3.
~ Ariadne cleared her throat and spoke first.
"Hello, Eames." She said keeping her eyes from looking down ward. Not looking down at his impressive body, normally hidden by his tacky clothing. At his myriad of tattoos.
She intently kept her gaze upward. Kept it on his face.
"Hello, Ariadne." he said. Echoing her awkwardness. "You here to see Sadie, then?" He asked.
"Yes. Um, Eames, I'm a little afraid to look down, can you put something on?" She said in a painfully casual voice.
"Oh right. Sure." He said awkwardly shifting into the hall and grabbing one of Sadie's winter coats. Ariadne felt her face flush red as she turned away and hoped none of her old neighbors were looking out at the hall.
The Forger tried and failed to put on a coat that was to small for him and eventually just wrapped it around his waist and waved the Architect in.
"Eames!" Came Sadie's sadistic cry. "Tell the dried up bastards to mind their own business and get your ass back in here!"
Ariadne looked around in horror at her old place. Now lavishly decorated like the dressing room of a cheap burlesque dancer.
"It's Ariadne!" The Forger called out scampering into the bedroom. She heard Sadie jump up out of the bed and smelled her evil whorish cigarettes before she saw her. Sadie had the decency to put a sheer robe on before coming out.
"Darling!" She cried at seeing Ariadne. "Lovely to see you. Why the late night visit?"
"Um..." Ariadne didn't want to admit her problems with Arthur. "I just..." She floundered.
"Say no more, guest room is ready. Go!" Her friend commanded waving her hand at the her.
Grateful she didn't have to explain things right away, she retreated to the guest room as she heard Sadie yell at Eames in French. The sound of a hand making violent contact with flesh and the Forger howling from pain. Or perhaps pleasure.
~ "Eames answered the door naked." Ariadne told Sadie awhile later. The two women were alone together in the small guest room.
"I know." Sadie said. Her tall leggy body was stretch out on the bed. Looking like a pin up girl. "He is always naked. I keep telling him he's going to trip over that thing of his one day." She added. Mildly amused.
"Well, I didn't see it. I promise." Ariadne assured her feeling the blush come to her face.
"Why not? It's impressive. I can show you photographs I took. Or better yet, videos." Sadie offered.
Ariadne laughed and blushed harder.
"No. Please don't." She said putting a hand up. "I still have to work with him."
"So... tell me why you came to see me, petite Colombe." Said asked honestly. "Should I tell Eames you are her for a Menage a Trois?" She teased.
"NO!" Ariadne almost shouted and laughed when she saw Sadie's smiling face.
"Tell me. What is wrong?"
"Arthur... asked me to marry him."
"Good. Do it." Sadie said simply. "He is handsome enough. Treats you nicely. Good dresser. Has money. You say he is good in bed. Why not marry him?"
"I... I don't know." Ariadne confessed.
"Ah... you still want to play the field yet?" Said asked. A smile spreading on her face.
"No, that's not it." The Architect sighed.
"It's understandable." Sadie shrugged. "Your still young. Why limit yourself to only one man?"
"I don't want to see other men." Ariadne sighed pulling her hair away from her face. She sat on the foot of the bed and searched for what she wanted to say.
"It's just. It's all happening so fast you know?" She tried to explain. "I mean, we get along really well. Things are great. Can't that be enough?"
"Maybe." Sadie offered.
"We were talking about having kids and all of the sudden, I saw myself as some frumpy old house wife who is bitter and resentful. He's going off on exciting jobs and leaving me at home. Soon enough he'll meet some other woman. Who's younger and..." Ariadne found herself planing a nightmarish future.
"Arthur is not your father, petite Colombe." Sadie said gently. "Just because your father you left your mother for another woman, doesn't mean Arthur will."
"Mama was angry and bitter right up till the day she killed herself. My father didn't even come to the funeral. Didn't even try to take me with him. He had his new wife and new family." Ariadne sighed.
"Doesn't mean Arthur will do the same." Sadie said soothingly. "I don't see him being like that."
"Everything is fine right now. You know? Were happy. Why can't we just stay that way? Like this?" Ariadne asked.
"Nothing can stay the same forever. Nothing is constant, except that everything changes."
Ariadne leaned back into the bed.
"Have you told Arthur? About your parents?" Sadie asked. Combing through the Architect's hair with her long spider fingers.
"No. He knows my mother died but... I guess he thinks my dad is dead to." She sighed heavily. "He knows my grandfather raised me alone."
"You need to tell him." Sadie said softly. Not judging. Not ordering.
Ariadne shook her head. Rolling her eyes
"All he would do is say he won't do that. Before you know it, I'll have a couple of kids, a c-section scar, no social life, and 30 extra pounds." The Architect said crassly. "In a few years, I'll be just as bitter and sad as she was."
"You may lose Arthur if you don't marry him." Sadie pointed out.
Ariadne shrugged.
"If he loves me, like he says he does, he'll stay." She said softly.
Sadie didn't answer to this. She allowed her friend to swim in her own thoughts for the night. Leaving her alone in the guest room.
As she was finally crawling into bed, she sent Arthur a text.
"At Sadie's. Going to stay the night. I'll call you later. - A"
Almost immediately her phone dinged with a reply.
"I love you. Come home soon? - A"
It was almost on the tips of her fingers to send a reply. Tell him that she would be rushing home that instant. That she missed him already. That she would marry him, have his babies. Whatever he wanted of her.
Her stubbornness won out. She would talk to him tomorrow. They would decide where to go from there.
As she curled into her solitary bed, she could heard Eames cry out for mercy as Sadie was shouting vulgar things in French. A sound like whipping was cutting though the thin walls. Eames was screaming in delight. Ariadne's hands flew to her ears as she wished she had remembered her mp3 player.
Across the city, Arthur was laying in their bed alone. His hands cradling his cell phone. Waiting for her to text him back. Maybe even call him. The other side of the bed still smelled of her. Of her perfume. The bath water they had shared. A pain was forming in his chest as he thought about her leaving him. He didn't try and stop her. He felt a horrible sense of rejection from her.
It had been so easy to make her his wife when he had been lost in the dream. She had smiled and said yes. They had made love all night.
The Point Man sighed. It was never a good idea to dwell on dreams. They were not real things.