Previously…
– Jason invited Sabrina to have dinner with him and Sophie so that he could introduce the two.
– Zane was upset when he was scheduled to work at the same time as Travis and Rosie planned a gathering — meaning that Tori would have to attend without him.
– Things between Samantha and Tempest remained chilly.
– Isaac made another appeal to Diane, who was unable to fight her attraction and had sex with him.

“Sophie! Are you ready yet?”

Jason Fisher stands at the entry to his home’s kitchen, sending his voice around the corner and up the stairs. 

“I’ll be right down!” his teenage daughter yells back after a slight delay. The all-too-common note of irritation in her voice can’t be missed.

“Okay. Thanks,” he responds before returning to the spread of takeout containers covering the kitchen island. Although he considered cooking for their dinner with Sabrina tonight, his nerves ultimately got the best of him; although he grew up with a chef for a father, he has never felt fully confident in his own cooking skills — probably because Bill and Paula were so adept in the kitchen that Jason never quite had to hone his abilities. He makes dinner for himself and Sophie plenty of evenings, but the pressure of impressing Sabrina with dinner felt like too much, so he opted for takeout. Now he transfers the individual Cornish game hens, roasted vegetables, and garlic mashed potatoes onto serving platters, which he covers with aluminum foil and slides into the warming drawer beneath the oven.

He is double-checking the temperature on the drawer when he hears footsteps rattling down the stairs and into the kitchen. When he glances up, he sees Sophie in a black dress, with striped black-and-white leggings, black boots, and matching dark makeup on her eyes and lips.

“What is this?” he asks before he can catch the words. 

“They’re called clothes,” she says with a bob of the head, as if punctuating the answer with an eye roll and a duh. 

“I can see that, yes.” He closes the warming drawer and stands. “It’s just all a little… gothic, don’t you think?”

“What, do you want me to put on something glittery and slutty?”

“I didn’t say that. At all.”

“Then what’s wrong with what I’m wearing?”

He can see the challenge shimmering in her eyes, and he knows the only effective course of action is to ignore it.

“Nothing’s wrong with it. You look nice,” he says. “Thanks for being ready on time.”

“Are you worried I’m gonna scare your girlfriend?” Sophie asks.

“She’s not my–” But he stops himself, both because he knows better than to argue with a teenager and because, while Sabrina isn’t technically his girlfriend — yet — he doesn’t want to jinx anything. 

“No, I’m not worried about that,” he says, although he is concerned about exactly that. He feels his stomach clenching with thoughts about how wrong tonight’s dinner could go… and whether it’s too late to call off the entire thing.

—–

Sabrina Gage presses the top button on the remote to lock her car. She waits for it to beep, its lights flashing quickly, to confirm that it is really locked… but, even then, she remains standing there in the driveway, taking in her own reflection in the car’s window. 

Back at her apartment, she thought the burgundy dress and the waves in her dark hair looked great, but now, with her down jacket layered over it, she can’t help but second-guess herself.  She hasn’t wanted to spend the money on another new coat since she moved to the Northwest, especially since the winters are so much milder than in the Midwest and what she has really needed is rain gear. But having to wear this coat over her dress, on what is supposed to be a nice night out, makes her feel so unsophisticated.

There’s no way Jason will want to be with me, she thinks as she once again looks up at his large house.

In one quick movement, she slides her purse off her arm and wriggles out of the coat. The sharp nip in the air immediately bites at her, even through the thin material of the dress, but she does her best to ignore it as she tosses the coat back into the car, locks it again, and moves toward the house.

Once she lands on the stone porch, it takes another moment — and a big, deep breath — before she uses her index finger to press the doorbell.

—–

“Are you into chips and guac yet, Gabrielle?”

Landon Esco sits cross-legged next to the padded blanket on the floor of Rosie Jimenez‘s apartment. On the blanket, baby Gabrielle lies on her back, kicking her legs into the air with jittery, stop-and-start movements.

“No, this infant isn’t eating tortilla chips and guacamole yet,” Travis Fisher says with a laugh as he returns from the kitchen. He perches on the arm of the nearby chair, where Rosie sits with a can of sparkling water in her hand.

“She is missing out,” Landon says before scooping a big dollop of guacamole from his plate with a chip and popping it into his mouth. He chews quickly before telling the baby, “Don’t worry. Uncle Landon will teach you everything you need to know.”

“And I’ll teach you how to handle Uncle Landon,” Tempest Banks chimes in from a few feet away, where she stands over the small dining table, contemplating the snack table that Rosie and Travis have set out for their gathering.

“Hey!” Landon says, with an exaggerated tone of offense, before Tempest flings a small pretzel at him. It pelts him in the shoulder, causing Tempest to crack up. Landon grabs the pretzel and is about to fire it back at her when there is a knock at the door.

Travis hops off the arm of the chair and goes to the door, where he looks through the peephole and then quickly opens up to let his cousin into the apartment.

“Sorry I’m late,” Tori Gray says as she hands Travis the bottle of white wine that she brought with her. “I went over to see Mrs. Chase, and you know how that can go.”

“I’m surprised you made it at all, then. No Zane?” Travis asks as he checks behind her and then closes the door.

Tori shakes her head. “He got scheduled to work and couldn’t get out of it.”

A look of relieved eye contact quickly passes among several of the others in the room, but no one says anything aloud. Rosie rises to her feet and motions for Tori to come nearer.

“Come meet Gabrielle,” Rosie says, leading Tori over to the blanket.

“Hi, little girl,” Tori says in a soft voice, her focus fixed on the infant. As if in response, Gabrielle emits a series of burbles and babbling noises.

“She says it’s nice to meet you,” Travis explains.

A broad smile spreads over Tori’s face, even as she feels an overpowering swell of emotion rising within her. She has to break her gaze from the baby.

“She’s so adorable,” Tori hastily says to Travis and Rosie.

“Uncle Landon is trying to teach her about the magic of guac,” Landon says.

Tori chuckles. “How’s that going?”

As Tori sits down to join Landon, Tempest ducks into the closed-off kitchen, places her glass in the sink, and then returns.

“I should get going,” she tells Travis and Rosie. “This is longer than I meant to stay.”

Travis checks the time on his iPhone and responds, “You can be here when Samantha and Jaq get here.”

Tempest twists her lips together before saying, “I don’t know if that’s a good idea.” 

“We appreciate you coming by to meet Gabrielle,” Rosie says. “And we really needed to see people our own age.”

“I’ll come hang whenever you guys want. We can watch movies or whatever.” Tempest glances back at Gabrielle. “You guys are doing something really good for that baby.”

“We hope so,” Travis says, inhaling slowly through his nose. “For us to be this tired… it’d better be making a difference.”

“It is,” Tempest says. She quickly hugs Rosie with one arm and then launches into her usual hand-clasp and pat on the back with Travis.

Tempest opens the front door and turns backward. “Bye, you guys.”

Tori and Landon wave goodbye and, after another moment of breathless exclamations about making plans soon, Tempest steps outside into the chilly evening air. She hears the door click behind herself and starts down the paved path back toward the parking lot — but she stops in her tracks when she sees someone coming toward her.

Samantha pauses mid-step when she spots Tempest, too.

“Hi,” Samantha says, as the awkwardness and uncertainty buzz between the two exes.

“In the car?”

“Mm-hmm.” Diane Bishop nods across the copper-topped table in the busy dining room of Bill’s on the Pier. 

“Right there in the parking structure outside your office,” Sarah Fisher Gray says. “Whew. That is a story, Diane.”

Sarah fans herself for dramatic effect.

“It’s a mistake, that’s what it is,” Diane replies as she reaches for another piece of the calamari appetizer that the women are splitting.

With a grin, Sarah says, “That sounds like a great kind of mistake. He’s single, you’re single, he’s young and hot–“

“–and Tempest’s brother.” Diane wags her head side-to-side as she chews. “It shouldn’t have happened.”

“But you wanted it to. Admit that much.”

Diane hesitates before saying, “Of course I did. That’s what makes this so damn hard.”

“Do you really think Tempest would stand in your way?”

“I don’t know.” Diane pauses and takes a sip from her glass of wine. “It just isn’t worth it.”

“Worth what? You said Isaac already knows about what happened with Yvette–” Sarah stops mid-thought. She places her elbows on the edge of the table and leans in, her demeanor growing more solemn. “Oh. I get it.”

“Get what?” Diane’s eyes glow with a sort of fire, a We both know what you’re about to say so don’t even bother flame. 

But Sarah presses onward anyway.

“You’re afraid he’s going to find out about you and Tim,” she says. “About how Sam was conceived–“

“Sarah.” Diane holds up one hand, as if she can hold back the idea from even coming close to her.

“You know I will never, ever condone what you did to my brother,” Sarah continues, “but I genuinely believe that you understand how wrong it was and you regret it. Tim has chosen to forgive you. And I can forgive the Diane I know and love.”

Diane holds her wine glass aloft, her fingers encircling its bowl. She lets out a loud sigh.

“You deserve to be happy,” Sarah tells her. “Don’t cut off the possibility at the knees because you’re afraid of facing something painful from your past.”

“He’s going to find out.”

“Probably, yeah. So maybe you should be the one to tell him. A terrible mistake you made over two decades ago shouldn’t preclude you from being happy ever again.”

All Diane can say is, “I don’t know. I really don’t.” And then she lifts the glass to her lips and takes another drink of her wine.

—–

Jason pulls open the front door to reveal Sabrina waiting, her arms folded as she shivers, on the porch.

“Come in, come in,” he says. “You must be freezing.”

“I forgot my coat,” she says bashfully. All Jason wants to do is encircle her in his arms and use his own body heat to warm her up, but he is very aware of Sophie lingering on the periphery of the entryway, so he settles for giving Sabrina a kiss on the cheek. He can see a glow in her eyes at the tiny gesture and feels the same buzz inside himself.

“Thanks for coming,” Jason says as he closes and locks the door. “You remember Sophie.”

“Of course. Hi, Sophie. It’s good to see you.” Sabrina stands stiffly, raising one hand from her waist in a wave as she takes in the teen’s morose outfit.

“Hi,” Sophie answers flatly. She offers Sabrina a probing stare but nothing further.

“Did you get your project done?” Jason asks Sabrina in an overly genial tone, as if he might be able to be positive enough to cancel out all the discomfort in the room. 

“Yes! By the skin of my teeth,” Sabrina says. “I hope the professor likes it.”

Then, to Sophie, Jason explains, “Sabrina’s taking photography classes at KBU.”

“Cool,” Sophie says. “Didn’t you work for Philip Ragan?”

After a brief moment of hesitation, Sabrina says, “I did.”

“Did he have really messed-up stuff in his files? Like, dead bodies and stuff?”

“Sophie,” Jason says.

“I never saw anything like that,” Sabrina says calmly.

“Let’s go into the kitchen and get something to drink,” Jason says, practically pushing Sophie out of the room as he offers up a silent prayer that they can get through this meal without absolute disaster.

—–

While Travis and Rosie tag-team a diaper change for Gabrielle, Landon sits cross-legged on the floor beside Tori, who has just finished recounting her recent ordeal at Objection Designs.

“But hey, you still have your job,” he says, lifting his beer as if to toast. “That’s a good thing.”

“I know. It is. And I don’t think Aunt Molly is holding it against me. Well…” 

“Is she holding it against you?”

“Not really.” But it takes another moment for Tori to shake her head more definitively. “But she told me Zane isn’t allowed to come to the office anymore.”

Landon reacts with surprise, his eyebrows jumping upward in tandem. “Why’s that?”

“The night everything got screwed up,” Tori says, “Zane came by to bring us coffees and say hi. I guess my aunt thinks I was distracted because of him coming by, which…”

“How long was he there?”

“Not long. A few minutes. I think she’s looking for something to blame for me screwing up the data.” She sighs. “I still don’t know how I got it all so wrong. I was checking my work as I went. Or I thought I was.”

“Go easy on yourself,” Landon tells her. “You’re learning a whole new world of stuff. I just started WandaVision and I’m confused as hell, and I’ve seen all the other Marvel movies and shows.”

Tori laughs. “Definitely the same thing.”

“It is! Basically.”

She watches Landon take a sip of his beer and then quickly hops to her feet.

“I’m gonna get a drink,” she says. “I’ll be right back.”

Landon watches her go, his gaze lingering on her as their conversation replays in his head. He hates to admit it, but he feels a certain smug satisfaction at the prospect of Zane being barred from visiting Objection at all — especially after Zane accused him of being a distraction to Tori on Christmas day. He recalls their brief conversation and the self-satisfied glint in Zane’s eye as he talked down to Landon…

“She really can’t afford, you know, distractions right now. People making demands on her time. That kind of thing.”

Landon places the scotch down. “What do you mean?”

“Just making an observation. It’d be a shame if anything pulled her focus off work and caused her to screw up or something.”

The words stick in Landon’s brain. At the time, he interpreted them as a kind of threat — or, at least, a warning to stay away from Tori. Like she wasn’t even supposed to have friends. But something about the exchange strikes Landon as odd. For Zane to caution Landon against ‘distracting’ Tori, only for her to become so distracted that she nearly got fired mere weeks later… 

Landon can’t quite figure out what it all means, but he feels the tiny hairs on the back of his neck stand up as he turns it all over in his mind again.

—–

Outside the apartment, Tempest and Samantha stand a few yards from one another, frozen.

“How are things in there? Did you get to meet Gabrielle?” Samantha asks to end the silence.

“She’s good. Really cute. I’ve gotta go,” Tempest says, and she moves quickly, pushing past Samantha.

“Tempest. Wait.” 

Sam spins around, and, to her surprise, Tempest does stop, though she is very slow to turn back to face her ex.

“I know I can’t make you forgive me for what happened with the Idaho trip,” Samantha says, “but I really am sorry. And I hate that we can’t even have a conversation.”

“You’ve got Jaq for conversations now.”

“I’m with Jaq, yeah. But you were an important person in my life for a long time. And I still want you to be.”

Samantha sees a shift in Tempest’s expression, a barely perceptible twitch, but it is unmistakably an opening. She recognizes it so well from their time together — a time of which the very memory makes her heart ache.

“I know I don’t get to dictate the terms or how you feel,” she continues, “but I’d really like us to be able to see each other and talk, at the very least. To be happy for each other.”

“I dunno about that,” Tempest says.

“Okay. It’s just–” Samantha feels words upon words climbing through her throat, entangling themselves and almost strangling her. “You act like I don’t even want you around, and I know I made a terrible judgment call in how I handled cancelling on you for Idaho, but I was in an awkward position and I acted out of instinct, and I think you can understand that.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Tempest asks, with a frustratingly stony affect.

“I forgave you for what you did to my mom and me,” Samantha says, her tone nearly pleading despite also being full of pent-up frustration. “Tempest — we would still be together if you hadn’t done that. So don’t act like I’m the one who doesn’t want to be around you!”

She doesn’t even realize that she is voicing the thought until it is too late, but getting it out brings her a sort of relief that she didn’t even know she needed. She feels lighter, somehow, like waking up the morning after a bad flu and realizing that you once again feel like your normal self.

“You mean that?” Tempest says, with uncharacteristic reservation.

“Yes! The only reason we broke up in the first place is because of how ugly things got. I didn’t not want to be with you. So of course I want you in my life in some capacity now. What do you say? Friends?”

“Friends.” Tempest says the word like she is testing it out, not as if she is committing to it. 

“Yeah. Friends.”

“I don’t think I can.”

“Why not?”

“Because…” Tempest draws in a deep breath, filling her lungs, and then blurts out: “Because I’m always gonna want to do this.”

And then she is right up against Samantha, her hands reaching for Sam’s waist, and it happens so quickly that Samantha feels her instincts kicking in. It has been so long since she felt Tempest’s lips on hers, but they feel so familiar, so right, that she melts into the kiss, lost to the world around them.

Neither of the women hear the soft footsteps of tennis shoes against the pavement — and neither sees Jaq Pearson turn the corner from the parking lot and stop dead in their tracks, shocked at the sight before them.

END OF EPISODE 1065

What will Jaq after seeing Sam kissing Tempest?
Will Landon figure out the truth about Zane?
What did you think of Sarah’s advice to Diane?
Talk about all this and more in the comments below!

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