The morning silence was broken by the sounds of a female groaning with a hint of exhaustion and hangover as the sun's rays seeped through her curtains, blinding her the morning after she'd had a bit too much to drink. Her naked body, wrapped up in her ivory, satin sheets tossed and turned, slowly attempting to get up. It wasn't until her hand slid across the man's bare chest beside her that she remembered she was not alone last night when she came home. She groaned once more, successfully sitting up and carefully standing, the ringing in her ears from her pounding headache metastasizing as she made her way over to the Victorian curtains and shutting them tightly, letting out a sigh of relief as she was able to open her eyes a bit more after being greeted by the darkness again. On her bed, the dark haired man slowly blinked his eyes open at her absence and he smiled at her once he made out where she was in the room.
"Good morning, beautiful." He said to the blonde woman, his hands resting under his head on the pillow.
"Morning, handsome." She tried to fight off the splitting pain in her head as she saw him. "Though I can't say it's a good one." She put a hand up to her temple, rubbing it a little.
"I told you not to have those last three drinks last night."
"Don't start with the 'I told you so' shit, FP. I was celebrating last night." She justified, slowly making her way around to his side of the bed and straddling him. She slid one of her long, newly manicured nails down the center of his chest. "Besides...if I hadn't celebrated so much last night...you might not have woken up in here, huh?" She teased him with a playful grin.
Forsythe Pendleton Jones the Second smirked up at Alice as his hands fell to her bare thighs. "Oh, is that right?" He chuckled.
"Mhm." She said, biting her bottom lip through a smile that suggested she knew differently and she tried to hide it.
"Oh, really?" FP quickly wrapped his arms around her, flipping them over so he was hovering over her and she squealed as he did before their lips met and her head hit the pillows underneath them.
Alice groaned into the kiss and when they pulled away, she apologized. "I'm sorry. I really shouldn't have had those last three drinks last night." She finally admitted and brought a hand up to her forehead.
"Mhm." FP nodded, holding back a laugh. "Let me go make you some of that magic tea Gladys used to swear by." He moved off of her, getting off the bed and looking around the room for his clothes thrown about, pulling them on as he walked around.
Alice slowly sat up in the bed again, hugging her knees to her chest as she watched him with an adorable smile. "Did you feel this amazing when she finally signed the papers?"
FP turned to look back at her. "I did." He grinned. "But I feel even more amazing now that you and Hal did too." He walked back over to the bed, leaning down to kiss her on the forehead. "I love you, Alice Smith."
She smiled up at him, kissing him on the lips directly after. "And I love you, FP Jones."
"I'll be right back." He spoke in a soft voice before leaving her room and heading down to the kitchen to make the love of his life some magic hangover tea.
The tea was made by Blossom Maple Industries. The Blossoms were known mostly for their maple syrup, but their company also made other products, such as teas, oils, soaps, and even illegally made alcohol. There was word of them running a bit of a drug cartel as well, but since the product in the town of Riverdale did not have any labels on it...no one had any proof that it was the Blossom family who had produced Jingle Jangle or the other drug candy, known as Fizzle Rocks. People were shocked enough as it is that the Blossoms put their label on their whiskeys and brandys….considering the Prohibition had banned all selling and making of alcohol products and most other companies caught doing so were shut down immediately and the CEOs were arrested. But luckily enough, Riverdale was a small enough town that the newly found FBI did not pay much attention to its illegalities in the running of the Northside and Southside divided village.
When FP came back upstairs, Alice was in her pink, silky robe, leaning her back against the headboard of her giant canopy bed. He brought a tray of tea and little breakfast snacks over to her, setting it up in front of her before sitting on the bed beside her again and he watched her eat and drink a bit before finally speaking. "Are you still thinking about my question?"
"What question?" She asked, pretending to be clueless.
"Come on, Alice. You know what question." He said, simultaneously hurt and annoyed.
"I...I don't know, FP. It's too soon. My divorce just went through yesterday." Alice responded, taking a bite of toast.
"Yes, but Alice we've been doing this a lot longer than yesterday." He sighed.
"Shhh! My kids are right down the hall." Alice whispered to him.
He put an arm around her, over her stomach and kissed her shoulder. "Come on, Ali. They love their Uncle FP better than their own dad anyways. I think they'd love it if we moved in together."
"Maybe….Yes...But they might not enjoy leaving this house. They love it here." She took a sip of tea, humming right after as it soothed her head a bit.
FP lifted his head from her shoulder to look at the side of her face. "You mean you do." He pulled away with a small scoff and a pained chuckle. "You don't wanna leave this big, fancy mansion behind. You love looking wealthy and living this way too much to come live with me and my poor son."
"FP don't you dare turn this into one of those arguments again. You know I don't care about the money."
"Don't even say that to me, Alice. The money is the reason you left the Southside in the first place." FP shook his head, moving further away from her on the bed. "You used to be proud of being a Southsider. Being a Serpent used to be how you showed off. Now it's all this."
"FP, can we have this conversation some other time? Preferably when it doesn't feel like my head's about to explode? Please?" Alice begged, rubbing her temple again.
"Fine. Sure. I'll forget it." He put his feet over the side of the bed with his back to her, looking down at the floor, sulking a little.
Alice looked at him for a while with a sad sigh and she moved the tray to the foot of the large bed before kneeling behind FP, running her hands up and down his back, kissing his neck from behind, humming against his skin and she whispered. "I'm sorry, baby." She kissed his shoulder, running a hand through his hair. "I just worked so hard to get to where I am. Yes, I love this house. But it's not because it makes me look good or rich." She kissed the spot just under his ear. "I love it, because it's my dream home and in it, I was able to give the girls the life I always wanted." She wrapped her arms around him, hugging him from behind for a while, resting her chin on his shoulder. "Why don't you and Jughead move in here? I think you'll like it."
FP sighed, still looking down at the floor and when she kissed his shoulder one last time, he closed his eyes. "But it's not me, Alice." He stood up and turned to look down at her still kneeling on the bed. "I would never live in a place like this. And frankly, neither would Jughead. He's too….weird and unique for a massive house like this. And if you can't accept that, then...maybe we need to rethink all of this." He shook his head with another sigh and grabbed his shoes from the floor near the bed. "I gotta go." He started for the door.
Alice opened her mouth to beg him to say, but no sound came out and he left, walking down the large corridor, passing Elizabeth's room on the left and Polly's room on the right, going down the massive marble staircase. The two doormen held the double doors open for him while he pulled his jacket back on and stepped outside passing the giant ivory pillars on the mansion's porch. He went down the stairs and his eyes landed on the beautifully built water fountain in front of the multi-million dollar home in the driveway, making his way to his vehicle. He opened his truck door, getting one last look up at the massive home and his eyes fell to Alice's bedroom window.
There she stood, holding the curtains open in her robe, looking down at him and they made eye contact through the window before FP sighed and got in his truck, driving away as Alice's pounding headache continued to bother her and silent tears fell down her cheeks.
She closed the curtains and sadly went back into the bed, hugging herself and crawling under the covers, closing her eyes to try and fall asleep again.