a philosophy, but a defense mechanism. what else was there to do? things just seemed to happen to tefi, like she never made any actual choices and fate just planned out what was going to happen to her next. not until she came to blue harbor, at least. now, she felt like she held her fate in her hands, and it was entwined with foster’s. that meant it was entwined with phoebe’s, too. 

“do i know seb? he’s, like, the only reason i’m not dead in a ditch right now!” tefi laughed, though there was a stark pain underneath it that she couldn’t completely occlude. she never liked to let anyone know when she was upset, but it was always obvious. it’s why she made for such a shitty actor. at least phoebe understood why it was just, like, so fucked up that ralph did that. “i know! at least if he, like, sold it to some other collector, i’d know my clothes were going to be preserved. maybe i’d even get them back. now my original 1976 diane von furstenberg wrap dress is lost to the wind and i’ll never wear her again!” tefi sighed melodramatically, shaking her hair wildly. “i’ve always been partial to burberry, personally—their look is just so classic—but i’ll take anything designer at this point. it just makes me feel better to know i’m wearing something that cost so much money and i got it for a steal, y’know?”

then recognition dawned on phoebe. tefi's hand flew up to her face and covered her eyes shamefully. “oh god, yes, that’s me. their poor little charity case. i hope they’re not talking about how annoying i am all over town or anything. if it weren’t for them, i don’t even know where i’d be. the manager at my job won’t let me sleep in the dry stock room. like, what am i gonna do? disrupt the salt shakers’ peace? asshole.��� she rolled her eyes, hand returning to the racks as she dug through them. “oooh—this has potential.” tefi took the hanger off of the rack and held it up to phoebe. it was a silk dress shirt from anthropology in nice condition. “says girl boss, doesn’t it?”

she beamed as phoebe offered a girl’s night. “i will so take you up on that. lord knows i love cj and seb, but they’re, like, so in love with each other and right now the last thing i need to be around is a happy couple.” even though the boys insisted they were just casually married, they certainly didn’t act like they weren’t possessive of each other. “aw, thanks, girl!” she said as if she didn’t stare in the mirror often and marvel at her own beauty. if she had nothing else in the world, at least she still looked pretty. “two brunettes out on the town! oh my god, with seb and cj, we have all the halliwell sisters, don’t we? you’re phoebe, i can be paige, seb and cj can be piper and prue…” tefi stopped, eyes lifting to the ceiling in thought. “well, they’re not really piper and prue-like… i think you’re phoebe and the three of us are paige. i don’t know.”

Phoebe knew that this girl was being purely hyperbolic and hypothetical, but the idea of her shaking her tits in the middle of The Blue News office to the disgruntlement of the other staff — and the ire of Deb especially — elicited a laugh from her. "That's a great philosophy to have!" And one that maybe Phoebe should adopt. She had spent a lot of time worrying; about her mom, Seb, and now Foster and Misty. About making ends meet, and living off paycheck to paycheck. Sure, Phoebe had enough saved up for a rainy day, thanks to how grossly overpaid she was when working for Nilay, especially now her monthly earnings had really diminished.

But it cost nothing to shake your tits, she guessed.

"You know Seb?" It seemed evident, just by the look of her. What was the phrase; birds of a feather? Also, it was hard to find someone who didn't know Seb in some way or another, old classmates observing his shenanigans with almost boredom, once again asking Phoebe if she was sure he was her best friend. "Yeah, he is...yeah." Clearly the other brunette hadn't received Seb fatigue yet, and Phoebe wouldn't ruin that for her.

When she shared her tales of woe about her ex, Phoebe let out a sympathetic groan. "Oh God, I am so sorry to hear that. Honestly, sounds like something my ex would have done. Hopefully we don't share one." She joked, despite that making fun of Spencer, even vaguely and in-passing, was still uncomfortable. "The worst thing is, what they've done sounds like...philanthropic, so you'd look like the bad guy for complaining. But still, that's not okay, like at all!" She shook her head, "I don't know if you'd get a collection worth that much from here, but they occasional have some finds. My mom once found a real Louis Vuitton bag here!"

Bonding over clothes and terrible exes, the true language of girlhood. When she introduced her name — Tefi — the familarity of it lit Phoebe up. "Yes, Tefi! Seb and CJ's sofa-surfer!" CJ had asked Phoebe her opinion on some more 'girlier' items he had acquired for the apartment not long after they let her move in with them, but hadn't had time to meet her yet. "I'm so sorry I haven't came by to make sure the boys are treating you well. If you ever need a break from them, like, please, let me know. I'd happily host a girl's night." She nodded knowingly at the Charmed mention. "Yeah..people think that's the Phoebe I'm named after, but it's actually the one from Friends." She offered, blushing slightly at the compliment. "Um, thank you. Guess it's a brunette thing, because you're like super cute too."

[thephoebeyates]

She couldn’t help but snort at the nickname Tefi christened her. “Tefi and Feefee,” She remarked with a giggle, shaking her head at both how ridiculous and fitting it seemed. Phoebe had tried over the years to make more girl friends. She tried to be as much like the other girls as possible: she wore makeup, she liked boy bands and vampires and the color pink. But none just seemed to stick. Even now, the girls she befriended in college no longer lived in Blue Harbor. And sure, she was friendly with Maya who owned Latte Love, and she found herself spending time with Dylan and Lainey, but they weren’t…sleepover friends. Maybe it was the internal misogyny her mom — shunned by the few girls she befriended in high school for the mistake of getting pregnant with Phoebe at sixteen — tried to drill in her. Why she clung to Seb and Linc during formative years she should have been playing with dolls and learning how to braid hair. 

But Tefi had provided the opportunity of indulging the years she missed out on, and she wouldn’t let a second go to waste. 

Her stomach did swoop though, noticing the brief flicker of discomfort on Tefi's face at the mention of Foster, and felt awful. Here Phoebe was, in her little love bubble with her chef boyfriend and their cat and apartment, whereas poor Tefi had a psychotic sounding ex who dropped her for no reason and gave her things away without giving her a chance to salvage anything. She felt incredibly guilty, like she was rubbing salt in the wound, but vowed to not bring up any more boys again for the rest of the evening.

… Unless in the form of fictional vampires, of course. “No, you’re right and you should say it!” She encouraged,  “Edward Cullen was my first love. There was a guy in one of my classes at college who looked almost like Robert Pattinson. I think I spent the first semester of Freshman grade just…blindly following him around, like an insane stalker!” She laughed. “Admittedly, I don’t know much about Sharon Tate except for…” Phoebe trailed off, not wanting to speak about the atrocities that happened back in the sixties, but smiled widely after a beat. “Well, this could always be something we share together!”

Since Foster began becoming a more permanent fixture in her apartment,a lot of the more aesthetic components that were sprawled through the living room and bedroom were moved in favor of  chef-approved ‘necessities’,  thus really breaking the space up in a way Phoebe still hadn’t gotten around to solving. She knew it was a big mood shift, thus trying to keep their visit to the room short and sweet. “Snacks! So…” She placed her wine on the counter, moving to the cabinets, where she did a Dreamland Market / Gulp ‘n’ Go stockpile. “We have chips, dips, various candies of the gummy and chocolate persuasion, popcorn, and some little fruit cup things in case the sugar makes us feel gross.” She got each item out of their corresponding homes as she listed them, leaving all but the fruit on the counter, placing it back in the fridge. “And if we want food-food, I was thinking takeout? Oh, remind me, I have some like, facial spa stuff if you want. It’s a silly thing I do with Linc when he comes over so we don’t have to!” But she was putting anything and everything girly and fun out on the table.

it felt like the beginning of an honest to god sleepover. like when she was a kid, it conjured memories of queen helene’s mint julep face masks and staying up way too late, giggling in the dark until her friend’s father burst into the room and yelled at them to shut up already, which of course just made tefi laugh more. it reminded her of how she’d spend a whole weekend at a friend’s house, overstaying her welcome, because her parents didn’t really care if she was home or not; a fact that never used to make her sad when she was a kid, overjoyed to have the freedom to do what she wanted whenever she wanted, but now made her feel a little sad when she thought about it as an adult. the older she got, the less sleepovers at a friend’s house meant disney channel movie premieres and ice cream sundaes and painting each other’s nails; it meant sneaking out to drink in the park with boys, trading fun board games for standing around at parties in clothes stolen from forever21 at the king of prussia mall. 

in phoebe’s apartment now, it felt like a bridge between those gaps. it was incredibly girly, and in tefi’s mind, that was the highest compliment. “ah, feefee, ebay’s where i got it.” tefi admitted with a quick wink. like how she had full command of any thrift store or antique mall, she was similarly adept at finding the best deals on ebay, poshmark, and facebook marketplace. even now, living on the couch of cj and seb’s apartment, she kept a close eye on her usual sites and lamented the fact she didn’t have an apartment of her own to decorate with her favorite vintage finds. the only thing that kept her from being too sad that she still lived on cj and seb’s couch was that she didn’t want permanent roots in blue harbor. she didn’t want to be stuck there. though it made it so her credit was in the fucking toilet, living like a vagabond made it so she could drop everything and run off to a new city at a moment’s notice. if it wasn’t for foster, she probably would have moved on from blue harbor by now, maybe up to chicago, then turned tail back to los angeles.

oh, right. foster. the elephant in the room. tefi grimaced for a brief second the moment phoebe said his name, playing it off like she had something stuck in her throat and coughing lightly. hearing her say it was a gut punch to tefi, and a reminder that this whole night wasn’t about two gals having a good time. it was to gather intel on foster, maybe plant a few (subtle!) seeds of doubt in phoebe’s mind about her boyfriend, and satisfy her curiosity about what phoebe’s interior life looked like. it was a grim fucking reminder, wasn’t it? the girl she was going to end up hurting was incredibly sweet, and didn’t deserve tefi’s backstabbing… but then again, phoebe was much too sweet for the likes of matthew foster. maybe phoebe wouldn’t see it as a favor at first, but eventually, tefi was sure she’d realize she had dodged a major bullet with foster.

well, unless phoebe was a stick-by-your-man type. which would be gross.

tefi was pleased at phoebe’s reaction to the dvds she brought over—many people throughout her life assumed she was too vapid to care about art, or movies, or music, but that was one thing tefi did care about. she didn’t dress like it was a different decade every day for no reason, goddamn it! she had never been the bookish type, that was true, but she loved anything physical and tangible. words on the page didn’t inspire anything within her, but to see and hear art was what she valued greatly. “twilight is one of the best movies ever made and anyone who disagrees is, like, misogynistic or something.” that was a bit of an exaggeration, but not by much in tefi’s opinion. 

“yay!” tefi placed the dvds on the coffee table to her left and clapped her hands together when phoebe chose her favorite. “sharon tate was one of the most beautiful women in the world ever, i think, and a personal hero of mine.” besides cher, of course. “she’s also one of the reasons i got nuts for a blonde with brown eyes.” tefi shrugged, her mind briefly flashing back to her friend, sawyer marshall. “awesome!” tefi followed phoebe to the kitchen, eyes scanning every new inch of the apartment revealed to her as they moved throughout. the kitchen looked more like foster’s space, but tefi couldn’t be absolutely certain; when she knew foster, he was still a line cook, and a novice at that. it made her palms itch a little, to be in a space that wasn’t completely phoebe. she pushed aside her discomfort and accepted her glass, following suit and raising it with phoebe’s. “the best girl’s night!” tefi added with a bright smile, then turned to look around the countertops. “now… snacks, what’re we working with in that department?”

[tefibetancourt]

“ugh! i know, right? i need to find a boyfriend or something fast so that i’m not forced to be little miss lonely heart whenever we got out together.” tefi tossed her hair over her shoulder in a vague hope that someone else in the bar would spot her from across the room and become overwhelmed with the desire to fulfill that role of boyfriend. there were some prospects in blue harbor, but so far, no one had committed themselves to the role. maybe she didn’t want a boyfriend out of a genuine need for love, but for someone to make her feel less alone and less pathetic. her ego was starved, damn it! “those two, though. it’s like they’re legally freakin’ married but claim that they’re single, then i come home and find them, like, cuddling together? not my circus, not my monkeys, that’s why my dad always said… but still, y’know, i think they’re probably lying to themselves because they think the other one isn’t as serious about the marriage or something. i’m very perceptive.” she punctuated with a frenzied nod. in her opinion, at least, that was very true, but she was never able to turn that perception back on herself.

tefi tried not to grimace. oops. as hard as she tried not to bring up foster or phoebe in front of aileen, it was too easy for her to slip up and allude to the past she was trying to hide. it was just difficult not to bring it up when her revenge scheme occupied most of her thoughts! even at work (probably the reason why she forgot a customer’s mustard the other day), she had to remind herself that she was at her job and she couldn’t brainstorm pranks while taking lunch orders. tefi paused to scramble up an excuse. “well, have i told you about my ex? we were engaged but he dumped me and threw out all of my stuff and canceled my credit card. so, i mean… i get when you’re together you want to, like, spend pretty much every single second together… until they leave you destitute in the midwest like the asshole they are.” she wanted to pat herself on the back for that save! it helped that it was the truth, but with the reason why she was stuck in blue harbor excised.

she listened as aileen explained about her job. maybe that was part of why she was having a hard time at the diner: she was new to blue harbor, and she hadn’t grown up going to school with half the population. tefi thought that maybe that was okay. her hope was to get back out to l.a. as soon as possible, so maybe it would be okay if the locals didn’t count her among them. “that’s so nice! i can’t imagine anyone being rude to you, anyway.” aileen was so kind. it made her feel a little guilty that she was lying to her, but hey, it was for self-preservation. only seb, cj, and thalia knew about her true mission, and that was probably too many in the grand scheme of things. “what about your love life? anyone that you’ve currently sweet on? please tell me you do, someone around here needs to get laid and my prospects are looking mightly slim.”

@aileenmurphy

A tornado would be the best way to describe Tefi, Aileen mused, laughing as she rushed through her rambling of Seb and CJ. It was as if her story took over her whole being, hands flying around, face alive with emotion. She was convinced the other woman burned three times the amount of calories she did, just by talking to other people. It was impossible not to be engaged as she spoke, even as she was adding a disclaimer that she didn't mean anything bad about her current roommates. "It's okay, I understand what you mean. Third-wheeling is never an easy thing to do, especially with the... situation-ship those two have." Aileen wasn't sure she'd be able to handle the two in full effect for as long as Tefi did, her constant blushing would surely give her a fever.

She leaned forward on her stool and signalled the waiter, trying to order a cider for herself. However, Tefi's final comment gave her pause, and she flicked her eyes towards the other woman. "Oh, you do?" she asked, wondering if Tefi's comment was alluding to any form of previous marriage. She felt slightly embarrassed over asking, unsure if they were friendly enough for a question of that matter, but the slightly morose undertone of her comment piqued her curiosity.

As Tefi ranted about her job Aileen smiled accordingly, however she did spare a thought for the poor people who had gotten the wrong order and entered a verbal spar with Tefi. They definitely did not win that one, as much as they were in the right. Maybe they had dietary restrictions? Who knows, anyone can have a bad day, maybe that is what would make them rude towards staff, she just couldn't quite conceive what anyone won from it...

She was snapped right back into the present as Tefi asked about her job, and she nodded along, dispelling her last zoned out thoughts. "Oh, thankfully I haven't had a lot of that myself. I think having such a close knit community here helps with that, everyone knows everyone, you know? I don't think it's as easy to be mean to workers when you also know them as people." she guessed her job was different from Tefi's in that front. "Although the presence of small children definitely help." she added, not wanting to seem insensitive to Tefi's situation.

@tefibetancourt

[tefibetancourt]

tefi had been known for many things throughout her life, but having tact was not one of them. decorum was probably a better word for it. whether she never learned how to behave in public or just never bothered to learn, bursting into tears outside of a bakery was very low on the list of things tefi did that were considered inappropriate in polite society. in other circumstances, crying was a good tool to get sympathy from people that were all too willing to make a pretty girl smile. sometimes, it made people look at her like she was insane. nell didn’t run for the hills, at the very least, when her recently made friend let sadness overcome her.

what was that saying? like called to like. tefi and nell found each other in the blue harbor wasteland like a lighthouse beacon in the darkest sea. instantly, a friendship blossomed on the basis of both being beautiful and a fan of alcoholic drinks, much like most of tefi’s friendships since middle school. there was a hint of their relationship deepening, turning into something more genuine than nights at bars and mimosas over brunch. though tears were still flowing freely down her cheeks, nell made her laugh when she grabbed for her hand and pulled her up from the table. “okayyyyy!” tefi whined childlishly, though didn’t make much of a real protest.

so, everyone else in her life didn’t want to celebrate her birth. most of them had plenty of reasons not to, but even her own brothers couldn’t spare a simple text? her mom couldn’t answer the phone when she called? even the few friends she had made in blue harbor, sans nell, were unavailable for some reason or another. it was all so depressing. tefi had burned many bridges without ever realizing it, unable to feel the heat on her back once she lit a match and turned away, so when it turned out that no one cared enough about her to wish her a happy birthday, it was somewhat of a surprise. thank god for nell, then.  they were two extremely hot women in a podunk town. they should’ve both netted at least two marriage proposals by now. by that very hour, in fact! what tefi needed was some inebriation to make her forget just how shitty her life was currently.

she laughed again, tears drying up, when nell pushed the cupcake into her mouth. “only if you split it with me.” it had been an impulse purchase, something sweet to make her mood just a tiny bit better, but sugar didn’t seem to lift her spirits like it did when she was eight and her parents gave her a whole box of fruit by the foot just so she’d get out of their hair. “well, thank you, fellow young, gorgeous lady.” though thirty-two surely didn’t feel so young anymore.

tefi mulled her next question… hm, within reason? well, that was the crux of her problem. she didn’t know what she wanted. she knew exactly what she wanted. she wanted foster to feel as terrible as she did; she wanted to be famous and never have to serve a plate of roast beef to some old ass man ever again; she wanted to go back in time to last year before she was reminded of her marital status and all she had to worry about was getting to a beverly hills estate sale first so she could have first pick of everything. she wanted her collection of vintage clothing that her now ex-fiancé donated to goodwill. most of all, she wanted to know that somebody loved her. really loved her, flaws and all. none of that was attainable, it seemed (especially the whole time travel thing). so, she settled for the easier answer of all: “within reason, i want to get so fucking fucked up that i can’t remember my name. think you can help with that?”

"Nuh-uh, we're not gonna do that," the chef decided and started getting up from her seat. In the process she'd reached for Tefi's hand, and once she was upright Nell had grabbed the cupcake with her other. "C'mon, let's go, we're gonna celebrate the fuck outta you."

As someone that had spent so long avoiding her emotions, the brunette found that the tears rolling down her friend's face were uncomfortable. In some ways Nell had considered it brave to cry so openly and in front of others, to allow people to see a weakness. In others, there was an estrangement, for the fact that she wasn't entirely sure how to soothe whatever was hurting.

The truth was, the local was nothing but a walking ache.

Always in mourning over the things she'd lost and what she'd likely never have. Many times, alone where no one could witness her defeat, Nell had shed fountains.

"Here, eat this thing," the cupcake was thrust toward Tefi, to the point where a small dab of icing had caught her lips, "let's not let a good thing go to waste."

Double entendre anyone?

"Happy birthday, young, gorgeous lady," the brunette had quickly tacked on, squeezing by the arm to her side. An emerald gaze turned to her friend, "if you could do anything right now, within reason, what would it be?"

[tefibetancourt]

in a different circumstance, tefi would’ve randomly talked to the man just because he was so handsome. she’d have approached him at a bar in search of a good time, or even in the aisles in the grocery store with some farce about not knowing what aisle the bananas (because it was a sexy fruit) were. she’d bat her eyelashes and hope he’d want to take her home, then hopefully bankroll her lifestyle and make her his wife so she’d never have to put on an apron or wear a name tag for the rest of her god-given natural life! in her current circumstance, though, she was crying in public and making a fool of herself on her fucking birthday. she nodded solemnly in response, hiccupping quietly. it was indeed her sorry fucking birthday.

when he sat down across from her, she initially took his groaning as irritation that he had to deal with some crying woman, but his words and tone said differently. tefi sniffled, wiping her tears away with her hands. “it’s not nothing to me.” her birthday was the only time she felt loved, or like her existence on earth was justified; if for just one day, estefania betancourt could be celebrated instead of derided for taking up space. her parents stopped throwing her a party when she was twelve, something she had convinced herself she didn’t even want anymore, and then a cake with some candles felt like asking for too much. it was why she valued her friends in los angeles so much, as superficial as they were, because they at least went all out for an excuse to get fucked up. she didn’t even have that in blue harbor. “not really, no.” tefi answered with a deep sigh. “i don’t even know what i want, but certainly not to spend my thirty-second birthday by myself.” she regarded him with a sidelong, rheumy look. she had to guess he was older than her, though he certainly didn’t look bad for his age, whatever it may be. “what’d you do for your thirty-second birthday?”

He was running late. Rafael needed to pick up the cake for Thalia then help her set up for another Summerween tea party. Somehow, for some reason, both of them were involved in an activity that neither of them wanted. He still had a while though but not enough time to get to the library before it closed early that Sunday. If he had the mental wherewithal to plan a single day off, he would have just gone to the library first but he didn't think it through. While a brilliant man, Rafael was not always all that smart. He walked into the bakery then stopped just inside the doorway as he processed what he saw.

"It's your birthday?" Rafael repeated as he stood in front of the crying stranger. He was trained in crisis intervention but this felt like a different level of crisis. With a look at the bakery and the cake that surely in there waiting to be retrieved, Rafael sat down with a groan that emitted deep from his chest. He took a moment to consider whether anyone over 30 didn't make those noises before shifting to look at her. "I don't really like my birthday to be honest. It's not about aging per say, it's more the whole big deal being made about nothing." He shrugged. "I'm kind of guessing this isn't how you want to spend your birthday?"

[tefibetancourt]

when she announced it was her birthday to the stranger, she hadn’t realized that she actually knew him for a good, long minute. it was… michael? micah? no, shit, it was micah. the guy from instagram! and the bowling alley. the baby, as she had called him, with a sweet face. in her drunken haze at cj’s birthday party, she hadn’t cataloged his features like she normally did with any man she met while sober (and she hadn’t even looked at his instagram when she followed him back). she could see now, in the evening light, that he was taller than she remembered and had kind eyes. ears that kind of stuck out from underneath his hair, too, but in a way that just made him more endearing. he was exactly the type of guy that she’d easily chew up and spit out. and the poor fucker just brought out a little bag of goodies.

“holy shit!” tefi exclaimed when he placed the bag on the table. she gave him a quick glance, eyes wide and mouth slightly opened in shock, then opened it up to reveal a handful of small items. carefully, brought each item out one-by-one and set them down on the table to survey her gifts.

a hello kitty pez dispenser—she loved hello kitty, how did he know?

a yoohoo carton—she couldn’t remember the last time she had one, maybe in middle school?

a pencil that presumably came from the store’s fourth of july collection—random, but cute!

a happy mother’s… birthday card…?—now this one actually made her laugh.

it surprised her, this sudden paroxysm of laughter. she had felt so terrible just a second ago, she thought she might never laugh again. then came this sweet man that had no reason to be so nice to her… but if there was anything that tefi had learned from living in la for ten years, no one ever did anything for free. any other night, she might’ve been able to play the game, flirt and bat her eyelashes to get some guy to buy her a shot, or let her sleep in their bed because she didn’t have anywhere else to go, but any other night wasn’t her frickin’ birthday. tonight, she couldn’t handle any ulterior motives. 

a smile had blossomed on her face, but there was hesitation in her rheumy eyes as she looked up at micah. “thank you so much!” she hesitated to say this was the best birthday present she ever had, because it wasn’t really. she used to have boyfriends that would rent out yachts for her, or take her on trips to greece for her and her thirteen best friends (that were really more like strangers than anything else). it was, however, the most thoughtful. even if it was just random items he found at the store, he saw her sobbing and wanted to make her feel better. that was enough to make her start crying again, but she held her fresh tears at bay. “i don’t have any candles.” tefi admitted sadly. her decision to buy a cupcake had been impulsive, like most of her decisions. “i kind of just… ended up here.” the story of her life, perhaps? she regarded him closely. “...but why? i mean, not that i don’t appreciate it, but you don’t really know me.” he didn’t know how much of a bitch she was, that was what she meant.

he'd just caught a show at the community theater and thought he'd spend the rest of the evening exploring laurel village. he doesn't get to visit this part of town very often, or most parts of blue harbor for that matter, as he usually spends his weekends in chicago, anyway. he'd been standing outside of a convenience store, having purchased a pack of cigarettes he's now smoking, when he spots a woman sitting outside the bakery across the street and thinks, at first, that she's watching something on her phone with the way she's hunched over the table. then he notices the way she dabs her fingers on her face as if to dry tears.

recognition settles in. that's tefi betancourt. the girl he met at cj welford's birthday party who, for all intents and purposes, had imprinted herself in his brain after watching her dance on the counter with reckless abandon. he'd found her on instagram later that same week and since then, interactions have been pretty much limited to likes and playful comments. just earlier today, she'd posted a photo for her birthday, to which he'd tried to grab her attention with a series of emojis that ultimately garnered a reply. it made him feel giddy, like she's some sort of celebrity. with the way she carries herself, maybe she is.

laffytefi and yet you didn’t get me a birthday present? 😜

putting his cigarette out on the ashtray on top of the trashcan next to the bodega's entrance, he walks back inside, browses through the aisles for a few minutes until he ends up with a hello kitty pez dispenser, a lisa frank knockoff pencil with a star-shaped eraser on top, a chocolate yoo hoo in a tetra pak, and a dusty, outdated happy mother's day! card where he'd haphazardly scribbled the word 'birth' next to the crossed-out 'mother' with a pen he'd borrowed from the poor, confused cashier. he then throws everything into a hallmark gift bag and marches across the street, his present dangling from his hand.

his surprise is preempted by her mentioning her birthday, to which he smiles and says, "i know," holds out the small, glossy bag and sets it down on the table next to the cupcake. "happy birthday." he steps back a little, pins his hands behind his back, gives her a little bit of space. "i've got a lighter if you've got a candle for your cupcake."

[tefibetancourt]

of course he was just going to fucking ignore her. sit across from her like some sort of kicked puppy, the wounded romeo that just wanted the crazy bitch—namely, tefi—out of his life so he could play happily-ever-after with his chosen juliet. it was sickening. he had no right to act like this was some undeserved punishment. foster had wronged her. didn’t that matter? didn’t anyone see why she was doing this, why she found it all so unfair? cj and seb were amused by her antics, sometimes even helped her in her subterfuge, but there was a bit of distance between them—the other half of the equation was seb’s best friend, phoebe, so they would never truly commit to foster’s downfall if it took down phoebe with him. thalia chided her gently, encouraging tefi to find a different passion in her life, but ultimately didn’t stop her from her plans for enacting revenge. there was no one to really rein her in, but there was no one to actually help her, either. no one gave her the sympathy she was begging for, but that had been true for her whole life.

had that not been why she had been so enamored with foster back then? they weren’t good for each other, but he gave her the attention she sorely needed. in their happier moments, he gave her love and affection. he listened when she bitched about the stupid hostess that flirted with the cooks and always oversat her on saturdays. he gave her a shoulder to cry on when her sister didn’t invite her to her niece’s baptism. he stroked her ego (among other places) and made her feel special… again, in their happier moments. moments that, admittedly, tefi had forgotten about until facing foster again. there was no love left for him inside her anymore, but perhaps a call to nostalgia. why couldn’t he just face responsibility for what he did to her? it wasn’t money that was going to rid of her, she knew then. it was an apology.

still, though, she could pretend to consider it.

i’ll give you half.

“your father’s estate?” tefi questioned, brows furrowing. “isn’t that what you get when, like, people die or something?” as far as tefi knew, foster’s father was alive and kicking somewhere. she hadn’t cared to learn about his family when she had stalked him shortly after her arrival, and from what she could remember, his father was persona non grata. different from how tefi was persona non grata to her own family, even back then. “i don’t know… if you had a better estimate of how much money it is? maybe.” tefi feigned contemplation, eyes lifting to the ceiling in mock-thought. “it has to be enough to live on, foster. i amend my previous statement, okay? the only monetary amount i’ll accept is enough for me not to work in a diner or a mall or coffee shop for at least like… two years.”

It was a long time ago, but he still remembered when he would've taken pride in her skeptical tone, would've grinned a cocky grin and cracked a rude joke and probably tried something bigger just to impress her. He had been a real shitbag, and he was pretty sure that was why she liked him. Did she really doubt now he was capable of ruining someone's engine (not his first, nor his last, act of car-related vandalism)? It felt almost like an olive branch, like some sort of opening to a common ground, but even now Foster didn't have the self-preservation instincts to take it. He should've smirked, asked her what she thought, but instead he continued, staring at her passively, treating this like the business arrangement he still very much intended it to be.

Easier said than done when Tefi saw fit to dredge up their entire messy past...

He wasn't going to deny that he had been a massive fuck-up. Or that he'd treated Tefi terribly, but it wasn't like he was alone in that. She had her fair share of things to be ashamed of. They had been bad for each other. Full stop. Toxic, and immature, and wildly selfish. They had no right being together, let alone getting married. He'd been a shitty husband and whether she wanted to admit to it or not, him leaving was the kindest thing he could've done for her. You're a curse, Matthew... Tefi had plenty of demons all her own, and she didn't need his on top of them.

But even he could admit that was nobler than his intentions. It played a part, to be sure, but he had wanted to hurt her. And even when he no longer cared, he still continued to do it – ignoring her calls because it was easier than facing the damage he'd done. He maybe definitely deserved everything Tefi was threatening. But Phoebe? Phoebe didn't deserve any of it.

This was exactly why he'd been so reluctant to get into a relationship, knowing something like this from his past would come back to bite him. He'd tried to warn her, but... Now that he was committed, it meant doing everything in his power to protect her. Fuck Tefi pretending to have some noble quest. Foster was the only one who could save her from this.

"I'll give you half," he blurted out, all thoughts of driving a hard bargain diminished. "My dad's estate, or whatever. I don't know how much there is. I haven't gotten it settled. But there's a house. He had a pension. There's liable to be a lot." Hundreds of thousands, potentially. He had no clue how his father had spent the last years of his life, but he was all alone, so it wasn't like he had much to spend it on. And Foster, he would spend all of it just to keep Phoebe longer.

[tefibetancourt]

she had been so strong in her resolve to ruin foster’s life. unfortunately for phoebe, that meant her life would be ruined, too… okay, maybe not ruined, but she’d definitely be hurt. that was unavoidable.  there was no scenario where tefi was successful in her sabotage and phoebe wouldn’t be harmed somehow in the process. that was the nature of revenge, though, it only took and gave nothing. except for satisfaction, maybe, but only for the one taking revenge, and she wasn’t there yet. for now, she had to settle for making foster’s life hard and getting in good with phoebe’s friends. she just never thought much about what she was going to do when she was actually going to be face-to-face with foster’s girlfriend. it felt like she short-circuited for a second, but tefi forced herself to recover quickly. “girl, please. we’ll end up in a sisterhood of the traveling skirt situation soon enough!” tefi laughed breezily, tossing her hair over her shoulder.

“ooh, a working girl, are you? you can totally class it up with a blazer, or… have you tried putting, like, a white gauzy button down over it? it’s still professional but also a pop of fun.” tefi took a brief glance down at her sparkly pink bell bottom pants and white peasant top, of course paired with her signature white go go boots. not exactly talbots or j. crew adjacent. “okay, so i know i don’t look like i’d know anything about office wear, but trust me. if there’s anything i know, it’s clothes.” tefi nodded with finality. “hey, let’s split the difference. i’ll take the skirt, you take the tank top! that way we both go home happy.” she practically forced the tank top hanger into phoebe’s hands. “i could… help you look for some stuff, if you want? i mean, if i see anything while i’m looking around for myself, i can give you a heads up?” she hoped she didn’t sound desperate; although she had an ulterior motive, tefi truly did love crafting outfits, for herself and others.

If the stranger was staring a bit too intently at Phoebe, she didn't exactly notice, trying to think of ways to politely give up the skirt. "No it's fine, you reached for it first!" She insisted, because she didn't exactly need the skirt. She was mostly in here for new work things for the paper, and it wasn't a suitable article of clothing anyway. But then the other woman found a top to style it with, and it seemed extremely cute.

"Wow you definitely have an eye for this stuff!" She wondered if she was in fashion, a couple of friends who studied it as a minor often traipsing around the thrift stores for college projects. "But honestly, I'm supposed to be looking for work stuff, and that's gorgeous but not...professional. But you should go try it on! I bet it'd look like, amazing on you!"

[tefibetancourt]

aileen was a very kind woman. tefi was not. she could fake it for her customer service jobs, but just below the surface, she was rotten. she wasn’t evil or anything, but when it came down to it, she was not a good person. she didn’t care about being a good person. she cared about having fun and doing as little as she could to fund her fun. aileen, from what tefi knew, had a gaggle of younger siblings and loving parents. tefi was the youngest and her parents didn’t care about her. they were too obsessed with each other to actually care about their children, growing more neglectful with each child they had in favor of spending almost every minute together, doing whatever they wanted on their own; tefi, being the youngest, got in their way the most. luckily for tefi, she didn’t care for them much either. it worked out for the best… well, as best as it could. she didn’t need anyone to take care of her, anyway. (except for a rich man, she needed them to take care of her, and give her lots of money to spend on whatever she wanted!)

anyway, the point was that tefi didn’t understand what aileen saw in her. yes, she was a damn good time, but there was no warmth to tefi. in her darkest moments, she believed there was no reason to care about her. if her family didn’t give a shit, why would anyone? foster didn’t. foster left her. ralph abandoned her. all she had were seb and cj, and she knew she was on borrowed time with them once her plan came to fruition and phoebe ended up as collateral damage. with aileen, she was on borrowed time. everyone would leave her. they always did.

that meant she had to enjoy it while she could. “girl, you don’t know the half of it. they’re sooo cute but i feel like they’re starting to morph into one person. like they’re sebandcj, not two separate guys. all day i’m saying shit like: i’m staying with sebandcj. i’m bringing home fries for sebandcj. i’m going out with sebandcj tonight.” tefi stopped abruptly, shaking her head and waving her hands in the air in front of her face. “sorry, i’m totally not talking shit about them. i love them. they’re, like, the only reason i’m not dead in a gutter somewhere right now. it just feels like i’m intruding on their little love fest sometimes.” she took a recovering sip of her martini and sighed ruefully. “i mean, they’re married, so… like, i get it.” tefi had been married once before. she was actually still married, but she hadn’t lived with foster as a couple in over a decade, and even when they were together, it wasn’t exactly loving. that fact, however, she was keeping a secret from aileen, lest she told phoebe and ruined tefi’s plan for revenge.

the question about work made her groan. “oh, god. i’m so sick of being yelled at over stupid shit. who cares if i forgot your mustard? just remind me and i’ll get it for you. like, it’s so not a big deal! it’s just getting worse every year, too.” tefi shook off the rant, taking another sip of her martini to wash down the bitterness in her heart. “what about you, miss thang? the parents of your kindergarteners must drive you up the wall from what i see teachers saying on tiktok all the time!”

@aileenmurphy

Aileen wasn't quite sure how she'd let Tefi convince her to come out tonight. She'd felt Mocha's eyes judging her all evening as she got ready, tail swishing in disapproval. By ten pm she would already be curled up in bed with a book, her kitties' purrs the only melody to be found in the night. Instead, she was slipping her single pair of hoops on her ears and putting on a pretty dress. She looked nice, she knew, but the night scene drained so much energy from her. Still, she reminded herself, she wanted to go out for Tefi. As much as the other woman looked like the life of the party all the time, there was something sad lurking in the corner of her eyes, and Aileen didn't like that. She wasn't quite sure what it was, but if a girl's night out is what she needed, then she could endure a night club for a couple of hours.

She stepped into the bar and gave her body a minute to adjust to the loud base before stepping inside to locate her friend. After a quick wave to Nolan, she found Tefi and smiled, stepping into the offered hug gladly. "Hi, good to see you!" she greeted, moving back to sit on the empty stool beside the other woman. She took a peek around, taking in the crowd and the atmosphere. It wasn't that crowded today, which she appreciated, and allowed conversation to actually be doable. As Tefi mentioned Seb and CJ she let out a quiet laugh, nodding in understanding. "Yes I can imagine. From what I hear, their relationship keeps getting more interesting by the minute." she had sat through enough of Phoebe's rants about those two to know, anyway. "How are you, has the week been... bearable?" she could tell Tefi's job wasn't exactly the job of her dreams, so she'd learnt to lower her expectations when asking about how work had gone.

@tefibetancourt