Beth spent the whole night tossing and turning in her bed. She kept thinking about how much effort that she put into looking great to impress Rio and about how excited she was to hear that he considered their meeting a real date. She thought about how he looked at her when he saw her, like she was the only person in the bar, his eyes never left her until his Brother / Cousin and Dylan showed up and ruined everything.
The next morning Beth stood in front of a full length mirror in her bedroom, twirling a lock of hair around her finger. She took a deep breath and gave herself a pep talk. 'Beth you are worth more than to get involved in this drama. Rio has a girlfriend and you would be nothing other than a side piece to him. No Sirree, Elizabeth Irene Marks would not be a part of whatever that was last night.
Beth vowed to remain cordial to Rio since she obviously couldn't avoid seeing him at the bread deliveries but that was it.
Dean dropped off the kids that evening sans Becca. Beth was relieved that Becca wasn't there. She created unnecessary stress on Beth. Plus Dean's relationships since him and Beth had legally separated hadn't lasted longer than a few months.
Beth figured that most of the women that Dean had dated were looking for a rich, older man that could pamper them and feed into their whims. Once they figured out that Dean put on a façade of being a Sugar Daddy but could not keep up with the image as he was in reality broke, unreliable and had four children that he was supporting plus he expected that his woman to do all of the cooking and cleaning, then it was Bye Bye Dean.
"Woah, Bethie, did you do something to your hair?" Dean asks as he walks in the front door. "It looks different. How much did that set you back for your new do?" he chides.
Beth rolls her eyes as she patted the loose curls framing her face. "Yes Dean, I did do something different to my hair. I deserve to spend money on myself once in a while. I like the new look, it makes me feel glamorous", she emphasized.
"Who do you have to look glamorous for anyways?" The kids don't care what you look like, you don't have to dress up for them, "Dean says laughing to himself.
"Maybe I want to look good for myself, Dean. How do you know that there's no one in my life anyways that I am seeing?", Beth questions.
Her blood was boiling, how dare he criticize her for spending money on herself. Who the hell does he think that he is anyways? Besides the man that almost bankrupt their family by taking out loans they couldn't pay on his families business and spending money on lavish gifts for his mistresses while keeping her completely in the dark about it.
If it hadn't been for her credit card getting declined at her waxing appointment she wouldn't have seen the light immediately. That had been the last time that she had attempted to spend money on herself, over a year and a half ago.
Since then Beth hadn't cut her own hair, hadn't bought any new clothes, rarely bought new cosmetics. She focused on ensuring that the kids had what they needed. Until now, now she felt she deserved to feel good about herself, to spend money on her and not feel guilty about it. Man or no man, in her life she deserved to feel confident again.
After Dean left, she checked her text messages and deleted the message that had just come through once she saw it was from Rio. He had been texting her for the entire day, asking for her to give him a chance to explain the situation. He apologized profusely for their date being crashed. She just wasn't ready to hear his excuses at this time.
Beth decided to bury herself in her work and focus on the kid's needs and activities that week. The bakery had all of a sudden been swamped with orders, which was unusual. They had 6 orders for birthday cakes, 12 orders for decorated cupcakes on Tuesday alone. That was twice as many orders as usual. Beth didn't know if it was a miracle or not.
Beth went to Lucky's on Wednesday for the bread delivery and encountered Mick standing by the back door. He was using a squirt bottle fan to cool himself off, although Beth didn't think it was particularly that hot outside.
"You're late" Mick grumbles as se places the bread down by the stoves on the counter.
Beth checked her watch. She had gotten stuck in traffic so was indeed 10 minutes late.
"I am sorry about that, traffic was brutal", Beth responded.
"Boss is in there, waiting on you", Mick responds and gestures towards the dining area.
"What..wait, I wasn't expecting to meet with him today", Beth says.
"I don't give a fuck what you were expecting lady, go in to the restaurant now", Mick replies angrily.
Beth throws her hands up in the air. "Obviously, you don't" she grumbles under her breath as she walks through the door into the seating area of Lucky's.
Rio is sitting at one of the 2 seater booths in the corner. He waves Beth over and gestures for her to sit down.
"Elizabeth, good to see you again", Rio says smiling at her.
"Rio, I was only expecting to deliver the bread today. I have a really busy schedule today and need to make other deliveries on time so that I can make it to my children's school to pick them up by 3:30" Beth remarks.
"This will only take a few minutes. Someone was ignoring my texts so I thought this was a better way to communicate", Rio explains as he waves his hand over the sushi on the table.
"Did you want some, Mama? Its real dope", he asks.
"No, thank you. I am not hungry", Beth responds.
"Look, I just wanted to apologize. I thought that night was going really well. I felt a connection. I know what it looked like, that I am a two timer. I swear that I am not with Dylan. We haven't been together in a long time." Rio assures Beth.
"Does she know that?" Beth questions him. "It sure seemed like she thought that you stood her up. I really don't want to get in between you and her". Beth thought back to the night Dylan almost spilled Beth's food on her lap and her insulting Beth the night of their date. She would rather not deal with that Woman's misdirected anger.
Rio cleared his throat and looked into her eyes. "Elizabeth things didn't work out between her and me. I let her know clearly that it was over but she hasn't let it go", Rio says signing. "I asked you out because I want to get to know you better, because I can't stop thinking about you."
Beth smiles at him and says, "Well technically, Mick asked me out for you". She takes a deep breath before saying, "Ok, I will give you another chance".
Beth had thought about all of the chances that she hadn't taken in life that she didn't think were worth the risk. She questioned if letting Rio into her life was worth the risk. The way his eyes fixated on her. She decided that he was worth taking the risk for.
"How about grabbing lunch with me before the next delivery? There's this sandwich shop down the street from the restaurant that is great. I promise that you won't be disappointed." Rio promised her.
"Ok that sounds like a plan", Beth states before getting up to go with a million questions racing through her head that she pushes out of her thoughts.
When Beth gets home later that day after picking up her kids at their after school classes, she encounters Annie and Ben sitting on the kitchen stools at the kitchen island. They are chatting and eating sandwiches.
"Beth, can you meet me at the library around noon on Friday?" Annie asks. "I've got to pass my paramedic re-certification course and I need a certain book to do that. You know that I have no idea how to search for books on those public library computers", Annie complains.
"Uh, I can't sorry. I am meeting someone for lunch. I can help you tomorrow or you can ask the Librarian to help you", Beth responds.
Annie eyes Beth curiously and leans on her hand under her chin. "So who is the lucky guy who gets to spend their lunch hour with my amazing sister?" she asks.
Beth looks from Ben to Annie, unsure if she should explain what happened at Lucky's that day. She looks down at her hands before answering. "I am meeting Rio, I ran into him at a delivery and he asked for a second chance", Beth explains.
"Oh, you are meeting up with 'Bar Friend'. What about Miss Thang?" Annie asks. "You know, that waitress who obviously hates you", Annie says laughing.
"I don't know why she would possibly hate me, she doesn't even know me", Beth states, looking confused.
"Oh, come on Beth. Obviously, the 'Green Eyed Monster' has a hold of her. I mean we noticed how he looked at you at Lucky's. You think that she didn't notice how her Boy was looking at you, with stars in his eyes. She's jealous with a capital J", Annie explained.
Beth rolled her eyes. "Oh come on Annie, stars in his eyes...seriously. He didn't look at me like that but he can be rather, intense in his staring when I am around. Its flattering. He swears that he broke up with Dylan a while ago. I just don't know what to think. Dylan seemed to be convinced that Rio stood her up the last time that we were out", Beth noted.
On Friday Beth felt almost giddy before her lunch date with Rio. She had dug into the far reaches of her closet for a low cut black sweater that emphasized her ample cleavage and then completed the look with tight black jeans that hugged her curves in the right way. She wore red lipstick that complimented her blue eyes and reddish tint to her hair.
As soon as she saw Rio sitting in a booth at the sandwich shop her nervousness level raised to 10 again but his smile at her calmed her nerves some. She slid into the booth across from him.
Rio looked her up and down with a look of admiration while smiling at her. "Hey Beautiful, I am glad that you could join me and thank you for giving me another chance".
Beth beamed at him. They ordered lunch and had an enjoyable conversation which consisted mostly of small talk and responding to basic questions about each other's lives. Their conversation put Beth's nerves at ease.
"You know, I am a great cook. Maybe I can show you next time at my place. I am especially an expert at breakfast food", he says while winking at her.
Beth pauses for a second to take in what he just said and she smiles shyly while blushing. "I would really like that", she says.
Beth was glowing after she left the sandwich shop. She felt that nothing could possibly ruin the moment. She felt as if they had a strong connection between them even if they appeared to be from two different worlds. She with her squeaky clean, suburban Mom image and then compared with him with, the tattooed, bar owner with an air of cockiness and mystery about him. Maybe Beth should allow herself to drop her defenses around him. After all, she thought to herself, what else could possibly go wrong?