Disclaimer: Not mine! All characters property of NBC, Dario Scardapane and co.
"So it's him, isn't it?" Sela stated placing the last of the dishes into the dishwashing machine.
"Huh? What's that?" Cameron looked up from the article in the magazine he had been reading.
"Tyler."
"What about Tyler?" He placed the magazine back into the holder beside the coffee table.
"He's what's been making you stray."
"He's what?"
"All the other women Cameron! I knew it couldn't have been just me you were missing something from, otherwise you wouldn't have gone with so many other women, and it would have just been the one."
"Hey! Hey, I don't know what you're getting at here now! And I know it's not all behind us but..I thought we were working through this? And what on earth does any of this have to do with Tyler?" he exclaimed confused.
Sela snapped the dishwashing cloth onto the kitchen bench in frustration, "God dammit, Cameron! Can't you see? I'm not blind! You only started these things with the other women sometime last year or so. So when did you find out? Did he tell you right away –first shift? Or did it take you a while to figure it out for yourself?"
"What?"
"That Tyler, your partner is gay."
"I… uh…what? I only found out a few weeks ago! And before you say it I never knew he was going to 'come out' at our dinner tonight! I had only been helping him get comfortable with the idea of telling his parents. I swear, Sel, I didn't know."
"Cameron." She sighed patiently, "I don't care about that. Well I do, but not right now. Don't you see? I'm trying to talk us through your feelings about him. Yeah, you're with me now?"
Cameron blinked. "My what?"
"My…my feelings?" he asked incredulously.
Sela shook her head, "Cameron, you must have seen something in him, maybe you still do? You were on this job here for three years before Tyler moved here, you hadn't cheated once. Not once. Yes, you might have thought it, we probably all think it at times, but never; you never did it. Then Tyler comes and you notice something. Something in him; be it the way he talks, the way he walks; I don't know. Something. And you want to believe that you're nothing like him so you go out there looking for what you now realized you were missing. You go after all these…"
Cameron jumped up off his seat, "STOP! Sela! Just stop! I am not gay! I don't care what you think; I do not like Tyler like that! We're just partners. Work partners. No way, in hell anything else!" he burst out.
"Cameron! Be quiet, and listen! Just listen. No interrupting, you don't have to say anything about it after, just listen. Please?" she pleaded.
Cameron grudgingly sat down and nodded.
"Thank you. I'm not trying to judge you and I never said you were gay…I just…I think I now see what you've been doing this past year or so that's all. It might help you with your own life too Cam, just, listen? Well, as I was saying, you go after all these women to find that 'something' you've been missing and you can't. No matter how pretty, tall, brunette, blonde they are they don't fill that 'something' for you. So you keep moving on, and you don't ever tell me what you're feeling because you don't want to hurt me by me thinking you don't love me anymore or I can't fill that spot, so it gets worse. And worse. And then I find out, and Tyler admitting he's gay only confuses you more. So Cameron, please, please talk to me. I know you're not gay, maybe…maybe bi? Or whatever it is they call it. But that doesn't change who you are to me. And I still want this to somehow work. But honey, if you don't tell me what you're feeling I can't help or even try to understand, okay?" Sela stopped looking at Cameron for any sign of acknowledgement.
"I…" he struggled for words, "I…okay, okay Sela, I'll try."
"It doesn't mean I think that any of what you've said is true though. I think that, yeah, maybe something was and is missing but make that related to Tyler arriving? That's just crazy. And if it was wouldn't it have been as soon as he arrived not a year and a half later?"
"Maybe, Cameron. Maybe. I think I'll go to bed now and leave you with your thinking." She got up and walked passed him to the kitchen door, she paused and turned around "Cameron, I really am glad you'll talk to me. About anything, even if you think it's gonna ruin us okay? We can't get much worse, and even if we do I want to be able to have my own say okay?"
Cameron nodded at her, "Of course, Sela, of course."
She nodded back and went to get ready for bed.
Cameron sat at the table for another hour by himself, thinking about what he knew was missing in his life but couldn't identify.