Chapter Text
Beth knows she shouldn’t do it but she’s lost all control at this point. She’ll blame it on the tequila later but right now the knowledge of what a bad idea it is doesn't stop her from unlocking her phone and finding his number and clicking to open a new message.
Hi.
She squeals the second she hits send and throws her phone down onto her bed as if that will make the situation better or easier. She scoots down and rolls over, burying her head into her pillow. She swallows the bile threatening to let loose back down her throat and prays for something to just end her, right here and now.
When her heart rate starts to come down, Beth picks the phone up and turns over onto her back. She opens up the message and stares at it, as if somehow she can use her mind to erase what she's done.
And then she sees those three dots.
Her face flushes hot. She holds her breath and waits for the reply.
It doesn’t come, though. Not five minutes later or ten and she’s almost forgotten she’s even sent the message when the phone starts to vibrate.
With an incoming call from ‘Rio.’
She stares at the screen but doesn’t make a move to answer. After a minute, the buzzing stops and she sighs in relief. He’ll move on now. So will she. Beth will forget this ever happened and hide her phone the next time she decides to take tequila shots with drunk, college boys.
Not a minute later though, the sound of an incoming text chimes in her ears.
chicken
Beth rolls her eyes and her fingers start moving across the screen.
I have no idea what you’re talking about.
if you gonna send a drunk text at 2 in the morning at least have the balls to follow through, elizabeth
Drunk TEXT being the keyword not drunk DIAL.
you know I hate textin
She does but there’s no way she can talk to him over the phone right now. If she hears his voice she’s likely to lose any remaining control she has left. So she ignores him and continues typing.
What are you doing?
The dots reappear and then disappear and then reappear – it goes on like that for an eternity and just as she’s about to toss the device for the second time that night the phone starts to ring again.
She groans but this time, she answers.
“Hello?” She picks up with an exasperated huff. Her heart is still racing but she can do this, she can pretend.
“I’m playin’ video games with Mick. I can’t text.” Rio greets, answering her previous question. Beth can hear the clicking of the controller in his hand.
“That’s fine.” She assures quickly, she needs the out anyway. “Bye.”
“Nuh uh.” He stops her quickly as if he’d anticipated her response. “Whatchu doing?”
Beth settles back against her pillow and bites her lip. She's just on the cusp of being too drunk but not so drunk that she doesn't know exactly what she's doing. It feels nice, the warmth in her belly, the buzz in her head and she thinks maybe if she lets herself she can enjoy this conversation for what it is. Not think too much about how much she missed the sound of his voice, about how bad of an idea it is to talk to him again.
“Ruby dragged me to a party. She just started dating a guy on the basketball team.”
He hums thoughtfully.
He’s quiet for a minute and she can hear his fingers moving a mile a minute on the video game controller. She hears Mick let out a profanity in the background and she smiles softly, comforted by the once familiar sounds.
“Any guys on the basketball team for you?” He asks, breaking the momentary silence.
She smirks and gets comfortable. Yes, this is why she’d decided to text him. She was just drunk enough to be able to have a fun, loose conversation with him. To flirt, to get her fix, to satisfy the craving she's been feeling ever since they'd broken up six weeks ago.
“I’m still weighing my options.” She teases.
She's not, though.
As much as Ruby had tried to make it happen, as desperate as Beth had been for it to happen, there hadn't been one guy she'd met tonight that had lit any kind of spark in her.
Not like he had.
“Yeah I bet you are.” Rio mumbles and Beth chews on her lip trying to decipher his tone.
She hears some shuffling and then Rio mutters something she can't quite make out to Mick. She’s quiet on the line as she listens to him move. She pictures him standing from the couch in the living room and walking past the kitchen, up the stairs and into his bedroom. The soft click of a door shutting a minute later confirms her suspicions.
“What are you doing?”
He ignores her. "Why'd you text?"
She blushes and says the first thing that comes to mind. “I’m drunk.”
“Yeah?” He questions knowingly. “What else?”
Lonely. Missing you. Sad. Are just a few feelings that come to mind but she can’t say any of that. Refuses to be so vulnerable or emotional.
Beth moves the phone away from her ear and taps the speakerphone button before placing it down on the bed next to her. Her hand moves down to the bottom of her t-shirt and she fiddles with the hem. She doesn’t exactly know where this is going but she’s got some ideas.
Several silent, heavy beats pass.
“I'm bored.” She finally answers, heat building low in her stomach.
“Bet there were some guys at that party that’d be willin' to help you out with that.”
She smiles, loves just the hint of irritation wrapped around his words. Makes her think that maybe he still cares.
“There were.”
It's not a lie, either. There had been plenty of interest in Ruby’s best friend. Ruby had started dating Stan recently and tonight had been the first time that Beth had spent any length of time with him and his friends. She liked Stan. He seemed to worship Ruby and that’s really all Beth could ask for. His friends were fun too but she'd never been into the typical college jock. Tall, dark and mysterious was more her type, she’d discovered this past year. Add in a couple of tattoos and she was a goner.
“You home now?”
She nods but then remembers he can’t see her. “Yeah.”
“Come over.” He suggests and it takes her by surprise. He’s so calm, like this phone call is no big deal, but it is. To her at least. And he might be serious but he also knows it's an invitation she won't accept.
“Too drunk to drive.” Beth reasons, as if that’s what's stopping her.
“I’ll come there.” Rio pushes but she can sense that he’s messing with her. That they’re playing a game.
She twirls a loose string from her comforter around her finger and attempts to keep her voice steady. “I’d fall asleep by the time you got here.”
“Could think of a few ways to wake you up.” It's a punch to her gut the way the words roll off his tongue.
And even though she knows - knows because he's done it before - she asks anyway. “How?”
He laughs and she can tell she’s surprised him. “You are drunk.”
They're both quiet and then –
“You pick.”
Her forehead wrinkles in confusion. “What?”
“Choose your own adventure. Mouth or fingers?”
Beth squirms in her bed, red staining her cheeks. It’s what she had wanted but now that they're here, now that they’re in this and almost past the point of no return she’s not sure it’s smart.
But she’s tired of being smart.
“Mouth.”
“Yeah, you always did like that best.” He murmurs, his voice is teasing but low and gravelly the way it always got when he was turned on.
Beth's breathing picks up and she's suddenly remembering how it felt - to have his tongue on her. In her.
“Whatchu thinkin’ right now?” Rio asks and she can hear him moving, readjusting himself.
She can’t answer though. Her mouth is sandpaper, tongue thick, and she thinks if he just keeps talking to her it’ll be enough.
When she doesn't answer right away he continues, “You thinkin’ about the last time I had my mouth on you?"
She hadn’t been but she is now.
It was right here, in this room. She'd been standing pressed against her closed bedroom door with her leg over his shoulder. He’d knelt down and pushed her dress up, tore her underwear off and sucked her clit harder than he ever had before. Like he'd known it would be the last time.
"Touch yourself." He demands and she sucks in a breath.
She shakes her head. "I can't."
"Elizabeth, you called me for a reason."
"I texted you." She shoots back but he's right so she follows his order, bending her legs and peeling her underwear off in rapid succession. It leaves her in just an oversized t-shirt - his t-shirt.
"I'm wearing your shirt." She tells him just to drive him crazy.
He groans, quietly, but enough that blood rushes between her legs.
"That all?"
"Yeah." She whispers, distracted.
"You touchin' yourself yet?"
"Yeah." She repeats as her hand slides down. She's always so self conscious at the start and she's never done it like this before.
"Do it like I would." he encourages and it's all the direction she needs even though they both know that no one can do it like he can.
Beth runs the tips of her fingers over her slit growing more wet by the second. She pushes her folds back and slides a finger inside.
She hears him move and wishes she could see him.
"Are you -" she starts but can't bring herself to finish the sentence.
"Am I what?" He pushes. "Am I rubbing my cock thinkin' about you?"
She pushes a second finger inside, and bites down on her lip to keep herself quiet.
"Are you?" She presses, breathless.
"Yes." He answers and she can just make out the strain in his voice and it makes her even wetter.
With slow strokes she continues to rub herself, two fingers stretching her just barely enough.
"I can hear how fucking wet you are." Rio grunts and he almost sounds mad. His voice is deeper and rougher and sexier than she's ever heard.
She feels a familiar tingle move down her spine as she continues to move her fingers and her legs fall further apart. She whimpers and hears Rio's breath quicken, can just make out the sounds of him jerking himself forcefully. Her senses are on overdrive and it's all enough to push her over the edge fast and hard. She cries out and then listens as he comes seconds later.
It's silent for a minute, Beth’s not even sure Rio's breathing on the other end of the line. She's never felt more relaxed and more wound up all at once.
She's suddenly not so drunk anymore.
Just embarrassed and confused and feeling like the stupid girl she promised herself she'd never be. Not over a guy at least.
"Stop." He orders, and his voice is forceful enough that it catches her off guard.
"Stop what?" But she knows. He always could read her mind.
"Thinkin' so much."
Beth sighs and reaches forward to pull her panties up even though she’s a mess. "I shouldn't have called."
"You didn't."
She laughs softly, picturing the smirk he’s likely wearing on his face right now. She lifts her arm up to cover her eyes with her forearm, fingers still wet with the evidence of what she'd just done. What they'd just done.
"I just..."
Rio’s quiet while she figures out what she wants to say. He'd always been good at that. Not pushing for more than she was ready for.
"I miss you." She finally says because anything else feels like not enough.
She can almost hear the clench of his jaw, the shake of his head as he responds, "That'll fade."
"What if - "
He cuts her off before she can finish. “Don’t do that."
She sniffles and feels her eyes start to water.
"Nothin's changed."
He’s right, obviously. Their relationship had been a whirlwind. Like a match meeting gasoline - doomed from the get go. It had been too much, too fast - ready to combust before they'd even had a chance to figure out what they could be.
She was a junior at the University of Detroit and he was a local boxer fighting at the amateur level but slowly making a name for himself. They'd met at a grocery store of all places - she'd been craving something sweet one night while studying and he'd stopped in on his way home from a long day of training.
They’d only been together three months but they’d been the most intense three months of her life. She’d dated Dean for five years - broken up with him only a month before she’d met Rio - and she’d never come close to feeling for him what she felt, still feels, for the man on the other end of the phone.
No one had approved though. Not his cousin, Nick, who was also his trainer, not Ruby who had been her best friend since they'd become neighbors the summer before middle school. They hadn't even ever had a chance to meet each other's families. Between classes, her job waitressing, going home to see her sister Annie and college life in general, Beth was already being pulled in too many directions.
But for a few months none of that had mattered. Beth had practically moved out of the apartment she shared with Ruby and in with him. She could admit that maybe they had rushed things but at the time there hadn't seemed to be any other choice.
It had felt too good not too be all in.
It all came to a head one day when two things happened almost simultaneously.
Rio overslept and almost missed his weigh-in for an upcoming fight.
Beth showed up to class to realize she’d forgotten about the mid-term exam happening that day.
Nick had been able to cover for his lateness and she’d squeaked by with a C-. By themselves, neither incident was that big of a deal but combined with everything else working against them it had been enough for them to feel some sort of shift.
It didn’t hurt that Nick was able to throw it in Rio's face that his focus wasn't where it should be and Ruby was able to give Beth that "I told you so" look without ever having to speak the words out loud.
Beth had felt Rio drift almost immediately and she hadn't known how to stop it.
Hadn't tried to, if she was being honest.
Hadn't fought for them even though the thought of being without him after knowing what it was like to be with him physically hurt.
Beth had never been able to pin down his feelings, either. He had been just as wrapped up in her but it had seemed too easy for him to walk away when the time had come.
They’d never quite figured out the importance of communication during their time together.
"Shouldn't you be sleeping?" She asks, shifting gears.
"Got the morning off." Rio answers and she can feel that she's losing him - that it's just a matter of time now before she has to go back to pretending she's moved on.
"Are you still going to Vegas?" Beth wonders because she'll do whatever she can to hang onto him for just a few more minutes.
"Next month.” He confirms what she already knew thanks to social media.
The fight in Vegas would be a big one for him - potentially career changing.
Beth can hear him walking now, likely out of his room and back down to the game she'd interrupted.
She hears him mumble something to someone on the other end of the line, presumably Mick, and she picks up the phone off of her bed, clicking it off of speakerphone before she moves it to her ear. Feels like somehow it makes her closer to him even though she couldn't feel further away.
She pretends that maybe he feels the same way - like maybe he's having a conversation with Mick even though she's on the phone because he doesn't want to let her go just yet.
"Gotta go." She hears him mutter, pulling her from her thoughts.
Beth's not ready but she closes her eyes and inhales a shaky breath. "Okay."
They both hang on the line though and Beth waits for him to be the one to speak.
"You good?" He wonders.
Is she? Does he really want to know?
She shakes her head, forces herself not to overthink and smiles. "It was good to hear your voice."
That, at least, she knows is true.
He laughs and her cheeks flush at the sound. "You can call whenever you wanna hear it."
Beth sighs. "Thanks."
And then -
"But I probably shouldn't."
All she gets from him is a hum - in agreement? Frustration? She's not sure and she's too scared to ask.
Beth thinks maybe she just needs one small hint from him that tells her she's not hanging on for no reason.
She wakes up the next morning to a text
keep wearin' my shirt