It’s a Tuesday when Lucia calls the first time. Beatrice is leaving her apartment for a run when her phone rings, interrupting her favorite part of the song she’s listening to on her headphones. There’s no caller ID, but Beatrice recognizes the number, so she answers.
“Hello, this is Beatrice.” She’s formal. Lucia likes to try to blur the line between a professional relationship and a friendly one.
“Hey, Bea - ”
“Beatrice.” She corrects, dropping to her knee to retie her laces.
“Yeah, Beatrice.” Lucia’s mocking her, Beatrice isn’t stupid, but she lets it go.
“Is there a reason you’re calling?” Beatrice asks after Lucia goes silent.
“Right! Yes! Carlos misses you, I was wondering if we could do lunch sometime this week so he could see you?” Carlos. Beatrice loves Carlos. He’s fun, witty and charismatic and kind. He’s always been one of her favorite kids she’s worked with. Lucia, however, is one of Beatrice’s least preferred parents.
“I don’t know if you remember, but I’m in - ”
“In the city. Yes, I remember. Carlos and I just moved here too! Isn’t that exciting?” No. Beatrice thinks. Exciting is not a word I would use. Lucia drops her voice, nearly to a whisper. “He’s having a hard time making friends at his new school, I think seeing a friendly face would make him feel better about the move.”
Beatrice sighs, checks the time on her watch and realizes she’s spent half of her allotted running time on the phone with Lucia.
“I can’t do lunch, but I can do an early dinner. Maybe Thursday? I’ll have to - ”
“Yes, perfect! That works!” She hangs up before Beatrice can tell her she will be bringing Diana. She could send her a message, but that would mean Lucia would message her back and Beatrice doesn’t want to speak to her anymore than necessary.
Beatrice tells Ava about it that evening, between Diana’s snack and her bath while Ava’s scrambling about looking for the keys Diana hid.
“Who is this again?” Ava looks up from digging through the couch cushions, cheeks flushed and hair tousled.
“It’s a kid I used to work with before I started uni. Him and his mum.” Diana giggles around her fingers when Ava looks under the couch, Beatrice bouncing her and asking where the keys are quietly. Ava’s asked her three times, Diana isn’t answering either of them. “It’s okay if you don’t want - ”
“No, it’s fine! It sounds fun, just - make her eat something other than chicken strips, please? You always say you will then you cave when she pouts. She needs to try new foods.” Ava looks under the coffee table and through Diana’s toy bin. She’s going to be late if she doesn’t find the keys soon.
“Okay. I won’t have her out late, we’ll be back before the sun goes down. Won’t we?” Beatrice tickles Diana who squeals and pushes away, nearly toppling out of her arms. Beatrice grabs her leg to keep from falling and her shoe falls off, jingling when it hits the ground. Diana glances between the fallen shoe and Ava for a moment before she starts giggling maniacally.
“They were in your shoes? Are you serious? Diana, you little…” Ava picks the keys out of the baby shoe, holds Diana’s face between her hands and sighs fondly, shaking her head. “You little punk.” Ava laughs and kisses both of her cheeks. “I love you. Be good, yeah?”
Diana smiles and wipes her wet hand down Ava’s cheek. Ava grimaces and rubs her cheek against Diana’s sleeve, earning a full body laugh and a gleeful wiggle. Ava presses a soft kiss against Beatrice’s cheek before she’s gone.
Beatrice almost considers going after her, almost considers asking her to say no, almost considers telling her she doesn’t want to go. But she doesn’t.
She doesn’t.
Read more below the break or here!
To play the part - Chapter 01 - Frenchsoda - Warrior nun
“I could have asked for a portrait,” Beatrice eventually confessed, voice quiet.
From the corner of her eyes, she saw Camila glancing at her. “Why didn’t you?”
“Because if I had, it would have meant that I care about what she looks like. About who she is.”
A hand settled on the crook of her elbow, and she glimpsed at Camila.
“I’m sure she’s a lovely woman,” Camila said with the softest smile.
“It doesn’t matter,” Beatrice replied. Then, after a while, she murmured, “But let’s hope so.”
She was, after all, about to spend the rest of her life with her.
(rated m for mature)
Ava’s room is the last sacred space in their apartment. A room that belongs to Ava, and Ava only. The living room is shared space, of course. Their breakfast bar holds both of their tea mugs: Ava’s in the shape of a bulldog holding a bone, her own a dark gray and white plaid pattern. The bathroom has a small stand with both of their toothbrushes and two face cloths on small hooks, one on each side of the sink. The face of the kitchen refrigerator is littered with pictures and ticket stubs and small post-it-note drawings they’ve both accumulated over the last few months.
We exist, Beatrice, Ava likes to tell her. If we died and someone came to pack us up, they would know we both existed here.
It’s a morbid thought, but it rotates in her mind for days afterwards. They exist. They exist together, in this shared space. There’s two of everything - a testament to a life shared between two people who found comfort in each other. Who found a home. Their shoes are by the front door, their bills are on the counter, their sweaters tangle into knots on the couch where they dare cross the line Beatrice has drawn between them.
Ava’s room is a line. She doesn’t cross it. She lets their shared existence fill every corner of the apartment except for Ava’s bedroom. She’s never crossed the threshold. Even on the day Ava moved in, she dutifully passed her boxes from the living room, marveling at the idea that one person who existed in a single dorm room for a handful of months could accumulate so many things.
She’s not sure that Ava even noticed. If she did, she didn’t say anything about it. Because she’s kind and takes Beatrice’s actions into consideration with the sort of care no one else in her life has ever shown.
But that’s par for the course. Ava is unlike anyone else in her life.
hehehe-proofed
(comm pieces)
baby halo got a new outfits!!
Maryyyyyy😩😩😫
🏴☠️
Pirate au👄💅
shotgun mary return prayer circle commencing 🕯️🙏🕯️🙏🕯️
