Chapter Ten: 37 Weeks
What Beth wanted to know was when did having a baby become so… extra? As instructed by Dr. Smythe during their last check-up, she and Rio worked on their birth plan between appointments. For the first time in their relationship, though, it was Rio who was, as he liked to call her, the nerd. He was the one who printed off a multi-page list of questions for them to consider about their preferences for labor and delivery, and he was one who insisted that they fill out the entire form… even after Beth said it was ridiculous. At some point, in the last twenty-three years, things had changed drastically on the maternity floor.
Throughout the entire endeavor, Beth had mocked Rio's list. It wasn't his fault. He just went online and found something that they could use as a guideline. But the template used terms like birth team, asked her if she wanted to use reflexology as pain relief, and wanted them to make decisions about the care of their newborn that, quite frankly, should have been up to the doctor. Rio made fun of it as well… and it inspired a lot of questions from him - some to hilarious results when Beth answered, but he refused to allow Beth to scrap the whole thing. He, for once, was the one who insisted they complete their homework.
So, when Dr. Smythe walked into the exam room that afternoon, Beth was ready for her. "I thought it was the customer is always right, not the patient."
"Hello to you, too."
"Only physicians who don't give their heavily pregnant patients absurd tasks get hellos."
"Ah, the birth plan," the OB-GYN realized, chuckling. "Did we finally find something about pregnancy that the two of you aren't good at?"
"Nah, we filled it out," Rio denied, passing over the form they'd painstakingly completed together. "But most of that shit's on you."
"I should not be responsible for deciding if or when to break my water if it doesn't break naturally. It should not be up to me to choose what kind of monitoring is used on my baby. And things like IVs, episiotomies, and vacuum extraction are not choices; they're medical options if the delivering obstetrician finds them necessary."
Although Dr. Smythe leafed through the pages of their plan, she didn't actually read it. "So, I'm pretty much going to see a blank document here?"
"No," Beth contradicted. "If we felt like it was something best left to the medical professionals, we marked it as such."
"Are there any preferences that you do have?"
"If there are no complications, I would like to deliver vaginally. Frankly, though, I'm surprised women can choose."
"Some doctors allow appointment deliveries. Moms can schedule their c-sections in advance around work, travel, birthstones. I, however," Dr. Smythe warned them, "am not that accommodating."
"Nor would I want you to be," Beth reassured her. "I'm trusting you to take care of me and my baby. I need to know that you're capable of making the hard decisions and that you won't start to flounder if there's a close call."
"Anything else," the physician wanted to know.
Beth started listing the parts of the birth plan that she did actually care about. "No epidural. I do like the idea of being able to move around while I labor. For pain control, I'll practice my breathing, though I didn't find it very useful the first time around, and Rio will let me yell at him for getting me pregnant in the first place."
"Pretty sure we covered this already with the Doc, Darlin'," he teased her from where he was typing away on his phone. "That's on you. You were the one who couldn't…."
She cut him off mid-sentence. "I also like the idea of wearing my own clothes." Waving towards her chest, Beth explained, "I'm not the most… standard of sizes."
"I'm a lucky man," Rio commented with a cheeky if not slightly distracted grin. "And our baby is about to be the best fed baby ever."
"Yes, I recall that you've elected to breastfeed," Dr. Smythe remarked. "Will you want a lactation consultant to help you?"
"My kid ain't gonna need someone to show him or her how to latch on, yeah? That shit's in the genes."
The OB-GYN just rolled her eyes. "Immediate feeding or allow the baby to creep from belly to breast?"
"Creep," Beth said. "But please don't call it that in front of my sister. That just seems ripe for Annie to say something inappropriate… or break into song."
"And will your sister be in the delivery room with you?"
At the same time, Beth and Rio both adamantly yelled, "no!" Dr. Smythe looked slightly taken aback. "Sorry. It's just…," Beth struggled to explain just how terrible of an idea it was to have Annie there when she was pushing. So, instead, she simply stated, "it'll just be us in the room. Everyone else can visit afterwards."
"Knowing you two the way I think I do after these last five months, I'm assuming you'll want the baby to room with you," Dr. Smythe accurately predicted.
"Please."
"If the baby is a boy, are you going cut or uncut?"
"Not gonna have the kid walkin' around bein' called Foreskin his whole life," Rio commented, scoffing slightly.
Dr. Smythe seemed to be getting annoyed with Rio, though she kept her cool and simply asked, "cord blood? Antibiotic eye treatment?"
The issue of whether or not they would pay the exorbitant fees to bank their baby's cord blood or donate it instead was the only birthing plan point on which Rio and Beth disagreed. He didn't mind the expense and wanted to keep their child's cord blood should they need it someday, but Beth had argued that she'd rather donate it, knowing that it would definitely be used to save a life rather than holding onto it themselves on the very slight chance that their son or daughter became seriously ill. Eventually, they had compromised. Rio gave up banking the blood, and Beth agreed to let him take pictures of her and the baby once she was completely finished with laboring, including delivering the placenta as well.
"We're going to donate the cord blood, and yes, we would like the baby to receive antibiotic eye treatment."
"And what about you," Dr. Smythe wanted to know from Rio. "Do you have any preferences? How involved do you want to be in Beth's delivery?"
Pocketing his phone for the first time since they entered the room, Rio replied, "my only job is keepin' Elizabeth as calm and as comfortable as possible, so she can focus on havin' our baby. That's it. I don't need to do anythin' else."
"Well, better late than never," the OB-GYN snarked. "Thank you for finally joining us."
Rio scowled. "It ain't like I've been workin' or playin' fuckin' Candy Crush or somethin'. I was passin' along instructions to our contractor. If we want in the new house before the baby comes, we gotta get some shit done first. I ain't havin' Elizabeth, Marcus, or the baby around paint and stain fumes, loud noises, or leering, asshole construction workers."
In acknowledgment and silent apology, Dr. Smythe nodded. It was all Rio needed from her, and the two of them quickly moved past the moment of tension. "So, you bought a house?" The physician was well aware that Rio had been looking for a new home for their family.
"We bought a house," Rio emphasized that they were both responsible for the purchase.
Even though he had handled the majority of the process - searching for properties, touring them, negotiating with the sellers, Beth's name was on the paperwork, too. In part, she left most of the work up to Rio, because she just didn't think it was possible to find them a new place to live in such a tight window, and she was the less picky of the two of them. But she also just… didn't care as much. Not only was Beth emotionally attached to the loft, but at some point in her life - whether it was her childhood, her short marriage to Dean, or pinching pennies while she pretty much raised her daughter on her own, where she lived faded in importance to who she lived with and how.
"It's in escrow now," he continued, "but I wanna make sure the crew we hired is ready to go as soon as the keys are ours."
Finally, Dr. Smythe started running Beth through the routine measurements and exams of her prenatal check-up. While doing so, she and Rio continued to discuss the house, Beth mostly staying silent as she both made note of her and the baby's numbers while also enjoying the sounds of Rio's enthusiasm. He was proud that he was able to find them a new home, and it showed in his excitement. "Does it need a lot of work?"
"Considerin' the deal is that we're in before Elizabeth gives birth, thankfully no. The place is new build. We're just… customizin' it to our likin': changin' out the carpet in the bedrooms for hardwoods that'll match the rest of the house - I don't do carpet, puttin' in a brick patio out back with a trellis - weather permittin', addin' doors to the two Jack and Jill bathroom entrances, changin' out some of the light fixtures. Shit like that."
Smirking, Dr. Smythe taunted, "not so much of a handyman yourself, then, Rio?"
"I ain't helpless. I'm gonna put up the porch swing, the basketball hoop out front in the driveway. I'm gonna build a swingset for the kids, and eventually I'm gonna completely drywall the basement - create a rec room, another office, a second work kitchen for Elizabeth, a home gym, and another bathroom so we don't gotta run upstairs just to take a piss. And I'm savin' all the landscapin' for us to do together. Elizabeth's got plans for a garden. But there's a time constraint, yeah?"
Saying that she had plans was putting it lightly. Beth loved flowers and cooking with fresh fruits, vegetables, and herbs, but she'd never lived in a place that allowed her to plant as much as she'd like. She'd been mostly limited to container gardening. But not now, not in the new house. It sat on a quarter acre lot, and because it was a new build, the yard was basically a blank canvas. It had grass, there were a few trees along the back of the property line, and it was completely fenced in, but that was it. She wouldn't be able to add bulbs until the fall for blooming the next year, but she could start by planting summer perennials, and she was interested in beginning an herb garden and was pretty sure she'd be able to persuade Rio into building her raised beds for a family vegetable garden as well. Both seemed like good practice for an idea she had to expand their business.
"And who's in charge of readying the nursery," the physician asked, glancing between Beth and Rio.
"We're working on it together," Beth revealed, "but Rio is surprising me with the decor. All I know is that it is something neutral enough that it will work for a boy or a girl, but we'll be able to add in either more masculine or more feminine touches after the baby is here should we want to. Plus, we're going to do something cool for Marcus' room, too."
"It's as much his house as ours," Rio reasoned. "Plus, I've had the loft since he was a baby, and his Mom has a condo. This is a big deal for him, and we wanna make it special."
"How many times have the words 'can we get a dog' been said so far?"
Beth laughed at the question, and Rio shook his head in exasperation. "Too damn many."
"Oh, come on," Dr. Smythe insisted, smirking. "Puppy training is just like potty training. It'll prepare the two of you again for that... joyful experience."
"They ain't nothin alike, and you know it. I'm not gonna put my kid in a crate if it has an accident, and I'm not gonna hook it up to a run and let it outside to do its business."
"Well, that's reassuring to hear," Dr. Smythe quipped.
Rio continued complaining. "Don't you start bitchin' and moanin' about a dog, too. I'm gettin' enough of that from Pop. He's serious about it, though, not jerkin' my chain like you, Doc."
"Where do you fall in the debate, Beth? Are you pro-puppy like your stepson or anti-fun like your husband," the physician quizzed, earning a huff of disagreement and annoyance from Rio, though he didn't comment.
"I think a dog is… inevitable. The question is just which one of us will cave to Marcus' pleas first."
"Just make sure you tell the other if you give in, because you both don't want to come home with a dog and then wind up with two puppies at once."
"I'm thinkin' we just offer Pop another baby and skip the whole idea of a dog," Rio mused.
The suggestion did not surprise Beth, nor was it something she could honestly say she hadn't thought about herself, but it was not something she planned to discuss for the first time in front of anybody else… not even her OB-GYN. Luckily, Dr. Smythe just chuckled - either taking Rio's remarks as a joke or remembering her threat to discuss birth control with them at Beth's postpartum appointments. For the rest of the relatively short visit, Dr. Smythe worked on trying to get Rio to give her even just a hint or two about what he had planned for the kids' rooms, but he was tight lipped. He didn't even flash his teeth when he grinned.
Beth grew another pound, and the baby's fundal height remained the same, so there was no indication yet that he or she was starting to drop. Everything else was right on track as always. After the later than promised quick swabs to test for Group B Streptococcus, Beth and Rio left reassured and relieved that, at least for another week, it didn't seem like their baby was ready to be born yet.
!
Beth really needed to start listening to what Rio didn't say. Because 'we're going to dinner' left out the key word 'out,' and Beth ended up at his Grandmother's house, meeting at least half of his massive family. Sure, in the end, even without prior knowledge so she could prepare something for the meal, that night had turned out far better than Beth ever would have hoped, let alone anticipated, but the omissions… or maybe it was her assumptions… were starting to pile up. This time, it was 'meet me in my office, yeah?' that was getting her, if not in trouble, then at least certainly someplace Beth didn't see coming.
Her first thought was that Rio was still working… and he was, but him asking her to join him wasn't an attempt to squeeze out as much productivity as possible from his day. Beth had also suspected that he perhaps wanted to recreate or add to their memories from the night they met. After all, his office was large and luxurious, and there were plenty of flat surfaces they had yet to… acquaint themselves with, so to speak. And with Rio… and with Beth around Rio, that option was still - always - on the table. But they weren't alone, and meeting him in his office wasn't a proposition or a place to start off their date night.
Well, it wasn't a sexual proposition.
It was a business proposal.
"Here she is," Rio smiled up at Beth when she walked into his office… only to stop short when she saw him sitting with a young couple. The grin was genuine, though a touch performative as well. He held a hand out to her, wordlessly inviting her to join them. "This is Elizabeth," he announced to the twenty-somethings she surmised were prospective clients. "The best kept culinary secret in Detroit."
She didn't exactly know where he was going with his compliment, but Beth was a good sport, and as a mother… and Annie's sister, she knew how to play along and improvise. "Well, if you keep singing my praises like that, I won't be a secret for long."
"Nah," Rio shook his head, disagreeing with her. "You don't need me to talk you up. Your work speaks for itself.""Do you have any examples," the prospective bride asked.
Just as Beth was going to open her mouth to deny her, Rio said, "Elizabeth would work up a whole tastin' menu for you if you booked with us, but for now we could show you pictures of another wedding she did." Keeping her face smooth and devoid of a reaction for the customers, Beth tipped her neck to the side to throw a confused, irritated glance towards Rio. "I know you got a whole album of photos from Kensley's reception on your phone."
And she did, but he was acting like designing and catering her daughter's wedding was a professional credit to her name and not just what any mother, if capable, would do for her child. She understood what Rio was doing. He wanted the couple to not only book the hall but to hire Beth as their coordinator and chef as well. What she didn't know yet was whether her inclusion was a necessity in order to land this particular client, or if this somehow was Rio's way to propose that they should go into business together full-time.
While she thought, though, Beth scrolled, locating the set of pictures Rio was talking about. She did a quick once over to make sure that none of the shots the future bride and groom would be looking at were too personal - they weren't, and then she handed over her cell, stating the obvious, "just swipe. They're not professional photos by any means. I took all of them myself. But I think they do a decent job of showing the look I was going for."
"It's very timeless and elegant," the bride complimented. "And the food looks amazing… whatever it is.""Thank you," she quietly accepted the praise. "If you'd like, I can tell you everything that was on the menu, but," taking a deep, bracing breath, Beth decided to just… dive in, fully embracing the sales pitch, "yours would be different. Not only do I try to reflect the season and use as much local produce as possible, but I would, of course, also take your tastes into consideration as well. Even your colors and decor could influence the menu.""I ain't gonna hide the fact that we're datin'," Rio spoke up, placing one of his large, graceful hands on Beth's lower thigh where the split in her dress was created when, for the night, she undid several buttons from the midi hem up."Right on, Man!," the fiance spoke for the first time.
Beth felt Rio tense beside her, but he continued as if he had not been interrupted. "But don't think I'm biased when I say her food is dope. It just means I've had more chances to eat it, and she never disappoints. Breakfast, lunch, dinner. Appetizers, side dishes, entrees, desserts. There's no weak aspect to Elizabeth's kitchen game."
The couple exchanged a glance, and it was the future bride who spoke. "We didn't even know your venue offered catering and design services as well. It's not listed on your website?"
"It's new," Rio shrugged casually."And not a requirement of booking the hall," Beth reassured them, shooting a quick side eye at Rio. "I realize we just sort of… sprung this on you." Because it had been sprung on her, too! "Please do not feel like you have to hire me in order to have your reception here.""It's not that we're not interested," the younger woman said. "It's just… we would want to see more first, you know. Before committing.""Perfectly understandable," Beth sympathized."Just thought you should be aware of all your options," Rio argued. While his remark was certainly intended for the clients, Beth felt like it was also meant for her as well.
The bride addressed Beth directly. "When would you be able to meet to discuss your ideas for food, flowers, and everything else?"
Glancing at Rio, Beth asked, "there's an email address for the venue, right?" He signaled his assent, so she turned back to the woman getting married. "Email me your thoughts, your numbers, your colors - any information you want about what you already have planned, and I'll work on a menu and mock table for… next weekend? We can pick a specific date and time after I see what you're looking for from your reception."
"Oh, that sounds great," the bride enthused."So, we're definitely booking the place, right," the groom asked his fiancée. At her eager nodding, he asked Rio, "so, how will this work for the deposit then… since we don't know about hiring your girl yet?""You'll hire her," Rio confidently told the couple. "I got no doubt. So, I'm not gonna mess around with two separate contracts or signin' one now only to have to add an addendum later or tear it up and start from scratch. Elizabeth'll getchu to sign after she meets with you to lock down the deal. Until then, we'll put you on the schedule in good faith."
The four of them stood up then, exchanging handshakes. Beth offered her congratulations to the soon-to-be newlyweds… well, if nine to twelve months in the future could be considered soon. "When is your wedding, anyway," Beth questioned, curious. Even without any of the other details, she was already starting to brainstorm.
"September of next year," the bride told her. "I know it's cliché, but I love the fall - the warmth of the leaves changing, sunflowers, apples and pumpkins.""You're already giving me ideas. It's going to be gorgeous," Beth approved.
Rio walked them out then, leaving Beth all alone in his office. But she didn't sit back down on the couch. Instead, because of the intoxicating mixture of exhilaration and anxiety, pride and fear running through her veins, she couldn't sit still and started to roam about the opulent room… until she came to Rio's grand, imposing desk. As flattered as she was by his admiration and praise, his desire to work with her, the lack of warning about what she was walking into that evening had been off putting and, frankly, a little annoying, too. Oh, Beth understood
why he approached the situation like that - and they would address it, but in doing so, she wanted to flip the power dynamic on him. If he wanted her to take charge and be in control, she would.
Of him.
Pulling out his desk chair, Beth took Rio's seat, leaving him to either take one of the chairs positioned in front of the desk meant for customers or insubordinates or to hop up onto the desk itself… as he would no doubt request of her if the roles were reversed. Next, Beth pushed away, rolling back so that there was plenty of space between her and the heavy piece of furniture. Not only did she want Rio's view to be unencumbered, but she wanted freedom for both of their movements. She could hear him walking back down the hall, quickly approaching the office once again, so she slipped every button on her black and floral print sundress open, crossed her legs, and rested her hands on the arms of the chair. It was a complete power pose… right down to her discreetly revealed, matching, sheer lingerie."What's this," he wanted to know, stalking towards her purposefully while eyeing her appreciatively."Take a seat, Rio," Beth ordered."You in my chair.""Am I really, though," Beth sassed. "After all of this tonight," she waved a hand leisurely towards the leather sofas, "I thought you wanted what was yours to become ours. Wouldn't that include everything in this office as well?"
He came to stand directly in front of her but did not sit down. Bracing his legs a shoulder width apart and folding his hands together in front of him, Rio looked down upon her as he said, "I'm thinkin' we should work together, yeah."
"Well, in your presumptiveness, if you thought I was going to work for you, you could not be more wrong about that." When he went to argue with her, Beth continued, "I am open to the idea of working with you, however. As equals. Partners."
He scoffed. "I ain't gonna give you half of my business, Baby, just 'cause we're fuckin'."
"We're doing a little more than that, Rio, and you know it," Beth chastised. "But who's asking you to give me anything?" Innocently, she laid her right hand over her chest… and then never moved it away. "I'm certainly not.""What exactly are you suggestin', then, Elizabeth?""The University is always offering buyouts for early… retirement." Still forty, that word did not sit well inside of her mouth. "I have more than twenty years in and would be eligible. If I take it and cash out my 401K, I could invest in the business, not just be an employee of it.""And, what, you'd expect to invest all that money into just the party plannin' aspects of the business?""I honestly do not even know how I would spend that much," Beth replied. "No, we would need to do a few minor upgrades to the kitchen, but it's fully functional as is." Allowing her hand to trail down between her breasts, Beth paused its descent just below her belly button, dragging her fingers back and forth sensuously against the delicate, sensitive skin. Rio might have been listening to what she had to say, but he was avidly watching her caress herself as well. "I don't just want to work with you at the event center, Rio. If we're going to be partners, I want in on every aspect of your little kingdom, and I think we should use my investment in the business to grow it.""What're your suggestions, Sweetheart?"
Reprimanding him slightly, she warned, "you can't just expect me to have an entire business plan ready for you when you completely ambushed me with that meeting earlier."
Utterly unrepentant, Rio smirked, "maybe I want to see if my future partner can think on her feet."
"Well, in that case, I would recommend investing in food trucks. Not only could they be a source of income on their own, but they could also be utilized at events, too - both ours and rented out to others'.""Oh, so they're already our events," he teased her."You were the one who used that word first," Beth reminded him, calling back to how he had referred to his bed as their bed. "And under far more… intimate circumstances." Dipping her fingers below the band of her thong, Beth murmured, "I'm just following your lead."
But then she changed her mind, because since meeting Rio, the lifespan of her lingerie had fallen exponentially, and this particular set was new. She didn't want to stretch them out. So, instead, Beth dropped both hands to her lap, uncrossed her legs, lifted her hips just barely off of the chair, and then pushed the see-through fabric to the floor. As soon as the thong was free of her body, she recrossed her legs… only changing which one was on top and doing so in a very exaggerated manner, so Rio would catch more than just an eyeful of her bare, wet center. Then her left hand went back to the arm of the chair, while the right just teased at the top of her mound.
Licking his bottom lip, Rio rasped, "what're you doin', Elizabeth?"
"Well, see, I'm mad at you," she told him, adding a pout to her voice. "You left out a few key details about tonight, and that caused me to be caught off guard. I don't appreciate that. As you already know, I like to be well prepared, and you surprising me with the proposition that we should go into business together didn't allow me to plan the way I normally would.""It can't be too much of a surprise, considerin' I told you Wayne State didn't value you enough and you were wasted there."
Not responding to his reminder, Beth continued, "however, I'm comfortable at my current job, and I never would have taken such a leap without your push. So, what I'm doing is," she rephrased his question, "thanking you for your encouragement but making sure you remember to include me in such big decisions moving forward."
Rio narrowed his gaze. "And you gonna do that how exactly?"
Beth inched her index and middle fingers down so that they disappeared between her legs and were practically swallowed by the swollen lips of her pussy. She couldn't slip them inside - her tightly pressed together thighs preventing that, but she was wet enough that she could gather her arousal. "I'm going to get myself off while you watch. You can touch yourself, but you can't touch me." Tugging her hand free, she held up her fingers to the light, so they could both see them glisten with her wetness. While lifting them to her mouth, Beth asked, "so, what do you think about my food truck idea?"
Rio waited until she had licked both digits completely clean and then pulled them out from between her lips with a decadent pop. "It's fuckin' brilliant, Darlin," he complimented her. Beth felt the heat between her legs pulse, her arousal start to drip out of her and onto the leather of the desk chair, but then she practically gushed when he added, "that's why I've been thinkin' the same thing." Because it was one thing for Rio to praise her, but it was on an entirely different level to realize that she was matching the man who had the greatest mind for business… that she knew, at least.
Beth practically shoved her fingers back between her legs. Slick with her saliva, she didn't even attempt to gather more of her own moisture; she just immediately targeted her clit, finding it with her two digits and rubbing brutally. There was no finesse to her touch, not now. She just needed to cum as fast as possible. And Beth realized that she wanted to look at Rio and his cock while doing so. "Unfasten your pants," she ordered. "I want to see you."
She thought he might push back, annoyed with her for refusing his touch, but he didn't argue, and he didn't delay, and he didn't even tease. With both hands, Rio unbuckled his belt, unbuttoned and unzipped his dark jeans, and pushed his pants and underwear down far enough so that she could see his hard dick. It sprang free as soon as the fabric gave way for it, and Rio groaned in relief. He had been aroused since he came into the office and saw her sitting there so provocatively. "Fist yourself," she gave him another command. Yet again, he willingly complied - his groan devolving into a hiss.
Beth could already tell that her release was not going to be very satisfying. It would be more of a tease, a preview, for what would hopefully happen later. Rapidly, frantically, massaging her clit felt nice, but it didn't matter how hard she brushed and then clenched her thighs together, she still felt empty. Needy. She was used to total and complete stimulation. Rio was extremely attentive when he fucked her, and Beth was now spoiled sexually. She needed all of it, everything; she required him to truly and fully shatter apart.
When the soft waves of her orgasm washed over her, that's when Beth's legs finally fell open and apart. To make the gentle pleasure last as long as possible, she continued to apply pressure to her clit, and she chased the release - her hips riding the air as her cunt gasped, wanting more, wanting to be stuffed. But observing Rio before her as he struggled on the edge of his own arousal - jaw clenched, one hand practically strangling his cock while the other held on so tightly to the edge of the desk that Beth feared he would break it, she realized that she also wanted to be filled another way as well.
Spreading sticky with cum fingers and her palm out against his lower abdomen, Beth shoved Rio back as hard as she could. At the same time, she dragged the chair she was sitting on closer to him - Rio nearly stumbling backwards until he collided with the furniture while Beth glided across the hardwood floor. With her legs now spread, she scooted as close to him as possible - his legs slotting between her own. The position put her directly in front of his erect, pre-cum leaking dick.
Without a warning, Beth wrapped her lips around just the head of his cock, swirled her tongue to capture every last bead of his seed, and then sucked hard. "Oh fuck, Mami," he swore. Underneath her, she could feel Rio tense as he tried to hold himself back. "You the one who wants to be partners, but this doesn't feel very equitable, Elizabeth - you doin' all the work to get us both off."
Demurely looking up at him from beneath her lashes, Beth let go of his cock enough so that she could talk, but she kept her mouth right there, so he could feel the dewy heat of her breath brushing against him with every syllable. "I mean, I thought we were just getting started for the night, but if you don't want…""I want," Rio cut her off desperately. "I f'sure want!""Well, then, you just have to give me what I want first, and I want you to cum so hard and so long into my mouth and down my throat that you trickle out of the corners of my lips because I can't swallow everything that you give me fast enough." Practically simpering at that point, Beth asked, "can you do that for me, Rio?"
He flashed her one of his biggest, brightest smiles - the crinkling around his dark yet still luminous eyes somehow making him seem younger. "You know I can, Darlin'."
"Less talking, then," she suggested saucily. At the same time, Beth ran her hands up the back of Rio's thighs and up over his hips until she could grip his jeans and boxer-briefs and tug them down to the floor. Once he was standing naked in front of her from the waist down, Beth spread her fingers and palms over his bare ass, gripped him tight, and then opened and relaxed her throat as much as she could. "And more fucking." Then not only did she lower her lips over his tumescent cock, but she also pulled him deep into her mouth, encouraging Rio to thrust and letting him know that, whatever he could give her, she could, would, and wanted to take it.
In Beth's opinion, choking on Rio's cock was the best way for them to seal their new business partnership.
!
Beth's marriage to Dean might not have lasted long, and it meant even less to her, but there were things about people that you didn't forget, and those enduring memories applied to Judith as well. In fact, sometimes, when she looked back on her first marriage, Beth thought that, at the time, she actually might have spent more time with her ex-mother-in-law than she did her ex-husband - not by choice, of course, but by necessity… according to Judith. Between the shotgun wedding, the baby, becoming a proper Boland wife, and making the perfect home for Dean, Judith had felt it to be her responsibility to mold and train Beth. An unwilling and disinterested pupil, their lessons often devolved into Judith just getting drunk off of martinis in the afternoon, but at least something from those days had stuck, because Beth still knew the older woman. More specifically, she knew her schedule.
Judith Boland was a creature of habit. She went to the same restaurants, and she sat at the same tables, and she ordered the same dishes every time she dined out. She shopped at the same stores, and she still drove her car through the carwash once a week, living a life that kept the inside of her vehicle immaculate at all times. She had a particular butcher that she used, a favorite baker, and while even Judith no longer had use of a candlemaker, there was little doubt in Beth's mind that her ex-mother-in-law still hired the same electrician to change her light bulbs when they burned out.
So, when Beth suggested in the hospital that, should Judith need a break or be unable to sit with Kensley if, say, she had a hair appointment, she knew well and good that the older woman didn't go to the salon; she had the salon come to her. If Judith couldn't control the other clientele - those Bolands couldn't be around riff raff, after all, limiting it to just her country club peers, then there was no way she was going to subject herself to such… base company. For as long as Beth had known Judith, she had her beautician come to the house once a week and set her hair in the same style she had been sporting since Dean was born. (If Beth had to guess, she was probably still tipping the poor hairdresser at the same rate, too.)
Providing that specific example of when Judith might be away from Kensley's house was purposefully supposed to throw Kensley and Aaron, Dean and Judith off Beth's scent, so when she did show up unannounced and Judith just so happened to not be there, they wouldn't suspect that Beth had known when she could find her daughter alone. Because Judith might make most of the world come to her, but she happily went to the country club. More specifically, she would never miss her weekly bridge game… not even for her pregnant granddaughter who could go into premature labor again at any moment.
Without knocking - the front door was unlocked, and there was no sense in Kensley getting up just to do something that Beth was fully capable of handling on her own, she let herself into her daughter's house, immediately calling out a greeting. "Hi, Kensley! It's Mom. Just let me know where you are, and I'll come to you."
A resigned, "I'm upstairs," was the only response she received.
After shrugging off her coat, shouldering her tote bag and purse, and tucking the design board she had brought with her under her arm, Beth took a quick glance around her as she made her way towards the stairs. The house was spotless, but with Judith spending so much time there, she wasn't surprised. The older woman probably had her housekeeper tidying up both places (at the same rate), or she might have just hired Kensley her own cleaning person. But it was so clean that it felt unlived in, and Beth was afraid what she would find when she got to the second floor. Sure enough, Kensley wasn't working on the nursery or at the desk in the home office, completing paperwork. She was in bed, and it didn't look like she had ventured much further than the attached ensuite in quite some time.
Feigning innocence, Beth asked, "your Grandmother isn't here? That's too bad." She must have been laying it on too thick, because Kensley shot her a suspicious glance. So, Beth backpedaled, "for you, of course. For me? Well, let's just say that I'm not here to see Judith."
Kensley sighed, reconciled to the fact that her Mother did not particularly like her Grandmother… and that the feeling was mutual. Then, sounding so exhausted - like it wasn't obvious that she had spent her entire day in bed despite the doctor's insistence that she shouldn't be on bedrest, Kensley questioned, "why are you here exactly?"
For several moments, Beth could only just stare at her daughter. Kensley might have looked like Dean physically, but seeing her so weary, so passive, so melancholy, it was like traveling back in time thirty years, and Beth was no longer in a room with her daughter but, instead, her mother was in bed and refusing to get out of it. Another piece of the puzzle clicked into place for Beth then. "Well, I wanted to see you, of course," she spoke gently, almost afraid of spooking Kensley. "I thought we could spend an afternoon together. Plus, I brought some things with me to show you for the shower. But all of that can wait," Beth announced, setting her things aside in an empty corner. "Why don't we go downstairs and have lunch. You can impress me with all the progress you've been making under your Grandmother's tutelage."
"I'm not hungry. Grandma made sure I ate before she left." Beth wasn't hungry either. Not wanting to burden her daughter, she'd had lunch before she left home, too, but now seeing Kensley, she just wanted her to do something.
"What about showing me the nursery? I'd love to see it," Beth suggested. "I'd tell you about our nursery," she rubbed her pregnant belly to emphasize exactly who she was talking about, "but I can't, because it's not ready yet. We bought a new house. I'll give you the address before I go, but we haven't moved in yet, and obviously, we can't decorate the nursery until we're actually there. Plus, I've let Rio take the design reins, and he's being tight lipped. But you've seen the loft! I mean, you were only there once, but he has an eye for it. He'll also just buy what the baby needs and what he wants rather than me who will search and search for the best deal and then compromise to get it." Beth knew that she was rambling, that she was talking too much, especially because Kensley had made it abundantly clear that she wanted nothing to do with Rio, Marcus, or the new baby, but she was nervous, and being nervous made her also feel guilty, because what kind of mother felt nervous around her own daughter?
When Kensley did finally respond, all she said was, "you wouldn't like the nursery. We chose a car theme."
For one beat, then two, Beth had to bite her tongue to prevent herself from saying something she would regret. Because, no, she wouldn't like the nursery. It wasn't that she didn't think cars could be cute or that Kensley had done a poor job with it; it was because Beth doubted that the theme had anything to do with her grandson, Kensley, or Aaron, though the Aaron of it all Beth couldn't really be bothered to care about, because if he wouldn't speak up for himself, why should she? It just felt like Kensley's entire pregnancy was about Dean - about giving him a grandson to make up for the son he never had, the son that Kensley wasn't, and this infuriated Beth, because it exacerbated and encouraged all of the insecurities her daughter fought in regards to her relationship with her father, insecurities that it was apparent she wasn't handling well.
When Beth eventually spoke again, even she was caught off guard by what she said. "Why did you study physics, Kensley?" She hadn't planned on bringing up the revelation that her daughter didn't even like science - at least, not until after Kensley gave birth, but it suddenly seemed vitally important that they deal with the issue now. "I genuinely believed that you liked science. After that first trip together to the Science Center, you seemed to have so much fun. That's why I sought out science activities for you individually and for us to do together."
Kensley shrugged her shoulders. "The Science Center is fun, Mom. It's specifically designed that way to make kids appreciate it even when they hate learning about it in school. All I wanted was to be the next generation of Bolands to sell cars. But I knew you would hate that, and then I saw how happy you were that day at the museum, so I thought maybe if I could somehow combine the two - cars and science, I could make both of my parents proud; maybe, if I played it just right, it could be something the two of you found some common ground over."
"If you don't understand this yet, you will soon," Beth prefaced what she was about to say. "Parents always want their children to be more, to be better, than they themselves are."
"Especially when their kid dreams of being just like the ex-husband they can't stand, right," Kensley cut into what Beth was trying to express.
"I would have been disappointed, yes," she admitted, owning that truth. "But not because of the reasons you think, Kensley." When her daughter didn't protest or interrupt again, Beth continued, "selling cars is still a male dominated field." Hell, early in her pregnancy when Kensley was helping out at Boland Motors, she experienced that discrimination at the hands of her own father - Dean sticking her with his clerical work rather than allowing her to try her hand at sales! Beth refrained from pointing this out to her, though. "And it can be volatile, too - feast or famine." It was feast when Kenneth was still alive and running the dealership; famine once Dean took over, barely managing to stay afloat on the backs of the relationships his Dad had built before his time. "And I still would have made you get a degree. It was free, and why not have that experience to fall back on should you, I don't know, turn forty and all of a sudden find the courage to try something new and scary but also wonderful."
Evidently, Kensley was finished with the topic, because she not so subtly changed the subject. "You mentioned something about a shower?"
"Like I said, that can wait. Let's do something. I haven't done my prenatal yoga yet today. Want to try it with me?" Beth wasn't exactly dressed for a workout, but she'd have to keep the routine to the easiest, least involved poses anyway for Kensley's sake, so she would be fine in her maternity jeans and long sleeved nursing tee. "Come on," she encouraged, rounding the bed to Kensley's side and starting to tug down the blankets. "You'll enjoy it. I find it very relaxing, and you can use the breathing exercises during labor, too."
"Stop it, Mom," Kensley snapped, yanking her covers back up. "I'm not going to do yoga with you; I'm not going to do anything! I'm tired. So, just… say whatever it is you came to say. I want to take a nap."
Beth debated arguing with her daughter, but she figured that she had pushed her enough for one visit. She'd try again next week when Judith went to bridge. Walking back to the corner where she had stashed her things, Beth started talking. "Obviously, we'll need to change the location from the event center to here - and I'll call everyone rather than send out new invitations for that, but I don't think we'll need to adapt anything else about your shower. And don't worry, I'll handle all of the setup before and cleanup afterwards. You'll never even know we were here… except for the small mountain of diapers and gifts you'll receive. I'll even have all of that carried up to the nursery for you, and I can put it all away, too, if you'd like."
"What shower are you even talking about," Kensley demanded to know, sounding more than just confused; she sounded almost… antagonistic.
Caught off guard, Beth blurted out, "your shower - the one I'm throwing for you. Everything's planned. You won't have to lift a finger. The invitations went out weeks ago, so your guests had plenty of notice. And I made sure that it was classy… just like your wedding. No theme. Because not only was I unsure of how you decorated your nursery, but if you use a theme, then everyone will buy gifts around that theme, and who wants thirty of the same outfit, same book, same rattle?"
"Mom, you're not throwing me a shower, though."
"Of course I am! I've been working on this for months. Even when you weren't speaking to me, I was always going to host your baby shower, Kensley. You're my daughter." She gestured towards Kensley's middle. "That's my grandson. Who else would do this for you?"
"Oh, I don't know," Kensley sarcastically replied, "maybe Aaron's Mother and Grandma Judith would want to do this for their grandson and great-grandson… as they are!"
Crestfallen, Beth allowed the design board she was holding to fall to the floor. "But… I cleared the date with Aaron, and he never said anything."
Kensley rolled her eyes. "Aaron's a guy! He doesn't know or want to know anything about baby showers."
Beth couldn't help but think about Rio and how involved he was in her pregnancy, how he had organized a dinner with his entire family so they could celebrate the baby. "Well, they're obviously just in the beginning stages of planning, because I haven't received my invitation yet, so I'd be happy to share everything I've done so far, and of course I'd like to help in any way I…"
"Mom," Kensley interrupted, sighing in exhaustion, and irritation, and impatience. "How many times do I have to tell you that I don't want people to know about… that," she gestured disgustedly towards Beth's baby bump. "About you, about Rio, about… any of it. You didn't get an invitation yet, because you're not going to get one. You're not invited, because that's what is best for everyone - for me, for Grandma Judith, even for you. You're due in a few weeks," Kensley tried to make it seem like her excluding Beth from her baby shower was altruistic. "You don't need the stress of planning a baby shower or… having to rationalize to thirty other women how you ended up pregnant at 41."
"Doing something nice for someone you love is not a stressful thing, Kensley - at least, it's not for me," Beth said, fighting to hold back the hurt and devastation she was feeling. She knew that her relationship with her daughter was still rocky at best, but she never thought, especially after Kensley called her for help when she went into premature labor, she'd exclude her from something so important, so momentous, as her baby shower. "And I wouldn't defend my baby to anybody at your party, because there's nothing to explain or justify. Rio and I did nothing wrong. We had every right to have a child together, and frankly, you need to get over this whole fixation with my age, because I'm not an anomaly. Women having babies in their forties is quite common."
"Not when they have twenty-three year old daughters and are becoming a grandmother for the first time!"
Shaking her head, because, no, they were not getting into that again, Beth simply gathered her things and then said as calmly as she could, "I hope you have a lovely shower, Kensley. If you would at least let me know when and where you're having it, I'll send my gifts ahead of time. I'll also need to cancel everything I've already planned, including completely disinviting anyone not also on Judith's list."
"I'll have Grandma Judith email you the information," her daughter told her coldly.
"Right."
After that, Beth turned around and left Kensley's room, Kensley's house, Kensley's neighborhood without looking back once. She couldn't, because if she did, she'd break down, and she really didn't want to cry in the car. She just wanted to go home. If she cried in the car, then she'd have to pull over to be safe, delaying her return to the warmth and security of the loft. By the time she was fitting her key into the lock of the loft's door - everything she had taken with her for the shower to show Kensley left behind in her car; she'd get it later, Beth's hands were shaking from the fury of her emotions that she was suppressing.
Walking into her dark home - the gloomy, late January evening only allowing for the dimmest, grayest of light to seep in through the large windows, Beth reached for a switch… only to jump when flipping it resulted in not just the overheads turning on but also the voices of what had to be at least twenty-five people joyously calling out, "surprise!"
Looking around, Beth saw the smiling faces of Ruby, Annie, and Rosa. It looked like all of Rio's Tías and Primas were there, too. Extra tables were set up, and the loft smelled divine - like one of Rosa's dinner parties but even better. There were fresh flowers throughout the open space, a few balloons, and even a sign that read 'This isn't a baby shower. It's a sprinkle. So, deal with it, Sis.' Beth took it all in, and then she promptly burst into tears.