He gets the text at nine. All it says is I changed my mind and his first thought is to ignore it and have an early night. Marcus is asleep, he's sent the babysitter home, and he's laid off all his staff so he ain't got any of them to call on.
He calls his mom. He tells her there's a plumbing emergency in a building he owns downtown, and that he doesn't want to wake Marcus. She pays him out for a few minutes about making bad investments, reminds him about the building they lived in when he was a kid, and then makes him agree to lunch on Sunday with his sister.
"You know those old buildings sweetheart, they look pretty and they have all that nice crown moulding but those pretty fireplaces don't do crap in the middle of winter when the pipes freeze."
"I know Ma, can you help or no?" He sucks in a breath and feels a pang of guilt for a moment.
"I'll be there in fifteen minutes but you tell that super he needs to sort his shit out and learn to call a plumber."
"Okay okay, I'll see you soon."
"Okay, Mijo. See you shortly. You pay me back with Sunday lunch ok? Your sister will be there with her new boyfriend and I want you to scare the crap outta him."
"Alright alright and Sunday too."
He hangs up and runs a hand over his face. Then he replies to the text.
Your house 15 mins. The ding of a reply is almost immediate.
The bar from this morning 15 fine
...
She's got a buzz going, to be honest. She can still walk straight and form a sentence but when she glances towards the door and spots him settling into a seat at the bar she can feel her facade slipping. Rio sees her, she can't tell if the look is curious, heated, or some weird and thrilling combination of both and she quickly glances away before Dean notices.
Not that he ever really pays attention to her in any way that actually matters. He's babbling about unprofessional service, and she just does. Not. Care. Anymore.
So she grabs her bag and excuses herself to the bathroom.
It's fifteen minutes before she returns, and Dean still hasn't managed to order a drink.
...
She straightens her dress and checks her makeup before she leaves, He runs a hand over her hair to flatten a couple of strands at the back, and runs a hand towel up her leg and then she's gone, the door closing softly behind her. His eyes lift to the mirror and he can see his hands shaking.
He didn't kiss her, not on the mouth. He recognised her husband as he turned in his chair trying to catch the wait staff's eye. If he's being honest with himself, the idea of her returning to the table dishevelled and obviously fucked out turns him on more than anything, but there's a time and a place and this definitely isn't it.
He left a mark on her neck, knowing it would be hidden by her hair. He'd left one on her inner thigh too, right after he'd pulled her underwear down and pressed her into the sink. The noise she'd made when he bit down on her ass and shoved two fingers into her is still fresh in his mind, and he bites his lip as he bends down to pick up the turquoise thong.
He second guesses himself for a moment and considers throwing them in the trash, but in the end he thinks a silent fuck it and shoves them in his pocket.
...
His sister's new boyfriend is nice. Not the type she usual wealthy white collar douchebag she normally goes for. He's a nurse and his name is Josh, which is just fine. He's fine. Tina's happy, his mom is happy, everyone is fucking happy. It's fine.
Rio is definitely not fine. He's smiling and nodding and asking Josh about himself but all he can think about is how he took all the money out of the storage unit. He knows it's a dangerous move, staying in the game just so he has an excuse to see her.
It's so, so dumb.
He wonders if she got the envelope with her panties and the key in it. He feels his stomach drop and his chest feels hot and flushed. Tina looks at him weirdly, and he takes a drink of water.
"You okay, Boo?"
He clears his throat and smiles at her. "Yeah I'm fine, just feeling like I've got something coming on." Glances at Marcus, who's sitting at the head of the table. "You've been bringing home germs from school again, ain't you Marcus?"
Marcus looks up from where he's making a smiley face in his soup with crushed up chips. "You got them from your girlfriend."
Tina's mouth forms an 'O' and Rio's mom turns to him dramatically. Josh just sits there with a mild look on his face looking like he's reciting times tables silently to himself. Rio buries his face in his hand and pats Marcus on the forearm. Fucking kids.
"Your girlfriend?" His mom slaps him on the shoulder. "Why you not bringing her to Sunday lunch?"
"I don't have a girlfriend, Mom."
"He does Abuela! She's pretty and has orange hair and she's my friend Emma's mom."
"Emma's mom is not my girlfiend, Bubba."
Tina smirks. "You been hanging out with the PTA or something?"
"I hang out at the park, Christina. Where there are other parents. And Emma's mom lives with Emma's dad, Bubba."
"Alright then," Tina says.
A silence descends over the table for a few moments, before Josh breaks it. "What's your favourite thing to do at the park, Marcus?"
Marcus' eyes light up. "I like the monkey bars but Daddy says I need to wait my turn if there's someone else on them."
Tina snorts, and Rio hangs his head in defeat.
...
Beth's initial thought when she was signing for the courier, was that Kenny had got hold of one of her credit cards again and ordered a ridiculously priced pack of trading cards.
So she left it on the bench without even bothering to open it. It wasn't until Ruby pointed it out and asked why it was there, that she thought she should check the contents.
Which of course led to her opening the package, and having to come up with a quick cover to explain away the flush that crept up her body. "Kenny's been stealing my credit card ordering stuff on the internet again," she says with irritation. "He's been learning from his father, clearly."
Ruby side eyes her dubiously. "Oookayyyy."
Beth drops the package in one of the junk drawers and slams it shut. She can feel her hands shaking and opens the dishwasher in an effort to cover. Ruby moves around the kitchen helping her put away the dishes but stops for a moment when Beth is passing her a plate.
"You ok? Your hands are shaking."
"Yeah I'm fine, just too much coffee today. And I may have a minor hangover, don't tell anyone."
Ruby looks at her for a moment before cocking her head. "You got drunk without me?"
"Not intentionally." She thinks back to the night before when she had a few bourbons, and decided it was a good idea to reminisce about her bathroom encounter while in the living room watching reruns of Botched. She thought it would make her associate Rio with bad plastic surgery. It hadn't worked, she'd ended up having a kind of fantastic orgasm on the couch while four kids and her husband slept soundly upstairs, and some Hollywood wannabe was having her tits drawn on with Sharpie.
"Beth... Beth!"
"Whu- hey sorry I got distracted."
"Whatever it was it looked good, you holding out on me?"
"Nah, just... distracted."
"Mmmkay." Ruby narrows her eyes and goes back to stacking the plates.
'Hey Rubes?'
"Yeah?"
"Am I a good person?"
Ruby freezes for a moment, eyes wide, before she bursts out laughing. "Honey you are one hundred percent not a good person, good people are boring okay? You're complicated and a perfectionist and you make me laugh and sometimes you make me so goddamn angry but you know what? That's all of us. Because we're those bitches."
Beth nods and closes the dishwasher. "You're right, we're those bitches."
...
He's pissed with himself, that's what makes him take the tire iron to the dealership. He sits in the Corvette, watching Beth standing at the door to the office, and thinks about the smell of her hair, and the feel of her soft thigh in his hand. He sinks lower in the seat as he remembers what it felt like to feel her come around him as he told her al the dirty things he wanted to do to her. That he wants to fuck her on her marble kitchen counters, that he wants to see his come slip down her leg as she welcomes Dean home all the while making excuses about Rio's presence.
And now all he can thing about is eating her out, Beth sitting on that desk she's standing in front of right now, while Dean tries to sell the bright yellow dick joke Rio's currently sitting in.
So he smashes the car with an almost unrestrained glee, and when she tells him he can have whatever he wants he knows he shouldn't stop, because he knows she'll misinterpret it and suddenly fucking her again will have all this baggage, but he doesn't care. It's illogical, but then so are most of his actions when it comes to her.
So he smiles breezily and says "Let's go make some money," and the next thing you know Beth is walking towards the back office, and Dean is just standing there like a spare dick at a wedding, clearly not knowing where to look.
"You are just scum, you know?" Dean says, kicking at the floor as if he's trying to rub off a non-existent mark.
Rio quirks his lips and shoves his hands in his pockets. 'Oh yeah?"
"You'll never get her, you now. No matter how long you play this game. We're meant to be together so you should just give up now and accept that she's mine and that's just the way it is." Dean is glaring at him now, jaw set as if he's trying to look tough.
Rio licks his lips, remembering the moment she let out a guttural moan when he wrapped his mouth around her clit and crooked his fingers in just the right way. He lets out a sharp bark of laughter. "She's not your fucking property, man."
Dean sneers. "Yes, she is. That's what marriage is all about, isn't it? Owning each other and making a commitment to be together through thick and thin? Not that I'd expect a piece of shit like you to get it."
"Naw now I understand... whatever church you're goin' to isn't teaching you what marriage is all about." Rio advances on Dean until he's a foot or so from him and looks up into his eyes. "Nah bro it's all about a partnership." He looks Dean up and down, until his eyes settle on his crotch. 'And, you know, a bit of reciprocity."
Dean's face goes red with anger and he opens and closes his mouth a few times. Rio steps around him and walks towards the office.
"Go home, Car Man."