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“You guys do a lot of quizzing together?” Ed asks.
“We compete in a pub quiz league. North West champions, last year.” Lucius boasts. “What about you guys?”
“Done bits, here and there. Izzy got to the final of University Challenge, back in, what, 1988? I won a bit of cash on The Chase a few years ago, and Fang is a Mastermind champion.”
Ah, shit. They are going to get demolished.
*
Or: Stede and Ed are captains of rival teams on the TV quiz show Only Connect, and then cuteness ensues.
Stede Bonnet's love life is completely non-existent and an utter tragedy to behold - At least, according to those closest in his life.
Thus they're compelled to do what any group comprised of an ex-wife, co-workers turned friends through sheer proximity, and assorted significant others of aforementioned co-workers turned friends would do: Set up five blind dates that Stede Bonnet has no choice but to go on.
Stede keeps on showing up ridiculously early to these dates, but at least the bartender is friendly.
Edward Teach is a writer from Toronto who decides to go to his family cabin in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia one September. As he's settling in for a retreat away from city life, a massive storm rolls in that turns into a hurricane that is far stronger than predicted. Everyone else in the surrounding area has fled into town, but Ed decides to stick it out.
As the storm begins to gain strength, he hears a desperate knock on his door. A very wet and very grateful Stede Bonnet, who was at the glamping dome in a neighbouring property, joins him in the cabin as the storm intensifies.
It's the first Christmas since Stede Bonnet's divorce. His kids are with their mother, and with nowhere else to go, he decides to go down south to the Dominican Republic for two weeks over Christmas and New Year's. There, he meets Ed, who is his neighbour and is also there by himself. Both men are dealing with loneliness and drama in their personal lives, but find comfort in one another.
“This is Mary?” Ed asks Handsome. What did she call him? Stede? “As in… The Mary?”
Both of them stare at him. Mary, with confusion. Stede, with bewilderment.
“Yes, um…” Stede hesitates. “The Mary. My ex-wife.”
Ed chuckles. “Well, that’s awkward. Not exactly the way you want to meet your boyfriend’s ex, is it?”
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Modern AU where Ed and Stede meet on a 14-hour flight and immediately end up fake dating, because of course they do.
In which Stede spots a pretty guy across the bar and ends up discovering more about himself than he ever expected to.
Advice columnist Stede Bonnet has a crush on the guy who delivers his food every week.
Meanwhile, chef and restaurant owner Ed Teach keeps making personal food deliveries every week to the guy he has a crush on.
When Ed writes into Stede's column, maybe they'll finally figure out that they're both down bad.
They’ve talked about Stede’s past enough that Ed knows that his parents and his ex-wife never made any kind of fuss over his birthday. Ed is going to change all that—he’s going to make a big fuss! Not a huge fuss, though. It’s early in their relationship, and he doesn’t want to scare Stede off. He’s pretty sure it’s too soon to propose or ask to move in together, even though he knows he’s all in on this beautiful, bitchy lunatic of a man.
Fortunately, Ed now knows just the gift to get for Stede. Something that will show that Ed cares for and listens to him. It’s perfect.
~~~~~
Ed plans the perfect birthday for Stede. He makes a list and everything! But things do not go as planned....
Dr. Stede Bonnet is about to present on a conference panel with rockstar academic Dr. Ed Teach. Stede's always admired Teach, who had cited Stede's book in his most recent article. Which would be exciting, except for one small thing.
The citation got Stede's name wrong.