Archive of Our Own

The moment Mellie met Ophelia, the wheels in her head started turning mighty fast. She hired the girl on the spot, despite the fact that Ophelia had no salon experience or cosmetology training. 

Mellie rationalized that it was a boon to have someone to answer phones, clean stations and equipment, and take customer payments- even if the salon still had an empty chair.

Over the first couple weeks, Mellie could plainly see that Phee had a soft femininity about her and a sweet demeanor that felt all too familiar. Not to mention she took to reading actual books on their breaks.

Mellie'd only ever seen one other person pull out a book when they were sitting in a group. 

She had cause to believe Phee and her brother Clyde would hit it off famously, though she wondered how to give them an opportunity to meet without forcing them together in a too obvious, awkward way.

Luckily it didn't take her long to find an event they'd both be interested in- the Duck Tape sponsored bi-weekly Thursday night silent book clubs they dubbed "Librations".

Mellie figured stretching the truth wouldn't be a big deal when she told Ophelia her brother had agreed to be set up on a blind date.

Besides, Clyde was a bit of a pushover- once Mellie explained Phee was new in the area and loved her books, well, he wasn't happy, but he begrudgingly agreed to take the night off and attend the book club as a favor to Mellie.

She even gave him an out, to text her "cauliflower" and she'd drop by and play third wheel to take the pressure off Clyde if he didn't hit it off with Phee.

That text never did come and, by eleven, two hours after the event was supposed to be over, and well past when Mellie should've been in dreamland, she sent her brother a text.

Clyde chooses to be vague since he's always heard a gentleman doesn't kiss and tell.

Phee doesn't wait to text Clyde. The blind date was just that good. She doesn't feel right gushing to Mellie, even if she did set the whole thing up.

They drove far enough so of course Clyde isn't happy when he hears a familiar voice at the line dancing bar.

Clyde lets the car idle outside of Ophelia's apartment. She isn't too far up the road from him but his mind is deliberately staying far away from his trailer and his bed. 

He really should change his sheets….

"Sorry about the line dancin getting cut short," Clyde says, speaking more to the car's dashboard than Ophelia.

"It's alright. Hey, come here a second- come around the car."

She opened the door and waited for him, standing beside the passenger door. 

Clyde struggled with the belt for a second, confused as he got out and went around the car to meet her. 

"Why don't we just dance right here? Not a line dance or nothin, but maybe just a slow dance."

"You'd give me another chance?"

Phee grinned and hooked a finger in one of his belt loops and he was powerless at the sight of her biting her lip as she tugged him closer. 

Their lips met, soft and warm. Phee tasted like the cherry flavored cocktail she'd been drinking before Jimmy interrupted their date.

Her hands smoothed up his stomach and abs before curling around his shoulders and playing with the ends of his hair.

He felt every nerve light up like a string of Christmas lights, eager for Phee's touch. Belatedly, he put both hands (one metal) on her waist, moving with her swaying rhythm. 

Clyde Logan had always figured he'd have to find the means to sweep someone off their feet someday. As a man, he wanted to. 

Never had he expected, however, to be swept off of his, dancing under the stars with the prettiest girl he'd ever seen, his car radio playing some song Clyde was sure he'd remember for the rest of his life.

"You're real good at this, Clyde Logan," Phee's voice was sweet- something about it curled right under his defenses, made him feel goofy and giddy. He kissed her again, this time gathering her as close as possible in his arms.

When they parted, Clyde almost regretted looking down at her. She looked painfully beautiful staring up at him, moonlight painting her in an ethereal glow, her eyes shining with a kindred emotion he knew they both felt.

"I'll say goodnight to you, Miss Phee. Can I walk you to your door?"

For their next date, Clyde accompanies Phee to the local bingo hall.

"Sorry you didn't win tonight," Clyde says, turning down route 78. He peeks at Phee from the corner of his eye and is instantly relieved to see that she is still smiling. He feels a bit of the tension leave his shoulders.

"It's alright. I don't always win, y'know. Just, sometimes. Guess it wasn't my night for bingo."

"Yeah, well, I didn't help any. Logans ain't lucky."

There is a second of silence before Phee bursts into giggles. Clyde feels struck dumb at such a force of light. He loves the sound of her mirth, wants to bottle it up for a rainy day.

"Clyde Logan, there's more'n one way to get lucky."

He is not expecting her to say that. The tension made sense now. They haven't been avoiding it, really. Clyde was just trying to be a gentleman. 

He realizes when he pulls into her driveway that he's been silent for far too long. 

He looks over in a bit of a panic, but Ophelia is still smiling, hands perched in her lap like a perfectly proper lady.

Her eyes, though, tell a whole 'nother story. 

Clyde puts the car in park, unable to take his eyes off of Phee's. He may as well be hypnotized.

The next thing he knows, they're tangled up in the back seat, Phee's warm little fingers tugging his shirt from it's tuck, her teeth grazing his bottom lip, banishing the rest of the universe to mere background static.

His hips fit in the cradle of hers, her neck smells like peaches and tastes even better. 

Clyde never thought he'd neck like a teenager in a car again and when he smashes his head on the door, he hopes to never have to do it again.

He's about to sheepishly try to tell Phee goodnight when she works her magic again and he finds himself on her bed, continuing right where they left off.

Jimmy never does get the slim jims and hostess cupcakes he was craving…

Clyde and Phee have hit a stride in their whirlwind romance, so much that he wants her with him everywhere. Even at his brother's engagement party, despite the pressure he puts on himself even thinking on it...

Clyde is waiting for her, watching Jimmy hold court like theys back in highschool. He holds his mostly empty beer, still waiting for the toast as Jimmy goes on.

"Loved her from first sight," Jimmy crows to the crowd, who rib him with good natured responses. His newly minted fiancé Sylvia digs an elbow into his side.

"Fine, first sight when I wan'n't just a teenager thinking with the wrong head."

More boos and catcalls until Sylvia waves them off and makes a joke about how he still thinks with the wrong head.

Clyde turns to his coworker, Merle, who's manning the bar in his place tonight for Jimmy and Sylvia's engagement party. He orders a new beer and eyes the door, heart racing prematurely.

Sure enough, the first sight of Ophelia almost knocks him off his feet. She opens the creaky door, one tanned leg ending in a cowboy boot preceding her into the bar & grill.

Phee looks unreasonably delectable in the Duck's dim house lights and bright green neon lights, her hair up in a messy ponytail, wearing a dress short enough that Clyde has to force his eyes off her bare thighs and his brain off of the last time he spent time between them.

She's grinning when she closes the distance between them, placing one hand over his racing heart. 

"Hey, baby, did I miss anything?"

Clyde wraps his left arm around Phee, pulling her close.

"Not much- they ain't tell the story yet. Wanna get outta here with me?"

He knows he'll never tire of her giggles, but he wonders if they'll ever stop making him feel punch-drunk.

"Let me congratulate Jimmy and Sylvia first, maybe propose a toast, then we go?"

He leans down, stomach clenching at the way she stretches to meet him in the middle, giving him a sweet kiss that makes him want more, to the point where he's dredging his brain, trying to remember if he ever really fixed the lock on the office door in the back of the bar.

Jimmy knows there ain't no talking Clyde out of divulging every detail about the Logan Curse to Ophelia but he also rightly figures that means Clyde is serious about her. Clyde normally loves that his siblings have an intrinsic knowledge of how he operates but right now it's just plum on his nerves.

Another month and Jimmy is scandalized- he thinks if Clyde's dressing up and spending more'n a hundred dollars on dinner, well, there's a certain expectation!

Just so happens it's not planned. 

Sweat, dissipating heat, heart just starting to normalize- Clyde presses his lips to Phee's temple again, finally relinquishing her.

They lay side by side, facing one another.

Phee props her head on her hand and Clyde follows suit, trying to keep the dopey smile off of his face.

She reaches over and pulls his other arm, free of it's prosthetic, around her waist- the stump never seems to bother her none. 

Phee's not the first girlfriend to cozy up to him without flinching but she is the first one who doesn't treat it like a fresh wound, who doesn't wince when he uses the hand of his prosthetic to step behind her in narrow spaces in the double-wide.

Clyde clears his throat and feels soft lips press against his chest, right over his still racing heart.

"I love you, Clyde Logan," is what she says. It's what he hears. It's what he wants intensely to reciprocate but instead he opens his mouth and stuffs both feet in.

"Do you wanna get married?"

Phee's eyes widen- of course she's shocked- he is, too. He didn't mean to ask that way, but apparently he's so happy he can't trust his brain to help him out here. He meant to tack on "some day"- but the words won't leave his mouth.

The next thing that happens would be funny if it were on one of those TV sitcoms, but it instead happens right here, in Clyde's own sex-tousled sheets.

Clyde lies on his back and stretches his right arm under his pillow and knocks something.

He closes his fist around it and when he pulls it out, he's holding a very familiar, very old ring box in front of Phee's face.

There is a silence so heavy, Clyde wishes it were corporeal enough to suffocate him and let him leave the disaster of his own creation.

"Clyde?" Her voice warbles, bright and hopeful. 

The lead in his stomach dissolves right around the moment the light bulb switches on and if it went on any brighter his eyes would water.

"Do you- wanna marry me?" He asks, sure he's about to wake up from a very confusing, very sexual anxiety dream.

Tears fill her beautiful eyes and then she nods and Clyde finds himself opening the ring box; squeezing the sides between his thumb and ring finger and lifting the lid with his pointer and middle finger.

"Oh- It's beautiful- oh my god, baby, is that a family ring?"

"My grandma's," he answers, staggered by his luck. "My grandpa worked in those mines his whole life, they never had enough to buy her a diamond," he explains, still stunned.

"But they had enough love, right?"

He gives her a short nod, watching her jaw set like she's made up her mind.

"Ophelia Logan," she says in a silky soft voice, taking the ring out of the box.

He puts the ring box on the shelf of his headboard and takes the ring, watching how easily it slides onto Phee's ring finger.

He can't help himself kissing her, somehow loving her more when her giggling shakes them both.

….

Jimmy jokes the engagement party was planned just a hair longer than it took for them to get engaged, but nothing can dull Clyde's shine. Not when he's got Phee in his sights.

Still, he's got a question for his brother, who hopefully is done meddling.

He's got to thank Mellie. She's always celebrated and supported Clyde. And it weren't for Clyde and Phee, Mellie's smile would be the biggest in the bar

Phee decides to help out and make Mellie's smile the biggest in the bar

Jimmy has never seen Clyde so messy, and this happy. He's gotta give him some shit for it.

Clyde doesn't see the text until he and his soon-to-be missus are fixing themselves up. Thankfully they were in the car before anything really happened.

He doesn't respond, too preoccupied in getting them home while pretty miss Ophelia's hands make it a bit of a challenge.

End ❤️