When Maya moved to SoHo they had developed a system for phone calls. Maya was allowed to miss five of Riley's calls before she had to pick up. Unfortunately, Riley was now forced into the same system, which was how she found herself looking at wedding dresses.
"The halter one is you, Maya," Riley offered as she looked through the photos on her email. She was sprawled on the antique bed in her carriage house, still wearing the floral A-line skirt and the matching green, satin blouse from work that day. At some point her shirt had come untucked and stray hairs were falling out of the loose braid that she had put her hair in, but Riley ignored the comfortable, flannel pajamas waiting for her and scrolled through the pictures that Maya had sent her.
"I know, but Lucas was on his phone the entire time I was in it. The only time he looked even partially interested was when we pulled the lace, ball gown," Maya replied, her annoyance evident, even on the phone.
"It has a chapel train. You hate long trains," Riley pointed out, clicking to the next picture; as she adjusted the phone she had balanced between her ear and shoulder.
"I know, but maybe it doesn't matter what I wear, as long as his eyes light up when he sees me coming down the aisle," Maya suggested.
"His eyes should light up regardless of what you wear," Riley reminded her, "And who takes their fiancé to help pick out their wedding dress?"
"I just wanted him to be a part of things. It's been his mother and me planning everything since he got me the ring," Maya informed her, and Riley could easily picture the worried look that would be on Maya's face, "Plus, isn't it fitting that I wear a chapel train when I get married in a chapel."
"I thought you didn't want a church wedding," Riley said, shifting onto her back as she finished flipping through the pictures.
"I don't, but it's what his mother wants and she has shown me some beautiful venues that I think I could grow into liking," Maya responded.
"You shouldn't have to grow into anything, it should be about what you and Lucas," she choked on his name, "Want."
"Did you get a chance to look at the bridesmaid dresses?" Maya abruptly changed the subject.
"I glanced over them," Riley lied, pulling her lap top over to search for the email.
"I saw the purple one and it screamed you," Maya said and Riley quickly pulled up the picture. Unfortunately, it was something that Riley would love to wear and she wanted so badly to hate everything about this wedding.
It was a V-neck dress, with short sleeves, in a deep grape color. Not only was it formal, but it also looked incredibly comfortable and she didn't need to try it on to know that it would look amazing with her skin tone.
"It's beautiful," Riley admitted.
"You need to fly out here so that you can try it on," Maya insisted.
"I'm just so busy at work," Riley hedged, wanting to avoid an argument. Maya had yet to give up on Riley moving back to New York and they rarely had a conversation where it wasn't brought up multiple times.
"I know, Riles, but this is my wedding and I need you," Maya insisted, "You know that if it was you, I would be there in a heartbeat."
"It is most definitely not me," Riley groaned. She could hear the sound of a door opening and closing in the background.
"Come on, there isn't a hot cowboy of your own, out there," Maya pressed and Riley was relieved that she wasn't going to push it.
"I'm just not sure that I'm the marrying type," Riley offered and Maya let out a laugh.
"You've had your wedding planned since you were four years old, just because you haven't found your Lucas, doesn't mean that you should give up," Maya protested. Riley nearly laughed because the problem was that she had found Lucas.
"I'm actually thinking about artificial insemination," Riley admitted and was treated to several minutes of tense silence.
"Really?" Maya finally choked out.
"I'm running out of time, Maya, and I want a baby," she replied.
"And you're going to be a great mom, but don't you think that your child deserves a father?" Maya asked, her voice going hard.
"It's not like I don't have the money to care for a child and there are plenty of great male role-models in my life. You turned out okay," Riley reminded her, trying not to be annoyed at the immediate judgement.
"That doesn't mean that I wouldn't have wanted a steady father in my life, Riles. My mother did her best, but it wasn't the same," Maya insisted.
"So, I don't deserve to be a mother because my romantic life is a mess?" Riley asked and the line went silent.
"You're the person who is always so full of hope, this feels like you're just giving up on finding love," Maya said, though Riley knew that there were about a million other things that Maya wanted to add.
"Not giving up, just adjusting my expectations. Hope isn't going to keep me from aging and hope isn't going to get me pregnant," Riley pointed out.
"If you were to do this, would you come home?" Maya asked and Riley wanted to groan in frustration that every road of conversation always led back to this.
"There are some amazing fertility specialists in Seattle and in LA," Riley said, wincing as Maya took several more minutes to come up with something to say.
"And there are some great ones in New York. Lucas, tell Riley that if she's going to have a baby, she should come home," Maya said and Riley could hear the shifting of Maya's cell phone.
"You're pregnant?" Lucas's voice suddenly came over the phone and for a second Riley's heart stopped beating.
"Not that I know of," she finally recovered, forcing herself to take even breaths.
"Riley," she'd forgotten how much she enjoyed hearing her name come out of his mouth.
There were several seconds of complete silence, where Riley could feel everything that had ever existed between them. She had never known that missing someone could be so physically painful, but the pain of being away from him was almost as painful as the pain of her broken heart.
"But you want to be," he stated, and for a second Riley could almost pretend that he sounded hurt by the idea.
"I have to go," Riley said, knowing that she should just hang up, but unable to physically force herself to.
"You deserve to be happy," he offered and she was surprised by the wave of hostility she suddenly felt towards him. He didn't get to tell her what she deserved and he didn't get to comment on her happiness. Not when he hadn't cared about it in such a long time.
Riley ended the call, letting the phone fall to the bed and pulling her knees up to her chest. She sat that way for a long time, waiting until she was capable of pulling herself back together.
Someone tried calling her back from Maya's phone, but Riley ignored it, going into the bathroom to brush her teeth. It had been almost six months since she had talked to Lucas and the sound of his voice was enough to open up the wounds she had been doing a pretty good job of ignoring.
She tossed and turned most of the night, getting up earlier then what she normally would have, and sitting on the steps to her house with a cup of herbal tea. There were horses grazing in the field and she couldn't help, but hope for a busy day. She tried to avoid C-sections at all costs, but she would kill for the distraction today.
She waited until an hour before she needed to be at work to go and shower.
"You look…..different," Blake offered when she entered the office.
"Long night," she replied flatly, moving into her office and closing the door behind her.
She usually liked to leave her door open and she would tease Blake about whatever date he had been on the night before. He was a serial dater with a fear of commitment and Riley was incredibly grateful that he was way too young for her.
She went over her patient's charts for the day, trying to ignore the sound of Blake talking to Roy about her from directly outside of her office door. He could be a lot like Zay sometimes and Riley got the feeling that the two would get along really well. She could see them cruising the town, picking up girls and saying exactly the wrong thing.
"Heather's here," Blake announced as he knocked on her door.
"Thanks," Riley called, pulling on her lab coat as she moved out into the hall.
She didn't get a C-section, but Blake had packed her day full of appointments and when things started to slow down she started stealing Roy's patients. She knew she would probably hear about it later, but Riley couldn't be held responsible for not answering Maya's calls if she was with people desperately in need of medical attention.
"I would kill for a bar fight," Riley announced, after their office hours had closed, and she was hovering over Blake's shoulder as he did paperwork. She knew it was annoying him, but he did technically work under her supervision.
"You don't seem like a very good fighter," Blake observed, grabbing his papers and moving to the other side of the reception desk.
"I want to stitch someone up," she corrected him, sitting on the area of desk that he had just vacated.
"Doctor Mathews," Roy said, pausing on his way out the door.
"Yes, Doctor Harding?" Riley returned, knowing that he only called her by her title when she was going to get in trouble for something.
"I wasn't aware that half of my patients were in need of a women's health specialist. I can only assume that you must be on the brink of a medical breakthrough, seeing as most of them were men," Roy observed.
"I know you're stressed out you've been, especially with the campaign, I just wanted to help you out," Riley smiled at him, leaving his struggles with Hailey out at the last second. She didn't need to make him any more upset.
"Doctor Mathews, I am more than capable of juggling the coroner campaign with my job at the practice," Roy chastised her.
"I heard that the Barbara Banks supporters at the high school have been taking down your signs," Riley attempted to distract him.
"Who did you hear that from?" Roy took the bait, "Half my campaign funds have been going to replacing those signs."
"I have my sources," Riley replied, shooting Blake a glare as he gave a snort.
"You'll let me know if you hear anything else?" Roy asked and Riley relaxed as she realized that she was off the hook.
"I'll keep my ear to the ground," Riley promised. Roy made his way out of the practice and Riley turned her attention back to Blake.
"You want to tell me what's going on?" Blake asked, opening a filing cabinet to deposit his paperwork into.
"I can't prove it, but I'm pretty sure that Barbara is buying up votes from the senior class," Riley said and he shot her a look.
"That wasn't what I meant and you know it," Blake said, folding his arms and leaning back in his chair.
"I don't really want to talk about it," Riley replied, slipping out of her lab coat.
"I'm a pretty good listener, if you ever do want to talk," Blake called after her as she returned to her office to grab her purse.
"Thank you, Blake," Riley gave him a smile as she made her way out of the practice.
There was someone lounging against the side of her car and for a minute Riley thought she was going to have to deal with Liam, but she paused as they turned and the streetlight hit their face.
"Farkle?" Riley asked, frozen in shock.
"I know I get more stunningly good looking the older I get and that you haven't seen me in a while, but you can stop staring," Farkle greeted her, buffing his nails on his designer suit.
"Farkle!" Riley closed the distance between them, pulling him into a hug.
"I've missed you too, Riles," he said, patting her back, "But this dress-shirt wrinkles."
Thanks to everyone who reviewed last chapter! Things should get more exciting from here on out.
