Three weeks later, Margaret came walking through the door with a new friend, Abbi. She walked straight through into her new room, sat down, and started contently playing Barbie with Abbi. After her came Rizzo, her arms filled with two backpacks and daycare art projects. She threw it all down on the sofa and walked into the kitchen and started to make the girls lunches.
"Wow, you're finding your way around here well, aren't you?" Rizzo turned around to see Danny standing at the door.
"Well, I've been here for a while now." She replied. She walked from end to end of the kitchen, gathering plates, cups, bread, and everything else she needed.
"So, how are you doin'?" Danny walked in and stood next to her. Rizzo placed a slice of ham onto a piece of bread, and Danny picked it right up and ate it.
"Hey!" Rizzo smiled and playfully hit him in the stomach. She placed another piece down on the bread and Danny picked it up again and ate it. "Knock it off! Would ya!" She laughed.
"I gotta eat too!" Danny said, and just grabbed the pack from her and ate the ham right out from it.
"So, where's your wife?" Rizzo asked, wondering why Sandy hadn't been home like she always was when Rizzo brought Maggs home from school.
"She had to take Anne to the pediatrician, she had a cough this morning and it got pretty bad by this afternoon." Danny said, and Rizzo could hear the nervousness in his voice.
"Aww, I hope she's not getting sick." Rizzo said.
"Me too…" Danny's voice trailed off.
"Wow…" Rizzo stated.
"Wow what?"
"It's just that… I never pictured you so, um, touchy-feely."
"It's my daughter, Rizzo… I'm not touchy-feely." Danny said sharply.
"You are, Danny." Rizzo laughed to break the awkwardness that had set in between them, "In the past three weeks I have seen you play with and talk baby talk to Anne, play BARBIES with Maggs, and you have given in so many times to Sandy! Not the Danny Zuco I used to know."
"Well, at least I didn't turn into a WIMP!" Danny hollered, he was obviously taking their conversation too far.
"Excuse me?!" Rizzo said.
"Are you or are you not the one who just ran away from her husband??" Danny asked, a question that brought tears to Rizzo's eyes, but she wasn't gonna cry.
"Did you really just shoot that low?" Rizzo asked, painfully holding back tears.
"And, were you or were you not RAPED by that same man? The Rizzo I used to know would have killed him before she would let him lay a hand on her. What is wrong with you?"
"Danny!" Rizzo cried, her voice cracking.
"Come on, fight back BETTY!" Danny tempted.
Rizzo ran out of the kitchen before she did anything crazy, and Danny called after her:
"That's what I thought."
He hadn't changed in one area, Rizzo thought, he's still a jack ass. She ran to her room and closed the door, sliding down the side of it onto the floor. She couldn't believe what had just happened. They had turned a nice conversation into a hurtful fight. Rizzo cried, overwhelmed with emotion, when she heard a gentle knock on the door.
"Mommie," Magg's voice was soft and quiet, "What about lunch?"