Prompt# 298 - Covet- Where Thoughts Dwell - Tekia - Original

[tekia.livejournal.com]

Title: Where Thoughts Dwell
Fandom: Original
Prompt: Covet
Warnings: none
Rating: PG
Summary: Billie wakes up with no memories of how she ended up in the lap of luxury. Cont.

Lunch proved to a simple affair at an indoor/outdoor café. They sat near an open window with the cool breeze blowing in. Helen sat beside Billie, across from her husband. She pointed out her favorite dishes on the menu before Billie and insisted that she try their homemade lemonade.
Greg was just turned eighteen and as clever as his father. While Helen wasn’t his mother, he showed no resentment toward his father’s second wife. Billie wished she could say the same. Her own father had left her mother long ago and had never looked back. He’d had two wives since then, neither of which Billie knew well, or at all. She barely even knew her father.
She drank deeply from the lemonade once it arrived, still feeling parched. She ordered a salad, not for any health reason, but because she didn’t think her stomach could handle anything more.
There were a lot of people coming and going, but Helen and Richard seemed to be far more aware of her mental state than she was. They sat her with her back to the wall, in a corner; protected on all sides. She didn’t even realize how jumpy she was until Helen placed a hand on hers and gave her a soft smile that said so much without her having to say a word. Billie returned the smile and tried to focus on the food before her.
“So, Billie,” Richard said, his fork hovering half way to his mouth. “Where are you from?”
“I-Iowa.”
Richard nodded. “You’re accent is very Midwestern. It’s sweet.” Billie blinked up at him, remembering just how much of a fan she was of him. She could feel that stupid blush coming back. “What brings you to Hollywood, then? Are you an aspiring actress?” He grinned and she quickly shook her head.
“No! No, I can’t act. Um, I have friends who live out here. We used to be real close, but she got married about five years ago and moved out here. She insisted that I come out for a vacation, so here I am.”
Helen asked, “Are you staying with them?”
“No. I have a hotel room. It’s not far from their place.”
Helen was frowning at her, but the return of the waitress waylaid anything she had to say. After they settled the bill, and Billie’s protests that she could pay for her own meal, they sat around mugs of coffee. Greg had pulled out his cell phone at some point and was busy texting, clearly distracted. Richard rolled his eyes at his son.
“He’s the big guy around town, with his band.”
“Dad,” Greg protested, voice without inflection. Billie smiled. How many times had she said ‘Mom’ in just that tone?
“Guitar, right?” Billie asked.
Greg’s eyes flicked up toward her for the barest second. “Yeah, and keyboard a little.”
“Don’t let him lie to you,” Richard cut in. “He’s great at them both. Won several awards in high school.” Then he grinned. “He gets his talent from me.”
“Dad.”
Billie couldn’t hold back a chuckle. “Do you play by ear? Or read music?”
Greg frowned. “I read music.”
“I have a nephew who plays by ear. He can’t read music, but he’s amazing at the guitar. It he can hear it, then he can play it.”
“I’ve heard of people who can do that,” Richard said, after taking a sip of coffee. “I can’t. I have to have the music in front of me. Well, unless I’ve memorized the song.”
By the time their coffee was gone, Billie’s headache was finally subsiding and she didn’t feel like a stranger in her own skin. They stood and Helen turned toward her.
“Richard will drive you to the police station.”
Billie frowned. “Can we not?” She really didn’t want to do this. She just wished it never happened, and that she could go back to the hotel, home even, and forget it ever did happen.
Richard had come around the table and rested a hand on her shoulder. “No. You have to. Things could have ended so much worse for you. You can’t let him get away with that. If you don’t stop him, who will suffer for it next time?”
Billie took a deep breath, startled. Richard was so firm about this. She glanced between husband and wife, at a loss for words. Then Helen smiled again, a sad sort of smile, filled with remembered pain and sympathy.
“When I was younger, my sister had been attacked.”
“It happens far too often,” Richard went on. He began steering her toward the door, and then his sleek car. “So everybody has to do their part to get predators like that off the street.”
He held the door for her, and with another great gulp of air, she sat in the car. She had never had a new car, but she had always loved the feel and scent of a well-kept car. There was a spicy scent thick in the air that felt heavy with the heat of the early afternoon.
She sat nervously with her hands on her knees, biting her lips before daring a glance out her window. Richard hadn’t moved from beside the car and she could see Helen’s arms around his waist, most of her weight supported by his larger frame. She had her head tilted back to look up at him, her eyes hidden behind big sunglasses, but her smiling lips showing off all her love for her husband. Richard was speaking to her, his own smile firmly in place. She nodded, and then they kissed.
Billie quickly looked away, ignoring the pain in her chest that told her how much she was missing out on.
She had never had anything like that, someone to lean on that fully. She had been shy in school, then after school she had been focused on making a living. Finding a job that wouldn’t disappear in a few months; paying her bills. It had taken all of her focus. That wasn’t true, she admitted to herself. She just didn’t know how to find a partner. Too many romance novels and not enough courage to go out and get what she wanted. Now here she was, closer to thirty than twenty and still watching couples from afar, wishing she knew how to get what they had.
They finally parted and Helen knocked on the window to wave goodbye. Billie smiled and mouthed, ‘Thank you.’ Helen gave her a thumbs-up sign and then Richard was getting into the driver’s seat.
Suddenly overcome with nerves, Billie sat in silence, body tense.
This was Richard Starter she was in a car with! She forced her eyes out the window and really wished that her face wasn’t so red. She had loved his movies for as long as she could remember. True, when she came to Hollywood, she had thought that perhaps she might see him at a distance, but she had spent the night in his guest room, had lunch with his family.
Finally she turned toward him. “Thank you, again.”
He smiled, eyes crinkling at the edges. “You already said that.”
“I don’t think I can ever say it enough.”