Rosalie is getting through a bottle of white wine while Jasper cooks them dinner, and frowns when she realizes she's getting through most of the bottle alone, and she's well-aware that Jasper doesn't drink wine.
"Why hasn't Archie bought me a consolation present yet?" Rosalie asks him, wrinkling her nose. "Where is he, anyway? I know he's talking to all the vendors for me, but he can do that here." Rosalie is very put-out, now that she had pulled her head out of her own ass long enough to realize she hadn't actually seen her brother's boyfriend in a couple of days.
Jasper doesn't answer immediately, though they're playing UB40 too low to impede his hearing.
Rosalie slurps her wine loudly, reminding him that she's very stubborn, but stubborn didn't equal patience. "… He thinks he goaded you into going down there," Jasper admits finally. "He thought it would go much better – he hates being wrong."
Clicking her tongue in annoyance, Rosalie flicks through her phone and slams it down on the kitchen counter on speakerphone.
"Hello?" Archie's voice rings out.
"Where's my consolation present?" Rosalie demands, tapping her nails against the counter.
"Hey baby," Jasper calls out, leveling Rosalie's with a harsh look.
"I'mdeprimida," she reminds them in an annoying sing-song tone. "I'll never be the same."
"I'll say." Jasper snorts and Rosalie gives him the finger.
"Bitch, get over here!" Rosalie finally snaps when Archie hasn't said anything.
"Bitch, I'm putting my shoes on!" he snaps before he hangs up.
Pleased with herself, Rosalie flicks her wine glass in a little self-congratulatory toast.
Archie shows up with a little ring box and another bottle of wine. "It's only Swarovski, but you needed a replacement ring," he explains.
Rosalie gushes, snatching the box and slipping the truly cute diamond ring onto her finger to marvel at it. "Oh Archie, you always know what to buy!" she pulls him into a tight hug, which he returns warmly. "Maybe you don't always know what to do – ow!" Rosalie squeals and jumps back from the sharp pinch the Mississippi Man had given her, and he puts his hands on his hips, an exaggerated pout on his face. "But you always know how to make it better!"
Archie preens, and, all forgiven, he takes a seat at the counter after giving his Cowboy a few kisses.
"I almost have everything squared away – it's pretty much over, now," he explains to her over dinner. "Babe, this is the best pasta ever," he adds graciously.
Rosalie hums in the negative idly, ignoring her brother giving her the finger. She was too deep in thought to properly correct her brother's besotted boyfriend on her brother's incredibly mediocre cooking skills. "… I think maybe I have something to tell our parents," she says carefully.
"I've been keeping mom updated this whole time!" Jasper argues with a frown. He truly loathed speaking to anyone over the phone that wasn't Archie, though his mother did insist on it, and he had deigned to do so only because he knew Rosalie wasn't in the right head-space to field their concerns very frequently at the moment.
"No," Rosalie shook her head, "not the wedding …"
After dinner, Jasper and Archie cuddle on the couch and watch something soapy on the television while Rosalie sits on the kitchen floor to come out to her parents. Or, at least, keep the closet door open now.
She isn't sure about labels yet, and she's slightly worried that without something distinct to tell them, she really had nothing to tell them, but Jasper and Archie promise to keep an ear out to make sure she didn't get too worked up in the details.
"Bebe, coming home?" her father's tinny voice asks her.
"No, papai," Rosalie says, trying to keep her breathing steady through the rush of blood in her hears. She wasn't too nervous about how they'd take it, not necessarily. But her mind swirls with those fears that are too cruel and selfish to say aloud. What if they thought she didn't like men just because the man she nearly made the mistake of marrying cheated on her? What if they had pinned all their hopes on her being the 'normal' child and giving them grandbabies? What if they thought she was just copying Jasper for attention?
"Is mama there? Put the speaker on, please …." Rosalie waits for their shuffling to quiet down. "I realized something, now that I'm not getting married …."
She pauses, focuses on her breathing. She has absolutely no reason to cry. This shouldn't even be scary! Jasper already made this not scary, she's being silly.
"Hija, can you hear us?"
"Yes," Rosalie answers immediately, only grateful she didn't stutter. "Um … I don't think I'm straight. I mean, I don't think I'm just attracted to men, or maybe not at all," Rosalie tries to stop her rambling as much as she tries to stop feeling inadequate. This is practically a non-announcement, she's just wasting their time. "I don't know, yet, I don't know anything yet, it's just … I just wanted to say it out loud."
Rosalie feels very small, and very stupid, staring at the kitchen floor and realising the bottom of the counters are really gross down here.
Her father's voice was gentle, maybe even amused. "Bebe, you feel better now?"
"No because …" for a moment, she keenly feels every mile between them. And she's thrown back to the time she first moved out of New York, after her parents wedding, wondering if she even had a place in this new family. "… Yeah, I feel better, I do," Rosalie's voice cracks, and she hiccups on the burn of the oncoming flood of tears she can't stop.
As she breaks down into sobs, she already knows the shuffle of Archie and Jasper coming to her, and petting her.
"Amor, amor," her parents call through the phone, and its only the intensity of her sobs that physically stop her from howling 'I wanna go home' loud enough to echo through the entire apartment building.
Sometimes having to say it aloud can be the worst part of it. But it's a different kind of heavy.