I've got some new mistakes to make
with you. I'm the most unpredictable snake charmer,
I've got a tongue to help you discover the parts of your neck
you forgot. But we don't have to be a disaster or a sad time
together. We can heal & stop the bleeding.
After drinking coffee with Dawson, Pacey headed home, the old homestead otherwise known as the Witter house. He took the longest possible way because he loved driving his car. He loved this car, he loved his car so very much. He contemplated driving it forever, straight into the sea even maybe. He looked at his phone, he had four messages. Probably all from Rich telling him to come back to work. "I hate my job," he sang. It was a spirited ditty. He felt, of course, conflicted. He wasn't really at home, and Capeside as always felt like a fucking heavy anvil dragging him down to nothing.
When he pulled up, he saw a lovely sight. Joey sat on the porch, actually smiling. When he got out of the car, she even stood up and kissed him. With tongue.
"What did I do right?" He hugged her close. "I thought we were planning and thinking about the future."
"Did you check your voicemail? I left you a message about that. Also, I called Jack to see if he knew where you were and it turns out your dad is in the hospital. I wish you'd told me," she said. She let him keep hugging her.
"I tried to call you once," he said. "How are you getting back to Boston?"
"I thought I would drive back like I drove here. Grams was very kind about renting me a car," she said. "But not until tomorrow morning."
"Where are you sleeping then?"
"Kerry and your mom seem to think I'm sleeping in the same room you are, Kerry's," she said, smiling. "You told them we broke up, right?"
"Yes, they're aware. It's been two years, you know. I didn't tell them we were back together because I wasn't sure we were back together," Pacey said. "I hope we are."
Joey looked down but she was still smiling. She said, "I was making a joke. They were both just really nice. Oh, Gretchen called from college. Your mom told her not to come home, does that sound right to you?"
"It does, he'll be fine," Pacey said.
xxx
"Okay," Pacey said. He wiped his mouth and watched Joey coming down from her orgasm that he had given her. He was a proud man. He said, "You barely wanted to kiss me two days ago."
"I still don't want to kiss you," she said, smiling. She propped herself up on her elbows. He was admittedly entranced by her breasts and therefore distracted from replying with their usual banter. She said, "What are you going to do now?"
He nudged her legs open wider and sat back to put on the condom. Then he was on top of her and inside her and Joey made these noises and it was perfect. Perfect. She started to moan loudly and he covered her mouth. He said, "Hey, people are home."
She covered his mouth when he came and whispered, "Pacey, people are home."
After they were all the way done and cleaned up, he pulled the blanket over the two of them. "You didn't have to come down here," he said.
"Your dad's in the hospital," Joey said.
"He'll be out sometime tomorrow," Pacey said.
"We never made out in this house, did we," Joey said.
"So you had Grams rent a car and drove all the way here so you could finally have sex in the Witter domicile?" He pulled her closer and thought about sleeping.
"Oh, I already did that, just not with you," she said.
"Please say it was Gretchen, please," Pacey said. "Or don't, no wait, tell me quickly you were joking."
"I was joking," Joey said. "Promise. Something's happened to your sense of humor." She snuggled closer. She said, "There is literally nothing of you in this room. I remember your room when you were 13, 14? I refused to look under the bed and there was an incredibly disturbing odor."
"Well, since me, there was two of Kerry's kids sharing it, and then Kerry took it over, so yeah, it's been three years since I had any of my stuff here. And the disturbing odor had nothing to do with me and everything to do with Gretchen's inability to do dishes and strange compulsion to hide them in my room," Pacey said. "She was always trying to get me in trouble. Also, if you want to see what I left in this room, I'd have to move that painting. I carved something vulgar in the wall when I was really mad at Dougie and Dad."
"So, a crude drawing of a penis you did sometime between birth and age 18. You sound tired," Joey said. She kissed his forehead. "Go to sleep, sweetie."
He woke up to the sun in his eyes and the frightening vision of Kerry's attempt to oil paint a still life. His sister was that kind of girl who kept all her failures on display. The evil banana was probably waiting for a full moon to eat his soul alive. He rubbed his forehead. Someone knocked on his door. "Hello," he said, looking to his right. No Joey.
Joey and Kerry were there, each holding a coffee mug. Joey put hers down next to him on the bedside table.
xxx
Pacey stared at the wall in his bedroom, in Boston where he lived now. No more evil banana, so at least there was that. Dawson would have called the shot of man brooding a bit too cliche, Pacey was sure, but Pacey liked to think he was making it work. He truly deeply intensely did not want to go back to work.
He wondered where Joey had gone after she drove back to Boston. Probably her dorm. He gathered up everything he needed and decided it was time to act.
When he got home 10 hours later, Joey was waiting on the couch. "Jack let me in since apparently you don't answer your phone anymore. Is it because we had sex and you're all done with me?"
"Nope," he said. He sat across from her and smiled at her.
"Pace, what's up? And how drunk are you at this point?"
"I hated my job, Jo, you know that? The people I work with, my frankly villainous boss. So I quit," he said, leaning back. "I'm pretty damn drunk."
"That's great, but you've always hated your job. At least that's the impression I had, everyone had. Why quit now?" Joey got up from the couch and sat herself down on his lap in the chair.
"I am drunk so I will tell you the truth. You kept talking about plans and the future and then my dad had something that was not a heart attack but was still pretty scary and I ran into Dawson and he was talking about, you'll be surprised to hear this, making a movie. I thought about how I just somehow lucked into this small moment in time when you, Potter, aren't in love with someone else. Though I think you're still in love with Eddie, but also in love with me, so that's good," he said.
She said, "Why are we talking about Eddie?"
"Mentioning him in passing is what I was doing," Pacey said. "I guess I was thinking about the scenarios, plans for the future, and how I bet you would dump me if that guy came back."
"I'm glad you think so highly of my commitment to you," Joey said.
"Well, we're different. Please don't tell Audrey because I'm not interested in her gloating about being right, but since you there's been no one I wanted. Not like you. But I think that's different for you," he said. She looked him in the eye, communicating something like not quite agreeing but not disagreeing either. His drunk lie detector senses weren't at their peak.
"So," he said. "I was seeing all these things and I thought, I finally found something I loved doing and I should be doing that. So I quit my job and cashed in all my stock options, traded in my car which was incredibly painful, and tomorrow I have an appointment with the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts to see about getting into their Professional Chef's program."
Joey smiled and even clapped. She finally kissed him. She said, "I like that plan a lot."
"Me, too. I hope you don't like this apartment too much, because I also put in my 30 days notice and yes, I told Jack before I did it, and in the next 30 days I need to find a very cheap apartment and some cooking jobs to work where I can work around school and also call my dad and tell him Dougie's the favorite again because I am not a high roller," Pacey said.
"You had quite the day, Pacey," Joey said. She hugged him and he didn't let go of her. "I draw the line at sleeping in this chair, though."
"I'm a little drunk to get up, though," Pacey said. "Maybe if we have sex or something."
xxx
He watched Joey's lovely back and backside as she sat on the edge of the bed looking for her clothes. She was afraid and he knew it. Not afraid of anything tangible though she had every reason to be, but she was afraid of the two of them together. He wasn't sure how he could see it in the muscles and sinew but he was pretty sure he could.
He said, "Last morning in this place."
"I'll miss it," she said.
"You didn't hate the new place," Pacey said.
"What's to hate about a room with its own toilet and shower?" She turned to look at him and smiled. "Besides that weird stain on the floor and every single one of your new neighbors we've met so far?"
"It's not a dead body," Pacey said. "I told you, they legally have to disclose that."
"Your new landlord seems really into the legalities," Joey said.
"When I start school in May, I can walk there," he said.
"Are you taking this bed?" She got up and got dressed.
"The bed, the TV, another box or two, but that's it," he said. "But the movers aren't here for another 5 hours or so if you wanted to come back to bed."
She came back, but she just sat down on the covers in front of him. "I should have told you last night."
"That's a great start, Jo," he said.
"Eddie came into the bar last night, and he, his school doesn't start until September, so he thought maybe …" her voice trailed off.
"Maybe you'd dump your current boyfriend to get back together with him and you said sounds great," Pacey said.
"I did not," Joey said. "I told him I was seeing someone and I had moved on."
"You lied," Pacey said. He got out of bed and got into the shower. "I will miss you, large shower, I will miss you a lot."
Joey opened the shower door and said, "I didn't lie, either."
"I don't think you've moved on," Pacey said, reaching for Jack's shampoo. "I think you've done some moving but not moving on, and I'm really sure you are scared of being in this relationship so it's helpful you haven't moved on because you have a ready made excuse now." He pulled the door shut.
Joey pulled open the door again. "Are you trying to annoy me out of this relationship? Maybe you're the one who's so scared."
"Woman, I'm only scared of never finishing this shower," Pacey said.
He did manage to finish and got dressed while Joey sat on the bed, fuming. "I told Eddie, actually, that I was seeing someone and I had moved on and if he was so interested in keeping up with me maybe he should have kept in touch."
He sat down next to her. He said, "I'm sorry."
"But you don't think you were wrong," Joey said.
"Jo," he said. He ran his hand through her hair.
She said, "Maybe you're not wrong. But you're no paragon of relationship courage."
"Yeah, we suck," Pacey said. "But I really do love you."
Joey moved so she was straddling him, and rested her head on his shoulder. "I actually do love you, too."
"God bless your low standards," Pacey said.