Chapter 15 - Reunited And It Feels So Good

With the purchase of a new exercise machine, everything in the small apartment feels even more crowded.

Rhi would like to lie and say that she bought the machine just to encourage her kids to have better health, but she can't. She can't because she only bought it to try to hold off aging even more.

It doesn't work. But she tries to put on a happy face, if only for the balding repairman staring listlessly at the computer.

Rhiannon becomes an elder, and with it all of her dreams of becoming a famous actress are gone for good. But being a director sounds even better at this point.

Egads. She thinks she looks like a snow beast. And not a distinguished one either.

Much better.

Her pajamas aren't what the daughters ever wanted to see, but they endure patiently.

"Kid, look, I know you're excited about Octavio, but don't you think you need to hold off on talking about marriage?"

For the first time, Naomi gets her panties in a wad. "What, and try to get a job and get to the top of it so I can be sure I'm secure before I get married?" She slams her hands down on the table as she stands up. "Some of us like being in love! Some of us aren't scared of it! And, for the record, I LIKE Mr. Hamming!" With her pancakes untouched, Naomi storms into the bedroom she shares with her mother and slams the door shut, locking it.

There's a long, awkward silence where Athena barely picks at her pancakes before she looks up at her mother. "She's...got a point."

"Athena..."

"I know you're scared of it, Mom, but...but Mr. Hamming was always a nice guy. He helped us out a lot. And he really liked you." She adjusts her glasses and looks away again shyly. "And I bet he misses you."

It's settled. Once the kids go to school, Rhiannon pulls out the familiar old number in her cell phone.

"Hello?"

He sounds older and more feeble than she remembers. Of course. If she's going to get old and ugly, then he was going to get older first. She distantly wonders how much time he might have left on the planet.

"...Matthew?"

There is a long moment of silence. "...Rhi? I'd recognize that voice anywhere."

Rhiannon closes her eyes with a heavy sigh. "God, what happened to us?"

"You did, if I remember correctly."

The guilt is well-deserved, and Rhiannon takes it gracefully. She begins pacing. "True. Very true. But you wouldn't be the first."

Matthew is silent again, and Rhi can tell that he has something either very inappropriate or very telling on his mind. "I never gave a shit about being the first, Rhi," he says rather raggedly. "But I did always sort of want to be the last."

Both, then. The familiar panic grabs a hold of Rhiannon, but for once she wrestles with it and kicks it away. They have so little time left. So little. "I want you to come over. I want to see you. And I want Naomi to know."

Matthew is basically retired now, with enough money to live on for the rest of his life. There's no job to think about. "I'll be there soon."

He is.

The pair stare at each other in shock, taking in the new versions of each other that they are now so unfamiliar with. Matthew is the first to speak, releasing a quick gasp of air. "Driving over here, I tried to figure out what you'd look like. I tried to figure out just how ugly age would've made you. But there was no point. You haven't grown old. You've improved, like a fine wine."

Rhiannon chuckles, touching her head scarf nervously. "Spoken like a man whose eyes are going bad."

He pulls her close anyway, and Rhi reflects on how fantastic it feels to be held. She's not sure she ever has, really. She wraps her arms around his slender body carefully, like he might break, and closes her eyes.

"I've missed you," he murmurs warmly, reaching down to carefully cup her hip with his wide hand. "I've missed everything about you."

The two make up for lost time. And then fall asleep and snooze through the night somehow, even through the kids getting home and eating and doing their homework and going to bed themselves.

Naomi is the first up the next morning, as always. She has the distinct feeling that today is going to be a very important day. She tiptoes out of the room before anyone else wakes up...mostly because she can see that her mother's trademark nighty is on the floor and, really, Naomi has no desire to see ANY of that.

When Rhi wakes up and clothes herself again, she takes a long moment to stare down at Matthew. Commitment. She's always been scared shitless by commitment. It makes her want to run screaming to the hills while pulling her hair out.

And yet...so much time has been lost. Matthew could have a heart attack today.

Screw her commitment issues. Even if the two of them never call each other anything more than inexclusive lovers, she wants him around. And she's going to keep him around.

Rhi calls Naomi into the bedroom a little while later with news to share.

Matthew gives her a wide, dorky smile that Naomi is familiar with, if only because she sees it every time she looks in the mirror, and in that instant she realizes the truth. "...ohmuhgaw, seriously?" she murmurs, covering her mouth. "Dude! That's so cool!"

"We...we didn't want anyone to know. For Matthew's career."

"No, I totally get it, but wow, that's still awesome!" Naomi shakes Matthew's hand enthusiastically. "I'm a huge fan! I have your genes! Holy crap!"

And so the apartment gets used to Matthew's presence all over again.

"You've got quite a knack for that, you know."

"Do I?" Tiara says softly, smiling down at her guitar. "I'd...really love to do something with it, actually. Make it a career. But don't tell Mom, all right? She thinks I want to be a painter."

Matthew chuckles. "And you want to be...what, a rock star? How is that worse than wanting to be a famous actress?"

"A country star, actually." She winks at Matthew as she slides easily into a well-known country lick or two. "Mom would lose it."

Rhiannon is luckily a little too distracted to even think about her daughter listening to nothing but country music all the time. There'll be time to handle that later.

-----

Naomi's new trait is Charismatic. 8B Forgot that part last time.

I missed Matthew. xD So sue me.