A/N: Title inspired by song playing when Beth is applying her makeup.
Summary: 03x08 bar scene from Rio's POV. Watching the episode, I noticed what a stark contrast there is between this interaction and their interactions in seasons 1 and 2. He keeps his distance, hardly looks at her, doesn't touch her. What's he thinking?

He feels eyes on him, and somehow he knows exactly who he's going to see as he turns to scan the bar. He locks eyes with Elizabeth from across the room, his insides twisting in knots from what he tells himself is hatred, nothing more. He manages to keep his cool, maintaining eye contact as she makes her way through the crowd toward him. As she gets closer, he can't help but take in her appearance, eyeing her up and down. She's all done up with her fluffy strawberry blonde hair, soft pink lips, and black and white polka dot dress hugging her curves in all the right places. Seeing her like this, it makes him feel some type of way that he doesn't want to feel. He refuses to let his guard down around her ever again, but when she comes to him looking like that… well, she doesn't make it easy.

Rio turns back to his drink as she takes the seat to his right, biting his lip in preparation for whatever it is she's here for. Focus. The last time the two of them sat at a bar together, she told him she'd miscarried. The last time they sat at this bar together, she invited him back to her house and kicked him out afterwards like some kind of hooker. He didn't know which time was worse.

Fuck. Now he's remembering that afternoon in her bedroom. Fucking focus.

"Shouldn't you be makin' my money?" He fidgets with his glass, his eyebrows pulling together as he works to keep his eyes off her. It's easier to remember how much he hates her when he can't see the expression on her face.

There's at least a foot of space between them. Good. He doesn't want her close, doesn't want the distraction. She tried to kill him, and the only thing he wants now is to return the favor. Unfortunately, if there's one thing Elizabeth Boland is good at, it's talking herself out of impossible situations. Ever since that night with the Fed, Rio couldn't stop thinking about the day in her dining room all those months ago when his boys were making it look like a home invasion. That's when he first saw all that potential she was hiding under her normal housewife persona. Even with a gun to her head, just a trigger pull from death, she was so fierce. More than that, she was smart. She could size someone up just by looking at them. She looked at Rio that day and saw him for what he was - a businessman. Not a thug or a gangbanger, but someone to be taken seriously. Someone not to be crossed. And she used that to save her and her girls' lives.

Letting Elizabeth live was the biggest mistake he ever made. The second biggest was when he handed her his fucking gun.

She signals to the bartender. "Just here having a drink," she answers, her voice laced with that deadly sweetness. He feels a toothache coming on just from listening to her honey-coated voice. He maintains his focus on his drink as she orders hers - bourbon, of course. Elizabeth doesn't drink rosé like the other basic bitches.

Rio silently debates how he should handle this. Clearly, she's here to make demands. Elizabeth always wants something. More money, more power, none of the consequences. And who takes care of it when she makes a mess? He does. When the FBI was looking for a body? When her husband got played by a couple of teenagers? When she lost her kid's blanket? He did. He took care of everything for her because he thought she could be something special. He trusted her too much, and it backfired.

Elizabeth Boland is an untrustworthy, backstabbing, demanding bitch. She proved that the night she shot him with his own fucking gun. After everything he did for her, she shot him. And not just once! Three goddamn times. Rio's anger swells in his chest, which helps distract from the way his insides still haven't untwisted since seeing her.

"Rough day?" he finally asks, taking a sip of his drink.

"Mmmm, I've had better."

What the fuck kind of game is she playing right now? "Yeah, well, nothing a good night's sleep won't fix." Rio folds his hands together on the bar countertop, keeping some distance between them. He can't stop his leg from bouncing just slightly with nervous energy. Being around her makes him feel… well, he's feeling a lot. Not just anger, although he'll never admit it.

"I'd have to have a bed," she jokes. He feels her eyes on him as she flashes a smile, like they're just two friends getting a drink.

"That's a problem." He keeps his eyes fixed straight ahead and fiddles his thumbs to try and release some of the tension he's feeling. He doesn't trust himself to say anything more.

She looks away. "Well, the least of them."

And here it is. The moment she reveals what she really wants. "That right?"

She pauses before answering. "I screwed up with my boss." She's watching his reaction closely.

Understatement of the fucking year. He stops fidgeting, shaking his head ever so slightly. "Never good." His jaw clenches and unclenches, his lips parting momentarily with his tongue in cheek. I screwed up with my boss? That's all she has to say? No shit, bitch. It's not easy, keeping calm, playing her little game, but he won't give her the satisfaction of a real reaction.

Elizabeth swirls her glass in little circles on the bar. "I'm still valuable, though, and he knows it."

She hits a nerve with that sentence. If I could kill you, I would, he thinks to himself. At least, he's pretty sure he would. He wants to believe he will, if it comes down to it. When it comes down to it. Because really, they both know how this thing between them is going to end in the long run. He can't keep giving her second chances. He won't.

"And I only did it because he works me to the bone and doesn't pay me anything," she continues.

He can't take it anymore. "What do you want, Elizabeth?" he demands, turning only his head to look at her.

God, she looks good. He catches the slightest whiff of her perfume. It's the same one she wore the night they had their little bathroom break. He pushes the memories away - far, far away.

"Just what's fair," she answers, watching him closely. See, she always pretends to be this sweet, innocent, boring housewife, but her eyes give her away. She has a calculating look, like she's got some sort of plan.

This whole thing is fucking laughable. She shoots him, steals from him, and then complains about fair? He chuckles mirthlessly, turning back to his drink and hunching over the bar. He's able to think more clearly when he's not looking at her. "Ya, I don't owe you," he counters, re-clasping his hands together and focusing intently on the wood grain below. "It's the other way around, remember?" He steals a glance at her, hoping to see even a trace of regret in her eyes.

Instead, she just looks away. "Can't we just go back?"

Go back? Back to what? When she fucking played him for a fool? He shared his kingdom with her, taught her how to be a boss, trusted her with his life, and he almost payed for it. He turns his attention back to his drink, mulling over her question.

The worst part about Elizabeth Boland is how, despite everything, he still wants her to be a part of his world.

Ever since she left those pearls on the warehouse door, he gave her more chances than anyone in his life, in spite of all the messes she made. That's on him. Things got too messy before. He let pleasure affect business in the past, but Beth is a liability. A rotten egg. Rio knows that better than anyone.

Knowing it doesn't make it easier to let her go, though.

Against his better judgment, he hears himself saying, "That's up to you."

He sees her pick up her glass out of the corner of his eye. "What do you mean?" she asks.

"Yeah, you gotta earn that." Her arm falters as she raises her drink. Rio clenches his jaw, already regretting giving her another chance, but unwilling to stop himself.

There's a tense pause as Beth considers his words. "Okay," she says finally, bringing the bourbon to her lips and taking a sip. Rio follows suit, his brain screaming at him to be smarter than this as he tosses back the whiskey. Ignoring his own common sense, he sets down his glass first and faces Elizabeth.

He waits until she meets his eyes with her own. "Yeah?" he asks, cocking his eyebrow at her.

She holds his gaze. "I'll do anything." Her blue eyes are wide open in that innocent doe-eyed look she does when she's trying to get her way.

Rio's heart skips as the words leave her lips. He tries to keep up his professional demeanor, but the idea of Elizabeth doing anything for him is… too dangerous to think about. His mind wanders back to that afternoon in her bedroom, another dangerous thought. His walls slip a bit, and a smile plays at the corner of his lips. He rests his left elbow on the bar, turning towards her just slightly as he props his cheek against his fist.

"Anything, huh?" It's a loaded question, and he's hoping to trip her up a bit. She said they were done that day in her bedroom, but he'll be damned if he doesn't take every opportunity to make her squirm.

She breaks eye contact, and Rio feels a sense of victory blossom in his chest. "Within reason," she amends.

He runs his index finger across his jaw, licking his lower lip as he focuses his attention on his drink again. It's easy to fall back into his old routine with her. Too easy. Elizabeth is trouble - he has the scars to prove it - and he needs to treat her that way. She eyes him nervously as he silently curses himself for letting his little power play get under his own skin as much as it got under hers.

He clasps his hands together again, all business. How it has to be. "Still got that minivan?" He blinks away last thoughts involving her looking the way she does right now and the word anything.

She looks down at her glass. "Why?"

"I might got something for you." He stares straight ahead, resisting the urge to turn his gaze back to her, drink in the sight of her like this one more time.

"My ottoman?"

She catches him off guard with that one. This time he can't hold back the smile that breaks across his face as he chuckles. span style="font-style: italic;"God, she's smart/span. For a second, it feels like before.

But it's not. She can't take back what she did. She can't take nearly killing him. She can't take back Marcus almost losing his father. That last realization sobers him up a bit.

"Nah."

And with that, Rio licks his lips, the smile dropping from his face. He clears his throat and pushes himself up from the bar, letting himself get one last glance at Elizabeth before walking away, leaving behind a half-finished drink and his almost-killer.

A/N Part 2: Also does anyone else just feel so sad for Rio like he really trusted her and she tried to kill him. Now he has to work with her and I feel like he's secretly heartbroken. Manny Montana says he thinks it would be "too weak" if Rio ever got physical again with Beth which is so sad but also makes a lot of sense. Also also was it just me or was Beth's dress not really that pretty? Like why polka dots? Just seems kinda like something a little kid would wear to me. Also it was a very professional dress not a party dress, like there was absolutely no cleavage showing and the dress went past her knees but Dean was such a little bitch about it. In the bathroom break episode her dress was red, above the knee, and low cut. I feel like she should wear something like that again if she REALLY wants to get Rio's attention. Also also also the promo for 03x09 makes me even sadder like Beth stop trying to kill the hottest man alive PLEASE.