Just a little Ocean's 11 ficlet I wrote. It should be perfectly obvious to all, that I do not own the characters, I'm just playing with them.
It was Cosmopolitan that first told Danny that he might be in trouble. The set of circumstances that led to him lying in his bunk, reading a woman's magazine was not one he wanted to dwell on. Suffice to say, he had now well and truly lost his library privileges.
Still it was there, and prison was still boring, so he read it. The article was headed 'Ten signs that your partner is your best friend' and Danny's first thought was "Well of course your partner has to be your best friend. You can't con with someone, unless you trust them." Then he realized that, of course, they meant partner as in wife. As in Tess.
1. He's the first person that you call if you're in trouble.
Well, Tess wasn't a he, for one thing, but she was certainly the first person he'd think of when he was in trouble. She would be, if he was ever in the sort of trouble that she could help with, anyway. The sort of trouble he normally got into, he would need to call someone else first, someone good at fixing things.
2. He's always willing to hear you out.
Yeah, they kind of fell down there, Incan-matrimonial-head-mask-style. She hadn't listened, and he hadn't talked. He'd always thought that if she found out, he would explain, offer to give it up, and things would continue more or less the same. It hadn't worked out like that. But that was probably true for all relationships, right? For that level of screw-up, no-one grabbed you and listened to your explanation before walking.
3. When he's sad, you want to make him smile.
OK, that was soppy. First thing in the morning, he was going to write a letter, get someone to turn over a bookshop for him. Anyway, he made everyone smile. It's easier to con a happy mark than a sad one. Or at least less morally weird. Being charming was just another one of the tricks in his bag. And making Tess smile was no real challenge anyway.
4. He knows all your favorites.
What sort of questions were these anyway? Well, Danny's very favorite thing was the rush from a well-run con, but he didn't think Tess would ever understand that. Favorite movies – the old ones. The classics. Casablanca, The Third Man. Tess knew them, but she would never watch them with him. Danny sometimes missed the feeling of lounging on a sofa, drinking wine, eating junk food and watching a good movie. Favorite foods – he imagined the taste of a home baked cookie. The ones Tess made never tasted quite right.
5. You have the same Christmas card lists.
He and Tess had never really had the friends-in-common thing. She'd never met most of his friends, and while he was more than capable of talking prettily to hers, he found them kind of boring. His Christmas card list was more a list of the contacts that they'd built up over the years, and a couple of marks that they liked to send reminders to.
6. There are no secrets between you.
There went the elephant in the corner again. That was unrealistic anyway, wasn't it? Danny had secrets from everyone he could keep them from.
7. When you're together, the rest of the world is shut out.
Well, that was true. It was. Alright, sometimes he got distracted by thinking about work, and sometimes it seemed as though Tess's friends came by the table whenever they were on a date, but that was OK. It wasn't as if they were in some secret club of two, filled with jokes and connotations that no-one else could understand.
8. He tells you the truth, not just what you want to hear.
Tess had been good at that. Or at least she'd been good at telling him just how badly he'd screwed up. He certainly hadn't wanted to hear that. But it was always more useful to hear that you were about to screw up before it happened. He couldn't trust Tess for that. She couldn't see it coming any more than he could.
9. Sometimes it seems as though you can read each other's minds.
Yeah, Danny prided himself that he could read Tess pretty well. Mind you, he prided himself that he could read most people pretty well, so maybe it wasn't that he knew Tess better than anyone, but that he knew people better than most. And Tess was good at understanding him. She'd known that he was pulling something on Benedict at least.
Alright, so maybe she couldn't read him like . . . but that wasn't the point.
10. You care more about him than anyone else in the world.
That was stupid. How could you measure your feelings for someone? He loved Tess. He did. But to say he cared more about her than anyone else in the world . . . ?
Except he should be able to say that right away. If he did. If she was his best friend.
But the problem with this article was that it told Danny that maybe love wasn't enough.
Yes, Danny might be in trouble. Because he had a best friend, and it wasn't his wife.