Chapter 10 - Unexpected Visitors

Glynnis grows up.

She still has a funny-looking nose, but she's learned to embrace her quirks. Her eyes are all Rhiannon's with how languid and drowsy and heavy-lidded that they are. Once again, there's no real party, not with Rhiannon being huge and ungainly again, but Rhiannon orders a cake anyway.

If there's anything they can agree on, it's a mutual love for cake.

They eat quietly, ignoring the putrid dish in front of Glynnis. The laundry is piling up. The appliances are disgustingly messy. Dishes are stacked high in the sink. But Rhiannon's doing the best she can. Glynnis seems to accept that.

"Hey, Mom?"

"Yeah, Glyn?"

"Am I ever actually gonna meet these guys that keep knocking you up, or are you purposely keeping them out of the apartment?"

Rhiannon almost chokes on her cake. She looks up at Glynnis with slightly narrowed eyes, but Glyn simply stares back passively. She's developed Rhiannon's direct method of speaking.

"...that's my prerogative. And you can just forget about it." She heaves herself out of her chair with a sigh. "It's not gonna happen again. Don't you worry."

The twins have a birthday as well!

Athena...

...and Tiara.

Rhiannon and Glynnis take a tag-team approach to raising the twins.

Both girls are surprisingly receptive to it. Athena leaps ahead of Tiara in development with no time at all, which makes Glynnis feel a little awkward, and she masters talking in no time at all. "Why do you think she's like that?" Glyn asks Rhiannon warily.

Rhi simply shrugs. "Must just be a genius or something."

Count on Rhiannon to go into labor that very day. Glynnis is rather used to the process now.

"Don't worry, Mom, I've got the kids, no worries."

"You'd better!" Rhi yells threateningly as she hobbles out the door as quickly as she can.

One last daughter: Naomi Toft. After this, Rhiannon's sworn to purchase a supply of condoms and to keep them handy at all times. This is just ridiculous. But they'll manage somehow. They always do.

When she arrives home, however, she isn't expecting her welcome home gift.

"Holy shit." Rhiannon grabs at her chest as Matthew turns to look at her with an amused smile. "You scared the...how did you even get up...I..." Eventually she gives up on speaking. She slides past him without hesitation, every inch of her body having lost its sinuous grace in favor for jerky and exhausted movements.

"You're not...happy to see me?"

"I'ma shoot straight with you, Hamming, I don't really give a shit about you one way or the other unless you've got a hamburger on you." She carefully lays Naomi in her crib before smoothing her hair over her shoulder and looking at Matthew with a quirked brow. "No?" She shakes her head. "Then no, I'm not that happy to see you."

Matthew chuckles as he walks past her and shakes his head as well. "I come here to see my firstborn child and you treat me like I'm nothing. That's nice, Rhiannon."

She's so exhausted that she almost can't bring herself to care that he knows. Almost. She rubs her forehead and nearly topples over, just barely managing to catch herself on Naomi's crib. "How...how'd you know?"

"I didn't, really." He inspects her apartment furnishings, sparse as they are, and Rhiannon watches his progress with slightly flushed cheeks. "But the timing sure was funny, wasn't it? What do you want?"

"Excuse me?"

"To keep this quiet. Money? Fame? Fortune."

"All I fucking want is a NAP," Rhiannon snaps, glaring at him. "I don't know if you've ever squeezed a watermelon out of your penis, but it ain't that pleasant. And for your information," she continues, stumbling into the living room further. "I wasn't gonna tell a damn person. I already got three other kids. Imagine how it already looks. Any credibility I ever had's gone."

Matthew stares at her, solid and expressionless beyond his eyebrow slowly lifting. "...I see."

"Now if you don't mind getting the hell out of here, I need sleep."

He shakes his head. "Your oldest daughter needs her sleep too...and you need someone to take care of your younger daughters tonight. I'm not going anywhere."

Rhiannon stares back at him long and hard before she simply shakes her head and goes to her bedroom. "Fine. Whatever. Have it your way. But you better not steal anything."

He doesn't. He lets his insomnia get the best of him and stays up the entire night, reading her small selection of books.

Glynnis is the first up the next day, and she enters the living room to pluck Athena out of her crib. "So," she murmurs, utterly unimpressed by the celebrity in the living room. "Which one of these belongs to you?"

He chuckles and gets up, wandering over to the babies. He leans over Naomi's crib and nods toward her. "This one."

"Hmm." Glynnis leans over the crib and studies Naomi. "I could see that. She's got your cheeks."

"You think so?"

"Yeah." Glynnis stares at Naomi for a few moments longer before she turns and makes her way to the refrigerator to prepare a bottle for the sniffling Athena. "By the way...you do anything to my mother, and I'll make it so you can't ever father a kid again."

Matthew looks at Glyn with wide eyes, mouth open in surprise, before he clears his throat. "Erm...yes, well."

He likes this family, he decides. Especially this baby right here in front of him. Awesome.

Rhiannon has barely stirred before Matthew enters her bedroom, eyebrow quirked with a mischievous smirk. "I don't suppose it's time for a repeat performance, is it?"

Rhiannon rubs at her eyes with a sigh. "What do you want, Hamming?"

"I don't really know, actually." He approaches her. His sunglasses hide his eyes, and it more than unnerves Rhiannon. It makes her feel all the more exposed right here in nothing but her underwear. "Some fun? Something new and interesting? A chance to see where you go in the entertainment world?"

Rhiannon snorts and shakes her head. "Boy, you ain't seen my stretchmarks, have you?"

His head slowly tilts downward as if his eyes are following the path of her body. "No." His voice is low and soft, warm, dripping caramel. "No. This is the first time I've ever seen your body, actually. And I'm quite enamored with what I see."

The control is slipping out of her fingers. Rhiannon snaps toward it as quickly as she can, desperate.

"If you're just looking to get laid, you don't need to butter me up like that, Hamming. Just a kiss's good enough."

"I don't butter anyone up, Toft, not unless I'm getting a movie role out of it." He smirks at her before he jerks his head toward the door. "Get dressed. We're going out for brunch."

"...b-but why?"

He shrugs. "Because I stayed up all night feeding and snuggling your kids and I'm hungry?" He pops the lapels of his suit playfully. "I'm Matthew Hamming. Since when do I need a reason?"

Glynnis is dubbed babysitter. She watches Matthew closely as he leads Rhiannon out the door after their plans are explained. She still means what she said.

Rhiannon personally feels as awkward as hell...but something's gotta give eventually, right?

-----

FINALLY all the kids are born. And all girls too, haha. Fair enough.

For anyone curious, Tiara was the first of the twins born, so she's technically the second child and therefore the heir. Her traits are Virtuoso and Artistic. Athena's are Genius and Loner, I think. I can't remember. I've completely forgotten Naomi's, so those will come later, haha.

And Matthew really WAS an unexpected guest. OTL I expected him to show up at the hospital when Rhiannon gave birth, but nope, he was randomly standing in the apartment when I switched back there as Rhiannon was coming home. It was kind of freaky. I just assume that Glynnis peeked out the door when the doorbell rang, saw the equivalent of our Hugh Jackman, and was just like "...-shrugs and opens door- Come in. Don't mess anything up."

A quick side note: I really enjoyed writing Rhi's shift in dialect. xD Normally I imagine her having a really husky, cultured kind of voice, but her backstory relates to her growing up in the projects before deciding to get herself out of it using her beauty to gain her power, so I always imagine her to switch back into a ghetto twang when she's particularly stressed, tired, or angry. Just an added bonus for you.

Chapter 9 - Mistakes and Chances Anew

Rhiannon and Glynnis aren't very good at bonding, but they try the best that they can.

"Hey, Mom?"

"Yeah, kid?"

"What can I do to make you smile again?"

The fact that even her kid daughter's seen just how worn and exhausted Rhiannon is getting makes her feel both uncomfortable and warm inside. She looks down at Glynnis and forces a faint smile.

"Kid, just sitting here with you tonight makes me smile. You just keep being you, okay?"

Glynnis grins.

Quiet nights of bonding are at an end, however. That evening, the both wake up from Rhiannon's labor pains.

"MOM! Mom, what can I do?!"

"There's nothing you can do, kid," Rhiannon pants, rubbing her belly as she pulls out her apartment keys. "Just lay down, all right? I'll be back before you go to school."

Because fate likes to deal twisted hands, Rhiannon ends up with a pair. Two daughters: Athena and Tiara.

Glynnis didn't quite believe her mother when she said she'd be back in the morning, but sure enough, when she emerges from the bedroom she finds Rhiannon pouring two bowls of cereal, Glynnis's two half-sisters dozing in the cheap cribs that Rhiannon could only barely afford. Glynnis notes the disappearance of the television in the corner. She has no idea how bad their financial situation is with all of these maternity days, but she doesn't need to.

Glynnis grabs her bowl of cereal and looks up at her mother seriously as she begins to eat. Rhiannon chuckles. "Don't you wanna see the other kids?"

"Are you okay, Mom?"

"Yeah?"

"Okay. Good." And then she begins to eat, even though she's clearly antsy. She finishes her breakfast before meeting the two babies, which both amuses and touches Rhiannon. Even if she is a crappy mother, her kid's got a sense of loyalty to her. How bizarre.

But the next few days diminish that belief considerably.

Rhiannon tries her best. She really does. She throws herself into caring for the two babies and in helping Glynnis with her homework as much as she can, but by two days afterward she is a sweaty mess. When Tiara finishes eating, suddenly Athena needs to. And then Tiara needs her diaper changed. And then Athena needs a snuggle.

By the end of that second day, Rhiannon knows she is a failure as a parent. But she refuses to break down. She refuses to acknowledge the strain everything is putting on her. Instead, she ignores the colicky cries of her babies and takes a long, hot shower, making herself look pristine. And then she makes a phone call.

"Hello?"

"Matthew." He'd called her once before to invite her to a party, but she refused to go outside with her pregnancy, especially since the twins made her walk as ungainly as they did already. But she has yet to contact him since then.

"Rhiannon?" He sounds surprised, but not displeased. If anything, he simply sounds curious. "Wow, hey there. I thought you'd dropped off the face of the planet for a while there."

She leans her head back against the wall of the bathroom, listening to her two babies finally begin to quiet down, most likely from sheer exhaustion. With the silence, she can pretend they don't even exist. "I had some things to take care of. But I started thinking about you tonight. I wanted to check up on you."

"Yeah? Things are all right. Shooting with Emmy Star's driving me up a wall, but-"

"Hey, Matthew?"

"Yeah?"

"Still interested in picking up where we left off?"

There is a moment of silence before he speaks again, his voice low and slightly rough. "Just where were you thinking of picking up?"

"I asked myself that tonight, actually. I asked myself that a lot. In the shower."

There is the soft sound of his breath drifting across the receiver, faint but enough that Rhiannon draws power and confidence from it. "And did you come up with any answers?"

"Oh, I came up with a lot of answers. I'm interested in trying them all."

"When?"

"Tonight."

He chuckles softly, a soft hint of gravel in the laugh. "That sounds wonderful. I've thought about you a lot, too. Every night since I met you." He drops his voice to a silky murmur. "It's like you put a spell on me that night."

The drinks come to mind. She decides now might not be the best time to mention it. "I'm serious. Feel like going on a little adventure tonight?"

"What do you have in mind?"

"Dodge the paparazzi. Come to my place. Meet me on the tenth floor."

"Rhiannon, I have another shoot in like five hours. Do you even know what time-"

"I can make it worth your while, Matthew. Just a little time in the elevator."

He groans softly. "Give me fifteen minutes. You'd better be ready for me."

"Oh, but Matthew," she purrs. "I already am."

She takes that fifteen minutes to apply perfume and makeup and to fix her hair and clothing, and by the time that 1:30am rolls around she's snuck outside her apartment doorway. There is a long tense three minutes where she paces, every inch of her skin quivering, and then the elevator door opens.

She isn't disappointed.

He looks perfectly coiffed, just as she suspected, but there is a fire in his dilated pupils that takes her breath away. He approaches her, but she sidesteps with a coy smirk. "Now, now, Matthew," she murmurs.

"You tease me now?" he growls, reaching out a hand to her but having it fall short. "When I had to spend half an hour with you dancing around in my mind in nothing but my scarf? I don't do well with teasing, Rhiannon."

"There are cameras everywhere," she breathes, backing into the elevator button and pressing it. "Except perhaps...for the one place it really matters. All hail technical difficulties."

When the doors part again, she slips inside and he follows. They're barely shut before he takes hold of her.

As expected, Matthew departs shortly after the quickie, barely looking over his shoulder at her as he emerges from the elevator. She likes it like that. He's got commitment issues, just like she does. It sort of makes them fit.

She scrubs her skin of his scent before she takes herself to bed. Glynnis doesn't need to know just how much of a whore her mother really is, no matter how fulfilled she feels right now.

When she wakes up the next morning, she remembers it is her birthday.

She feels older now...but cougars certainly have their place in society these days.

And what follows shortly after that is really no surprise this time around. Rhiannon can't even find it in herself to be disappointed or upset. If she's going to take care of twins, she might as well add another baby onto this list. But the first second that she has the money...she's getting her tubes tied. No questions asked.

------

Remember when Rhi used to wear things other than maternity clothes? Yeah, me neither.

CURSE YOU AND THE TWINS, BARRY. Rhiannon was literally at a red plumbob level for the entire first few days before Matthew called her and they chatted on the phone and she rolled a wish to WooHoo with him. Really, who was I to deny her when she'd been having such a hard time of it?

Of course, she got pregnant again. I'm not a saint, after all. xD

Chapter 8 - Breaking Hearts for a Living

Homework is hard. But Rhiannon has to work all hours of the night, and thus Glynnis is left home alone to take care of it all herself.

She is a very quiet child. Socializing is one of those things that she rarely seems to need, and it makes Rhi more uncomfortable than anything. Did she raise Glynnis incorrectly? Should she have been around a little more?

Glynnis tries to sit up and wait for Rhiannon to get home, but she's far too tired. Inevitably she pads into their shared bedroom and collapses into bed.

Rhi arrives home absolutely exhausted, but she's scarcely made it out of the elevator before she is sprinting into her apartment.

"Shit," she whispers as she sits back against the cool wall and wipes a few drops of sweat away from her forehead. "Shitshitshit." She knows this feeling know, and she knows it well. Plumbob, will she ever learn?!

She slides into bed a slim, beautiful woman...

...and emerges with life growing inside of her.

As she rubs at her head, sighing restlessly, she tries to figure out the best course of events. This apartment is barely big enough to hold HER. How the hell it's supposed to hold her, Glynnis, and some other kid, is far beyond her realm of understanding. And her career! What is she supposed to do with her career? She's missed so many days already, thanks to Glynnis. What now?

Abortion seems the best plan. But then she strolls into the living room.

Glynnis seems to have a faint sense of agoraphobia. She highly resists leaving the house, unless she is going straight onto the schoolbus, due to her strict dislike of the outdoors. Thus, most of her socializing takes place on the Internet.

Rhiannon stares at her daughter, busy clicking away at the keys, and sighs softly. She could've done so much better, couldn't she?

Maybe this is her chance to do so.

"Kid," she calls, and Glynnis looks over her shoulder. "C'mon. We're going out."

Glynnis's eyes grow huge. "Why?"

"Because I need some books at the library and they have sweet toys there."

Toys are a strong temptation, that's for sure. But Glynnis still looks away nervously.

"You can wait inside while I call a taxi and then run out to the car. Don't worry."

Under any other circumstance, Glynnis would resist and resist again...but this is some quality time with her mom, and she's been starved of that for her entire life. She types a quick goodbye to her friend Diego on their IM before hurrying over to her mother.

As they enter the elevator, Glynnis notes Rhiannon's new attire and takes in the bump of her stomach as well. "Mom?"

"Yeah?"

"Why do you suddenly look fat?"

Rhiannon touches her stomach. "Because you're...you're gonna have a brother or a sister, that's why."

"Oh." Glynnis's eyes grow huge with this announcement as the elevator doors close.

They arrive at the library with little to-do.

Glynnis happily builds towers.

Rhiannon reads books that she has already read once before.

Her cell phone rings abruptly while she is there, however, and the familiar voice of Barry Tenderlove on the phone makes her cheeks flush. "What's up?" she asks quietly, flipping the book shut.

"Hey. I'm having a party tonight, and I...wondered if you wanted to come."

"Well, I don't know." She slides the book across the desk and absently rubs at her baby bump. "After what happened last time at that party..."

"Not this time." She hears him smiling into the phone, and she tilts her head back and closes her eyes in dismay. "It's a special party, you see. Just you and me."

Acidic panic begins prickling at the back of her throat. "Oh, really? What are we celebrating?"

"Let's just say that Suzy heard something from a little bird. And that maybe she let a certain someone go."

He knows. She doesn't know how he knows, but he does. "...let me get Glynnis home, okay? I'll be there in an hour and a half."

Glynnis doesn't really understand why her mom's leaving, but after strict commands that she go to bed and go to sleep and stay there until exactly 7am the next morning, she knows there's a distinct reason for it. Rhiannon slides on a silky dress, comfortable heels, and a string of pearls, and locks the door behind her.

When she arrives at Barry's house, he looks decidedly less surprised than he should be. If anything, he looks pleased. "Rhiannon." He holds out his arms to embrace her, but she stays at a prickly distance. "I see Suzy was right."

"How did she find out?" Rhiannon asks softly, rubbing at her arms.

"You'd be surprised how many people read gossip magazines around here." Barry approaches her by a few steps, but Rhiannon remains unmoved. "She read an article the other day about you and Matthew Hamming. You've been big news with her ever since."

Rhiannon vaguely remembers people staring at her a little more, but the fact that people actually know who she is is more than a little startling.

"And then one of her friends told her that you were pregnant today. She saw you at the library. And then Suzy just started bitching about you." He laughs then, shaking his head. "She knows we're friends, you see, and she called you so many things. She called you a whore."

She can't really generate the ability to get angry at this, given how she's lived since adolescence.

Barry finally stops advancing, just a few feet between them. "And so...we fought."

"Why?" she asks, her voice barely over a whisper at this point.

"Because I knew who that baby really belonged to."

Rhiannon begins shaking her head, but she holds her tongue when a woman suddenly draws a camera and begins taking pictures of them. It seems to be happening more and more often these days, and for the life of her she can't figure out why.

"Rhi, I really care about you," Barry continues, seemingly oblivious to the camera's presence. "Please, just let me."

"Go home to Suzy, Barry."

"I don't want to. I want to go home with you."

She lifts her chin higher, resolute, jaw tight. "But I don't want you to. Go home."

"You can't deny me the right to see my kid, Rhia-"

"It's not even your kid," she snaps, pushing him away before he can touch her stomach.

Barry stares at her, looking a little stricken.

"It's not yours. It's someone else's. Someone you don't even know. Someone I like a hell of a lot better."

She's eternally thankful when hurt crosses Barry's face instead. "I...thought-"

"You thought wrong." She turns and waddles away, one arm protectively circling her stomach. "Goodbye, Barry."

-----

Short chapter, unfortunately. They'll start getting longer soon.

I keep forgetting to post Glynnis's traits...mostly because I can never remember them myself. Hates the Outdoors and Good Sense of Humor are two of them, but the third I'm at a loss for. I'll have to start writing them down.

Chater 7 - One Step Forward and Two Steps Back

"Of all the things..." Rhiannon tugs on her formal attire for what feels like the fiftieth time in a month, scowling as she does so. The Studio insisted that she go down to a local bar and pass out flyers for their next movie and encourage as many people to come as possible.

She looks toward Glynnis with a little sigh. The kid is growing on her. Goddamn it. "Don't give the babysitter any shit," she murmurs, pressing a gentle kiss to the top of her head. She hurries away to the bar before she can think on that action at all.

It's an easy job, really, though the pay isn't nearly worth it.

The people all seem relatively receptive, to a certain degree, and Rhiannon's charm and appearance certainly makes her a popular figure there.

Rhi only begins to expect an ulterior motive in Alan Stanley when various celebrities swoop down on the bar. "Well well well..." she murmurs to herself, eyeing Lola Belle as she strolls out of the elevator. "And here I thought you didn't like me, Stanley."

To be fair, she'd never been fond of Lola Belle.

She takes great pride in standing directly in front of the only entrance into the bar to hand out flyers to everyone BUT the bleached blonde hag.

She grows completely and utterly distracted, however, when a far more appealing 5-star celebrity strolls in.

"Holy shit, that's Matthew Hamming."

Stanley REALLY apparently wanted her off his back with no chance of her requesting child support, then. She has the distinct feeling that he positively knew this was going to happen.

Without an inch of shame or nerves, Rhiannon strolls straight toward the star. "Hey there."

He looks at her - looks THROUGH her, rather - and furrows his brow. "...are you lost?"

"No, of course not." She tugs a piece of paper out from her purse and Matthew immediately goes for a pen. "And I, uh, don't want an autograph. Calm down. I'm on the job here proooobably just as much as you are."

He stares at her for another moment before he clicks his pen shut and tucks it into his pocket. "And?"

"I work for Plumbob Studios just like you. Gotta, y'know...hand out some flyers and all that." Rhiannon offers him one with a grin. "I have a feeling you'll already be here at this premiere, buuuuut..."

Matthew Hamming takes it and studies it, blinking. "Oh, right, this."

"It's gonna be a piece of shit, isn't it?"

He chuckles, favoring her with a grin of his own. "If you really DO work at the studio, you know exactly how I am obligated to answer."

The two eventually fall into easy conversation about everything and nothing, quietly jeering at Alan Stanley's faults as a director and the state of the film business at large. Rhiannon conveniently holds back her own dreams of becoming a world-famous actress as best as she can. No reason to ruin some potential networking just like that.

"Hey, you want a drink? I'm about to go get one," she says, jerking her head toward the bar.

Matthew grins. "Yeah, sure. Any old thing'll do."

Oh, Rhiannon knows PRECISELY which drink she's asking for.

As she delivers Matthew his drink, she becomes incredibly aware of a noted paparazzi lurking nearby them. Plumbob, so THIS is the way to get attention around this town.

"If you want," Matthew murmurs, his head foggy with alcohol. "We can take this somewhere quieter. There's another lounge not too far from here. I can get us both into it."

A lounge? Not quite what Rhi was thinking about when she ordered those drinks. But she supposes that she should've expected it. A five-star celebrity doesn't become one by sleeping with everything that moves. Instead, she slips him her number. "I've got some things to do...but hey, call me sometime. We can pick up where we left off."

Glynnis is delighted when her mother returns home. Her babysitters are HORRIBLE.

The next day is Glynnis's birthday, and Rhiannon desperately tries to teach her everything more that she needs to know to become a productive member of society. Truth be told, Rhi's scared shitless. A baby's one thing. So's a toddler. But a fully grown child? Someone that can actually argue back when she tells them to do something? Not quite what she signed up for.

At the same time, though...she's attached to the little bugger now.

That drink from last night's still playing with her ovaries, making her feel warm and flushed and restless, and so she invites over the one person that she thinks she might have a chance of getting some with.

"Can't you put down the pepper shaker for just one damn second?"

"Clearly you don't know how intensive the culinary business is." Barry looks toward her with a smirk. "And you'll be thanking me for this food later."

Rhiannon can think of a few things she can do to repay him for dinner.

Glynnis grows into a child. Frightfully, she's developed her father's nose. Rhiannon considers how much it might cost to fix that one day.

As might be expected, Barry and Rhiannon easily fall into conversation all over again. "Poor kid," he murmurs, looking toward the couch. Glynnis has collapsed from exhaustion there, the events of growing up after such an exciting day of learning enough to tucker her out.

"She'll be fine." Rhiannon dismisses any worry for Glynnis easily, putting it to the back of her mind as she focuses on the present. "So I heard some...rumors."

"Oh?" Barry looks as if he knows exactly what she'll bring up.

"Suzy Strummer? Really?"

He chuckles, tucking his hands into his pockets. "You say that like it's a bad thing. I'll have you know she's a perfectly good girlfriend."

There's a few different ways that this conversation can go. As always, Rhiannon takes the direct route, not passing Go or collecting 200 Simoleans. "Yeah, well. She's not me."

"And since when are you so fond of committment in the first place?"

She leans closer, arching an eyebrow. "And here I thought it was the man who was supposed to initiate the casual sex."

When Rhiannon pulls him close, pressing her body flush against his, he looks down at them with a breathy laugh. "Rhi, you...Watcher, you scare the shit out of me."

"I have that effect on men." She lifts her chin proudly, pursing her lips in the process. "You don't want Suzy, Barry. Stop lying to yourself." She presses closer and he gasps, his fingers digging into her hip and threading through her hair. "So why not say 'Fuck it' and take what you want, for once?"

His kiss is brutal and messy, full of pent-up passion and fire, and Rhiannon clings to him for dear life just to keep from falling over. Glynnis sleeps on, completely unaware of the firestorm growing beside her.

"Not here," Rhiannon barely manages to whisper as Barry nips at her neck. "The bed-"

"I'm not uncivilized." He allows her to step away and follows close behind, eyes watching the sway of her curvaceous behind.

When the two climb into bed, the door clicking shut behind them, Rhiannon looks toward him and feels her heart begin to pound at the sight of the mischief in his eyes. "Well? What are you waiting for?"

He waits no longer.

A few hours later, Glynnis wakes up on the couch, bleary-eyed and exhausted still. A nap can only account for so much. She stumbles into the bedroom, not even taking notice of the sleeping man in her mother's bed, and conks out in her own bed without fuss.

The next morning, Rhiannon pulls Barry out of the bedroom before Glynnis can wake up.

Barry helps to put up dishes from the night before while Rhiannon looks for a spot of breakfast. His eyes never leave her. "...I..." Rhiannon looks over her shoulder at Barry as he speaks. "Suzy and me. We can be over in three seconds, if you want."

The thought of commitment stirs that strange sense of terror in Rhiannon's belly again, and she looks away. "Barry, you know how I am."

That he does. He washes the plate silently, frowning.

A part of her really does care about him, she won't lie. It's that same part that lashed out with jealous passion the night before when he first told her about his relationship with Suzy. But she can't. She just can't.