Chapter Text
Epilogue: 3 Days Later
Beth returned to normal life, in which she was a mom of four doing her best to raise her kids not to be serial killers and studying for her real estate license on the side, and not the flavor of the weekend on the arm of a hot AF ganster-turned-legit-businessman, living it up with couture clothes in swanky hotels and expensive restaurants before dancing all night at his club…
In other words, it was boring, but it was good.
Her children were healthy, she had a [considerably smaller] roof over her head, and Dean was finally handling his shit like a man, paying child support, taking the kids every other weekend—she really had nothing to complain about.
Except she felt the ache, like a yawning emptiness in her heart, when she lay down at night in her empty bed. She tried not to think of Rio during the day because she knew it would A) hurt and B) make her sad and or crazy. That didn’t mean she managed most of the time, but in that damn empty bed was when her loneliness really got to her.
And it wasn’t just the sex, though that had certainly been out of this world. The best she’d ever had, if she was completely honest with herself. It was the way her body perfectly slotted against his when they were snoozing—the sound of his steadily beating heart beneath her ear—his hand on the crown of her head like even in sleep he wanted to shield her from the bad things of the world. It was the way he held her under his arm, like she was something precious he had to keep close.
The past couple years Beth had done pretty well at making herself numb. She had to—for her kids’ sake she couldn’t afford to curl up into a ball and cry every time she felt like it. But seeing Rio again had ripped the bandage right open, to find the wound hadn’t ever healed at all.
When Ruby and Annie converged upon her house for a late girls’ lunch Beth knew she’d be given the third degree by both of them—there was no way Annie kept Beth’s escapade a secret from Ruby.
“SPIIIIIIILLLLLLLLL!” sang out Annie as she skipped through the front door, Ruby on her heels. “Out with it! Every detail! We need them now.”
Beth was just setting the lunch fixings out on the island. Chicken salad with crusty bread, chips, and fresh baked cookies for later. “How about you spill?” countered Beth, taking a seat at the counter. “What was so important that you stood me up Friday?”
Ruby looked between Beth and Annie like she was watching a tennis match, clearly enjoying the show.
“I didn’t!” Annie insisted. “I saw you talking intently with a gentleman in a nice suit from across the room, so like the amazing little sister I am I gave you some space because we all know if it was dried up twigs a while ago it’s like…rolling sage brush and sand down there now. Well, maybe not now, but as of Friday it was. ”
Beth’s eyes bugged wide at her sister’s uncouth description of her nether regions—but in the end she couldn’t help but offer up a rather sly smile. She realized Annie had no clue who that gentleman in the suit had been. “Well, rest assured, my dry spell has ended.”
Annie and Ruby both let out a high pitched squeal. “Tell us!”
“Bitch, tell us all about it!”
So she did. She told about the conversation at the bar and the daring proposition, the suite and the lovemaking and the clothes and the movie and the dinner and the club—she told them everything except that it had been Rio who did this for her. Who lifted her up and made her feel like she was a perfect 10, even if she really knew she was just a normal middle-aged divorcé housewife.
“When are you going to see him again?” Ruby demanded.
Some of the light that had filled Beth’s blue eyes as she spoke of her amazing weekend with Rio died, and sadly she shook her head. That annoying moisture was back, pricking the corners of her eyes, and that lump had risen in her throat again. “I don’t think I will,” she sighed, and her partners in crime felt her pain in that moment.
“Oh, sweetie…” said Ruby, holding out her arms. Beth went to her best friend, and Annie latched on from the other side, effectively making a Beth sandwich.
“Holy shit, Beth, are you in love with him?” Annie, as usual, tactlessly cut right to the heart of the matter. It was ridiculous, of course, and the more Beth thought on it the more clearly it dawned on her.
She was in love with him.
She was in love with Rio Valdez, and she was never going to see him again.
Beth hardly recognized her own tiny voice as she admitted, “Maybe.”
Hands rubbed her back. She wasn’t really sure whose. She didn’t give in to the urge to cry big messy tears on Ruby’s shoulder, but some wetness definitely escaped.
The sound of the doorbell ringing brought them out of their sympathy hug. “I’ll get it,” offered Annie, and she skipped off before Beth could say otherwise. There was low talking at the door, and Beth’s curiosity raised. Just as she was about to go see what was going on at her front stoop Annie appeared in the doorway of the kitchen, almost completely obscured by what must have been at least three dozen red roses.
“Umm…I’m no expert in the language of flowers, but I think he wants to see you again,” said Annie, peeking around the huge bouquet.
Dumbstruck, Beth stared with her hands covering her mouth. A sound escaped her that wasn’t really distinguishable between a laugh and a sob.
With an exaggerated groan Annie hefted the vase onto the counter. “Did you tell him where you live? Is this a little creepy?”
Beth hadn’t given Rio her new address, the downsize into a smaller house in a good school district she’d made in light of divorce and financial ruin, but somehow she wasn’t surprised he’d been able to find her. She buried her nose in one of the soft blossoms, a crimson red rose as big as her fist. It smelled heavenly.
Annie, meanwhile, was rooting around in the bouquet like a badger looking for a beehive. Beth woke from her happy daze to realize what her sister was looking for—and what it might reveal—but too late the brat produced a small white card and read aloud: “See you soon, yeah? Signed – R. R? What did you say his name was again?”
However, it was Ruby who caught on first, her eyes going wide as saucers. “You went on a weekend-long sexcapade with RIO? GANG FRIEND? Mr. Scary Neck Tattoo himself?!!!”
As it dawned on Annie next she let out a high pitched shriek. “Yassssss!!! This is too perfect! I mean, it’s fucking insane but for once it’s not me!”
Despite their tirades, Beth could not stop smiling.
He wanted to see her again.
It was like a five-hundred pound lead weight had been lifted from her chest, and a bright light burned at the end of the tunnel. Her knees felt weak, and she leaned on the counter with a contented sigh, cradling her chin in her hand. She knew she had the stupidest grin on her face, but she just couldn’t stop.
“I mentioned it was the best sex of my life, right?”
“Uh, yeah, we got that. And now that I know it was Rio there are certain images burned in my brain I will need countless hours of therapy to erase.”
“You don’t go to therapy,” Beth groused at her sister.
“That doesn’t mean I don’t need it!”
The trio laughed at that little truth, but Ruby just couldn’t stop shaking her head. “Beth, we know you two had a thing but have you forgotten all the times he pointed a gun at you?”
With a lopsided smile Beth shrugged. “I kind of liked it though…And besides. He told me it wasn’t loaded.”
Ruby continued to shake her head. “You are a sick puppy, honey. There ain’t no help for this kind of crazy.”
Beth traced the petals of one of the roses with the tip of her finger, savoring the velvety softness. “It’s different now,” she said. “His life is safer. His business is legit. And when he doesn’t have to scare the hell out of you…he’s so sweet.”
It could work. That dangerous little chorus of voices in the back of her head sang out, and try as she might Beth couldn’t get them to shut up. This could work. They could work.
Annie and Beth shared cross-eyed looks, but Beth was too enamored with her flowers to notice.
“Well…OK. But if he hurts you Gang Boy is going to need more than Bullit and Mr. Cisco to keep him safe from us!” said Ruby, and Annie emphatically nodded her head in agreement.
“That’s right! I’ll kick him in the dick! Just like I did to Dean when he wouldn’t sign the divorce papers!”
“Yeah! And I’ll shoot him in the foot!” Ruby added with gusto.
Beth couldn’t stop herself from erupting into peals of laughter at both of those memories, and the horrifying thought of her two best friends going after Rio for breaking her heart.
“OK, OK, I’ll be sure to tell him you said that…”
“Maybe don’t. We’ll need the element of surprise.”
Beth couldn’t stop laughing. “You know, all that might not be necessary.”
“You mean, he’s actually a really nice guy and stuff?”
Beth bit her lip in answer, and Annie and Ruby exchanged another emphatic eye roll. “If he makes you this happy…”
“We’ll give him a chance…”
“ONE chance!”
Laughing, and maybe crying a little too, Beth rounded the counter for another group hug. For the first time in a long time, Beth actually believed that everything in her life was going to work out all right.
~*The End*~