That morning was short lived, the sounds of Merle's boots echoing through the shop. She looked at him regretfully, squeezing his hand before getting up off his lap. Handing him his mug of coffee and tidying the papers on his desk.
"Mornin' little brother," he nods his head acknowledging Beth as well, "Blondie."
Daryl mumbles a hello and goes back to his coffee, his mood instantly altered now that it's not just he and Beth alone together.
"Dale comin' by today?"
"Yeah, he's got some idea for some coupons or some shit."
"Coupons?" Beth asks, looking between them both.
"Yeah, don't be surprised if ya end up bein' the one makin' 'em. Dale says we need a better gimmick to get in new customers."
"Should I go get donuts?"
"Fuck no," Daryl laughs, shaking his head. "He doesn't deserve shit for that idea."
Beth went back to her desk, eager to get the day started
Dale showed up about an hour later, excitedly filling Beth in on his ideas for the coupons. He wanted a good deal, something that their competitors couldn't beat. Racking her brain, she eventually came up with the idea of a free oil change with any custom work over a certain amount. Dale was ecstatic with the idea and sent her to the copy shop to set up an outline of sorts.
The thought of being in Daryl's apartment in only a few short hours filled her with glee. No longer would they have to sneak around the shop. Now they could finally have the chance to fully explore each other, expose him for the man she knew he was inside, protective and strong, comforting and tender a way she had never known anyone in her life to be. Being with him made her feel balanced, whole for the first time in so long. When she was with Daryl, those dark demons couldn't find her anymore, not when he was there to scare them away.
Happy with the colors and font she had picked out, Beth printed out a couple of sheets to show them. One for Dale and one for Daryl. It was better than typing up bills all day, that was for sure.
By the time the got back from the copy shop, she saw Maggie rounding the corner to the auto shop, bags of takeout in hand.
"Maggie!" she calls out to her sister, sprinting to catch up with her.
"Well hey there, Miss secretary. Haven't seen much of you around recently."
Handing her one of the bags, Maggie puts a hand on one hip, side eyeing her younger sister for her absence.
"Wanna sit outside? The owner is here having a meeting with my boss and I doubt they want us in there makin' a bunch of noise."
She and Maggie sit on the bench outside the shop, settling their food into their laps.
"So, you've been busy with work then?" Maggie asks with a forkful of food in her mouth, something behind her eyes. Beth already know she's caught. Glenn told her about Zach.
"Yeah, just finished up with the taxes. Now I'm working on designing some coupons for the shop."
"Glenn said you broke up with Zach." Maggie had a way of cutting right to the chase, she had always been a no bullshit kind of woman. Considering the amount of bullshit she'd tried to pull to get Beth to date Zach in the first place, she found it to be both hypocritical and hilarious.
"Hard to break up with someone you were never dating in the first place. I told you he was never my boyfriend."
"Glenn says he's pretty beat up about it. I thought you liked him, Beth."
"I did but we weren't right together. I didn't want to lead him on."
Maggie lets out a frustrated sigh, setting down her container of food to face her sister directly.
"Are you hurting yourself again? Is this why you're shutting everyone out? Me? Zach?"
Anger seethed deep from inside her, Maggie so quick to jump to conclusions, put Beth in a box and write her off as crazy, looking for any pattern or anything out of the ordinary. A red flag, a warning sign.
"You know you can come to me, Bethy, talk to me about anything."
"No, I can't, Maggie. I can't talk to you about anything," she shook her head, feeling the words coming out of her head and mouth faster than she could think them through, "you're worse than Daddy most of them time. Settin' me up with Zach like I was too shy and dumb to do it for myself, but you know what? I've been seein' somebody else. Not Zach."
"Glenn said that, too." Maggie's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "He said you're seein' someone from work? I thought you said they were all old and married?"
"What I do, who I see, is none of your business, Maggie."
"Your boss is a little old for you, don't you think? That's not healthy for you, being with someone so much older than you. He can't relate to anything you're goin' through."
Beth was boiling over with animosity for her sister's harsh words about a man she'd never even met, a man who'd been more understanding about her needs in the short time they'd been together than any therapist or doctor her family had ever sent her to.
"You don't know anything about him or me, Maggie." She said coldly, trying to imagine this situation going any other way than it had, wishing that her older sister could be more understanding.
"This is destructive behavior. You know things like this are only going to lead you back down that path." She reached out for her sister's hand, Beth pulling back angrily. "If I think you're hurting yourself, if I find out you're doing something you shouldn't be, I'll have to tell, Daddy. You know that, don't you Beth?"
"No, Maggie, I don't. At almost twenty-one years old, I think I'm plenty capable of decidin' who I should date and I don't need you tattlin' to anybody just cause you don't agree."
Beth shot daggers back at her sister with her eyes, silently hating herself for ever telling Zach that she had feelings for someone else to begin with.
Abandoning her lunch and her sister on the bench, Beth storms back in the shop, shutting the door loudly behind her. Leave it to Maggie to not only try to set her up with someone she found presentable enough but threaten her for behavior she found to be strange. If Maggie knew every little thing he sister did, chances are they'd have deemed her crazy years ago, locked her up and threw away the key.
Merle comes in the door a few moments later with a mischievous grin on his lips, apparently onto something she was not.
"Hey there, girly." He grabbed the pen from her desk, biting on the end with his back teeth.
"What do you want, Merle?" She crossed her arms in front of her chest, scowling at him. "I'm not in the mood for your shit today."
"Ohh, I'd watch what you say around me." He laughs, leaning onto his elbows. "I know somethin' about you ya might not want me tellin' nobody."
"What are you talking about?"
"I know my brother's got a thing fer ya, I ain't blind. If ya got a boyfriend, ya better be more careful about what ya say around the shop. If he hears that, I guarantee you'll be out of a job."
Her eyes began brimming with tears. Here Merle was trying to blackmail her for something she hadn't even done, something she'd been cornered into by Maggie from the beginning.
"I don't have a boyfriend," she sputtered, trying to wipe the tears from her cheeks as quickly as they fell, failing miserably, "he was never my boyfriend. Just some guy my sister pawned me off on."
"I'm just sayin' if ya do got one, ya better break it off before Daryl finds out. He's the jealous type if ya know what I mean."
Merle walks back down to the shop, leaving Beth with her tears and guilt, unsure how to explain the situation to Daryl. He had been nothing short of supportive so far, although she had only touched the very surface of her past with him, he hadn't ran away then, why would this set him off? It wasn't as if they had been together and she did something with Zach. In fact, she and Zach had only kissed those few times, nothing in comparison to the things she and Daryl had done - and she hoped still wanted to do.
As long as she was honest with him, opened herself up to him, why would he shut her down? That was the only shred of hope she could hold onto that evening waiting for the shop to empty until it was just the two of them again.
Coupons in hand, she sits on the corner of his desk, watching him finish up a phone call. He puts one hand on her knee, squeezing gently.
"Uh huh," he grumbles into the receiver, fingers tiptoeing up her skirt, head leaning down to look between her legs, a wicked smile on his face.
"Yeah, I'll give ya a call tomorrow and we'll get it taken care of." He rolls his eyes. "Yes, Dale, she made the coupons, they look great."
Beth smiles at him, completely enamored by his gaze. The thing about him that shocks her the most is his ability to quite literally take her breath away with a single touch, a glance, the way he takes control over her so easily. She always tells herself she'll resist, stand tall and be bold but something about him leaves her submitting to him every time.
"I'll talk to you later, Dale. Bye." He hangs up the phone quickly before Dale can say another word.
He lets out a deep sigh, running his hands along the outside of her thighs.
"What's up, baby doll? You ready?"
"Yeah, I just um, I gotta talk to you about something first," she can't help but look down, her brows furrow in worry causing Daryl to become concerned.
"What's wrong?" He asks, standing to wrap his arms around her small frame. "You don't gotta be scared to tell me anything, Beth."
Daryl takes her chin between his hand, caressing her face softly with his thumb.
"My sister came to see me today. This stupid guy she tried to set me up with told her I wouldn't go out with him, I told him I had feelings for you and she accused me of destructive, said this," she gestures between the two of them with her hand, "was gonna end up with me slitting my wrists again."
He pulls away from her, looking confused. "You had a boyfriend when ya started foolin' around with me?"
"No, Daryl, he was never my boyfriend-"
"Ya runnin' around on me, girl? Think ya can make a fool outta me when I finally let my guard down?"
Just as Merle had said, Daryl was the jealous type and he wasn't taking this news well at all.
"You fuck him? Huh?" He tightens his grip on her for a second, pushing off her to stand, taking a step back from the desk where she's sitting.
"No, Daryl. We only kissed a few times. And nothing happened after that first time with you."
"Why should I believe a word you say to me, girl?" His words were like poison, dripping off his tongue.
Daryl was pacing now, one fist at his side, the other biting at his thumb nail. Beth gets up to try to reason with him, try to give him a reason to see the good that's inside her. To try to make him see that she would never do anything to intentionally hurt him. Extending her hand out to touch his back, he flinches.
"Beth, don't," he warns, his tone warning her to back off.
"Daryl," she whispers trying to muster the strength to find the words inside her to make him see all the things she knows he's seen in her before.
"We can't fuckin' do this, do ya see what yer doin' to my head?"
Not caring about obeying him, about doing what he says, she flings her arms around him, burying her head in his chest.
"Daryl, please," Beth begs him, sobbing into his chest, all her weight on him forcing him to support her in his arms. "I need you."
"Don't give a fuck if he wasn't yer boyfriend, Beth. The idea of any man puttin' his hands on ya makes my blood boil," his grip on her tightens, bringing her closer to him, "I'd beat the shit outta anybody who even looked at ya."
Lifting a hand to stroke her cheek, he wipes away the tears there. He laughs softly, running his finger through her hair, the anger dissipating from his voice, but the sadness still lingering. "I know ya didn't do anythin' on purpose, but I can't help but feel jealous."
"I didn't even think it was worth mentioning. He doesn't mean anything to me." Beth burrows her face in his neck, standing on her tiptoes to reach his ear, "You mean everything to me, Daryl."
"You don't want him? Someone yer own age?" He frowns, looking down at the ground.
"No. I don't want him. I want you."
Placing a soft kiss on the corner of his mouth, she stands back on flat feet, holding his hands in hers.
"You don't want me to come over tonight?"
Daryl shrugs his shoulders. "I need some time."
As much as she wants to understand, she can't help but feel hurt all at the same time. Beth was more than ready to give herself to him fully that night, to wholly be with someone who she cared about deeply and now he was turning her away for something she tried so narrowly to avoid.
"Okay."
She pulls away from him, defeated. Her heart feels heavy in her chest, unwanted and abandoned by his refusal.
"Hey," he pulls her back into his arms, his mouth tickling her ear with his beard, his breath hot on her skin, "I'm stupid and I'm fuckin' prideful, Beth. I can't help it."
"I only dated him because I thought you'd never want anything to do with me."
"Whatcha mean, girl? What do I have to do with him?"
"I had a stupid crush on you the second I met you," she shakes her head, wiping away more tears with the back of her hand, turning to look at him, "I didn't think there was any chance, so I went on a few dates with him. By the time I made that typo on the bill, I hadn't answered any more of his calls. He was never my boyfriend."
"Ya didn't fuck him?" He asks again, still sounding hurt and wounded.
"No, Daryl." Beth sniffles, shaking her head at his callous accusation.
"Ya promise?"
"Daryl, I've only had sex with one person and that was in high school. I told you, no."
He plants a kiss on her shoulder, fingers running up and down her arm.
"I'm sorry," he says softly, sounding genuine this time. Turning to face him, she hugs him tightly.
"I'm sorry, Daryl. I just want to be with you."
"I know, baby doll. Wanna be with ya too." He rested his forehead against hers, looking deep blue into crystal blue, eyes both sad with remorse.
"I'd never do anything to hurt you."
He runs his fingers through her hair, looking down at her somberly, "Just need a couple of days, okay?"
Beth nods in response, laying her head down on his shoulder, allowing his strong arms to cradle her.