This was such a sweet section. Probably my favorite section. A lot has unravelled for our favorite couple.
Lois couldn't take the small talk any more. She just couldn't. "I'm not stupid, right?" she interrupted, getting right to the point. And she was aware that it had been a blurt, but she *had* said that she was going to wing it.
Clark paused, fork poised in midair. "Of course you're not stupid."
"There is evidence to the contrary," she argued, and she didn't know why she felt the need to argue it, just...she was winging it, remember? She took a deep breath and said the name she hadn't spoken since the day he died. The name that had grown so large between the two of them, even more so in death. "Lex Luthor..."
Clark put his fork down and said nothing.
Which was the exact right thing to do, and another one of those Clark-things she was realizing more and more she had such a fondness, or, kind of, love for. Also, she was really warming up to this winging-it thing, so it was good he didn't slow her down.
"Lex Luthor came with all the bells and whistles and bucket leather seats." She shook her head ruefully. "It wasn't the luxury that appealed. I know that's hard to believe..."
"I believe you," Clark said quietly.
"Thank you." She looked up at him and lost some of her nerve. She started pushing her strangely colored calamari around the plate. "It was the idea that he was so assured. Certain. Larger than life. And since my life felt...wind-swept and out of control, I sort of latched onto that. To him. Stupidly."
"Lois, he fooled a lot of people--"
"No." She cut him off. In previous months, he had tried to offer the very same speech numerous times over. Each time she'd deflected it. Didn't let him finish. It was no excuse. And it wasn't even true. There had been an entire list of people--well known and well loved by her--who hadn't been fooled. Clark was at the very top.
"The analogy breaks down a little here..." She cleared her throat, then had to do so again as Clark pried the fork from her grip and replaced it with his hand in hers.
"Go on," he said.
Winging it. She was winging it. So she said it. "Superman. Superman was...the top of the line. No way could you possibly afford it but wouldn't it be amazing...the ride of a lifetime." She flushed hotly. "I told you the analogy is weak, but..."
"But I get the idea," Clark said.
"Ok." With her free hand, she retrieved her fork and went back to mangling her lunch. "That's...good."
Clark spoke slowly, measuring his words. "Before, back there on the hood, you said that you'd...picked wrong."
She nodded, very grateful that he had gotten it. "Yes."
"You said you wanted...the grey sedan."
Her heart in her throat, she made herself look up from her plate. No sense in winging it half-heartedly, not if she was going to hesitate on the follow through. She couldn't have controlled the shakiness in her voice. And she didn't try. "Yes. I do."
He liberated the fork from her other hand and entwined their fingers together, both hands clasping tightly over Barney's Fish and Squish Emporium's Friday Special. "Let's drop the car analogy, because I don't want to misunderstand."
"You need to hear it straight," she said for him. "Because I turned you down so completely that day. And...I picked wrong, Clark."
"So I'm...?"
"The grey sedan," she spelled it out for him, understanding why she needed to.
"And you want to..."
"Switch." She blew out her breath and sat back in her seat. There. She'd done it.
Loved the car analogy!
But oh, boy! Lois has discovered
the secret ! Hurry back with that explosion!
