In Five Years

Chapter 6

They have breakfast at a small hole-in-the-wall Cantonese noodle place not far from their hotel, leaning against each other in a booth and talking quietly as the noise of the city hums along outside the window. It's nice. It feels like they always used to feel, happy and content and calm and home.

"All the evening shows film in the same place, I need to be there at like 2 so we can do whatever until then," Courtney tells him, partway through their unconventional late-morning breakfast, "and you can do whatever after, or you can come with me, I don't mind. Although I will warn you there's a lot of hanging around in dressing rooms and it's boring as hell."

"I'll tag along with you, if that's okay. Boring's fine, I'm used to it with filming stuff, at least I'm in the same place as you. Even if we have to be a little more subtle," he replies, shrugging lightly.

"Probably a little, even if just because I'll be stuck in a makeup chair again. But- I know I dodged it this morning, but I'm gonna let the evening shows talk about us, if that's cool with you. It just felt a little weird amongst the otherwise very professional stuff this morning," she muses, and he nods in understanding.

"Sure, yeah, that makes sense."

They end up walking aimlessly around New York for the rest of the time they have free, hand-in-hand and talking as they do, making sure to stay out of the way of anyone in a hurry to get somewhere – the last thing they need is someone getting angry at and recognising them. A driver picks them up from a cheap pizza place they grab lunch at, Lisa already sitting in the front passenger seat as they slide into the back with a couple of shopping bags at her feet.

"There's a really cute store in a random street in New York that has exactly my style of dumb decorations and things and I've never been able to find anything like it in LA, and I also took a few hours off then," she explains, almost defensive, when Courtney glances at her with intrigue. It makes Courtney laugh, shaking her head.

"Sounds fun, is it your witchy vibes stuff? I thought there was plenty of that in LA?" she asks.

"I mean, you know your sister, there's plenty of hippie witchy vibes in LA but less of the dark spooky stuff, other than at Halloween, but Halloween stuff is always too... orange. There's no orange in my house for a reason. Not a good one, I just don't like it," she rambles, as the driver weaves through traffic towards the NBC studios.

"So you're into the clutter-but-intentional aesthetic like Courtney, then?" Shayne asks, on a small assumption, but one that is immediately proven right when Lisa twists further in her seat so she can see both him and Courtney and nods.

"Yeah, definitely. Are you?" she asks, eyebrow raised. Shayne tilts his head to the side, feigning guilt.

"He's the exact opposite. Minimalist as hell," Courtney answers, for him. Lisa goes to say something, clearly going to tease them about how that works given Courtney had already admitted to her earlier that morning that they'd effectively had the moving in conversation already, but Shayne gets in first.

"That, but I can be flexible. As long as it's intentional – it's fine. I just have less of my own stuff. Which I guess will make it easier to fit my stuff with your too much stuff, hey, Court?" he turns the joke on her, and she rolls her eyes playfully at the same time as she reaches out and squeezes his hand in her own.

Courtney doesn't particularly enjoy having to get dressed up for all these shows, nor that she'll have to get dressed up and un-dressed and dressed up again in two different dressing rooms on two floors of the same studio building despite the fact that literally everyone knows the NBC talk shows all film the same guests at the same time.