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Diversion
Ricky unlocks the door to his Victorian. Rita hangs back on the
stoop. Pushing the door open, he turns his back to the door and
holds out a hand to her. Rita exhales and places her hand in his.
The light in the entry way shows the hesitation, the second
thoughts, the awkwardness of this first meeting. Ricky leads her
into the living room and through to the kitchen. For them and
their families the kitchen has always been the home part of the
house. Ricky picks up his remote and pushing a button music fills
the room. Going over to the fridge he pulls out a bottle of wine
and grabs a couple of glasses.
"Aren't you afraid of waking the neighbors? Ricky, it's one
am."
"Nope. One of the reasons why I bought this place and
converted it back to a real house. No neighbors to worry about."
Uncorking the wine with a casual skill he pours them both a glass.
He hands one to Rita. With a sigh of relief he loosens up his tie
finally dragging it over his head. He stuffs it in the jacket of
his suit and then drops the suit jacket over one of the barstools.
Reaching up he unbuttons the collar of his shirt loosening it up
and untucking it from his slacks. "Come on. Let's go out on
the back balcony."
Rita follows him. Once outside she takes a deep breath. "It
smells like cut grass and... roses?"
"The boy next door was busy today. And the roses were a
present from Edward and Lila when I bought the place."
"Nobody understands the thing between you and Edward."
"Me included." Ricky admits. Rita is leaning against
the railing with her wine sitting on the edge. Ricky comes up
behind her. He sets his wine glass next to hers and stands with
his hands outside of hers leaning on the railing. His chest to
Rita's bare back. He inhales the strawberry scent of her shampoo.
"But I've kinda gotten used to it. He's hurting right now.
Ms Lila probably won't make it through another winter."
"Johnny told me. Emily knows it too but..."
"Yeah, she's had too many hits already. She's trying to deny
this one."
"We've been so lucky, Ricky. I mean we have Dad, Poppi and
Cookie."
"There were times when I thought having Cookie around wasn't
such a blessing." Ricky tells her wryly. Rita can sense the
grin even if she can't see it.
"She does take some getting used to, but you know she makes
my dad happy."
"Yeah, she definitely makes your dad her priority. I think
she might have flown off to Salem anyway just cause of the
situation but doing anything for Vic normally..."
"Not going to happen. Vicki will probably have her own place
with Daddy's blessing within... two weeks."
"One." Ricky counters.
"One." Rita agrees wryly. She turns around so her back
is against the railing, and she is looking up at Ricky.
"What about you? You going to get your own place? Carly
offered if everything got too stressed at your dad's place that
you could stay with her or up at the stables."
"Johnny says I can have the apartment over the restaurant.
All he wants for it is for me to work Sundays for him."
"I don't know if I like that idea."
"Oh? And you'd get a say 'cause....?"
"I was kinda hoping you'd be spending Sundays with me. I'd
even share the paper with you." Ricky offers opening up his
negotiating position, taking a half step closer.
"I don't know, Ricky, Sharing the Sunday Herald, that's a
pretty big commitment. AJ and Carly don't even share a paper.
They get two." Rita says with mock seriousness. "What
if I want the sports page first?" One hand rests on top of
Ricky's while she reaches for her glass of wine.
"You can read it to me." Ricky takes the glass from her
and takes a sip and then sets it back on the ledge.
"The whole sports page?!" Rita makes
her eyes go really wide.
"Okay-- just the basketball stories." Ricky leans in
and starts nuzzling on her neck. "You remember when I was
working with you on slam dunks? We were a good team even back
then."
Rita tilts her head to the side and half holds her breath. One
hand comes up to balance against Ricky's chest. Button by button
his shirt comes undone. Ricky cups the back of her neck. Rita
leans in and presses a kiss to Ricky's muscled abs. Ricky groans
and grabbing her by the hips lifts her up until her lips meet his.
Rita wraps her arms around his shoulders and her sandals fall off
her feet. Ricky slides an arm under her thighs and carries her
into the house. With a sure step he goes to the bedroom and half
tosses Rita on the bed. Rita bounces on the bed and laughs. She
crawls up onto her knees the flowing dress spread out around her.
Reaching up she slides Ricky's shirt from his shoulders and it
falls to the ground. Rita stands up on the bed finally taller
than Ricky. "Oh I think I like the view from up here."
Rita teases.
"I think I do too." Ricky slides his hand around her
waist and unzips the dress so the only thing holding it up is the
fastening at the base of Rita's neck. Rita reaches behind her
neck and lets that button loose. The dress pools around her feet
leaving her in only satin bikinis. "Gawd. You're so
beautiful. So perfect."
"I'm too short. And I have hips like a boy." Rita
protests.
Ricky laughs. "Baby, you are all girl-- my girl."
Quickly shedding the rest of his clothes he joins her on the bed
pulling her down on top of him. Rita straddles him. Her fingers
knead his chest taking in every ripple and dimple. Ricky does
some exploration of his own discovering her hot and ready for him.
Impatiently removing the last barrier between them, Rita revels
in Ricky's groan as she rubs against him teasingly. The groan
becomes a growl as he positions her over him. Twining her fingers
with Ricky's, Rita impales herself upon him. Her head falls back
as she savors the sensation... the fullness of being with him.
There'd been nights she'd dreamed of this and woke up alone to
take a cold shower.
Instinct takes over and she begins to move with Ricky unable to
hold still, unable to just savor the moment but moving toward
something more. Rita collapses bonelessly upon Ricky tightening
around him in a final spasm as he cries out. Ricky wraps his arms
around Rita not wanting her to lose their connection, kissing the
top of her head as it rests on his chest. Rita closes her eyes
and focuses on his labored breathing and the rapid beat of his
heart returning to normal. Rita tries to move to Ricky's side but
his arm is an iron band on her back. With his other hand he grabs
the covers that had been pushed aside in their haste and pulls
the fine cotton top sheet over them. "Stay with me."
"I'm not goin' anywhere."
The smell of coffee wakes Ricky who is sprawled out on the bed
face down. One hand searches the other half of the bed... nothing.
He comes awake in that instant. "Rita?"
"Yeah?" A voice answers from out in the house.
Ricky grabs a robe and belts it around him. He wanders out to the
kitchen after making a quick stop by the bathroom to brush his
teeth. "Watcha doing up?"
"I guess I should have warned you I'm a morning person."
Rita goes over to one of Ricky's cabinents and pulls out a coffee
mug. She pours him a cup of coffee and pushes the cream and sugar
toward him.
Ricky takes a sip of the coffee black and grimaces. "Well I
can tell you've been hanging round my dad. Let's make a deal. I
make the coffee." He doctors up the coffee to make it
drinkable.
Rita laughs. "It's not that bad. Come on. I conducted an
experiment once. Poppi's coffee you can actually use to strip
paint. It's better than Formbys." The ding of the oven has
her turning from the breakfast bar and putting on an oven mitt
she reaches in and pulls out a tin of muffins. "I hope you
weren't planning anything special with those bananas. I had to
improvise this morning."
"Mrs Chow tries to make sure I'm stocked up. But I did just
get back into town from LA." Ricky reaches for one of the
muffins that Rita turned out onto a rack. She smacks his hand.
"Let them cool a little. It'll give me time to make omelets.
What do you want in yours?" Rita bends over to grab
something from the fridge. The Tshirt of Ricky's she is wearing
riding up. Still not revealing anything since the tshirt hung
down to her knees to start. "You've got a great kitchen here.
And I checked your freezer all preprepped foods. Mrs Chow again?"
"Yeah. Carly and Cookie went commando on the kitchen when I
was doing the remodel. I left it to them and Larry and just made
sure I was out of town on a job when it came down to the nuts and
bolts-- or rather subzero freezer and restaurant style stove.
This is what I came back to."
Rita juggles all the ingredients for the omelets as she puts them
on the counter. "But they kept this even though they got rid
of the awful wallpaper." Rita points to the cookie jar in
the shape of a rooster that Carly had given Ricky as a
housewarming present all those years ago.
"Hey! Some day that thing might actually be a collectors
item." Ricky says tongue in cheek. He sees Rita is about to
cook up some bacon. "Babe, let me do that. I don't want you
to get splattered." He takes over by the stove.
"I can do it." Rita protests.
"So can I. You do the rest." Ricky insists. Rita holds
up her hands in surrender. She pulls out a cutting board and one
of the sharp knives from the butcher block. She starts dicing
veggies she is going to stuff the omelets with. Her movements are
skilled and sure. Ricky grabs a plate and puts down a couple of
paper towels to drain the crisp bacon. He puts the bacon grease
aside. He'd thrown it aside one time with Cookie. Once was enough
to learn better. Rita uses a papertowel to glance over the pan
and turns down the heat some.
She pours the egg mixture into the same pan letting it set up
some. Ricky uses the time she is preoccupied to go get the Sunday
paper from the front stoop. By the time he gets back, Rita is
already layering in the veggies and a crumbled up piece of bacon
into the middle third of the egg. She folds the egg over the top
and flips the whole thing over and covers it with shredded cheese.
She covers the pan momentarily to give the cheese time to melt
and then pulls the whole thing off. She slides it onto a plate
along with the slices of bacon. Rita carries the plate over to
the table along with two forks and sets them down and then holds
out her hand. "What?" Ricky asks.
"Sports page please."
Before she can take the seat next to Ricky he pulls her down onto
his lap. "This way we can read it together." He nuzzles
her neck as he whispers in her ear.
Rita laughs and tilts her head to give him easier access even as
she is reaching for a piece of bacon. She feeds the bacon to
Ricky. "You're goin' to need to keep your strength up. This
has been a long time coming."
The End?