Tulsa, Oklahoma, Tuesday FT
In her own view, Kate had bounced back... okay-ish, from texting with Mitchell, earlier. Of course, her own view of things was often not the most objective view possible. But at least she hadn't had to spend any time throwing up like she'd been worried would happen for a while there?
Yeah, she was pretty glad to get back in the plane, and she basically even forgot to be awkward at Evan even though there had been a slight incident between them (pre-Mitchell) earlier in the day. Apparently she'd been too smiley at him or something on the flight into Tulsa, since he'd seen fit to inform her that while he was flattered, he wasn't looking to go out with her because he'd recently gotten divorced and had a kid and yadda yadda, and she'd had to point to her ring and remark that she was the sensible teenager's equivalent of married and dude, so not hitting on him.
So, awkward. But they seemed pretty fine now that she was stuffing his carry-on bag into the overhead locker. Which was good because she'd come to like bumping into him on his frequent flights over the past few weeks after the Burger Knight candy dispenser thing.
(Time was running weirdly - even weirdlier? - for her in relation to Fandom again. She didn't even know what day it was back there.)
"Severe weather alert, huh?" Evan asked her as he sat down. "Think this jalopy will take off?"
Kate snorted. "Not a chance," she said. The weather was just that shitty, and she knew how SkyKans liked to protect its less-than-perfect planes. "I hope you brought tarmac activities."
"Oh, I see you're well-equipped," Evan replied, and it took her a second to realize he meant the paperback she'd stuffed into her apron pocket. "Oh. Slim pickins on the relay." Or, she'd grabbed a book at random with tears in her eyes because she'd just really needed to bolt from the store. But details. This was the first time she was actually looking at the book, even. "'A hilarious tale of married life, toddlerhood, and the perils of throwing a fabulous surprise party'," she read aloud from the back cover, "'on a budget'." Evan pretended to be absolutely awed and they both laughed, and Kate was surprised she could do that and sound natural, right now. It called for some honesty.
"Hey, I'm sorry that I got in your face before," she said, with a lopsided smile. "I just have a lot of close guy friends so I guess I kinda forget people can read me wrong or whatever."
He nodded. "Yeah, no, I get that," he said. "And I thought it might be a thing on these commuter flights for guys to be up for a superficial fling with a young, cute stewardess. I just wanted to make clear I'm not that guy."
"Flight attendant," Kate corrected automatically, raising an amused eyebrow at him. "And did you just call me superficial?"
"No, I called the fling superficial." He nodded at her apron pocket. "In spite of what you're reading."
"Hey! Foul!" she exclaimed. "We already established this was a gag purchase."
He twisted his lips as if not quite buying this explanation. "Still, you bought it." Oh, burn. "Well, I am not judging you by your shitty polyester carry-on," Kate retorted, raising both her eyebrows, "which is horrible, and you should fork over the scratch for a decent bag, because that, my friend, says 'I loathe myself'." He feigned being hurt, and Kate was about to be snarky but then the flight attendant phone went off in the front of the cabin, and she had to run to get that.
And it was exactly what she'd expected it to be. "Due to inclement weather conditions, SkyKans flight 35 from Tulsa to Kansas City has been canceled," she announced to the passengers in her best customer service voice. "Passengers can collect vouchers for the nearby budget-stay." A beat. "Bring hand sanitizer."
Ugh. She was not looking forward to this.
-----
In the end, it turned out getting stuck in Tulsa was probably the best thing that could have happened today, considering. Had she gone home, she would've driven herself crazy with worrying and angst. If she'd portaled out to Fandom, she probably would have done the same. Tulsa was like taking a little break from the crazy and weird. She called her mom to say she'd do her best to get home the next day for the combo party of baby shower, her dad's birthday and his band's reunion gig, and she sent Bod a few texts in the 'wah stuck in Tulsa' style, and then she decided to make the most of having this unexpected break from the norm.
Which mostly led her to hanging out with Evan in his hotel room in the frumpiest (/most comfortable) clothes she had with her. Don't you judge. The hotel lounge was creepy and it wasn't like she could even drink there! No, much better to stay in a private room where they could eat vending machine snacks and drink minibar booze on the rocks from a shared glass. Besides, as far as surroundings went, the room offered endless entertainment. "Eww, look at this!" Kate laughed, showing Evan a suspicious stain on the lamp by the bed. "Your room is so much grosser than mine! Is this ketchup or blood?"
"It's blood," Evan replied without missing a beat. Serious about it, too. "It's definitely blood. That's too dark for ketchup."
"Oh, gross!" Kate replied, making a face as she climbed on the bed. But she was laughing because... Well, blood on a lamp wasn't funny but goddammit, for once it did not involve her. She could treat it like a game because right now she had to. "See?" she asked, when she noticed Evan's amused look. "You can go through a horrifying divorce and have a child and still manage to have fun. Platonically."
"Okay, all right," he admitted, spreading his hands. "Yeah, well, I'm a little gun-shy, I'll admit. It's been a hell of a decade."
Kate made another face and handed him the glass, leaning her back against the headboard of the bed. "Ugh, it's been that long?"
"Yeah, she, uh, she fell out of love with me -- waited seven years to break the news," he replied, voice going more sarcastic towards the end, before he took a sip. "Sweet." Kate shook her head, and said, "That sucks." But he shrugged a shoulder. "Well, I don't know, you know? It's tough to have a conversation with an empty bed. Last year, I was home a total of 87 days. A couple of them were actually consecutive." Kate had a fleeting thought about herself and Bod, but pushed that aside because there was something she found herself curious about. "What do you do, exactly?" she asked. It was weird she hadn't asked before. He seemed to always be flying to places, then coming back the same day.
"I, um, I buy land from retired farmers," he explained, "and then I lease it to energy companies for wind turbines."
Riiight. Kate reached to take the drink from him again and tried to mask her amusement. She did it rather poorly. There was a laugh at the end of her reply. "That sounds... interesting?"
"Okay, all right," he said, grinning sheepisly as he snatched the glass back from her. "Yes, I am an electrifying drunk."
Self-depricating or not, Kate didn't mind. Maybe she needed to be around someone with a boring job and a fairly normal life, right now. Kept her from thinking about friends in purgatory. She pointed at something she'd just spotted on the wall across from the bed. "What about that one?" she asked. "Mayo or semen?"
"That one?" Evan asked, frowning. "Uh, neither. That is too high."
"So... ?"
He squinted at the stain, tilting his head. "I'm gonna go with... hair lotion."
Kate laughed incredulously. "What? It's on the wall." She gestured at the wall, like he wouldn't understand otherwise. Or maybe it was just because she sometimes got flaily while a little intoxicated. "How vigorously do you lotion your hair?"
"That's really personal," he told her, mock haughtily. Then proceeded to mime applying lotion in the messiest way possible. It made her snicker. "I understand," she nodded. "It all makes sense." Much moreso than a lot of things today. She shifted a little, which made the phone in her pocket press uncomfortably into her hip, so she fished it out. And then ended up giving it a thoughtful look. She couldn't shake the feeling she should have done something more than capslock at Mitchell to show her disapproval. Like call Eric, or Bo. Someone with more powers than her.
But she hadn't. Too late for that now.
Evan interrupted her thoughts. "Expecting a call?" he asked, curious. She shook her head. "Nah. Just have some... family shit going on. Fight with someone." She wrinkled her nose. "It'll blow over." Such an easy lie for something so major.
"Oh. You wanna talk about it?"
Kate shook her head without a second thought, though the question on its own still managed to suddenly make her miss Bod kind of like crazy. She promised herself she'd call him tomorrow. She'd keep today for this, whatever this was. Hanging out on a break in the normal world.
She must've looked a little sad, because Evan sounded hesitant when he broke the silence that had fallen. "Um... Hey, so, they're predicting storms all weekend, so I'm gonna rent a car, drive back tomorrow. It's like five hours." A pause. "You want a ride?"
She mustered up a smile and said, "Sure, that sounds like it could be fun.
[ooc: NFB! Taken with tweakage from USoT S03E07'The Electrifying & Magnanimous Return of Beaverlamp' (S3 episode titles ILU), can be open for texts/calls if you're willing to put up with SP.]
Yeah, she was pretty glad to get back in the plane, and she basically even forgot to be awkward at Evan even though there had been a slight incident between them (pre-Mitchell) earlier in the day. Apparently she'd been too smiley at him or something on the flight into Tulsa, since he'd seen fit to inform her that while he was flattered, he wasn't looking to go out with her because he'd recently gotten divorced and had a kid and yadda yadda, and she'd had to point to her ring and remark that she was the sensible teenager's equivalent of married and dude, so not hitting on him.
So, awkward. But they seemed pretty fine now that she was stuffing his carry-on bag into the overhead locker. Which was good because she'd come to like bumping into him on his frequent flights over the past few weeks after the Burger Knight candy dispenser thing.
(Time was running weirdly - even weirdlier? - for her in relation to Fandom again. She didn't even know what day it was back there.)
"Severe weather alert, huh?" Evan asked her as he sat down. "Think this jalopy will take off?"
Kate snorted. "Not a chance," she said. The weather was just that shitty, and she knew how SkyKans liked to protect its less-than-perfect planes. "I hope you brought tarmac activities."
"Oh, I see you're well-equipped," Evan replied, and it took her a second to realize he meant the paperback she'd stuffed into her apron pocket. "Oh. Slim pickins on the relay." Or, she'd grabbed a book at random with tears in her eyes because she'd just really needed to bolt from the store. But details. This was the first time she was actually looking at the book, even. "'A hilarious tale of married life, toddlerhood, and the perils of throwing a fabulous surprise party'," she read aloud from the back cover, "'on a budget'." Evan pretended to be absolutely awed and they both laughed, and Kate was surprised she could do that and sound natural, right now. It called for some honesty.
"Hey, I'm sorry that I got in your face before," she said, with a lopsided smile. "I just have a lot of close guy friends so I guess I kinda forget people can read me wrong or whatever."
He nodded. "Yeah, no, I get that," he said. "And I thought it might be a thing on these commuter flights for guys to be up for a superficial fling with a young, cute stewardess. I just wanted to make clear I'm not that guy."
"Flight attendant," Kate corrected automatically, raising an amused eyebrow at him. "And did you just call me superficial?"
"No, I called the fling superficial." He nodded at her apron pocket. "In spite of what you're reading."
"Hey! Foul!" she exclaimed. "We already established this was a gag purchase."
He twisted his lips as if not quite buying this explanation. "Still, you bought it." Oh, burn. "Well, I am not judging you by your shitty polyester carry-on," Kate retorted, raising both her eyebrows, "which is horrible, and you should fork over the scratch for a decent bag, because that, my friend, says 'I loathe myself'." He feigned being hurt, and Kate was about to be snarky but then the flight attendant phone went off in the front of the cabin, and she had to run to get that.
And it was exactly what she'd expected it to be. "Due to inclement weather conditions, SkyKans flight 35 from Tulsa to Kansas City has been canceled," she announced to the passengers in her best customer service voice. "Passengers can collect vouchers for the nearby budget-stay." A beat. "Bring hand sanitizer."
Ugh. She was not looking forward to this.
-----
In the end, it turned out getting stuck in Tulsa was probably the best thing that could have happened today, considering. Had she gone home, she would've driven herself crazy with worrying and angst. If she'd portaled out to Fandom, she probably would have done the same. Tulsa was like taking a little break from the crazy and weird. She called her mom to say she'd do her best to get home the next day for the combo party of baby shower, her dad's birthday and his band's reunion gig, and she sent Bod a few texts in the 'wah stuck in Tulsa' style, and then she decided to make the most of having this unexpected break from the norm.
Which mostly led her to hanging out with Evan in his hotel room in the frumpiest (/most comfortable) clothes she had with her. Don't you judge. The hotel lounge was creepy and it wasn't like she could even drink there! No, much better to stay in a private room where they could eat vending machine snacks and drink minibar booze on the rocks from a shared glass. Besides, as far as surroundings went, the room offered endless entertainment. "Eww, look at this!" Kate laughed, showing Evan a suspicious stain on the lamp by the bed. "Your room is so much grosser than mine! Is this ketchup or blood?"
"It's blood," Evan replied without missing a beat. Serious about it, too. "It's definitely blood. That's too dark for ketchup."
"Oh, gross!" Kate replied, making a face as she climbed on the bed. But she was laughing because... Well, blood on a lamp wasn't funny but goddammit, for once it did not involve her. She could treat it like a game because right now she had to. "See?" she asked, when she noticed Evan's amused look. "You can go through a horrifying divorce and have a child and still manage to have fun. Platonically."
"Okay, all right," he admitted, spreading his hands. "Yeah, well, I'm a little gun-shy, I'll admit. It's been a hell of a decade."
Kate made another face and handed him the glass, leaning her back against the headboard of the bed. "Ugh, it's been that long?"
"Yeah, she, uh, she fell out of love with me -- waited seven years to break the news," he replied, voice going more sarcastic towards the end, before he took a sip. "Sweet." Kate shook her head, and said, "That sucks." But he shrugged a shoulder. "Well, I don't know, you know? It's tough to have a conversation with an empty bed. Last year, I was home a total of 87 days. A couple of them were actually consecutive." Kate had a fleeting thought about herself and Bod, but pushed that aside because there was something she found herself curious about. "What do you do, exactly?" she asked. It was weird she hadn't asked before. He seemed to always be flying to places, then coming back the same day.
"I, um, I buy land from retired farmers," he explained, "and then I lease it to energy companies for wind turbines."
Riiight. Kate reached to take the drink from him again and tried to mask her amusement. She did it rather poorly. There was a laugh at the end of her reply. "That sounds... interesting?"
"Okay, all right," he said, grinning sheepisly as he snatched the glass back from her. "Yes, I am an electrifying drunk."
Self-depricating or not, Kate didn't mind. Maybe she needed to be around someone with a boring job and a fairly normal life, right now. Kept her from thinking about friends in purgatory. She pointed at something she'd just spotted on the wall across from the bed. "What about that one?" she asked. "Mayo or semen?"
"That one?" Evan asked, frowning. "Uh, neither. That is too high."
"So... ?"
He squinted at the stain, tilting his head. "I'm gonna go with... hair lotion."
Kate laughed incredulously. "What? It's on the wall." She gestured at the wall, like he wouldn't understand otherwise. Or maybe it was just because she sometimes got flaily while a little intoxicated. "How vigorously do you lotion your hair?"
"That's really personal," he told her, mock haughtily. Then proceeded to mime applying lotion in the messiest way possible. It made her snicker. "I understand," she nodded. "It all makes sense." Much moreso than a lot of things today. She shifted a little, which made the phone in her pocket press uncomfortably into her hip, so she fished it out. And then ended up giving it a thoughtful look. She couldn't shake the feeling she should have done something more than capslock at Mitchell to show her disapproval. Like call Eric, or Bo. Someone with more powers than her.
But she hadn't. Too late for that now.
Evan interrupted her thoughts. "Expecting a call?" he asked, curious. She shook her head. "Nah. Just have some... family shit going on. Fight with someone." She wrinkled her nose. "It'll blow over." Such an easy lie for something so major.
"Oh. You wanna talk about it?"
Kate shook her head without a second thought, though the question on its own still managed to suddenly make her miss Bod kind of like crazy. She promised herself she'd call him tomorrow. She'd keep today for this, whatever this was. Hanging out on a break in the normal world.
She must've looked a little sad, because Evan sounded hesitant when he broke the silence that had fallen. "Um... Hey, so, they're predicting storms all weekend, so I'm gonna rent a car, drive back tomorrow. It's like five hours." A pause. "You want a ride?"
She mustered up a smile and said, "Sure, that sounds like it could be fun.
[ooc: NFB! Taken with tweakage from USoT S03E07'The Electrifying & Magnanimous Return of Beaverlamp' (S3 episode titles ILU), can be open for texts/calls if you're willing to put up with SP.]