Chapter 30
The threats had stopped as soon as Agatha had told Rio about them. Over the last three months that unknown number was radio silent, as if they knew Rio knew now and the gig was up, the prank was over. Well, to whoever had sent Agatha spiralling for three days straight for no fucking reason she hoped they had a special place in hell reserved for them, preferably next to her so she could torment them for eternity.
Nobody had attempted to hurt Rio in public or during missions either. It was as if the threat simply…vanished. It was unsettling. For two days it was clear someone was after Rio. Had they suddenly lost interest, and if so, why?
Rio would always let Agatha rant about her concerns for hours on end until she’d soothe her with reassuring words…or actions…or sex. Lots of sex.
But it really did seem like they were safe now; these last three months had proven that.
They’d completed all their missions flawlessly (apart from the one with the safe (Agatha still had no regrets)), they’d convinced Wanda to let Nicky stay with them on weekends if they didn’t have a mission, and Agatha was hopelessly in love.
Yeah…she wasn’t all that thrilled about it at first. As much as she was a hopeless romantic at her core, it still terrified her just as it did the first time she fell in love. Rio wasn’t Wanda, far from it, but to get used to that loss of control again was haunting. She wasn’t proud of it, but sometimes she’d take it out on Rio. Snapping at her for no reason, getting pissed off over nothing, but her wife, her wonderful, amazing wife saw right through her bullshit.
Rio wasn’t perfect but she was perfect for Agatha, and Agatha only hoped she was perfect for her wife as well.
Now…had she told Rio she loved her yet? No, nope, nada. She would...eventually? No, she would…
Agatha’s phone buzzed on the kitchen island, and she wasn’t surprised when she saw who it was. It was probably an explanation for why her wife had shown up on their doorstop with mascara running down her face.
“What’d you do?” Agatha asked once she answered the phone.
“Did she look okay?” Jen asked.
“She’s been crying if that’s what you’re asking.”
Her best friend muttered obscenities under her breath.
“What’d you do?” Agatha repeated.
“I fucked up,” Jen replied.
“I see that…so I ask again…what’d you do?”
Jen huffed. “I’m too sober to have this conversation with you.”
Agatha laughed.
“Baby?”
Agatha turned to see Rio poking her head out from behind the wall.
“What’s up?”
“Me and Alice are going to go out tonight, she needs it.”
“For fucksake,” Jen mumbled on the phone.
“Is that Jen?” Rio asked, her voice laced with irritation.
Whatever Jen did, her wife was not happy about it.
“Yeah,” Agatha replied. “Have fun, I’ll send you $500.”
Rio blinked at her. “What for?”
Agatha furrowed her eyebrows. “So nobody buys you drinks. Your night out is on me.”
Rio shook her head playfully. “You know I have my own money, right?”
“Yeah…your money is your money; my money is our money. I would’ve just told you to take my card, but I know you wouldn’t use it.”
“You know me so well,” Rio said dramatically before going over to kiss her on the cheek.
“Hello?” Jen’s voice said through the phone.
Rio gestured she was leaving, and Agatha nodded, stealing one last kiss.
“Yeah, go on,” Agatha told her.
“So what I’m hearing is you're free tonight. Good, we’re going out for dinner and drinks.”
“I’m guessing I don’t have a choice in the matter.”
“Nope, meet me at Nobu Downtown at 8:30, and don’t be fucking late.”
“Okay,” Agatha cackled before Jen hung up.
***
An hour later, Agatha was sitting across from her best friend, who was drinking her third martini, an array of sushi on the table before them.
“Why aren’t you drinking?” Jen asked as Agatha took a sip of water.
“I think at least one of us should be sober tonight, don’t you think? Your wife and mine are going bar hopping, and you look like you’re about to drown your sorrows in that glass.”
Rio had told her what type of night this was looking like for her and Alice. And because Agatha wasn’t going to be with her, she wanted to be alert just in case something happened, and Rio needed her. Alice had picked out a skin tight deep green top that showed a lot of boob for Rio to wear tonight. And her wife, as adorable as she was, had asked if she’d be okay with her wearing it. Agatha reminded Rio that she was a grown woman, and she could wear whatever she wanted, she also reminded her that she knew how to fight and owned a gun, plural.
Her wife and her best friend were going to have a time tonight.
“Are you finally going to tell me what you did now?” Agatha asked.
Jen rolled her eyes. “Alice told me she loved me.”
“That’s great…” Agatha furrowed her eyebrows. “What’s the problem then?”
Jen knocked back her martini and then signalled to a waiter to get her another.
“You didn’t say it back?” Agatha asked, already connecting the dots.
“Worse.”
“Worse?” Agatha echoed. “The fuck did you do?”
Jen shook her glass, trying to get the last drop.
It was Agatha’s turn to roll her eyes. “Spit it out, Kale.”
“I got mad at her for it.”
Agatha threw her hands up, exasperated. “And why’d you do that? I thought you loved her.”
“I do,” Jen told her.
“Then why on earth would you get mad at her?”
“I don’t know, I don’t know,” Jen spluttered. “I just…I thought it would be easy, you know? Like you just say it, and everybody sings Kumbaya around the fire.”
Agatha scoffed.
“But then she said it and I just…froze. I’ve never said it before, and nobody’s ever said it to me in that way. And, fuck, you know we never got that shit growing up. People only wanted me for my looks or my money nobody ever loved me. Hell, I don’t even think my own parents love me half the time.”
Agatha quirked an eyebrow because everything Jen was saying? Story of her life.
“And Alice is perfect, far too good for me, so it’s like…how and why does she love me? I don’t deserve her.”
A waiter arrived with Jen’s next drink.
“Fucking finally,” Jen grumbled before taking a large gulp. “God, no wonder people hate rich people, we have all the money in the world, and yet we still find something to complain about,” Jen joked.
Agatha laughed. “It doesn’t really matter if you don’t think you deserve Alice. She clearly thinks you do otherwise, she wouldn’t have told you that, she wouldn’t have fallen in love with you.”
Jen hummed. “I guess you’re right. Pretty sure I’ve completely fucked it now, though.”
“Nah,” Agatha shook her head. “She’s been dealing with you for over a year now, I’m certain you’ve fucked up multiple times and look…she still stayed.”
“Thanks,” Jen deadpanned.
Agatha laughed once more. “You’re gonna have to do that thing that we emotionally unavailable spoiled brats hate to do.”
“And what’s that?”
“Communicate.”
Jen rolled her eyes. “I hate that shit.”
“Me too, but you gotta do what you’ve gotta do.”
Jen nodded. “Well, cheers to that,” she said, lifting her glass.
Agatha followed suit, tapping their glasses together.
“You think Sammy’s free tonight?” Jen asked after she’d taken her sip.
“My company not good enough?” Agatha teased.
“Nope, I can only look at your face for so long.”
Agatha flipped her off.
***
Now Agatha sat across from two of her best friends, they both had martinis in hand and were both beyond the point of drunk.
“Do you…do you remember the summer of '08?” Samuel asked.
This was the first time Agatha had seen him since The Met mission, and after questioning why she and her wife and his friend disappeared into thin air right before the auction started for the first ten minutes after his arrival, Samuel had knocked back five shots with Jen and had since dropped the subject. Agatha was glad for her years of learning how to masterfully dodge questions.
“Was that the summer we broke Agatha out of that troubled teens camp?” Jen cackled.
“That’s the one,” Agatha smiled.
“I remember,” Jen replied. “You just got your license, and you had to drive upstate, and you almost crashed the car four times!”
“Did not…it was three times.”
Samuel’s response earned a laugh from both Jen and Agatha.
“God, my mother was so mad when I finally returned home for school.”
After breaking Agatha out of camp, they spent the remaining weeks of summer at Samuel’s house in the Hamptons. It was one of Agatha’s more promiscuous summers. She was sixteen and had a lot of abuse to try and forget about.
“Didn’t you sleep with one of Sammy’s housekeepers?”
“And his Mom,” Agatha winked.
Samuel rolled his eyes as Jen grinned. It was a life long joke, Samuel had a hot mom, Agatha would tell him she’d sleep with her.
“Wasn’t that the year you started sleeping with our Spanish teacher?” Jen asked.
Agatha nodded.
“What is with you and older women?” Samuel said.
Agatha shrugged. “Unchecked mommy issues.”
Jen and Samuel raised an eyebrow offering a ‘Fair enough.’
“How old is Rio?”
“Our age.”
“Shocker,” Samuel laughed.
“Speaking of,” Agatha picked her phone off the table. “My wife’s calling.”
***
Rio and Alice were at their third bar for the night. They were both far too drunk for their own good. They always got their shots four at a time, and Rio was sure her liver would need pumping by the end of the night. It did occur to her that one of them should probably be less drunk than the other, but they were FBI agents, even paralytic, she was sure she could kill someone.
Alice tugged her into the centre of the dance floor as Rihanna’s Rude Boy boomed through the speakers. Rio took her best friend's hand and spun her, earning a giggle from Alice as she staggered.
The bar was filled to the brim and Rio had to hold her steady, so she didn’t knock into anyone. They bounced up and down, screaming the lyrics into each other’s faces. Alice nodded at Rio’s chest and when Rio went to look her boob was popping out of her top. Whoops. She laughed as she shoved it back in.
Unfortunately, a fucking man had watched her do it and took that as an invitation to pester them. Because men and their fucking audacity the man shoved his way between them so now Rio was looking at a man instead of her best friend. With one swift movement, she pushed the man back with a firm hand to his face. The man stumbled into the sea of people behind him.
“Bitch,” he muttered when he’d righted himself.
“What?” Rio yelled because she was drunk and couldn’t help herself. She could take down a man easily.
“Okayyy,” Alice said, dragging her best friend away from the scene.
It was on to bar number four.
“We didn’t have to leave,” Rio told her as they walked to the next location.
“We did, I know you,” Alice laughed.
Rio giggled. “No, you’re right. I forgot what it’s like to not be with an enabler. Agatha would’ve been cheering me on, hell, she’d join in. Oh, wait, shit sorry.”
Rio needed to stop doing that, bringing up her wife and her happy fucking marriage as if her best friend wasn’t in a rough patch with hers.
“You’re good,” Alice told her with a smile. “I’m happy for you. You were never a people person, so the fact that you’ve found someone who you genuinely seem to like? You can talk about your wife for as long as you want.”
Rio smiled. She loved Alice so much, and because she was drunk, she’d actually tell her. “I love you. I’m annoyed we never got to do this in our twenties.”
“What? Because we’re thirty, we can’t have fun?”
Rio shoved her playfully. “That’s not what I meant! I mean, I’m annoyed we weren’t friends anymore, I should’ve called you.”
“Me too,” Alice walked into the bar, Rio behind her. “But there’s no point dwelling on the past, we’re here now.”
They got up on the bar stools and waited for a bartender to serve them. This bar was quieter than the last one.
“Can I buy you a drink?” A woman’s voice rang out from behind Alice.
Before her best friend could reply, Rio jumped in, “She’s happily married actually so you can fuck off.”
The stranger blinked before promptly scurrying off.
“Ri!” Alice scolded with a laugh.
Rio shrugged. “What? I’m pissed at Jen right now but that doesn’t mean other people can flirt with you. We’re still that lesbian friend group that people see in passing and wish it were them. We still sing Kumbaya around the fire.”
Alice’s smile faltered. “Jen says that all the time,” she whispered.
Oh. Idiot.
“Okay, no. No being sad, you need more shots.”
They did more shots, they did more dancing and somehow, it was two in the morning. The women stood outside the bar, staring at their phones as the Uber app told both of them that they were still ‘looking for a driver.’ It had said that for twenty minutes.
“Where’s a yellow cab when you fucking need one,” Rio huffed. “Fuck this.”
She cancelled her Uber and told Alice to do the same before she dialled. Agatha picked up after the first ring.
“You okay, love?”
Rio smiled. She’d never get tired of hearing her wife’s voice. “Hi, baby,” Rio drawled.
Agatha laughed. “Hi, sweetheart. Are you okay?”
“Uber is useless, can you come pick us up…please?”
“Yeah. I’ll leave now.”
“Thankkk youuu. I don’t know where I am, so you’re gonna have to look at my location.”
Agatha laughed again. “I’ve been tracking you all night, I’ve got it.”
It was Rio’s turn to laugh. “Stalker.”
She could tell her wife was grinning when she said, “I’ll see you soon.”
“You’re my favourite,” Rio told her before hanging up the phone.
When she looked up, Alice was looking at her with a wide smile.
Rio scowled. “What?”
Alice shook her head as a nothing.
***
Alice crashed on Rio’s bed as soon as they got back. Rio was going to sleep with her tonight, but she wanted to see Agatha before she went to bed. Her wife had made her toast with Nutella and coaxed her into drinking water, even as Rio protested.
Now, Agatha was sitting on Rio’s stomach, tenderly wiping her makeup off with makeup wipes. Rio was lying down, looking up at her. Agatha was so beautiful.
Her wife’s eyebrows furrowed. “What’s wrong?”
Rio tilted her head. Agatha wiped underneath her eyes with her thumb.
“You’re crying.”
“I am?” Rio patted her face with her fingers. “I am!” She giggled. “I’m sorry I can’t help it, I’m drunk and you’re just so fucking beautiful.”
Agatha rolled her eyes with a laugh. “You’ve never been so sappy whilst drunk.”
Rio flung her arms around lazily. “It’s the weed.”
“Yeah, okay,” Agatha smiled.
Rio rested her hands on her wife’s hips, stroking the bare skin between her pyjama shorts and top. And they were hers because Agatha had developed a habit of stealing all her nightwear.
“I remember when we first met, I swore I would never call you beautiful because you were so cocky, and I didn’t want to boost your annoyingly high ego. You already knew I found you attractive anyway.”
Agatha laughed. “Doesn’t everyone?”
Rio shoved her, and Agatha wobbled before righting herself.
“Shut up.”
Agatha leaned down again and continued taking off Rio’s makeup. This close, Rio could see Agatha’s eyes in full. She took them in, from the dark blue that outlined her irises to the lighter blue with specks of grey that filled them.
“Quit staring at me, I can’t focus.”
Rio ran her hand up Agatha’s spine. “How could I not stare at you?”
Agatha rolled her eyes before planting a soft kiss on Rio’s lips.
“You are going to have to close your eyes now, though. I have to take off your eye shadow.”
Rio huffed but did as she was told.
She felt the warm pads of Agatha’s fingers trail along her jaw as she wiped at her eyelids. Rio inhaled deeply, letting her wife’s fragrance consume her. Rio was more than happy to die like this.
Moments later, Agatha said:
“Done.”
Rio’s eyelids fluttered open, and a lazy smile painted her lips at her wife staring down at her. Her hair had fallen around them, acting like a curtain, shielding them from the world.
“You ready to go to bed?” Agatha asked as she sat up.
“I could go to bed.” Rio slid her hand down to rest on her wife’s ass, “Or…”
“No,” Agatha laughed, climbing off of her.
“Why?” Rio pouted.
“Because you are drunk and I am sober, my love.”
Rio groaned. “So?”
“Soo…that doesn’t work. We don’t fuck unless you consent, baby.”
“I am consenting, I’m the one who wants this,” Rio said, propping herself up.
“Doesn’t work, there’s a power imbalance.”
“Thought you liked the power imbalance,” Rio smirked.
“Yes,” Agatha replied, “When it’s consensual.”
Agatha shuffled up on the bed until she was close enough to kiss Rio.
“Good night, mi amor,” Agatha mumbled against her lips.
Rio pouted again, grumbling a: “Good night.”
Agatha laughed before kissing her one last time.