It began with a thud on the patio. The echoing sound of laughing voices as someone fumbled a key in the lock of the house. Olivia looked up from glass of sherbet and met the confused eyes of her family.
Caitlin managed to look hopeful. "Guess daddy's back early."
"Wonderful." Cole muttered into his spoon.
AJ shared a look with him that agreed with that sentiment. When Olivia turned to him, he calmed his expression. "I'm sorry. You know how I feel about him." He touched her hand as she stood up, drawing her attention to his convivial smile. "He's a tough act to follow."
Olivia raised an eyebrow, a true attempt at being playful. "He did have to follow you once."
"But he made all the right choices then." AJ followed her to the foyer, as curious as everyone else to see what Gregory found so funny. "He got something I was foolish enough to let slip away."
"Maybe he's just smarter than you." Olivia quipped as she paused to check her hair in the mirror. Since the divorce had gone through only a few days ago, Gregory still seemed like her husband. After twenty years, how could she not? She knew it was foolish, but she knew he'd notice if a bit of it was out of place. He'd never say a word, but he'd notice. He always noticed.
"Oh there's no arguing that." AJ sighed as he watched her tuck a stray piece behind her ear. "Not at all. I'd never want to slog through the years he put in to get where he is. I like where I am. Being a millionaire playboy who only throws his weight around when it seems like a good idea, suits me."
Olivia turned away form the mirror. She took a step towards him, got on her tiptoes, but turned in surprise as a crash of something porcelain cut through the hallway.
"You did what!" Caitlin gasped nearly incomprehensibly.
Olivia turned from AJ, missing his sigh of disappointment as she followed the sound.
Bette stood with her arm around Gregory's back. The shattered noise had been the final gasp of a beautiful Chinese vase Olivia remembered getting from Gregory's parents the one awkward Christmas they'd spent together. Bette's face was far redder than her hair, but she was dressed smartly in a neat navy blue suit. Something in Gregory's taste. It was odd to see it on her.
"You look lovely Bette." AJ took her hand and turned her around, spinning her enough to make her blush all the more. "Subtle is a new look for you." He lifted her hand to his mouth. "But I like it-"
He stopped short and widened his eyes in admiration. "That's a beautiful ring. Isn't it Cole?"
"Cole is our resident jewelry expert, isn't he?" Gregory took Bette's hand from AJ and held it up for Cole's opinion. "Well Cole, did I make a good choice?"
Cole studied it seriously and nodded. "It's a lovely stone. Russian? In rose gold? He touched it with a fingertip and nodded in admiration. "About eleven and a half?"
"Very good." Gregory took Bette's hand back and held it possessively. "But you know I'd only get the best."
"Of course." Cole was quiet for a moment, but he was the one to put it together first. "Why did you buy Bette a ring?"
"Especially a ring like that daddy..." Caitlin looked down at her own hand and stopped cold.
Cole got it first. AJ clicked a moment later started to speak, but Cole was faster. "It's an engagement ring, isn't it?"
Olivia took a sudden step backwards, hitting the wall just as her knees started to get weak. She must have heard wrong.
"Not quite dimples." Bette tucked her arm around Gregory's and met their confused looks with an apologetic smile. "Gregory and I were just married in Las Vegas."
Olivia's heart leapt into her throat. It was hard to swallow around it.
Caitlin started to laugh, like she had when she'd been frightened as a little girl. "Daddy, this is a joke isn't it?"
Cole and AJ shared a long look. "I think he's serious Cate. That's a wedding ring." Cole corrected as he started to lead them into the living room.
Gregory nodded to Rose as she picked up the luggage. "The master bedroom if you'd be so kind. The rest of Mrs. Richards' things will arrive in the morning."
Olivia shook her head to clear it. She was Mrs. Richards. She was Gregory's wife. She slept in the master bedroom.
But she wasn't, not anymore. She lived with Bette and Annie- Olivia stopped herself. She lived with Annie. "I'm going to have to evict that redheaded viper." Her whisper caught AJ's attention and his smirk calmed her a little.
Bette stopped outside of the living room and let AJ slip past her. Her blue eyes were quiet and soft with feeling. "It wasn't about you Livie. God knows, you're the last one I'd ever want to hurt."
"Three days." Olivia replied cooly, feeling the words shatter on her tongue. "It's only been three days."
"It's not about love." Bette blocked her as she tried to slip past. "Del- he put some legal thingy in his will that-"
Olivia tried to push her way past.
"He was going to marry Annie. I had too stop him."
Olivia drew herself up to her full height and narrowed her eyes. "I could have killed her and not missed the bullet. But you-" Her lips tightened. "You're my oldest friend. My best friend. My confidant-"
Bette's feathers were more than a little ruffled. "Don't get all high and mighty with me. You divorced him. You left him, you tossed him aside!" She dropped her voice to a whisper, but it struck Olivia like a physical blow. "Don't you know how terrible it is to be lonely? To wake up alone in an empty bed and wonder if I should even bother getting up that day. No one's going to notice if I'm not around. The office won't notice if I don't bother to come in. My daughter doesn't even write back to my Christmas cards. I have a list of exes longer than the Golden Gate bridge, but it's been years since anyone told me I was beautiful in the morning."
"You know what that feels like Livie." Bette stared her down with quiet righteousness.
"I never looked twice at one of your husbands." Olivia set her jaw and her eyes froze as a wintry breeze blew across her heart. "Ever."
"You were in love." Bette corrected for her calmly, reaching for her only to have her best friend pull bodily away. "You had the kind of love that strikes once in a lifetime, once in ten lifetimes and things happened. Things you couldn't control, fate you couldn't handle, but you walked away. Don't begrudge me my right to your castoffs. Dammit Livie, if you want him take him."
Tugging at her ring, Bette held it up to Olivia. "Take this and march in there and tell him you want him back. I'll be old news and you'll have your husband again."
"He's not-" Olivia shut her eyes for a moment to calm the stinging sensation. "My husband."
"Then you have no right to say he can't be mine." Bette shook her head slowly, watching Olivia's internal catastrophe with a heavy heart. "I will always, always love you and be here for you. But I'm sick of being alone. I'm tired and I'm empty. He keeps me from noticing. He keeps me from doubting and at this point, when everything's going to hell around me, I want something to be there when I need it. Someone to tell me it's going to be all right in the end."
"I want to live the fairy tale. Just for a little while."
Olivia took a slow breath. She couldn't make her mouth respond the way she wanted it too. She wanted to say something considerate. "Then the wicked princess will leave you to it."
Bette spent a moment trying to pull herself together. Trying to find something to say that made her stop feeling like such a terrible person.
"Olivia-" The heavy oak door slammed shut. Bette stared down at the glimmering ruby on her hand. What had she done?