Nebulous || Evan Buckley [1]

chapter twenty two

knight and shining armor

"At least their marriage got saved by that cute rom com gesture."

"Until she got arrested for breaking a few laws," Josephine scoffed, touching up her makeup at the vanity in her bathroom.

Her phone was propped on the vanity for her to facetime Carlos as she got ready for a night outing. With Alexis working the night shift at the hospital, Maddie asked if she could go out for drinks. She didn't want to oppose considering the brunette barely has any friends in the city and became fond of her in a short amount of time. 

Better than the other Buckley, she thought.

"So, where are you heading off tonight?"

Josephine averted from her reflection to Carlos on the phone screen. "Drinks with Maddie. What about you? The usual rendezvous with a man from a bar." She tugged a sly smirk.

"Not with a colleague at least." He retorted and then paused to see his cousin's reaction. She threw a dark glare when he let out a breathy laugh. "How's work with the blond man that shall not be named?"

She fought the urge to roll her eyes to feed into his reaction. Instead, she blotted her lips before closing the cap of her dark lipstick. "You can say his name, Carlos. He's not a sensitive topic." She clarified. "Anyways, I can't deny that it's still weird, of course. But we're all good."

Part of that statement was a lie.

Since compromising the idea of setting boundaries with Buck, Josephine felt a little lonelier than usual. Even at the firehouse, seeing less of the latter's banter had caught skeptical looks from their co-workers. Neither Josephine nor Buck couldn't be more obvious about avoiding to interacting with one another.

The thing is, they couldn't make out what to say confronting each other unless working on a call.

"Traffic seems endless here," Maddie frowned, already regretting taking the freeway to the bar with the crowd of cars slowly moving.

Josephine snorted from the passenger's seat. "That's L.A. for you. You'll get to use to it. Besides, it's not like we're going to be late to the bar or anything."

She spoke too soon when Maddie squeaked out, "What if I told you we're meeting Chimney and possibly my brother there? I know you two aren't talking as much, but he's been living with Chimney after leaving Abby's. Chimney is kind of tired seeing my brother cooped up in his apartment-" She rambled on, eyes intact on the road.

"You don't need to explain any further. It's fine." Josephine cut in, exhaling coolly. "Instead, you're buying me drinks for scheming this little set up." She narrowed her friend.

Maddie hummed, shortly nodding in agreement. "Deal. Although, I don't know what you're talking about." She hid a tiny smirk.

Finally arriving the karaoke bar, both women were met by loud music and chatter amongst the crowd walking through the entrance doors. Maddie glanced at the message thread with Chimney while searching for him.