If This is Karma... (Yvonne)

[Eddie Shriver]

Eddie took his apron off the second the restaurant closed. He was usually really nice and helped clean up in the back, but he was too anxious for that tonight. In the dining room, eating on the house thanks to him, was his best friend, and he was dying to talk to her. It was a shame that Shelby was also out for the night, though he'd forgotten where, even though it was rare that she wasn't at the restaurant.

He grabbed a bottle of wine from the shelf, two glasses, and made his way out to the table in the near empty dining room where Yvonne seemed to be patiently waiting for him. He set the glasses down, opened the bottle, and started pouring.

"So... I'll give you two guesses who the Wrackspurts' new bassist is. But I'm pretty sure you won't need the second guess."

It was a different attitude than when he'd found her in the nightclub and followed her home like a lost puppy. It was hard then. Not that it was easy now to realize that Troy was back in his life, permanently, as long as he was with Nigel, but he was almost angrier now.

[Yvonne Marquette]

It wasn't often that Yvonne got a night off from Enchanted, and even less often that she got to dine out at Galligan's. She missed working at a restaurant, being part of the menu and the prep, the opening, the closing... all of it. She liked watching the diners come in, place their orders, get their food, take their first bites... all of it. The atmosphere suited her better than Enchanted, where she mostly just watched drunk people get more drunk and dance awkwardly with people they didn't know.

One of these days, she and Eddie had to start a restaurant together. It was an idea she'd had for a while, and she knew Eddie wanted to open his own restaurant and was just biding his time until he had the money and experience to make a go of it. Yvonne wondered if they could do it sooner if she added her savings in the mix.

But for now, she enjoyed the meal and was now just waiting for Eddie, who had promised to come sit with her after closing. She was hoping he had some good news for her, but once he came out, carrying a bottle of wine and two glasses, she caught a glimpse of his face and knew this was not going to be good news after all.

"Eddie, hey--" she started to greet him, but trailed off. His opening words made her stomach drop.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me," she said. "All of a sudden, the bad penny keeps turning up everywhere! Since when does he play bass, anyway?"

[Eddie Shriver]

"Since forever. He plays everything." Eddie poured both of them a glass of the wine, a bottle of the good stuff, and then frowned deeper. "Except violin. It gives him neck cramps."

He hated that he remembered little things like this about Troy, even to this day, when he couldn't really think of any small detail like that about Nigel. They weren't at the level yet- everything they were learning about each other was still the major, important things.

"More importantly, Nigel knows we used to date and live together." And he knew that Eddie still loved Troy, but he was keeping this particular tidbit quiet from Yvonne. "He offered to fire Troy if I thought having him around would make me feel uncomfortable."

[Yvonne Marquette]

“Of course he does,” Yvonne said, rolling her eyes in disgust. She didn’t even attempt to hide her feelings anymore when it came to Troy; as far as she was concerned, he had stomped all over Eddie’s heart and was unworthy of second chances.

“And you said yes, right?” she asked, hopefully, knowing in the pit of her stomach that he had not told Nigel to fire Troy. “No… no, you didn’t. Eddie! What are you going to do? You know he’s going to find a way to sabotage anything you’ve got going with Nigel. He ruins everything he touches.”

[Eddie Shriver]

Eddie sighed, almost relaxing in his seat and bring his glass of wine to his lips. He'd put a lot of thought into this since that day in Nigel's wine cellar.

"I really don't think he's going to do anything to sabotage Nigel and I. Even if he wanted to to get back at me for leaving him, anything he does is going to have an adverse effect on his position with the band, and he really wants this. I can see it, Yvonne, he wants to make this a good thing for himself."

Something else he'd considered, though, was that maybe Troy ruined things because they all expected him to. "I want this to work for him, too, and I'm not willing to ruin this chance for him. So maybe I need to take a good look at where I really see Nigel and I going. I never was much for the rockstar life. I'm not saying I'm ending it, because I really like Nigel. I'm just... thinking."

[Yvonne Marquette]

Yvonne sensed the moment the anger and frustration drained out of him. He really did want the best for Troy, and really, Yvonne did too, as long as it didn't involve Eddie in any way at all. Although she thought of him as a walking wrecking ball, his situation with his illness was a sad one, and she knew how much it had torn Eddie apart to watch him self destruct. And maybe that was the point--he wanted to destroy himself, and anyone who was taken down with him was just unfortunate collateral damage. So yes, Yvonne did want him to succeed--either to succeed in music and love, or to succeed in destroying himself. She didn't really care one way or another as long as he didn't drag Eddie down. And that included what Eddie had just said about possibly ending things with Nigel just because of Troy.

She sighed softly, and, knowing instinctively that this was not the moment for lectures, she shifted her chair around closer to him and pulled him into a hug.

"Eddie. Please don't do this to yourself, OK? You deserve a chance to be happy, too. Don't sacrifice your own chance at happiness for his. Maybe... maybe you can find a way to work around him... get more time alone with just you and Nigel to see where it's really going. Don't make any hasty decisions, OK?"

[Eddie Shriver]

“I’m not making any hasty decisions. I’m really thinking about this and about what I want. And... Nigel made it pretty clear that he wants to see where we go. But even if we take Troy out of the equation, there are a lot of factors to consider. What happens when they start touring again? What if Nigel decides he’s not interested any more, or I decide that? And then you throw Troy into the mix, and a thousand more what if’s come to light. So I don’t know. I don’t know what the right answer is.”

He might have felt just slightly manic, and he blamed Troy for that. Living with him for long enough had taught him that kind of reaction.

He leaned back, frustrated, and asked, “How was the meal? Be honest.”