March, 2018

"Where's a good place to party in this dump?" Liz grinned with the question across the room at Ingrid.

The four friends had congregated in Sienna's hotel room, after a nice dinner at an Italian restaurant nearby. The married couple shared a bottle of wine on the windowsill, while Ingrid and Sienna lay side by side in bed, entertaining Rosie.

Ingrid looked up from making faces at the baby sprawled on her chest. "I know a few places." She propped herself up on her elbows while Rosie's tiny fingers threatened to gouge out her eyes. "We could make a girls' night of it?"

"That'd be wonderful!" Rose agreed.

"You go, ladies," Sienna said, picking up her daughter as she leaned back against the headboard. "I can't leave Rosie."

"What about Michelle?" Liz suggested. "Can't she stay with her niece for one night?"

Sienna averted her gaze.

Ingrid sat up, her legs crossed. "I know just the guy."

Sienna threw her a look. "You are not going to ask your boss to look after my daughter, just so I can go clubbing!"

Ingrid shrugged. "Why not? He loves it. He's great with kids."

Liz smirked in her direction but said nothing.

Rose appeared to ponder the possibility. "Well, if he doesn't mind... I'd love it if we could all go out together."

She made puppy eyes at Sienna, which her childhood friend couldn't resist.

"Fine," Sienna groaned, rolling her eyes. "Well, give him a ring," she told Ingrid, "let's see what he says."

Ingrid jumped to her feet and whipped out her phone, dialling Edgar's number. He took no persuasion at all, the only thing he wanted to make sure of was that it'd really be all right for him to do this. Once Ingrid had reassured him beyond all doubt, he readily accepted and showed up in a heartbeat.

"Hey, sweetheart," he greeted Rosie when he arrived and Sienna let him have her, "did you miss me? Oh, we're going to have so much fun! Yeah, we are..."

Sienna smiled at his obvious enthusiasm and began to prattle in a panic about all the baby-related instructions. Edgar shifted to hold the baby with one arm under her legs and give Sienna a reassuring pat on the back with his free hand.

"Sienna – relax, I got this. Not my first rodeo, remember?"

Sienna chuckled awkwardly. "You're right, yes. You've already raised two. Did a pretty good job of it, too, if I can say so myself. Caitlin and Cillian are both lovely."

"Oh, that's right, I'd forgotten you met my son in Spain. Thank you, yes, I'm quite proud of them both."

"You should be."

"Right!" Ingrid interceded, clapping her hands. "Can we go, now that we've handed over the package?"

"Um..." Sienna glanced around the room, found nothing more to add. "I suppose so. Thank you so much, Ian," she turned to her impromptu babysitter, "I really appreciate this."

"Don't mention it," he replied. "You ladies go and have fun. Rosie and I will throw our own party. Right, sweetie?"

The little girl giggled and waved her hands around as if she had every intention to party hard without her mother.

Then Sienna kissed her daughter goodbye and the four friends took off into the night.

*

"One moment!"

Ian swiftly finished changing Rosie's diaper, hauled the baby up in his arms and went to open the door. Came face to face with a pleasantly surprised and mildly confused Michelle.

"Hi."

"Ian." A statement. Bemused frown. "What are you... Where is Sienna?"

He stepped aside to let her in. "Oh, the girls went out, they wanted a night on the town."

"So, what... they asked you to be a nanny?"

"Something like that, yeah," Ian chuckled. "Ingrid called me. I said why not."

A strange sorrow seeped into Michelle's smile as she held her niece's hands.

"I did ask if they were sure it was okay for me to do this," he added, sensing Michelle's unease. "I think Sienna didn't want to disturb you."

"No, she never does. I always thought she was too good for Patrick."

She sighed and seemed to shove the matter aside, focusing on Ian and the cheerful little girl instead.

"You're a sucker for babies, aren't you?" Michelle observed as he began to dress the girl.

"Yeah," he grinned, "I've always been."

Michelle pulled a chair to sit beside him. "It's probably my one and biggest regret, not having any kids."

"Well, how come?" He briefly glanced at her. "You've never been one to back away from getting what you want."

Rosie resisted Ian's efforts to get her dressed, but he had the patience of a saint and made the whole process so playful, the girl didn't even notice what was being done to her.

"There was no room in my life left. Unlike you, Ian, in addition to running a business, I also had to occasionally be a housewife, then a caretaker and throughout it all, the responsible big sister of an idiot little brother... I didn't have time to also become a mother. Which turned out for the best, considering..."

Ian frowned. "Considering what?"

"My husband, it... eventually turned out he wouldn't have been fit to be a father, anyway."

"...Wouldn't have been?"

A bitter smile. "He passed, recently."

"Oh, Michelle..." Ian's hands stopped moving and Rosie began to flail her little limbs. "I'm so sorry, I didn't know..."

"No, don't worry. Nobody did. It's strictly confidential. Anyway – I'm only glad Sienna isn't keeping me from my niece. Wouldn't have blamed her if she did, though."

Ian looked down at the happy baby, and a fleeting sadness washed over him as he picked her up to take her to her crib. Like a hawk stalking prey, Michelle promptly picked up on it.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Oh, nothing, I..." He gingerly set the child down and gave her a toy to tinker with. "I just remembered I could have been a grandfather."

Her brows furrowed in lieu of a further question.

"Except Caitlin didn't want to be a mother."

"Oh, Ian, she's far too young," Michelle replied right away, walking over to him, "of course she didn't!"

"No, I know, you're right, of course. I... eventually understood. My God, I had such a horrible kneejerk reaction... If it hadn't been for Ingrid – "

Michelle put a consoling hand on his shoulder. "What happened? If you don't mind me asking, that is."

Surprisingly enough, he didn't mind. And he told her. Everything save for the part which would have implied he and Ingrid were sleeping together. Somehow, he felt Michelle might have gleaned that bit, anyway, reading between the lines he laid out for her. If she did, though, she made no comment or otherwise acknowledged that she knew.

"But the two of you are okay now? You're on speaking terms?"

A tense chuckle. "It would seem so. I think she's forgiven me. I'm not sure I'll ever forgive myself, though."

"That's good. Shows you're not actually a dick."

He laughed but it rang hollow. "I just can't help it sometimes, it seems. I just... My stupid mouth just... just goes off on its own sometimes."

"Well, not on its own, Ian, don't go boys-will-be-boys on me. Your mouth is connected to your brain. You don't realise it in the heat of the moment but you choose to open your mouth and let those words out. You can't teach an old dog new tricks, so it's a good sign you actually take the time to retrospectively ponder on your actions and apologise properly."

"I'm an old dog, then?"

A compassionate smile.

"That's exactly what you are, love. An old dog who, his whole life, has been taught that his input is precious and should, at all times, be taken into consideration. An old dog who never has to think twice before barking because no matter what he says, he'll always be taken seriously and there'll hardly ever be any repercussions."

Ian opened his mouth to comment but snapped it shut, as Michelle gave him no opportunity to speak.

"You've been wired that way. From birth. Changing that at your age is next to impossible but the next best thing is what you are currently doing – listen to the people around you. Let them open your mind. Accept responsibility and strive to make amends. Those are the markings of a good man and God knows how fucking rare that is these days. I should know. My obnoxious baby brother has never managed to grasp that concept. Accountability. Hasn't got the first clue about it."

"Yes, he's quite ignorant in that regard," Ian said. "But thank you for the encouragement. I appreciate it. Truly."

They shared a tender moment in their silence breached only by Rosie's gurgles.

"Well, as neither of us is breastfeeding," Michelle suggested, "how about some wine?"

*

The friends went to a cosy themed pub first, to start off with a row of pints. Sienna did not partake, although she'd announced her intent to have a cocktail or two at some point in the night.

"So how did you come up with this concept for your show?" Ingrid addressed the artistic couple. "What made you put it together?"

"Oh, it's been in the pipeline forever," Rose answered. "And we had a lot of inspiration. So many strong women to motivate us. But I think... Was it our graduation party?"

Liz nodded. "Yup. To this day, I still remember it – looking around the room at the most awesome women, thinking... This is it, you know? This is where 'real life' starts," air quotations, "and we each go our separate ways. End of an era. Beginning of a new age. I think... Well, I, for one, wanted to honour that. All our late-night talks about... Everything, really, everything under the sun."

"Yes, that's when the idea hatched," Rose added, "but then 'real life' hit like a tsunami and we realised our ambitions were too big for where we were at that point in time. We had to scale down, make a living, figure out how to enact our magnum opus in-between everything else going on."

"And now you're here," Ingrid concluded.

"And now we're here," Rose repeated, with the fondest of smiles plastered on her lips.

They had a toast and decided to move on to something stronger.

Priyanka and her boyfriend Eric joined them at the club they'd stumbled into and the six of them managed to get a table on the outskirts of the dancefloor. Eric played gentleman and placed their order at the bar – entire bottles of alcohol for the lot of them, so they could mix their own drinks.

He also offered to try and score some pills but Liz was the only one who took him up on it. Ingrid kept her eye on him as he navigated the crowd in search for a dealer. A sinking sensation in her stomach erupted into outright panic and paranoia. She watched him scan the faces of dubious figures until he settled on someone who looked like they could provide what Eric required.

"Looking for me, hermosa?"

Ingrid started and whipped around. Scratched at her ear. Nothing there. No one.

"Ingrid, what's wrong?" she heard Sienna ask.

"Nothing," Ingrid shook her head, hugging herself. "I just... I need some air."

"Let's go outside for a bit, then."

Ingrid nodded and let Sienna lead her towards the exit. Her misgivings turned out to be far from unfounded, however, when an arm reached out from the anonymous mass of the crowd, hooked around her waist and pushed her into a strong, firm body, reeking of cigarette smoke and... something else undefinable.

It knocked the air out of her lungs and her eyes widened in shock. Her every muscle strained with fear, freezing her reflexes.

Lips, very real this time, brushed her earlobe. "Sorpresa, mi alma. Did you miss me?"

Ingrid gulped. She looked up at Sienna, who was alternately frowning at her and at the man behind her.

"Won't you introduce us?" Leon susurrated in her ear, like a seductive snake.

Ingrid fought to steady her breathing. "Go," she told Sienna. "Go back to the others, I'll be right with you."

Sienna hesitated but it looked like she knew better than to argue with Ingrid when she had her eyes on fire.

With Sienna out of sight, Leon loosened his grip and spun Ingrid in his arms to bring her face to face with him. "You have no idea how long I've been waiting for this chance. You've been hiding from me."

Ingrid clenched her jaw as she struggled to contain her rowdy heartrate. "Hardly," she spat. "Have you been following me?"

He grinned at her, lacing their fingers together. "Come on. We have some unfinished business."

Ingrid didn't budge. She glared daggers at him and he retaliated with a sly smirk, tracing his knuckles along her jawline. He lowered his head, cheek pressed against her own as he spoke in her ear.

"Come with me or your little boyfriend won't have a dick after tonight."

Ingrid stiffened. Drew back to glower at him.

"Don't believe me?"

He walked her to the restrooms where, to background noises of a couple getting it on like wild animals, Eric was conducting a certain transaction with an associate of Leon's.

Ingrid wrenched herself free and ran towards Eric, slapping the tiny bag of pills out of his hand.

"Hey, what the hell – "

"Forget the drugs and go," she growled. "Take the girls to the house, have Pri call Murphy – "

"Ingrid – "

"Just do as I say, goddammit," she hissed through gritted teeth.

Eric complied with some reluctance and scurried out of the restroom, throwing worried glances in Leon's direction.

"All set?" Leon questioned with raised eyebrows.

Ingrid eyed him suspiciously. "Yeah. No need to worry about him."

"No." He grabbed her hand again. "No..."

Leon motioned to his associate to get lost. On his way out, he dragged the lovers from their cubicle and kicked them through the door.

Ingrid studied the scene with some disgust. "Really? In here? You used to be classier."

"Did I?" He narrowed his eyes at her.

"To some extent, at least. Shitty club toilet is beneath even you."

He seemed to ponder the fact. "You're right. Which is why I booked us a bed. Come along."

Holding her hand, he walked her out and up some bare iron steps. Men and women crawled mostly naked around the neon-lit corridor upstairs. Leon stopped in front of a door and pushed it open for Ingrid. Bowed as he showed her in.

She went in, arms crossed over her chest. "A hooker's bedroom?"

A fake chandelier hung from the ceiling, above the large bed decked out with lush velvet. A vanity table with a huge oval mirror sat against the wall. A few plush seats scattered about. Sickly sweet aroma wafted in the air.

"Makes you feel at home, no? I think Jack would have appreciated the, uh..." He motioned around the room. "The décor."

"Funny," Ingrid quipped, not amused. "Just tell me what you want from me, Leon, and let's get this over with. You and me, we're done."

"Done?" He prowled towards her. "After I saved your life? Again?"

Ingrid recoiled from his touch. "I never asked to be saved."

"I should have let you die, then?" His fingers dug into her upper arm. "That can be fixed, if you want it so bad."

He towered over her, dangerously close.

"You'd kill me? After all that effort you put into keeping me alive?"

"Maybe we should die together," he whispered. "Maybe we should have jumped in that river, in each other's arms."

"Oh, please," she jeered at him, "you're too much of a coward to do that. You put on a tough-guy act but inside, you're scared shitless. You're afraid to die, afraid to lose."

That stunned him for a second. Ingrid considered kneeing him in the groin and making a run for it, but figured the establishment would be crawling with more of his 'associates' who'd catch her in an instant.

The second passed and she pressed her back against the wall as Leon reached behind him. His arm moved slowly, lifting the gun up to her face, under her chin. The cold barrel bit into her skin. She gulped.

"Do it," she murmured, voice shaking.

*

song of the chapter: beretta by carla's dreams