“I said be tough,” Ryan tells Parisa. “I did not say make them cry.”
Charlie shifts his gaze and sees that Daphne Reynolds is crying. Quite hard.
“I was asking her a simple question!” Parisa shouts back. “I didn’t know she was going to crack so easily. Jesus.”
Skylar calls for a ten-minute break, and Dev wanders outside through a pair of French doors. Charlie counts to thirty and follows him. It’s a little after ten, but the air is still warm with Southern summer thickness and loud with cicadas. Dev stands on the far side of the courtyard, staring at a bush. “Hey,” Charlie says, bumping him with his shoulder.
“Hey,” Dev says back. When he smiles, it’s a shadow of his normal one. “Your best friend is terrifying.”
“She’s just protective,” Charlie says with a half shrug. “She wants what’s best for me.”
Dev nods, and he seems weirdly far away. Charlie needs him closer. He reaches out for his hand and tugs, pulling them into the maze of manicured shrubbery where no one will see. It’s dark, but Charlie finds Dev’s mouth anyway, teeth catching on his lip. Charlie’s forehead bumps Dev’s glasses, and Dev laughs into the kiss.
“We shouldn’t—” Dev tries. But Dev said they shouldn’t this morning when Jules texted she was bringing breakfast to their room in ten, and Dev still pushed Charlie back against the bathroom counter anyway. He said they shouldn’t in the dressing room when he was helping Charlie put on his tux, and he still kissed Charlie until his knees buckled. Now he’s saying they shouldn’t, but he keeps pushing them deeper and deeper into the garden. Charlie would let Dev push him anywhere—he feels reckless with wanting him, and he’ll happily accept whatever part of Dev he’s willing to give him.
“I’m sorry about kissing Angie,” he says when they finally pull apart.
Dev laughs hollowly. “That’s literally the entire point of the show, Charlie.”
“I know, but I wish it weren’t. I don’t want to kiss Angie and Daphne.” He takes a deep breath. “I only want to kiss you.”
Dev tightens in his arms. “Is that supposed to make me feel better?”
“I don’t know,” Charlie fumbles.
Dev doesn’t say anything, and Charlie wishes Dev could give him something. He’s told Dev he really likes him. He’s told Dev he’s fucking beautiful. He sniffed his pillow, for Christ’s sake. It’s obvious, so painfully obvious, that none of this is practice for Charlie. But Dev still looks at him like he’s mentally planning his wedding to Daphne Reynolds.
“Dev,” he says, “please tell me what you’re feeling.”
In the dark, Dev’s thumb finds the corner of Charlie’s mouth. “I don’t think you need practice, Charlie.”
“What does that mean?” he asks, even though he already knows.
“It means you should go inside and kiss Angie,” Dev says. And then he pulls away, just like Charlie knew he would.
Story notes for editors: Season 37, Episode 5
Story producer:
Ryan Parker
Air date:
Monday, October 11, 2021
Executive producer: Maureen Scott
Scene: Post–paint fight during the Mardi Gras Group Quest, confessional with Daphne Reynolds Location: Shot on location at the float warehouse, New Orleans Daphne: [Close-up of her smiling face, covered in yellow and purple paint.] It was a great day! I had a great day! It was good to get the chance to talk to Charlie and clear the air between us. I shouldn’t have thrown myself at him like that back at the ball. I… I let things… I let what other people thought… Anyway, we’re fine now. Charlie gets it. Not everything has to be about physical connection. Charlie and I get along really well. So what if I’m not… if I don’t want to… all that matters is getting the happily ever after in the end. Right?