Chapter Text
“It was great to finally meet you−”
“It was great to meet you too,” Eddie said a little too eagerly for his own liking, and probably dopier too, if the side eye Carla was giving him was anything to go by. It had been a while since he’d met a woman he could potentially be interested in.
Ms. Flores seemed like maybe she had wanted to say something more. Carla excused herself, saying she'd meet Eddie outside, leaving them to it.
“But,” and there was a ‘but’? Eddie didn’t know why there was a ‘but’, his brow scrunching a little, great, he’d already screwed things up somehow, “I was hoping to meet your husband too, though. Was he on shift tonight?”
Eddie blinked, “My husband?”
She thought he was married. She thought he was gay. And married.
“Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to assume you were married. Your partner? Buck. The way Christopher talks and writes about him, I can tell he loves him very much.”
“Writes about him?”
“Well, Buck usually makes an appearance or two, usually alongside you, in Christopher's personal writing. And some of his creative writing too. But,” and she paused as something seemingly occurred to her, “he didn't let you read his last assignment?”
Eddie shook his head and Ana led him to the wall at the back of the class, where half a dozen or so typed essays were displayed. And there right in front of him at chest level was Christopher's:
My Other Daddy
by Christopher Diaz
"We were writing about heroes,” Ms. Flores said, “And these were the best in the class."
Eddie didn't find either of those facts surprising. That Christopher's essay was one of the best. Or that he chose to write about Buck.
My hero is Evan Buckley. But everyone calls him Buck. He's also my other dad...
Eddie couldn't take in any of the other words after that. His mind going into orbit.
"Can I take this home?" He wanted a little more privacy, and time to calm the fuck down, to read the rest.
"Why don't you take his workbook home? The kids wrote them by hand first."
Eddie just nodded, that was probably a better idea, Chris would notice if his essay were missing from the display. He didn't want to upset his son. Make him doubt even for a second that his work wasn’t still worthy of the wall.
But he was going to have to have a conversation with him about this. Eddie had no idea how he managed to get himself outside. One second he was giving a polite goodbye to Christopher’s English teacher and the next he was standing in front of Carla.
“You wanna talk about that?” she asked.
It took a second for Eddie to fully come back online, “She said she wanted to meet my husband. She thought Buck was my husband.”
Carla snorted with a huff of a laugh, “Mmhmm. And what she say when you corrected her?”
“I, uh−” Eddie cleared his throat, “didn't exactly…”
Carla's brow shot up at that.
“Well she doesn't think we're married anymore,” Eddie rushed to say.
“But she still thinks you're together? Eddie!” she chided.
“I know. I mean, I don't know, I think I was just so in shock. And there was a more pressing issue.”
“More important than your marital status?”
Eddie held up Christopher's workbook open to the page where his essay began, “Did you know about this?”
“No. I knew he was writing about Buckaroo being his hero, but this is the first time I’m seeing the title, Sugar.”
“What am I even supposed to do with this?” Eddie dragged his hand down his face.
“Talk to him.”
“I know I have to. But I have no idea what I’m gonna say. I mean if this is how he sees Buck? How he feels about him−”
“You don't think you should talk to your husband first?” Carla said with a smirk.
“Not funny,” there was no heat to his words, but he really wished he had a wall or a table to thunk his head into, smacking the heal of his palm into his brow would have to suffice.
“Good thing, because I wasn't actually joking. Husband or not. That man loves your son like he was his own. Don't you think you at least owe it to him to let him be a part of the conversation?” and she waited until he looked into her eyes before continuing, holding Christopher’s workbook back out to him, “You need to read this. And then you need to let Buck read it.”
“Then what?”
“Then, you need to talk to each other. See if you can't work something out. And then you can talk to Christopher, together.”
“Right. Together.”
She wasn’t wrong, when things got muddy, talking things out with Buck always helped Eddie see things more clearly.
“As husbands,” and there Carla went smirking again.
“Carla!”
“Maybe you might want to think why you didn't set that pretty young thing straight,” Carla snorted with a clap, “you know the way that both you and Buck pretty much never correct anyone about you being a couple.”
“We correct people.”
Sometimes they corrected people. But most of the time it’d be more hassle than it was worth and it was an easy way to keep unwanted attention at bay. Attention from Ms. Flores wouldn’t be unwanted, would it? So why hadn’t he corrected her?
“You mean when Hen and Chim poke fun? Don't you two usually play along these days?”
“Only because whenever we deny it, they just laugh more.”
Carla just gave him one of those looks.
Eddie huffed, “You know we’re not together,” but her look didn’t relent, “We’re both straight!”
“Let me just say one thing, Edmundo Diaz. As adorably flustered as that teacher just made you for a minute or two, it’s nothing compared to the full-on heart eyes you direct towards Buck whenever you two are together, and especially not when you’re watching him with Christopher. The way you light up?”
“I…” Eddie didn't know how to finish that sentence, the warmth that filled his chest just thinking about his best friend and his son together, their smiles, the pure and undiluted joy of their shared laughter...
“Talk to him.”
Eddie just nodded.