#richie jeremovich

[whenmemorydies]

On that season 4 teaser for The Bear…

It definitely looks like Syd and Donna are talking at a wedding reception and we know by the end of season 3 that Tiff and Frank have a wedding in the works.

I really don’t think Syd is Carmy’s date to that wedding.

I’m thinking she’d be Richie’s +1 to the wedding: as a friend/support person, given how hard the breakdown of his marriage to Tiff has been for him, how close Syd and he have gotten and how fucked his relationship with Carmy has become.

I want Sydcarmy to happen as much as everyone else but I just don’t see Carmy willingly bringing Sydney to an event where she might meet Donna, given he’s spent 5 years avoiding his mother.

UNLESS that scene is from later in the season and Carmy’s done the work to move through (at least some of) his pain with Donna.

[sluttyhenley]

Did your family have a catchphrase?

THE BEAR 2x08 | Bolognese

[whenmemorydies]

I think you’re right about this…Joanna Calo in this interview (around 22:00) also talks about how the show’s creators wanted to talk about recovery and how it’s not linear - how you might think you’re better then realise that maybe you aren’t.

Also, welcome back! We missed you! ❤️

Carmy: Regression

This might be the craziest/stupidest take for s3 of The Bear but whatever. I had talked about how s3 was about isolation and guilt before. What if it was also about regression (at least for Carmy’s character)?

Sydney is (re)meeting a award-winning chef of fine dining. Sydney thought about leaving the bear (officially) but still came back in s1/thought about leaving the bear which lead to the panic attack in s3.

Carmy and Richie are back to fighting like in s1 with Marcus and Sydney between them.

I need more time to think about this but I think the whole purpose was about life going full circle and s4 is (hopefully) about fully breaking the cycle.

I’m basically implying this season was a giant defense mechanism. Don’t take my word for it! I’m just getting back into writing metas after a hiatus.

Carmy was always used to the routine and being stressed in fine dining. He still talked about how that experience was “everything” even when he discussed having stomach problems. He also says that he lost track of time then mikey passed away.

In s3, I’m fairly certain Carmy says that he’s tired or sick of it. That could mean that he’s been trying to get back into that state/routine and it’s not working this time.

“an attempt to achieve something important.” Like getting a star for a restaurant perhaps? “a sense of security, reciprocated love, and trust.” hmm…

I have also discussed how Carmy and Claire are basically reminiscing on their “high school” days in their relationship. Couldn’t that fit for the “feeling of childhood innocence” that’s stated in the article?

I feel like I’m not making any sense but also think i’m beginning to crack the code at the same time so I’ll just leave this here for now.

Authors Note: I wrote this yesterday on Twitter before the promo that just recently came out. This is not a complete meta but I thought I’d put it here so I could see if anyone agrees or disagrees with these thoughts! I’m glad to be sort of back after a fairly long hiatus! @thoughtfulchaos773 made a video with Carl Jung coincidentally enough. I might be closer to the truth than I thought lol.

[hyperfixationchamber]

it's the great comet, richie

you take richie to see natasha, pierre and the great comet of 1812. it's not too hard to convince him because he's trying to get himself more cultured-like, and learn to appreciate art better -

he's nervous. it's a musical. he's not used to this shit where everyone sings how they're feeling all the fuckin time (and all the fuckin dancing) - but you wanted to see it and you wanted him to go with you; so here he is, a little clammy, sitting uncomfortably upright and aware of his height and the first song starts and he's even more nervous because there's so many words being said so quickly and everyone has 9 different names and they are in the programme but is he supposed to read that during? the show? isn't that like, rude - he's trying his best, for you, and slowly he gets into it like, hey, this music's okay

but then, at the end of act 1, pierre sings

and he understands

Is this how I die? Was there ever any other way my life could be? Is this how I die? Such a storm of feelings inside of me?

But then why am I screaming? Why am I shaking? Oh God, was there something that I missed? Did I squander my divinity? Was happiness within me the whole time?

[theroyalmisfitmess]

Since we are on the topic of an actual wedding possibly happening on The Bear, imagine a wholeass episode where Richie tries to have dinner with Tiff and her fiancé for the sake of their daughter. We can see Richie be a good dad and with much dismay finally let Tiff go. It’s gonna be heartbreaking and an emotional rollercoaster to watch but fuck I really wanna see Tiff get all sentimental about Richie and their daughter even if she knows they shouldn’t get back together.

Also a small part of me does want Richie and Tiff to get back together even if I know it’s impossibly realistic. Their “I love you” phone call had me sad and sobbing and it’s nearly impossible to get me at that state. I just can’t find the emotional side of me.

[garbinge]

For The Sake of the Game

Richie Jeremovich x F!Reader From these August Prompts:  “Flirting"

A/N: YOUR HONOR I JUST SIMPLY LOVE THEM SO MUCH <3 Word Count: 1.6k Warnings: All my fics are 18+ regardless of content. Alludes to sexual situations, flirting, cursing.  

The Bear Taglist: @drabbles-mc @justreblogginfics @quixscentsposts @dadbodfanatic-x @adorable-punk-superheroes @lodeddiperrodrick @isalver @captainweasleybarnes @musicwithteeth

Other fics from this universe

You remember sitting on your couch when Carmy left and then you remember standing at Richie’s door. The middle was a little foggy, all you knew was that now you were standing at Richie’s door at 12AM and needed to come up with a reason. 

He opened the door and immediately you remembered everything just by seeing him. 

“I don’t have a name.” You pushed through him and into his place. 

“Come on in.” He mumbled. 

“I don’t have a name and I just spent the entire night watching TV with Carmy and listening to him talk about fuckin’ Claire. Did you know Claire was back? Apparently Claire is back. Also, do you know if he’s working on the menu with Syd? We were watching fuckin’ Jeopardy reruns and he really should be working on the menu and I should be working on a name and the blends.” 

“You’re throwing a lot at me right now, sweetheart.” Richie’s eyes were closed as he tried to wrap his mind around everything you said. 

“You were asleep?” You turned around and realized you were standing right in front of him. You stood there a minute and really looked at Richie, really took in the sight of him. 

“Yes, I was asleep, it’s 12AM.” He hummed and opened his eyes to look at you. 

“That’s what you wear to sleep.” You pointed to the oversized jersey shirt he wore. 

“It’s comfy and it’s a good luck thing.” He looked down at the shirt and picked up the bottom hem before making eye contact back with you. 

“But the Bulls don’t play tomorrow.” You pointed to the red mascot patch resting on his chest. 

“But the Cubs do.” He nodded once like what he said made complete sense. 

“Soooo, why not a Cubs shirt?” You were intrigued by whatever the hell this was. 

“Because it doesn’t work like that.” He said it so absolute, like you should know exactly what it was that he meant. 

“You’re throwing a lot at me right now.” You repeated his sentence back to him. He smiled at that and shook his head in a touche kind of way.  “I don’t want it to be awkward.” You blurted out without thinking twice. 

“What?” His face twitched back slightly at your sentence. 

“Between us. So what? We sleep together. I enjoy your company. I’d like to think you enjoy mine, so like, it doesn’t need to be awkward.” You were rambling, it was out of nerves but also truthful. 

“You think it’s awkward between us?” Richie asked seriously. 

“I think it’s awkward between us.” You nodded confirming his sentence. 

“Okay so it won’t be awkward.” He shrugged, his voice coming more to it now from being asleep. 

“Okay.” You said with confidence. 

There was a silence that fell over the two of you now. One might have described it as sort of an awkward silence. 

“So you wanna think of a name?” Richie interrupted the quiet. 

“There’s no way I can come up with a name right now.” You let out a chuckle and brought your hands up to your eyes rubbing them as the exhaustion settled in. 

“You wanna stay over?” He asked, you could hear the confidence behind the statement that was quickly sheltered by his following words. “We can brainstorm up some type of business plan and make things not awkward.” Now he was making jokes, the smile on his face was cute, it was flirty, but your lack of response caused Richie to go into ramble mode. “I say that cause like I know my way around a business plan, I helped Mikey out with a few, nothing special, and they didn’t get finalized, but–” 

“Yes.” You cut him off, very eagerly. “Yes to staying over and yes to the business plan.” 

“Alright.” He nodded and moved to clean off the table and grab a notebook.

“Alright.” You plopped into the seat at his kitchen island that was now pretty empty and clean. 

The two of you made notes on multiple pages of the notebook, Richie making points about things you’d likely have to find solutions and answers for and you making notes that either Richie had the answer for or you spent some time googling to get more information. Honestly, despite the exhaustion between the both of you, it was fun. You needed some outline of what to do with your coffee brand and product and this was that. It felt good to be working on it and having someone help you that also believed in it, and you. 

“I get the jersey thing now.” You interrupted your work session. 

“You do?” Richie asked, sitting next to you now. 

“It’s a jinx thing. It’s not basketball season, it’s baseball season, which means you wear the basketball jersey before the Cubs play to stir up the "Chicago magic" because wearing the baseball jersey would jinx everything.” It was a long winded answer and honestly made little to zero sense. 

“Exactly that.” He slammed his head on the table in excitement. 

“It makes no sense.” You laughed and rolled your eyes. 

“But it works.” He shrugged. 

“And it looks good on you.” 

Richie immediately looked over at you, shocked at what you said. 

“You flirting with me?” He smirked, trying to cut his embarrassment with a joke. 

“Maybe.” Your eyebrows raised and you shrugged your shoulders. “Any rules about taking the jersey off and back on in the same night?” 

Richie’s smile didn’t fade as he stared at you. “Not sure, never done it.” 

“What if I wore the jersey?” You stared back into his eyes, trying to say so much to him through a simple look. 

“Again, we’re entering into never been done territory here.” He swayed from side to side breaking your eye contact likely because the flirting was making him nervous. 

You never really did this part of things both times you, well, you know, and all the other times you flirted were mindless, harmless fun. This was intentional, this was direct and clearly new for the both of you. 

“Maybe…” You paused, not sure what Richie’s reaction to what you were thinking of saying was going to be but decided the only way to find out was to say it, “we could test it out.” 

Richie’s reaction was to lean over and kiss you. It was intense, it was thrilling, and it was everything to you. It didn’t take long until you two ended up in his bedroom, but it did come after a vigorous makeout in the kitchen area, one that would have made the health inspectors of any restaurant kitchen provide an F rating immediately. Your notes and thoughts ended up scattered on the floor in the heat of it all, both of your clothes left in a trail as you made your way to his room, jersey included. Not that you were keeping track but this might’ve been the best night you spent together yet, the last two were great but they didn’t feel as effortless as this time, although you would have described each time with Richie as effortless, truthfully. You felt safe with him, you felt comfortable, and even more than that you always enjoyed time with him. 

You remember waking up early in the morning as Richie was getting up for work, you were groggy and still half asleep. At that point you only had a couple hours of sleep so everything was foggy. The memory you did have was of him telling you he had to get Eva to school but that you didn’t have to get up and that the spare key was…somewhere for you to lock up whenever you got up. That ended up being 12:30PM. You were thankful that your co-worker switched shifts with you to the late afternoon time slot and it allowed you to get those extra hours of snooze time, it also allowed you to soak in the fact that you were at Richie Jerimovich’s place. You hadn’t been here, ever. You picked him up a few times, dropped him off, but other than that, you had never been inside.

Getting out of bed, you followed your trail of clothes and placed them back on as you made your way back to the kitchen table. All your notes were in a stack on the table with a k-cup, breakfast granola bar, and note. You couldn’t help but smile at it before picking it up to read. 

All I had laying around, don’t fuckin’ judge me. Spare key is in the light to the right of the front door. Had a really good time last night, also…think you got yourself a business. 

The last sentence made you look down at all your notes, he was right, you had the starts of a business here, the start of your own coffee product and plan. Your smile would have been contagious if you weren’t alone. The idea that this was all happening was making you feel giddy, that mixed with the irony that after all the planning for your own coffee blends you were about to have a Keurig coffee cup was honestly bringing you a lot of joy. 

____

As you left work, you were surprisingly in a good mood for working the later shift. It helped that everything from the night before was still fresh in your mind. Walking home early evening was your favorite commuting time, the streets weren't packed with people, the sun was setting so the sky was oranges mixed with dark blues. As you continued to stroll, you walked by someone smoking a cigarette with a cubs jersey on.

“Hey, sorry but do you know if the Cubs won today?” You stopped walking just to ask him. 

“Yea, 6-4.” He said exhaling. 

“Thank you.” You grinned and pulled out your phone. 

You 7:15PM Heard the cubs won. 

Richie 7:16PM Sox play tomorrow, you should come over.  Richie 7:16PM For the sake of the game. 

You 7:16 On my way You 7:17: For the sake of the game. 

[whenmemorydies]

I am absolutely NOT ready for Richie the Usurper lmao. I still haven’t forgiven his ass for episodes 1 through to 14 of this damn show 😂

SYDCARMY: YOU OK? YOU GOOD? RICHIE SEASON 3 THE BEAR

When CARMY asks Sydney now if she's good, she says ' We'll see' she doesn't really look at him

She's doubtful of the process now but still waiting to see

When Sydney asks Carmy if he's good, we see it really doesn't matter what he answers because the whole time Richie is in back of her but between them, getting closer to Sydney

Giving her the answer she needs

She's still looking to him

She's behind him as her instructs. They have each other's back

[prozacwhorehouse]

richie jeremovich im so sorry but unfortunately you’re too girl best friend material id pick Frank too

[dearpyramus]

🦇Cassius Masterlist🦇

Things I write for:

I write both x reader and ships. All x reader is gender neutral unless stated otherwise. the following are characters and ships you will find on here currently or in the near future (note this list is subject to change):

The Bear:

Carmen Berzatto

Sydney Adamu

Richie Jeremovich

Natalie Berzatto

Sydcarmy

Shameless:

Lip Gallagher

Fiona Gallagher

Debbie Gallagher

Sandy Milkovich

Mandy Milkovich

Gallavich

SandyxDebbie

+more

Things I won’t write:

A canonically gay/lesbian character with the opposite sex

Proship (incest/pedophilia/etc)

CNC

DDLG or anything under that umbrella (please note that age regression is completely different and is a sfw coping mechanism, don’t get those two confused)

anything involving step siblings in a romantic sense

anything involving teacher x student in a romantic sense

anything involving a real person

please don’t ask why i won’t write these, they’re my preferences. thanks for understanding.

please note that i reserve the right to deny any request if i so chose (but im not very picky so don’t be shy!!)

[unechienandalusia]

NEED richie jeremovich’s reading list like i need air

[whenmemorydies]

You know, now that you say it, I think it makes sense that Tiffany invited Donna.

Because at first my thought process was, well Donna is not Richie’s or Eva’s family, they only spent time together because Richie was friends with the Berzattos. And now that Tiffany and Richie are divorced, Tiffany has no family ties to Donna.

But then I remembered that in Fishes, Tiffany actually seems to have a decent friendship with Donna. Donna lets her wear her robe and chill in her bed and there’s no negativity in their interactions. Tiffany is not traumatized by Donna like Sugar is.

So then that explains why she’d like Donna enough to invite her to the wedding.

Yeah I agree, I think Fishes establishes that Tiff is treated like part of the Berzatto family, like Richie to an extent. In that episode, she appears to have good relationships with Donna, Cicero, Mikey and Nat. We also see her at Mikey's funeral and she looks pretty upset there too.

There appears to be a circle of families who may not be biologically related to them but who form part of the Berzatto's close social circle. This includes Richie, Tiff and Eva, Cicero and his wife, Uncle Lee and the Faks. Given their closeness, even if they're not related by blood, it doesn't seem like a big stretch to me that Tiff would invite Donna and others in that same social circle to her wedding to Frank. We also hear Tiff telling Richie that she doesn't have much family left - which gives her even more reason to keep her chosen family close.

[escapismqueen]

I love Richie jeremovich. Like seriously he’s won my heart 🤣

[wtfsteveharrington]

Hey, I'm have the worst year of my life and I need Richie Jeremovich to make me feel better. My mom died and I had to go to the funeral alone while watching my brother and sister have someone. I understand if this is too heavy, but if you could write about Richie being there for you, I'd appreciate it.

hi there <3

i've debated answering this for a few days - first and foremost i'm very sorry for your loss.

sadly i've experienced some very, very serious losses of my own over this past year and i'm not comfortable writing grief related stories at this time. i hate to go as far as to say it's a bit triggering for me, but unleashing that side of my life is just a bit too heavy for me. i will updated my request guide to reflect this.

it's not easy to heal but i hope you're able to find some peace. my thoughts are with you

[kneworder]

character trait i wish i didn't share with richie jeremovich is that i fully understand where he's coming from at the end of the first conversation he has with carmy like even if cooking isn't fun for carmy and even if it's literally tearing him apart it's still passion and it's still purpose and living without a strong sense of those things is so frightening and disheartening that sometimes you find yourself wishing you had something you cared enough about to work yourself to death over it. ok. anyway.

[boeing747]

SORRY IM IMPATIENT. RICHIE

[garbinge]

Tasteless

Richie Jeremovich x F!Reader Carmy Berzatto & F!Reader (Platonic) From these August Prompts:  “Tasteless" Word Count: 2.7k Warnings: Cursing, Angst, Kissing.

The Bear Taglist: @drabbles-mc @justreblogginfics @quixscentsposts @dadbodfanatic-x @adorable-punk-superheroes @lodeddiperrodrick @isalver @captainweasleybarnes @musicwithteeth Other fics from this universe

“Do you remember the first time we met?” The question was one sentence in the flow of conversation as you got out of Richie’s car to walk into the restaurant together. 

It had been weeks now of doing whatever you and Richie were doing. There wasn’t any label on it, no discussion of exclusivity, but you spent a lot of nights over there consecutively staying over and on the nights you didn’t, he stayed with you. You were having fun, whatever that meant. Honestly it was the first time in a while that your relationship–or person you were intimate with wasn’t an issue or causing an issue in your life. And not only that but it was providing you with genuine fun and happiness. Richie was a good time, not only in that way but in the way that he was honest with you, you felt safe with him, not only because you knew he’d protect you or stand up for you but because he never lied to you, you never had to wonder or worry what was going on with him. There was a million more things that made your time with Richie enjoyable and you honestly spent a lot of time thinking about it because, well, it made you happy. Your mind got brought back to the conversation when he spoke. 

“I remember when Carmy brought home some hyper enthusiastic friend.” He teased you as he placed a piece of paper in his mouth before grabbing his jacket to put on over his beef baseball tee. 

You rolled your eyes and grabbed the paper out of his mouth. “My brainstorming is not meant to be treated this way.” 

He adjusted his collar and closed his car door, placing the key in the handle to lock it before catching up with you. 

“I think the first time we met you told me to go fuck myself.” Richie tried to recollect back on the memory. 

“I did, because you were making fun of Carmy.” You nodded in agreeance and grabbed his coffee from him taking a large sip 

“I always made fun of Carmy. And give that back, don’t you have your own?” He reached over and grabbed the cup back from you causing a little to spill and just miss the paper full of all the blends of coffee you were thinking to experiment with. 

“And I always told you to go fuck yourself. Just like now, be careful! These are precious precious ideas!” You handed him back the coffee to protect the paper. 

“You wrote them on the back of a takeout flyer in my bed at 1AM because you couldn’t sleep.” Richie knew you were excited but he grounded you from getting ahead of yourself. 

“Oh yea by the way, happy hour at Elina’s this Thursday.” You flipped the paper over to show him as you walked by the side of the partially renovated restaurant to see Tina in the window cleaning it and offered a quick wave that Richie matched. 

As you both strolled into the restaurant and made your way to the kitchen you saw Carmy moving around the floor that had green tape on it and Gary holding a stopwatch. 

“Morning, fam.” You called out and shrugged your jacket off immediately. 

“OooOoOoOo” Gary called out seeing you and Richie walk in together. 

All you did was shake your head and push him slightly as you approached him, also in a way to tell him to move over so you could sit next to him on the old kitchen workspace. 

“What are we doing?”  You asked, letting your legs dangle back and forth. 

“Mapping out the kitchen for efficiency. Need to do this all in 5 seconds.” Carmy was running his hand through his hair before taking his sweater off. 

“What are we at?” Richie looked over at Gary and you looked over his shoulder at his stopwatch. 

“7 seconds.” Gary said, raising his brows. 

“You’re fucked.” Richie said while you simultaneously offered encouragement. “You can do it.” 

Carmy stared at the both of you while you both stared at each other. 

“I gotta take a fuckin’ break.” Carmy said, shaking his head and moving out to the front. 

“Carm!” You called out and jumped down to follow him through the saloon door. 

“Hm?” He asked and turned around. 

“I’ve got a list of potential blends, and honestly could use a second pair of eyes, like a good pair of eyes, that knows flavor combinations, and I know you’re busy with this and the menu and the whole restaurant so like if you’re busy that’s fine, you know?” It was a long winded statement and you were tripping over your words. When you had told Carmy about how instead of a coffee shop you were going to create your own coffee brand, his reaction surprised you. It brought you back to high school when you two would talk about your dreams and plans. He was happy. Supportive even. You remember him saying it was a great idea. 

“No, yes, let’s do that.” His attitude changed immediately. “Uh, is it tastings or?” 

“No, just want to pick your brain, honestly I could text you the list and you could just send me your thoughts when you can?” You wanted to be aware of his time and the fact that he was weeks to opening. 

“No, we should sit down and talk about it. You’re my best friend, you’ve been here helping me, I wanna help you, especially figuring out the best blends, you know. Um, tonight? We can stay late here and chat through stuff, we could even try some things if you want.” 

“Yea, alright. See you tonight.” You smiled and turned back to the kitchen where everyone was. “Thanks, Carm.” You turned around with your hand on the door to thank your best friend who was pulling his phone out of his pocket and just nodded with a smile. 

__________

The rest of the day was spent doing odd and end things for the renovation, there was a break where you took the L home to grab a couple things for your plans with Carmy later which is what led you here now. You still had some time before you figured Carmy would be back so you were sitting with Sugar, Richie, Fak, and Sydney discussing the options you had laid out. 

“I don’t know anything about coffee.” Fak said as he swirled around the one blend you had brewed in Sugar’s office as a taster. It was the idea you were excited the most about, you were nicknaming it the Chicago blend. It was the best regular coffee bean you could get your hands on, nothing added just a great fresh coffee bean and you aerated it, twice. It was you playing on The Chicago Bean and ‘The Windy City.” 

Fak took a sip, “I wish it had vanilla.”

“Fak, I love you, but pass the jar to someone else.” You said in a soft tone because you knew how Fak enjoyed his coffee, with enough sugar and vanilla flavored creamer to give a kid a sugar headache. 

Fak handed it over to Sydney who sniffed it and raised her eyebrows impressed by the simple smell and then took a small swig. 

“That’s light. With a smell like that I wasn’t expecting it to be light.” She said and tossed her head side to side. 

“I know, it’s so light that it’s almost tasteless, it needs something. I just don’t know what.” You watched as she passed it to Richie who didn’t hesitate to drink a big chug of it. 

“This is fuckin’ good and strong without having me think I’m drinking something that’s gonna shoot me to the moon.” He was ecstatic in how he was talking. It made you smile. 

“I’m not gonna try it but it smells good.” Sugar had the jar in her hand and was wafting it. “Maybe it’s fine the way it is?” She said tilting her smile up with a shrug. 

“It’ll come to me in time.” You reached your hand out and grabbed the jar back from her. 

“You got a name for it yet?” Syd stood up and asked you. 

“Carmy said something earlier that stuck with me and I don’t even think he realized it.” You said gathering up your stuff, too. 

You thought back to just earlier today when you two made plans. “You’re my best friend, you’ve been here helping me, I wanna help you, especially figuring out the best blends, you know.”

“So I’ve been stuck on the name Coffee Garden right, playing on Chicago’s whole “City in a garden” nickname, this place, it just raised me you know, it’s home. It felt right. But I think I’m gonna add Best Blends to the coffee grinds. Play on best friends, because you know you want the flavors to mix well together.” You explained your logic. 

Syd had a smile on her face understanding where Carmy shone through in your ideating. Now actually, that you were looking around everyone did. 

“Aright, alright, fuck all of you, let’s get back to whatever the fuck we were doing.” You brushed them all off and moved out to the front. 

At some point arguing had started between the group of you, more Sugar and Richie while you and Sydney just added in your two scents when needed and served more as mediators than anything else. 

Carmy’s voice alerted you when he asked what was going on and that’s when you saw her. Claire. You had known Carmy was going to see her again, it was inevitable, it was also a little hypocritical of you to be mad. You knew it was too much to balance, but yet here you were throwing more on his plate with your own stuff, but you couldn’t help but think that that was different. Maybe there was a little best friend privilege there and you knew there was also way more transparency. You knew Sydney needed him for things and you’d never even think of taking him away from that, tonight was the perfect example, you were going to tell Sydney to take as much time as she needed with Carm before you took your own time with him because you knew there was a lot still to be decided on. But with Claire, you knew he wasn’t telling her shit and she was going to be collateral, and while you weren’t sure who was going to pick up her broken pieces, you knew who was going to be picking up Carmy’s. 

Now Carmy was in the mix of yelling as everyone greeted Claire. Sugar first with a hug, followed by Sydney introducing herself while Richie whispered in Carmy’s ear before giving the girl his normal italian greeting all while you just stood there, staring at Carmy in hopes he would read your mind. 

Obviously that was no dice, so you smiled at Claire and moved forward to hug her. 

“Hey Claire.” Your arm moved around her for a brief few seconds as she raised an octave to greet you back. 

As you pulled out of the hug you noticed Richie was trying to make his point about the whole entire reason everyone was arguing and you went to step in until you heard Carmy. 

“Everybody, thank you for today. It was a great day. Go home. Goodnight.” 

You and Sydney practically made the same face. Syd’s was more laughable, her face had a smile on it as she accepted what was happening, her eyes rolled and she was pretty quick to grab her things and leave. Which left you standing there, a little in disbelief as you processed your best friend's words as Richie continued to argue with Carmy. 

“Richie.” You said cutting him off while staring off in a direction before zoning back in and placing your hand on his abdomen, “come on, let’s go.” 

You felt both Claire and Carmy’s eyes fall to your hand that was resting on Richie and then back up to the two of you.

Richie looked down at you and frowned, at first it was because he was frustrated you cut him off but then he saw your face. Your incredibly sad face. That made his own soften and his hand reached out for your shoulder as he instantly realized what was going on. 

“Alright, yea.” He shook his head yes as you both disconnected and you grabbed your things and started to make your way out the front door. 

“Goodnight.” You were barely able to speak up, but knew you couldn’t be in that room with Carmy without a burst of frustration tears coming out so you opted to step out while Richie grabbed his coat, said his goodbyes and was shortly behind you. 

Richie was lighting a cigarette up the minute he was outside and lightly jogged so he was caught up to you as you walked to his car. 

“I’m telling you that kid, he’s so fuckin’ annoying, I’m tryin’ my best here, right? They need amperage and I went to get amperage, but no one appreciates me, I’m tryna fuckin’ help, be proactive, but it’s what was I thinkin’, I think I’m the only one thinkin’!” He kept going on and on and you let him as your own thoughts bounced around in your head. You two were now getting into his car, letting the engine warm up while Richie kept shit talking. 

“And what happened to silverware with Syd and blends with you? Yelling at all of us to get out, like he didn’t just fuck you both over, and me, because he always fucks me over, it doesn’t matter that I’ve been here longer than anyone and know shit about shit, but still no one is showing anyone any fuckin’ respect.” 

“Richie.” You spoke quietly to get his attention, him mentioning what he noticed about you and Carmy grounded you back into reality. It was so different to have someone who noticed that shit and paid attention to how you were feeling. No one had done that before. Sure Carmy and you had years of history where he’d notice things were up and you’d check in but these last years really had none of that. 

Ironically, Richie hadn’t heard you so you said his name a couple more times until he stopped and looked over at you. 

“Thank you.” You said looking at him, straight into his blue eyes. 

There was probably more you could say, more to what you felt but there wasn’t anymore emotional capacity in your brain left to express it so for now, thank you would have to do. 

Richie’s brows slightly frowned as he shook his head. “I don’t know what you’re thankin’ me for, sweetheart.” 

“Just, everything. Thank you.” You tried to explain but after that sentence Richie didn’t need anymore detail, he nodded and opted to lean in and plant a kiss on your lips instead of saying anything else. His hand cupped your face to bring it closer to his as you both leaned over the middle console of his car. His breath tasted like coffee and cigarettes and strangely enough you loved it. 

As he pulled out of the kiss, he left his forehead to rest on yours, “you’re welcome.” 

It made you chuckle and as you did he planted one more peck to your lips before moving to put the car in drive. 

“C’mon, you can get your coffee lab running at my place and I’ll taste whatever you need me to.” He began to head towards his place putting the radio on low to drown out the silence in the car. “And for the record, that shit wasn’t tasteless, I think it just needs something minorly sweet like air rated vanilla or some shit to balance out the lightness.” 

Your head snapped to him, he might have mispronounced the process but he was right. 

“Fuckin’ Fak.” Your voice slipped back to its normal self thinking back to when everyone was in the kitchen. 

You both let out a small laugh. Richie raised his eyebrows and let out the same sentence as you. 

 “Fuckin’ Fak.”