Who's To Say
The Mitchells sat around the dinner table, each conversing with the other and enjoying the meal. Ronnie looked around the table; it had been so long since she'd had dinner with someone other than herself, so long since she'd spent the evening with someone else. It's been too long. She thought to herself as she took a sip from her wine glass.
"I'd like to propose a toast," she said, lifting her glass into the air. "To Aunty Peggy and dad . . . I wish you every happiness." The words left her mouth before she even knew she was saying them, but Ronnie really felt as though she meant them. Maybe we can finally put the past to bed, move on. He is my dad, after all.
"So, you comin' to the wedding, then?" Peggy asked her, a small smile playing on her lips.
Ronnie smiled widely, "I wouldn't miss it," she replied, still clutching her half raised glass.
"I can't tell you how happy that makes me."
"Not just you, Peggy," Archie stated, a warmth in his eyes as he looked at his eldest daughter. His wish was coming true; Ronnie was coming back to him. After everything that had happened between them, everything that had been said and done, she was forgiving him. He couldn't help but smile, he was getting his daughter back.
Father and daughter shared a look, poignant and heart warming, making Ronnie feel less alone. Even as she sat next to the sister that had betrayed her so badly, in that moment, with the way her dad had looked at her; she was the happiest she had been in a long time.
Out of the corner of her eye, Ronnie saw Roxy roll her eyes skywards. The action irritated her, but she pushed the annoyance down inside herself – what was the point in ruining the moment over a spoilt brat like Roxy?
"I've got a special toast," Peggy announced, making everyone quieten down. "Can you please raise your glasses to Archie and Ronnie?"
"Er, hello?" Roxy interjected.
"You know what I mean, Archie and Ronnie," Peggy continued, looking at Roxy pointedly.
Roxy inwardly scoffed, placing her glass back down on the table and folding her arms. Ronnie looked away from her, shaking her head slightly. Even now, she's acting like a child.
"Havin' that little fright like I did, it reminded me what was important. You mustn't let anything come between you again," she told father and daughter, wisely, looking between the both of them at opposite ends of the table. "D'you hear me? Not ever again."
Ronnie looked away from her aunt, suddenly conscious of the many pairs of eyes upon her, a pair that included her sisters. She took a deep breath, trying to shake the feeling of unease that had settled in her stomach. You're being silly. Ronnie told herself as she dismissed the feeling and continued to have dinner with her family.
An hour later, the plates had been cleared away and the dinner was over. Billy and Jay had gone home and Ben was in his room, Ronnie sat on the sofa of the living room, talking to Archie. "Are you going to be a bridesmaid with your sister, then?" Her father asked, sitting forward in the armchair.
Ronnie sighed. "I'm not really the bridesmaid type, am I?"
"You joking? You'll make a beautiful bridesmaid, just like you did before."
"Before?" She asked, quizzically. "I don't remember ever being a bridesmaid," she said, a confused look on her face.
"Well, you wouldn't, would you? You were only five. It was Carl Lynn's wedding, you remember him? A friend of mine, we did business together as well. You were the only little girl in the whole wedding, Carl's missus only had nephews and brothers," Archie smiled as he recalled the memory. "Pretty as a picture you were, the spit of your mum, in this white taffeta dress and this wreath of roses in your blonde hair. You had to go up the aisle before the bride, any other little girl would've been nervous, but not you. Not my little V. You just strode up there, this beaming smile; you lit up the whole church, you did. I was a very proud dad that day."
Ronnie smiled back at her father. She wished she could remember that day, he remembered it so vividly she wished she could share that with him. They hadn't talked properly in so long and Ronnie had spent the last fifteen years trying not to think about him that she had buried all the good memories she used to have of him. She'd buried the good with the bad. And she hated that. But it's okay, we'll just have to make new ones.
"And where was I in all this?" Roxy asked, standing in the doorway of the living room, her arms folded across her chest and a sour look masking her face.
Archie turned in his seat to look at his youngest daughter. "Oh, you were with me and your mum, sweetheart."
"Weren't I a bridesmaid?" She asked, her question coming across like that of a petulant child's. Ronnie rolled her eyes, she was starting to get sick of Roxy now.
Their father shook his head. "You were too young, darling, only a baby yourself."
"Oh right," Roxy replied, utterly put out.
Ronnie sighed, noticing the way the atmosphere between them had changed. "I er . . . I better go," she said, getting up from the sofa.
"Do you have to?" Archie asked, obviously disappointed that she would be leaving. Ronnie nodded her head. "Okay, well good night angel." He also got up from his seat, walking over to her and embracing his child. He kissed the top of her head. "Sleep tight."
Roxy watched the exchange between father and daughter, her anger increasing with every second the hug lasted.
"Night dad," Ronnie said as they each drew away from the other.
"I'll see you tomorrow, won't I?" He asked, it was more of a request than anything and both his children knew that although he wanted to be firmly back in Ronnie's life, he didn't know how much she was willing to let him in.
Ronnie nodded, understanding that her dad was trying and how much this meant to him. "Yeah. Yeah, you will." She was about to leave the living room, when Roxy started to speak.
"Actually, I think we should talk, don't you?" She stated, pointedly looking at her older sister.
Ronnie raised an eyebrow. "Should we now?"
Roxy nodded. "Yeah, we should."
Archie looked between his two girls, narrowing his eyes slightly at Roxy. "Roxanne, is now the time?"
She shrugged in reply. "I think it's the perfect time."
He sighed, relenting. "Fine, but don't go upsetting each other, okay?" He shook his head as he began to leave the room. Stopping, he turned to look at Ronnie. "Will you give me a call once you get home, just so I know you got there all right?"
Ronnie couldn't help but chuckle. "I haven't done that since-"
"I know, I know. You're not a child, yes, you've told me. But you're my baby girl and I wanna know you got home safe, okay?" She nodded her head, touched at just how kind and caring he was being. A sadness washed over her; had she been missing out on this all this time? "Okay sweetheart, I'll see you tomorrow, then."
Roxy pushed shut the living room door after their dad had left, leaning back against it. She looked at her sister, narrowing her eyes, trying to scrutinise every detail of her. "What is this?" She asked after a few moments of silence.
"You tell me, you're the one that said we should talk."
"Not this," she stated, moving her hand between the two of them to signal their confrontation. "You and dad – what're you playin' at?"
Ronnie scoffed. "I'm not playing at anything – that's more up your street, isn't it?"
"If this is some way of getting back at me-"
"What?!" Ronnie exclaimed, but her sister kept talking over her.
"If this is your sick way of getting one over on me, taking dad away from me, then you're pathetic, Veronica! You can't handle the fact that I've got Amy and that she's Jack's and I've got dad as well, so you wanna take them from me!" Roxy screamed, walking towards Ronnie.
Ronnie felt a whirlwind of emotion rip through her insides, searing through her flesh and bursting from her. "I'm pathetic?! Why don't you take a look in the mirror, eh Roxanne? I can't handle the fact that you've got dad?" She asked scathingly. "I know you're a natural blonde Roxy, but even you can do simple subtraction – he was my dad for years before he was yours." Ronnie paused, just looking at her younger sister and the person she had become. "You can't stand it, can you?"
"I don't know what you're talkin' 'bout," Roxy replied, shaking her head and looking away from her.
"You can't stand that you're not the favourite anymore, that he can love me too. It makes you sick, doesn't it?" She asked, scrutinising her sister's behaviour and body language. "You can't even look at me, can you? Because you know it's true." Ronnie sneered at her sister, letting out a dry chuckle. "You're pathetic Roxanne," she hissed, leaning close to her as she walked past. "And as for Jack, he'll never be anything more than Amy's dad. He loves me." She said, her voice soft and low, but still like daggers into Roxy's skin.
"He told you that has he?" She questioned, challenging her.
"Many a time. When did he say it to you?" Ronnie retorted. Roxy didn't utter a word. "Exactly. Do you really think he would choose you, Roxy? That a quick fumble in the club office would somehow make him magically fall in love with you – I'm sorry darlin', but he's into class. He loves me." Shaking her head, Ronnie walked out of the Vic, leaving her sister in the living room, mulling over their confrontation.
A crack of thunder rang out overhead and a bolt of lightning ripped through the darkened night sky as the heavens opened upon her. Ronnie ran through the Square, getting drenched with every passing second. Her clothes stuck to her skin, clinging to her curves and accentuating them. She hammered on the black front door, hoping that the person would hurry up and open it. She didn't have to wait long.
"Ask me again," she said.
"Ron, you're soaked. Come in before you-" Jack said, opening the door wider and trying to get her to come inside.
"Ask me again," she repeated, her tone more demanding now. Jack just looked at her quizzically. She rolled her eyes. "Come on Jack, the champagne bottle, the message? All this coming back to you now? . . . Ask me again."
"Do we have a future?" Jack asked, still uncertain where the conversation was leading and becoming increasingly worried that she'd catch a cold if she spent any longer out in the rain.
Ronnie's lips curved into a smile. "Who's to say?" She replied, wrapping her arms around Jack's neck, holding his body close to hers and placing her soaked lips upon his, embracing his mouth in a tender kiss fuelled with a desire and longing that burned within both of them.
"Wow," Jack stated, as she pulled away from him. He touched his lips with the tips of his fingers, where hers had been only moments ago, they felt like they were on fire, the tingling sensation in overdrive.
Ronnie just continued to smile at him. "I love you . . . now let me in before I catch pneumonia."
THE END