AUTHOR'S NOTE: Thank you to those who are reading and thank you to Guest, brinxb, BethFan SoutheastChicagoMom and layvba for commenting on the last chapter. This is a very short chapter, the next will be longer.
DISCLAIMER: I do not own the Walking Dead or its characters
Apologies in advance for any spelling and grammatical errors. Thoughts in Italics
Two Broken Hearts to Beat As One
Chapter 7
Dale hums along with the radio, drumming his fingertips on the steering wheel whilst waiting in queue to enter the upscale shopping mall's parking lot. Seeing the car in front edging forward, Dale springs into action to finally be moving.
"We have some movement people!" He informs as he slowly begins to trail behind the car in front and then he was off as everyone cheers, claps and whistles.
"Okay folks, we'll meet back here at 4pm sharp." Dale announced into the intercom as he parked his minibus at the Drop Off and Pick Up zone.
A retired editor of one of the county's newspapers, Dale was only too happy to be assisting his fellow residents of King County. Retirement hadn't shaped up to be how he had imagined it to be. He found out there was only so much reading, fishing, golfing, napping and taking it easy he could do. He was bored and lonely and was itching to be able to do something useful with all that extra time he had on his hands during the day. He took to tinkering about with his RV and minibus and one day came to the decision about selling one of them because somebody could put the vehicles to better use than he was. The vehicles were just sitting there in the garage and on the driveway getting rusty and no action.
Dale just couldn't bring himself to part with the RV. There was much interest and top figures fired at him but there were much more precious memories of his late wife attached to the RV than money could sway him to sell it. And deep down, he had plans for it. He wanted to take Rick, Carl and Judith to some of the places that he and Irma spent some wonderful summers together travelling around in the RV. He also wanted to gift the RV to Rick one day as Rick had loved the vehicle from when he was a teen. He thought, once Rick was better, he could take the kids on mini weekend breaks; fishing, camping and sightseeing. It would be a brilliant experience for the little family to spend that time together and bond. He was adamant, being out and about exploring instead of being stuck in the house all day would do them all the world of good and he knew Lori would be happy knowing Rick and her children were living life again and enjoying what it had to offer. She was gone and they had to move on.
He had decided in the end, he had to let go of the minibus.
The day Dale took the minibus for a test drive with a potential buyer, he saw old Mrs Witherspoon sitting at the bus stop with her handbag and little Yorkshire Terrier sitting on her lap. Old Mr Henderson was sitting beside her looking at his watch and then down the street every couple of seconds. And there were a couple of young mothers with their little ones standing in the heat fanning themselves with paper and leaflets they had found deep in their oversized handbags full of miscellaneous items. Neither one of them waiting looked happy.
After he dropped off the potential buyer having been driving for ten minutes, he drove back to the bus stop to find everyone still waiting and looking tired and fed up. A few of the children were fussing, their mothers looked on despairingly disappointed, debating whether or not to just give up and go back home. He had pulled up beside them being nosey and Mr Henderson informed him that the first bus drove off without waiting the five minutes like it was supposed wait and the second bus that was meant have turned up half an hour ago - hadn't. It was then, Dale offered to drive everyone to Atlanta and after much insisting by the group, he agreed to accept a small contribution towards fuel which he honestly said wasn't necessary. He happily chauffeured the little group to the city and back telling them stories of his life on the road as a journalist and has been driving them and others for the past year making a few trips a week.
The senior citizens and the mothers with their littluns shuffle off the minibus thanking Dale as they pass his driver's seat. His jovial conversation with two pensioners is interrupted when his CB radio goes off.
"How bout' it out there, Black Beard down here approachin' Linden County, looking for traffic conditions en route Atlanta?" The voice coming through the CB enquires.
"Eagle Eyes down here in Atlanta." Dale identified himself "10-43 Highway 85!" He responds informing his fellow CBer that traffic was tied up at Highway 85.
Dale was distracted in his conversation with Black Beard, to notice Carl sneaking past him, hopping off the minibus and making a manic dash towards the stairwell that led into the mall.
Carol comes up the spiral staircase into the children's department from the women's looking over the inventories of items to be reordered.
"Ah Beth, there you are!" Carols says looking up from her Tablet to find Beth sitting on her knees boxing up shoes to be returned back to the stock room.
"Yes, Mrs Peletier?" Beth answers looking up from her task, pushing her fringe out the way to see her boss dressed in a stylish cream fitted trouser suit making her way towards her.
Carol was the epitome of chick and classy and reminded her of her very own mother who always made an effort to dress nicely for board meetings and committee meetings. Her daddy called them outfits he liked to see her in other than her slacks during the day and dresses for the evening; Mama-Greene's-No-Shit-Talking-Power Suits. A pair of little heels, little diamond earrings and a small pearl necklace draped around her neck added to the wow factor.
Beth sits there thinking about home. She misses her parents and their bantering which she found so cute and entertaining. Life on the farm was never boring. How she misses her farm and she misses the animals and she misses her family getting together at the end of the day to have dinner and discussing their days. She draws in a breath and lets out a sigh as her thoughts are interrupted.
"I'd like your opinion," Carol begins her question as she scrolls down looking at the numbers "the girl's party and special occasions dresses have sold like hot cakes in its first week of release, we're down to just a few left. They did better than I had hoped!" She says impressed.
Beth nods agreeing having sold more than anyone.
"I've been sent some pictures of some cute dresses by another designer which I am contemplating stocking up on but was thinking I may make another order of the dresses that are nearly sold out…fashion changes like the wind but," She says mulling over her decision twirling an emerald bead between her finger and thumb.
"I think you should make a large double order of the dresses!" Beth interjects boldly. "The moms who purchased those dresses are goin' to come back to buy their other daughters the same dresses and I know words goin' to get around and we're gonna get an influx of eager customers storming through the doors and a lot of the customers were already disappointed not to find the size they were lookin' for," Beth continues "so I took it upon myself not wantin' to disappoint, to put in a few single orders for those customers and for their orders to be delivered into the store for collection at the end the weekend…so I'd say if it were possible, you should consider ordering double!" Beth finishes talking standing up, piling the boxes on top one another.
"Emanuele allowed you to make single orders and have them delivered to the store?" Carol raises her brows not believing her ears as she tears her eyes away from her Tablet to look up and meet Beth's big round eyes.
"Yes ma'am." Beth answers quietly seeing the bewildered look on Carol's face and thinking she may have made a mistake for not asking.
Carol drops her arms to her sides keeping grasp of her Tablet to appraise Beth.
"Interesting!" She narrows her eyes "That man has to be the most egotistic bull-headed man I know, always makin' you buy in bulks never a few pieces at a time and here he's selling you single transactions and agreein' to havin' them delivered to the store! Whereas I and others, have to buy 2 units which is 60 per unit totaling 120 dresses!" Carol says surprised folding her arms over her chest casting a long look at Beth making Beth a little nervous and felt she had to explain.
"I just told Emanuele that I thought his dresses were just so lovely and beautifully made and I think they'd look amazing in cream, mint and peach with all that beading work, they'd be so lovely for weddings and christenings and I'm savin' up to buy one for my niece to wear to my brother's wedding and I've already shown my sister and sister-in-law and they love them! My sister-in-law wants the same for her flower girls and she loves the idea of half the girls wearin' cream and the other half in mint but she'd be happy with the pinks and lilacs but I'm hopin' he'll magic up some creams and mints-" Beth trails off now flustered feeling embarrassed to have gone on and on, she shuts up and looks down at her shoes.
"Thank you Beth for your opinion." Carol says watching Beth, small twinkle in her eyes "I'll leave you to finish off what you were doin'."
Beth lifts her head up, relived to see Carol walking off towards her office. She lets out the breath she was holding as she leans down, picking up the tall pile of boxes and makes her way back to the stockroom wanting to kick herself for saying and doing the wrong thing. She really thought she was using her initiatives but maybe not this time she guessed. She didn't know what was wrong with her, thinking she left her brain and common sense back at the farm and not forgetting her confidence.
"Hey, how's it goin' out there?" Tara asks sitting on the floor surrounded in a jungle of hangers.
"Kay," Beth responded dejectedly.
"What's wrong?" Tara asks looking up at her pretty friend.
"Nothing's wrong!" Beth says giving a forced smile and busying herself placing the boxes back into their homes.
"You sounded like you've been told, lunch break's been cancelled and I need to eat otherwise I just may cry!" Tara over dramatizes falling back onto her back, throwing the handful of hangers up in the air and regretting doing that when they rain down and bounce on top of her.
Beth rushes over and helps Tara up.
"Thanks!" Tara gives a silly smile rubbing her head making Beth let out a half-hearted laugh.
"We're besties right?" Tara asks brushing herself down of the dust covering her backside.
"Of course!" Beth replied knowing where Tara's questioning was going. She didn't want to reveal Rosita and her groupies had made her feel stupid and humiliated and she had brought it all on herself for speaking up and speaking her mind. She knew Tara would flip and go and defend her and possibly get into trouble if her fists went swinging at Rosita and her groupies.
"Then, care to share what's on ya mind or do I have to get ya drunk on cheap wine tonight?" Tara asks throwing her arms around Beth's neck.
"It's honestly nothin', jus' tired and missin' home but I'll be okay once I've had some lunch, I hear they have chicken pot roast in the canteen today...yummy!" Beth tries to deflect Tara's attention off of her and usually food worked wonders.
"Beth Bubblicious Greene, you tell me whose upset you, your face is all droopy and sad and I'll sort them out, give me the names and I'll take em' down!" Tara says rolling up her sleeves and can only guess of one bitch and her pooches making Beth feeling like the way she was "Amy sent me a message and Imma slap those fake lashes off of Espinosa's eyes and give her the panda eye!" Tara pledges doing her best Mike Tyson impersonation.
"No!" Beth pleads and then she stifles a sniff and Tara catches it.
Tara puts down her boxer hands, frowns but moves towards Beth and wraps her into a tight embrace.
"Bethy, what's wrong?" Tara now asks gently stroking Beth's hair.
Beth finally lets it out facing Tara's kindness and genuine care. She reveals the whole exchange between her and Rosita and then what Rosita and The Groupies had said about her and Seb behind her back after she left the table but was barely out of the canteen.
"Bloody bitches!" Tara raged threatening murder.
"But they're right, who in their right mind would want to be with someone stupid and dumb like me? I'm cryin' like a baby!" Beth says wiping her eyes.
"Oh Beth, you're so amazingly wonderful, ya don't even know it which is so endearin' and yet heartbreakin' the lack of confidence ya have in yourself! I could kill those bitches and that bastard for doin' this to you!" Tara say earnestly "If you'd opened ya eyes and forgot the past, you'd see there is a sea full of good guys just dreamin' to be with you and to be honest, if ya weren't straight, I'd be right there at the top of the line beggin' for a date!" Tara stops herself.
"I hope I'm not creeepin' ya out and ya don't think I'm puttin' the moves, but your smart, gorgeous, kind, generous and thoughtful, Sebastian Blake was a fool to let ya go because he lost the best thing he could ever have had in his life and we'll just have to find ya an absolutely hot and hunky boyfriend and then we'll see what Dog Breathe and the rest of the losers have to say!" Tara squishes her cheek against Beth and squeezes her.
Ben appears and seeing the two of them in an embrace, he walks over and throws his arms around them.
"BEN!" Beth and Tara complain laughing.
"I thought you were havin' a little pow-wow and I couldn't resist, I felt left out!" Ben smiles looking from Tara to Beth.
"Everythin' okay?" He asks rubbing Beth's shoulder.
"Yeah, fine now, thanks guys!" Bethe smiles wiping her eyes.
"Anytime Bubblicious!" Tara squeezes Beth's hand and goes back to her hangers, sighing as she crawls back down and detangles.
"Oh I jus' remembered...got way too distracted," Ben says smacking his forehead "You too groping me and everything!" He teases making Beth roll her eyes sarcastically "You've got a customer askin' for you up front and it's your lunch break!" He reminds Beth tapping at his watch.
"Oh, completely forgot the time…thanks Ben for remindin' me!" Beth says sorting herself out, grabbing her handbag and shuffles past Tara making her way out of the stockroom following Ben who rushes to a customer who looked like she needed help.
When Beth reaches the till, she slows down recognizing that mop of brown hair, the grey chinos and the royal blue Captain America T-Shirt.
"Carl?" Beth calls in disbelief.
Carl whirls around and gives Beth a shy and nervous smile as she approaches.
Beth runs her eyes over Carl, head to toe and she smiles to see him wearing the clothes she helped pick out for him. He no longer looked Emo, angry and frustrated, he looked just like a kid. Beth slowly lifts her lashes up and without realizing, her eyes search the area for the officer.
Carl seeing this, scurries towards Beth and gives her a terrified look and doesn't know why, but he confesses.
"I skipped school, stole away on Uncle Dale's minibus and I got you these to say thank you and dad doesn't know and I'm gonna be in big trouble!" Carl confessed holding out a little bunch of flowers.
