Previously…
– When Claire revealed that she would be moving in with Tim, Tempest had an emotional reaction and rushed out. Samantha tried to help Tempest see that she was responding out of a fear of being abandoned.
– Alex and Trevor mended fences and committed to working on their marriage, but Trevor was still harboring the secret that he had slept with Finn.
– Sophie stayed with Helen and Don while Jason traveled to Iowa to meet Sabrina’s parents.

In her pink terrycloth robe, Claire Fisher sits at the dining table in her apartment, playing the day’s Wordle game on her phone. She thought of making an elaborate breakfast, but after the dinner that she prepared last night went untouched by Tempest, she decided to keep things simple and wait with her cup of coffee. As she reaches her fifth try on the more-difficult-than-usual puzzle, she hears a door opening down the short hallway and sets down her phone.

“Good morning,” she says as Tempest emerges from her room.

“Hey,” Tempest says, her voice still deep from sleep.

“What time did you get in last night?”

Tempest stops mid-path. “I dunno. Midnight? I was with Sam.”

“That’s good,” Claire replies. “I was going to wait up, but I was so exhausted from work. Coffee?”

“I’ll get it.” Tempest resumes walking and trudges past the dining table on her way to the apartment’s kitchen. Claire listens to the familiar sounds of mugs clinking around as Tempest selects one.

“I’m sorry that I upset you by springing that news on you last night,” Claire says.

“It’s okay.”

“It’s not okay that you were upset. That obviously wasn’t my intention, and I don’t ever want to make you feel that way.”

“I swear, it’s okay.”

Tempest shuffles out of the kitchen with her steaming cup of coffee.

“I knew you might have a complicated reaction to me moving out,” Claire tells her, “and that’s actually okay. It’s valid. I don’t want you to feel like you have to hide that, or shut it down–“

“No, like, it’s for real okay,” Tempest interrupts. “Yeah, it took me by surprise, and it felt like you were, I dunno, abandoning me or something.”

“That’s not what I’m doing at all. I know that it must feel that way. But I’m still going to be in your life. We will stay close.”

“I believe you. For real.”

“Are you sure? You don’t have to say that just to sweep the issue under the rug.”

“I’m sure. Sam helped me figure it out,” Tempest says. “And actually… I have a plan now.”

“A plan?” Claire asks. “What kind of plan?”

—–

It is only once Trevor Brooks drives his Kia EV6 down the familiar street that he recognizes a flaw in his plan for the morning. With Chase out of school on summer break, he has more flexibility in his mornings, and after his anxiety kept him up at least half the night, he decided to take advantage of it. He left for the office earlier than necessary, planning to make a crucial stop and, with any luck, assuage that anxiety. But now that he is here, he finds himself faced with a conundrum.

“Shit,” he mutters, as he rolls past the house where he grew up. He realizes now that he cannot park in the driveway, for fear of his car being seen there. He wonders instead if he could pull into the garage, but considering that Finn Campbell‘s car is in the driveway, that would require more complicated choreography than Trevor wants right now. Instead, he decides to park two blocks over and walk back over.

While he walks from the car to the house, he texts Finn: I’m coming by in a minute

Then it occurs to him that Finn might not even be awake yet. Trevor thinks about calling him, then reasons that the doorbell will do the trick — but at that moment, a text from Finn buzzes in: really???

Rather than respond to the text, Trevor hastens his pace. Soon he is ringing the doorbell to the family home that he and Alex are now renting out.

Finn, wearing a white tank top and navy blue running shorts, opens the door after only a few seconds.

“To what do I owe the honor?” Finn asks before biting down on his lower lip.

“We need to talk,” Trevor says, and he doesn’t waste another moment pushing his way into the house and closing the door.

Finn crinkles his face. “Talk?”

“Yeah. Only talk.”

“Jeez. You’re no fun.”

“I need a big favor, Finn.”

Finn’s expression brightens. “Favor? You know I like to be of service…”

“Not like that,” Trevor snaps, before catching himself and softening his tone. “I need you to promise that you’ll keep what we– what happened between us quiet. Like, forever.”

“What, you’re ashamed of me?”

“No, I’m married. And it’s– it’s too complicated now. I can’t come clean with Alex. He’ll kill me. Or divorce me.”

“Would that be the worst thing in the world?” Finn asks with one raised eyebrow.

“Yes! Finn, look. I’m sorry if I gave you the wrong impression. I shouldn’t have ever done that. You’re a good guy, and you’re very hot, and I appreciate our friendship. Really. But I can’t lose my husband and my son.”

“I don’t really have control of how Alex reacts to things, Trevor. Sorry.”

“No, but you’re the only person who knows what happened,” Trevor pleads. “So if you could please, please promise to keep this to yourself…”

Finn allows that request to hang in the air for a lengthy moment. Then a smirk twists the corners of his lips.

“Maybe we can work something out,” he says at last. “After all, if I’m getting something of value… I wouldn’t want to ruin that by blabbing, would I?”

“Something of value?” Trevor asks.

“Mm-hmm.” Finn takes a step forward and traces a finger over Trevor’s belt buckle. “How about a repeat?”

—–

A premade Spotify playlist plays over the Sonos speaker in the kitchen of Jason Fisher‘s home as he finishes eating an English muffin and looking through his e-mail. He tried to keep up with things at the arena as much as he could while he was away with Sabrina Gage, but there are still many e-mails to sort through and things to deal with. He has absolute faith that Tempest managed things well in his absence, but there are inevitably things that the boss has to handle, and he wants to be prepared when he goes into work later today.

He rinses the crumbs off his plate and is placing it in the dishwasher when he hears — over the sound of whatever electro-R&B song is playing — a key in the front door. A moment later, he hears his daughter call out:

“Dad? You here?”

“In the kitchen!” Jason replies, and he moves toward the hallway, where Sophie is approaching, followed by her grandmother.

“Ah, it’s so good to see you,” Jason says as he hugs the dark-haired teenager, who doesn’t groan or moan or resist him, which makes the encounter a successful one already.

“Oh, I love this song!” Helen Chase exclaims as she catches wind of the music playing on the Sonos.

Jason furrows his brow. “You do? I don’t even know this song.”

Helen bends her arms and flaps them up and down as if they were wings as she sings, “Is somebody gonna match my freak? Those are the words, aren’t they, Sophie?”

“Yes, Grandma,” Sophie says with clear amusement. Then she tells Jason, “We were doing TikTok trends while I was at Grandma and Grandpa‘s.”

“That’s a great way to spend your time. I hope you had fun,” he says.

“We had a wonderful time!” Helen says. “You know Don and I are happy to have Sophie with us whenever we can. We had some excellent meals, even though it was a little too hot for me to make my famous five-alarm chili.”

“We visited Mom, too,” Sophie adds.

Jason’s demeanor turns somber. “I’m glad you were able to do that. I’m due for a visit soon, too.”

“It was nice to talk with Courtney for a little bit. You know how it is,” Helen says with a sigh. “And we went up to the attic and looked at some of her old skating dresses — oh, I had forgotten how pretty some of those were!”

Feeling a rush of emotion in his chest, Jason forces a smile. “That must’ve been really nice.”

“It was okay,” Sophie says nonchalantly. “It’s cool to see more of Mom’s stuff. How was Iowa?”

“It was fine. It was good,” Jason says. “Sabrina’s hometown is really cute.”

Helen holds up her index finger. “Why do I sense a but? Was there trouble with her parents? If you need me to have a word with them–“

“No. Her parents are great. I felt really comfortable with them.” He hesitates before adding, “There was only one thing that was a little rough.”

“What happened? You got in trouble for cow-tipping?” Sophie asks with excitement.

Jason furrows his brow at her. “How do you even know what cow-tipping is?”

She shrugs.

“No, I didn’t get in trouble,” he says, as he parses his next words carefully in his mind. “We had kind of an unpleasant run-in with someone Sabrina used to know.”

“Unpleasant? How?” Helen asks, intrigued. Sophie leans forward with interest, too.

Jason speaks slowly as he thinks about how much to reveal: “Well… you know how Sabrina was in that car accident that put her in a coma for all that time?” Both Sophie and Helen nod. “We happened to run into the sister of someone who died in that car accident, and she– well, she’s clearly still grieving her brother, and she took it out on Sabrina.”

“What’d she do? Attack her?” Sophie presses.

“Nothing like that,” Jason explains. “She just had some harsh words for her. It was uncomfortable, and it upset Sabrina. But otherwise it was a great trip. Maybe you can come with us next time, Soph.”

Sophie frowns. “To Iowa? What even is there to do there?”

“I think I went to Iowa once,” Helen muses. “To take Courtney to a skating competition. Maybe that was Ohio, though…”

“It was Ohio,” Jason says with a laugh. “I was there, too.”

“Are you sure?” Helen asks. “I could’ve sworn it was Ohio…”

Jason decides not to get into a dispute with his former mother-in-law, lest they wind up in a spirited debate for the next 20 minutes, and instead claps his hands together. “So what else did you all do while I was gone?”

—–

Tempest blows on her coffee before answering Claire.

“Sam was actually the one who had the idea,” she explains at last.

“Okay… and what’s this idea?” Claire asks.

“When you move out, Sam is gonna move in here,” Tempest says. “And we’ll take on the lease.”

Claire gasps with excitement. “That’s a great idea!”

“I think we’re ready to take that next step. So you kinda gave me the kick in the butt to do it.”

“I’m glad that something positive is going to come out of this for you,” Claire says, as she rises from her seat at the dining table. “The last thing I wanted was for you to feel alone or lost or anything. It’s just, Tim and I–“

“Belong together. And Sam has been living with her dad for too long, too. This is good for everybody.”

“It is. But I’m going to miss living with you, Tempest.”

“Don’t go getting all sentimental on me,” Tempest says before taking a quick sip of her coffee.

“Sorry. That’s part of the deal. I don’t even know what I expected when you moved in with me. Mostly that you’d have a roof over your head and we’d figure the rest out later. But this hasn’t just been me helping you. You’ve helped me so much. You helped me make sense of my life during some very difficult times. When Ryan and Bill died — when we found out what a monster Philip really was — and when things went south between Brent and me… I don’t know what I would have done without you.”

“It was nothing.”

“It wasn’t nothing. Come here,” Claire says, opening her arms. Tempest sets her coffee down on the table and embraces Claire.

“Maybe this began as you being a sort of foster daughter,” Claire tells her, “but you’ve become a wonderful friend, someone I can’t imagine my life without. Thank you for being you.”

Tempest pulls her head back and smiles. “Thanks for everything you’ve done for me, too. For taking a chance on some messy-ass girl who had nothing.”

“You had everything you needed. Your spirit, your sense of humor, your ambition — your life is the way it is because of you.”

Seeming overwhelmed, Tempest simply rests her head against Claire and pulls her tighter.

“All right,” Tempest finally says. “You got any of that spaghetti and meatballs from last night left? ‘Cause you know I can kill some leftovers.”

“I had a feeling you’d want some,” Claire says, stepping back from their hug. “Let me heat some up for you.”

—–

Trevor hates the way that his heart skips a beat as he watches Finn’s index finger glide over his belt buckle and then fondle the end of the belt.

“A repeat?” he says, taking an exaggerated step backward. “You want me to– to keep my husband from finding out I cheated by cheating again?”

“I mean, it already happened,” Finn says. “You can’t un-ring that bell. So you might as well do something to keep me quiet, right?”

“Finn, please. I can’t do that.”

“You can… and if I’m satisfied, I’m not going to spill, right?”

Finn takes a step forward again, closing the gap between them, and touches a hand to Trevor’s chest. The soft cotton of Trevor’s white dress shirt is the only thing preventing skin-to-skin contact. Trevor draws in a deep breath — and then shakes his head fervently.

“I can’t,” he says. “I’m sorry. I can’t do that. You know…” Now he hangs his head. “If that’s the only way to keep you from telling Alex, then you can tell him. Or do whatever you want. I made a mistake once, but I can’t do it again.”

“A mistake? Ouch.”

“You know what I mean.”

Finn drops both hands to his sides and gazes around the entryway of the house. He looks at the living room, where things between him and Trevor first turned steamy.

“There is something else,” he announces.

“What? I’ll do anything. Almost anything.”

“I don’t have a job,” Finn says. “And my prospects are looking pretty slim right now.”

“You want to, what? Get you another job at Objection? I don’t know if Molly would go for that.” A solemn look overtakes Trevor’s face. “But is that what you want? Because it was your mother who founded it and all?”

“I don’t want some low-level job at Objection. Look how well that worked out for me the first time. But if I’m unemployed, I’m going to need some help with expenses…”

“You want money?”

“Free rent. A year of it. How’s that?”

“I can’t just not charge you rent,” Trevor shoots back. “Alex would be suspicious.”

“Then he doesn’t have to know, does he? I thought that was the name of the game, anyway.”

“What do you mean?”

“Alex needs to think I’m paying rent — except it’ll be coming out of your account, not mine. Do you get it now?”

“You want me to come up with your rent for an entire year and let Alex think that you’ve been paying us?” Trevor questions.

“You’ve got it,” Finn says. “And that’s definitely worth my silence. So what do you say?”

Trevor’s mind races as he considers it, realizing that he has no choice.

“Fine. I’ll make it work,” he tells Finn. “But if you tell anyone, our deal is off.”

“You’ve got my word. A year of free rent in exchange for my silence. Although if you ever do want to take me up on the other thing…”

“Consider your rent covered,” Trevor says, and then he bolts for the door, desperately needing to get out of this pressure cooker.

END OF EPISODE 1226

Will Finn keep his promise to Trevor?
Are Tempest and Samantha ready for this step?
Can Jason help Sabrina move on from Carrie’s accusations?
Discuss it all in the comments below!

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