I've Had Enough Bad Love / I Need Something I Can Be Proud Of (Eric Clapton)
"Cecil," Earl droned for the nth time. "Come on, Ceec. I was just worried about you. You can't stay mad at me for that."
Cecil just looked at him for a second and then continued making their dinner with a sigh. "I'm not mad, Earl. I'm just—I don't know, upset, I guess."
Earl leaned forward onto the counter, crossing his arms on the cool surface. "Why?"
"Because you embarrassed me in front of my coworkers!" Cecil said angrily, still stirring their spaghetti.
"That's not my fault!" Earl shot back. "You were the one that didn't tell me that you were going out after work."
"I didn't know that they were hanging out until they invited me—after the broadcast. And I did tell you; I sent you a text."
Earl sighed. "You should have called. Really, you should have come home. Why would you want to hang out with them after you just spent an entire day with them at the station? Plus, you see them every single day. I'm starting to think that there's something going on. Maybe with one of the interns. . . ." He trailed off and Cecil sighed.
"I already told you: I'm not doing anything with anyone."
"Well, I don't believe you." Cecil just sighed again and filled both of their plates with pasta before bringing them both over to the counter where Earl was sitting at one of the barstools. Cecil took his place at the other one and they began to eat in silence.
After a couple minutes, Earl paused and said, "I don't think that you should hang out with them for a while. Just until this calms down. Until you calm down."
Cecil stared at his pasta a second before nodding and whispering, "Alright."
Earl nodded his head once and said, "Good," before finishing his plate and telling Cecil that he was going to bed. Cecil nodded his acknowledgment without looking at his husband as he walked away, leaving Cecil to finish his dinner and clean up the kitchen alone.
When Cecil got to work the next day, he found Carlos waiting in the chair outside his booth.
"Carlos?" Cecil asked and the man in question lifted his head from the stack of papers that he held in his hand.
"Cecil!" Carlos said as he jumped out of the chair and rushed forward to show Cecil the papers.
"What are you doing here? What is this?" Cecil questioned as he peered at the paper on top.
"I was trying to contact you last night," Carlos said, avoiding both those questions in favour for wondering why Cecil hadn't responded to his many texts.
"Oh, Earl had my phone because I left it in the car by accident. He must have forgotten to tell me about your texts," Cecil told him, knowing that Earl had found his phone with Carlos's texts and deleted them, telling Cecil that it hadn't been anything important.
"Oh," Carlos said with a knowing look at his best friend. He decided not to mention that Carlos hadn't told him that he had specifically texted him. "Well, I have to tell you about the strange lights being emitted from Radon Canyon. Can you join me tonight to go out to see them?"
"Oh," Cecil said, pausing for a moment, trying to think of a plausible excuse. "Earl and I—we have a . . . a thing, uh, tonight."
Carlos gave Cecil a sad smile. "Alright, that's fine. I'll see you around, I guess." And then Carlos took his leave.
Cecil sighed as he watched Carlos leave. He hoped that this incident with Earl would just blow over so he could hang out with Carlos again. Silently, Cecil opened the door to his sound booth and began carding through that morning's broadcast.
Overall, the broadcast went well and Cecil left the station as soon as it was over so that none of the interns would ask about last night. On his way out, Carlos stopped him from leaving.
"Cecil," he said. "I know that something's going on with Earl. Dana told me about last night."
Keeping his face neutral, Cecil answered, "Nothing's going on. We're just having a disagreement about something. It's no big deal." He walked around Carlos and began walking to the door again.
"Cecil!" Carlos tried desperately as he followed him out the station door. "Please, just talk to me. You know I can help."
"There's nothing to talk about because I don't need any help," Cecil told him, quickening his pace down the sidewalk as he headed for home.
"Then why can't we just talk?"
"Because I have to get home. Earl and I are having dinner."
"No, he's not letting you, isn't he?"
At this, Cecil stopped and turned to face Carlos, who also stopped just as abruptly as Cecil had.
"No, Carlos, he is not not letting me. I want to go home right now and you're not making it easy!"
Carlos's face softened for a second. "You only want to go home so that Earl won't get angry with you again."
Cecil was at a loss for words. Suddenly, both of them heard a car horn. They saw Earl pull up to the curb beside them and he leaned out the window.
"You ready to go home, Ceec?" he asked. Cecil sighed and looked sideways at Carlos, mumbling a goodbye before walking around the car and getting into the passenger's seat. As they drove away, Cecil looked into the side mirror and saw Carlos watching the car from his position on the sidewalk.
"You know that we're going to talk about this, right?" Earl interrupted his thoughts and Cecil bowed his head, fiddling with one of the buttons on his shirt. The rest of the drive was in complete silence.
"Why were you talking with Carlos?" Earl asked as soon as they got back home. Cecil put his stuff down onto the couch and walked into the kitchen to prepare their dinner.
"Because he stopped me as I was leaving. He wanted to tell me more about the lights coming from Radon Canyon because I had to stop him so I could get ready for the show," Cecil lied smoothly.
"You spoke with him this morning, too?" Earl asked, raising an eyebrow at the accidental confession.
"Oh, yeah, but only for a second. Like I said: I had to do the broadcast," Cecil remedied, hoping Earl would believe him.
"Hm" was all that he said before grabbing a bottle of beer from the fridge and opening it to take a drink. Cecil finished cooking their steak tips that had been defrosting all day and set out two plates for them before grabbing a beer for himself.
"Are you sure you didn't have enough alcohol with your friends the other night?" Earl asked snidely. Cecil just ignored him and took a sip before starting on his food.
"You know what I don't get?" Earl asked rhetorically. "Why do you spend so much time with Carlos? You met him less than a year ago. We've known each other since high school."
Cecil looked sideways at him. "We spend time together, too, if that's what you're implying."
"You know that it's not."
Cecil just sighed. "What do you want me to say? That I'm sleeping with Carlos? Or one of the interns? Because I'm not. I'm not cheating on you! Why won't you believe that?" Cecil asked angrily.
Earl scowled at him. "Why would I believe that? You're never home anymore. You're always out with Carlos or Dana or somebody!"
"Because I'm friends with them!" Cecil retorted. "Friends hang out with friends. And I'm almost always home when you get home."
Earl picked up his beer to take a sip of before he shot back with, "You know, Ceec. You've really changed."
At this, Cecil dropped his silverware onto his plate and turned towards Earl. "How so?" he asked angrily.
"You never used to lie this much."
Cecil was so angry that he stood and up began to clear his plate. Earl watched him while sipping his beer.
"See? You don't even have any more excuses!" Earl said heartily.
"Because I'm not lying to you," Cecil shot over his shoulder.
"Yes, you are!" Earl shouted as he stood up angrily.
"No, I'm not!" Cecil shouted back, somewhat childishly, as he turned towards Earl to meet his gaze.
"Shut up!" Earl yelled as he threw his bottle across the room in anger. "I know you are!"
Cecil ducked quickly to the side in order to avoid the flying bottle that smashed against the fridge next to him. Slowly, Cecil looked up at Earl, who was standing stock still.
"Ceec. . . ."
But Cecil was out the door. He ran down the street towards Old Woman Josie's house, knocking on the front door once and then again, louder when no one had answered. Finally, the woman in question opened the door widely.
"Cecil!" she greeted with a smile. "What are you doing here, dear?"
Cecil put on his best smile. "Hi Josie. May I use your telephone? My cellphone died."
Old Woman Josie looked confused. "Don't you live just down the street?"
"Yeah, but I lost my key and Earl isn't home yet," he lied easily. "I just need to make one call."
Despite the concerned expression currently donning her face, Old Woman Josie motioned for Cecil to follow her inside and led him to the kitchen phone on the wall. She took her leave into the living room to give Cecil his privacy.
Quickly, Cecil dialed Carlos's number.
"Hi Josie," Carlos greeted after a couple rings.
"Carlos?"
"Cecil? Is that you?"
"Yeah, it's me. Could you pick me up at Old Woman Josie's house, please?"
"Why?" Carlos sounded extremely worried. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. I'll tell you everything when I see you, okay?"
Carlos sounded hesitant, but finally agreed. "Alright, I'll be there in five minutes."
Cecil thanked him and hung up the phone and turned to find Josie coming into the kitchen. She smiled and said, "How are you doing, dear?"
Returning her smile, Cecil told her that he was doing good and that Carlos was coming to pick him up in a couple minutes to help him find his key at work. They chatted for a few minutes until car headlights lit up from the window next to the front door. Cecil bid Old Woman Josie goodbye and thanked her for the use of her phone. She watched him as he left and got into Carlos's car.
The ride back to Carlos's home was quiet. Even though Cecil stared straight ahead at the road, he could see in his periphery that Carlos kept looking over at him, trying to gauge the severity of the situation. Cecil tried his hardest to keep his emotions in check—maybe he was still in shock from the incident—but once Carlos had pulled into his apartment complex's parking lot, Cecil began to sob.
Carlos's gaze immediately shot to Cecil and his expression turned from curiosity to fear. "Cecil! What's wrong? Please, just tell me what happened."
Cecil dropped his head to rest in his hands, supported by his elbows on his knees. He sniffled in order to stop crying and told Carlos what had just happened less than fifteen minutes ago with Earl.
At the end of his story, Cecil rubbed his eyes with his thumb and fore finger, angry at himself for getting so upset, but also trusting Carlos to understand. Thankfully, he did. Carlos rubbed Cecil's back until Cecil indicated that he was ready to go inside by rubbing his face with both hands and nodding to Carlos.
Once they were inside, Carlos led Cecil to the sofa and asked if he wanted anything to eat or drink.
"Do you have any alcohol?" Cecil asked. Carlos hesitated for a second.
"I don't know if that's a good idea, Cecil. . . ."
"Please, Carlos?"
After a second of deliberation, Carlos gave in and went to the fridge, pulling out two beers and bringing them back to the living room. Cecil took one and Carlos sat down next to his friend.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Carlos asked after Cecil took a few sips of his beer. After a minute of silence, Cecil began to recount the argument that he and Earl had gotten into before the incident had occurred. It didn't take Cecil long to tell the story, but it also didn't take him long to finish off his beer.
Turning to Carlos, he asked, "Do you have anything stronger?" When Carlos was visibly apprehensive about saying anything, Cecil piped up, somewhat angrily, with, "Come on. I know that you love some scotch after work. And you probably still have that bottle of Bourbon that you got at the station Yankee Swap at Christmas."
Carlos sighed, knowing that he couldn't tell Cecil that he had gotten rid of it or drank it or anything since he also acknowledged his love of scotch. So he stood up and grabbed the unopened bottle of whiskey and two glasses from the cabinet, returning to the living room with them.
"You knew that this has been happening for a while now, haven't you?" Cecil said suddenly. Carlos paused in his attempt at pouring them both glasses and then whispered, "Yeah."
Cecil bobbed his head in acknowledgment of Carlos's answer and accepted the glass that Carlos held out to him. After finishing off the glass, Cecil sighed and began to tell Carlos everything that he could think of. He included everything ever since he and Earl were first married all the way until that night. Everything that Earl had done to keep Cecil from spending time with his friends, to keep Cecil at home, to keep him isolated. Everything that Cecil had silently resented him for.
Carlos listened in quietly, pouring them each new glasses every few minutes, knowing that getting drunk wouldn't help anything and probably just leave both of them with nasty hangovers in the morning, but not finding it in himself to care. Especially not since Cecil was hurting so badly.
It only took about a couple hours or so to finish off the brand new bottle of whiskey. Cecil set his empty glass down on the coffee table and leaned back against the sofa. He rubbed his hands over his face and whispered, "Maybe this is my fault."
"What?" Carlos asked in surprise. "How could any of this possibly be your fault?"
Cecil just sighed. "Earl was right. I would always spend time out after work with someone, be it Dana or Tamika or you." Cecil paused and leaned forward again, looking straight at Carlos. "Did I drive him away?"
Carlos's heart melted as he watched the desperate look on Cecil's face as he tried to figure out why this had happened. Slowly, Carlos leaned forward so he was close enough to Cecil to put both his hands onto the man's shoulders and tell him, "Listen to me. None of this is your fault. I promise."
Cecil smiled at him and Carlos returned with his own. Then Carlos saw Cecil look down at his lips for a second before looking back at his eyes. In his inebriated state, Carlos didn't piece together what Cecil was thinking until it was too late.
Cecil had leaned forward, closing the space between them and pressing their lips together in a kiss. Carlos was shocked for a minute, not sure of what to do, but slowly he leaned into the kiss and moved his hand from Cecil's shoulder to his neck.
Once they broke apart, Cecil leaned his forehead against Carlos's, whose mind quickly made a decision to initiate another kiss. Cecil gratefully returned the heated kiss and began to stand up, pulling Carlos along with him. He ushered Carlos down the hall towards the latter's bedroom, opening the door, and pushing him down onto the bed.
Carlos came to his senses for a second, just long enough to try to stop Cecil from doing something that he may possibly regret, but he found that he had no words as Cecil shushed him, bringing their lips together again.
Carlos groaned at the sound of his alarm going off. He immediately noticed that he had a raging headache, which was aggravated by both the noise and the light seeping into the room through the curtains. Slowly, Carlos rolled over to hit the 'Off' button on the clock, but he was stopped by something else in his bed.
No, someone else, Carlos realized as he remembered what had happened last night. Shooting up, Carlos saw Cecil blearily roll away from the sudden motion, with a questioning moan at his lips.
Oh no, Carlos thought to himself before he said those very words aloud, bringing Cecil's attention to the infidelity committed last night.
"Oh no," Cecil parroted bringing his hands to his temples in an attempt to contain the spreading headache. The pair just stared at each other for a few seconds before Cecil began scrambling to find his clothes as Carlos just sat on the edge of the bed for a minute.
Once he saw Cecil begin to dress after the man had found all of his clothes, Carlos pulled a pair of sweatpants off of his bureau and slid them on in order to follow Cecil out to the kitchen while the latter whispered the word "no" repeatedly under his breath the entire way.
"Cecil. . . ." Carlos tried to calm the man, but Cecil turned around and stopped him with a sigh.
"Carlos," he said with his gaze downtrodden. "You cannot tell anyone what happened last night. I'm so sorry, but I don't want to leave Earl. And that means that this has to stay between us."
Even though he wasn't surprised at Cecil's confession, Carlos was still disappointed that he was staying with his controlling husband. However, he didn't say what he thought, not wanting to completely rupture his friendship with Cecil, as if last night hadn't done that already.
"Alright," Carlos agreed and Cecil let out a sigh of relief before saying, "I have to go," and taking his leave from the apartment as Carlos watched him go.
"Earl?" Cecil called quietly once he entered their house. He walked through the living room and into the kitchen that he found was completely cleaned up from last night.
"Earl," Cecil called again louder this time before turning around just in time to see his husband walk into the kitchen.
"Cecil?" Earl said quietly before processing that he was really there and closing the space between them and engulfing him in a hug, which Cecil returned. "Oh, Cecil. Thank God." Earl released Cecil from the hug and placed his hands on both of Cecil's cheeks. "I am so sorry. I didn't mean to. You have to know that, right?"
Cecil smiled through his watery gaze and nodded. Earl let out a laugh of relief and kissed him.
They spent their entire weekend together at home, sitting on the couch watching their favourite movies and eating popcorn. Earl had called out from work Saturday night and Cecil had almost forgotten about Carlos. That is, until he got home from work Monday evening and found Earl waiting for him in the kitchen with his arms crossed across his chest.
Cecil walked up to him and kissed him on the cheek. "Hey sweetie. How was your day?"
Earl didn't return Cecil's affections, which was the first warning sign for Cecil. "It was good. I saw one of our neighbors in the restaurant today. Old Woman Josie from down the street."
Cecil tried to keep his face neutral, but couldn't help the stiffening of his back and arms. Earl continued.
"And she asked me how you were doing."
"Oh," Cecil commented. "That was nice of her."
"Yeah," Earl agreed. "That's what I said. I thanked her for taking care of you the other night. And she told me that I should be thanking Carlos. Apparently, he picked you up from her house . . . just after you called him."
Cecil swallowed hard. "Yeah, I stayed at Carlos's because I didn't want to bother Old Woman Josie too much. And Dana was too far away to pick me up."
Earl took a step forward. "Cecil, tell me that you didn't. . . ." he trailed off.
Cecil's gaze dropped to the floor as brought his hand to his face to rub the bridge of his nose.
"Oh God," he heard Earl say disgustedly. Cecil looked up at his husband, who was leaning on the counter. Cecil stepped forward and tried to meet his eyes.
"Earl, I am so, so sorry," he pleaded. "Please, please don't hate me."
When Earl turned his gaze onto Cecil again, the latter could see the anger in the man's eyes. Quickly, Cecil took a step back, but Earl just took a step forward.
"See?" Earl shouted. "This is exactly what I have been talking about! You, Cecil, are just a slut that will sleep around without care for anyone else's feelings!"
Having said this, Earl landed a punch to Cecil's cheek, jerking his head to the side. Once he stood up straight again, Earl threw another punch.
"And then you have the audacity to lie about it!"
Another punch and Cecil fell into the counter, sliding down to the floor.
"Right to my face!"
Then Earl began to kick him, but Cecil was already unconscious.
Carlos looked at his cellphone as the ringtone rang out. The caller ID said that it was Intern Dana calling from the radio station.
"Dana?" Carlos answered.
"Oh, Carlos!" Dana all but shouted down the phone. "Oh thank goodness."
"Dana, what's wrong?" Carlos asked nervously.
"It's Cecil," she said. "He didn't come into work today and he didn't call out or anything. He's not answering his cellphone or home phone. Do you know where he is?"
"No, I haven't spoken to him since Friday," Carlos lied, not wanting Dana to figure anything out about their excursion. "Have you tried Earl?"
"Yeah, but he's not answering either! And his work said that he quit his job last night! He worked his day shift, left, then went back and quit!"
Carlos knew that something was wrong and that it probably had everything to do with Earl finding out about his and Cecil's affair.
"I have to go, Dana," he said down the phone as he grabbed his car keys and left the lab at a run. "I'll call you later." And he hung up.
The drive to Cecil's house was short in terms of minutes, but, to Carlos, it was the longest drive of his life. He pulled into their driveway, noticing that Earl's car was gone. Carlos ran up the steps and began to pound on the door.
"Cecil!" he yelled. Carlos tried the doorknob and found it to be unlocked. Quickly, he threw open the door and ran into the home.
"Cecil!" he called as he looked through the living room and entered the kitchen where he stopped abruptly.
"Oh, no, Cecil!" Carlos shouted as he dropped next to the man in question. "Oh my god. . . ."
Cecil, Carlos noticed, was lying on his side on the kitchen floor, dried blood formed on his mouth, bruises covering his face and cuts littering his body that had bled into his clothes.
Carlos pulled Cecil into a sitting position and tried unsuccessfully to rouse him. After a minute, Carlos lifted him in a bridal carry and brought him out to his car. Once he was strapped in securely, Carlos drove him to the hospital.
"Probably about twelve hours ago, give or take," Carlos told Dr Teddy Williams, who was the leading attending monitoring Cecil's recovery. "I am certain that his husband did this."
"Mhm," the doctor said, scribbling something down on Cecil's clipboard.
Carlos looked up from Cecil's peaceful face to Dr Williams and asked, "Is he gonna be okay?"
Dr Williams cleared his throat and turned to Carlos. "Cecil had severe head trauma, resulting in severe swelling and moderate bleeding. It's lucky that you found him, otherwise the swelling could have begun to push on some of his major brain systems."
"But it didn't, right?" Carlos asked. "So why is he in a coma?"
"We do believe that the coma is temporary and is merely the body's reaction to the head trauma in order to reduce the swelling before it could cause brain damage," the doctor explained and Carlos let out a sigh.
"It's hard to tell when he will wake up," Dr Williams told Carlos softly. "But you can stay with him until he does."
Carlos smiled and thanked him before pulling a chair over to Cecil's bedside. He sat down and took Cecil's hand into his own. He stayed there all day and eventually fell asleep.
The next morning, Carlos left the room to call Dana, realizing that he had forgotten to yesterday.
"Carlos?" Dana answered after only a couple of rings. "Where's Cecil? Is he okay?"
"It's alright, Dana," Carlos soothed the frantic woman. "Cecil's going to be fine. He's at the hospital. He, um. . . ." Carlos took a deep breath before explaining Cecil's medical situation.
When Dana didn't say anything, Carlos said, "Why don't you come down and visit him?"
"Yeah, okay," Dana finally answered. "I—I'll be there in a little while."
"Alright Dana," Carlos said softly before hanging up and returning to Cecil's room where he sat back down in the chair and watched Cecil sleep.
After about an hour, Carlos had taken to rubbing Cecil's hand that was currently I.V.-free, and he felt Cecil squeeze his hand. Carlos gasped and looked to his face, hoping for some sign of activity. Sadly, Cecil's eyes were still closed and didn't show any sign of opening. But then Carlos felt the squeeze again.
Keeping one of his hands around Cecil's, Carlos used his other one to hit the 'Call Nurse' button on Cecil's bed. After a minute, a young nurse ran into Cecil's room.
"I felt his hand squeeze mine!" Carlos all but shouted. "It moved. I felt it!"
"I'll go get Dr Williams," the nurse said right before he ran from the room to follow through with his statement.
Right after the nurse had left the room, Carlos saw Cecil's eyes open and then close very quickly. Carlos looked around for a light switch and quickly turned them all off. Again, Cecil's eyes opened and look around the room.
"Cecil?" Carlos called quietly. The man's eyes made their way to him and Cecil gave him a small smile.
"Ca'los?" Cecil slurred through the dryness of his mouth.
"Shh. . . ." Carlos told him, running his hand through Cecil's hair whilst holding his hand with his other one. "Don't try to talk yet. You've been asleep for a couple days. But you're going to be alright."
At this, Cecil smiled right as the nurse returned with Dr Williams, who pulled out his pocket pen light and checked Cecil's pupils.
"How are you feeling, Cecil?" the doctor asked as the nurse returned with a small cup full of ice chips and placed one on Cecil's tongue before going to check all of his vitals.
"Headache," Cecil rasped.
"Yes, I'm afraid that there isn't much that we can do for that," the doctor lamented. "Do you remember what happened?"
Cecil thought for a moment and then ground out, "Earl . . . Josie . . . angry . . . hit . . . me . . . ." Then Cecil shut his eyes tight.
Dr Williams put his hand on Cecil shoulder to calm him. "Okay, Cecil. That's fine. You just rest now." As soon as Cecil relaxed, he motioned for Carlos to follow him into the hallway.
"He's going to be just fine," he told him. "There are no signs of persisting brain damage and his eyes are reacting normally. His memories seem strong and he will soon be able to speak just fine. We'll keep him here overnight to monitor him, but, if everything still looks alright, then he can go home tomorrow."
"Good," Carlos said with a sigh. "That's good." The doctor patted Carlos on the shoulder before walking back towards the Nurses' Station with Cecil's nurse. Carlos spotted Dana walking down the hall towards Cecil's room and he waved at her.
"How is he?" she asked as she walked up to him.
Carlos smiled. "He just woke up a couple minutes ago, but he may have fallen back asleep," he said before they both walked into the room and Carlos motioned for Dana to sit in the chair that Carlos had been sitting in for the past day. He walked around to the other side and carefully placed his hand onto Cecil's shoulder.
"Cecil?" Carlos called quietly. Cecil drearily opened his eyes again. They found Carlos's and he smiled at him, which Carlos returned. "There's someone here to see you."
Cecil's brows furrowed for a second before he turned his head slightly to look around the room. When his eyes landed on Dana, Cecil smiled again, causing Dana to let out a laugh of relief.
"Oh, Cecil," she said as she gently touched the bruises on his face. "Thank goodness you're okay."
"Yes," Cecil said quietly as he turned his head towards Carlos. "Thank you."
Dana looked up at Carlos with questioning eyes, but Carlos merely smiled at her before he leaned down and kissed Cecil's forehead. Dana smiled at the two of them.
"I'm so glad that he has you, Carlos," she told him, making Carlos blush and avert his gaze.
"Mm, I am, too," Cecil said softly, his eyes sliding shut, but him trying to force them to stay open.
"I do love you, Cecil," Carlos said. "But right now you have to rest, okay?"
Cecil nodded slightly before letting his eyes fall closed completely. Dana stood up from the chair, walked around the side of the bed, and hugged Carlos tightly. It was safe to say that he was surprised.
"Dana?" he asked. When she released him, she smiled up at him.
"I always knew that Earl was a jerk," she confided in him. "He never let Cecil do what he wanted and he always had to know about everything Cecil did with everyone Cecil knew." She sighed. "He wasn't right for him. . . . But you are." Her eyes practically twinkled as she stood on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek. "Thank you for being there for him."
"Always," Carlos answer honestly.
"I'll come back to see him out of the hospital tomorrow, okay?" she asked without actually leaving much room for any answer other than Carlos's "Alright." When she left, Carlos sat down again in the chair, held Cecil's hand, and watched him sleep peacefully.
Imagine your OTP are best friends, and Person B is married to Person C (of your NOTP). Person B's marriage takes a turn for the worst, and tells Person C to get out. They then call Person A, asking them to meet at their favorite bar, because they want their best friend's comfort.
Imagine that they get drunk, and then wake up in bed together the next morning after a one night stand, promising each other to keep it a secret.
Imagine that B and C are starting to work on their marriage again as long as C doesn't find out about the affair.
Imagine that C finds out, and becomes angry and beats B almost to death. Imagine that, as A finds B lying unconscious on the ground, they realize that, deep down, they've always had feelings for their best friend.
Imagine they rush B to a hospital.
B is now fighting for their life in a coma, and A is by their side, holding B's hand the whole time.