Present day San Diego, California…
“So this is it?” Sophia set down a box and put her hands on her hips, gave the empty room a look around. The house was a 1920’s Mediterranean & Spanish style home, located in the Mission Hills Historic District area of San Diego. It had a huge lush backyard, four bedrooms and three baths. The kitchen, dinning/front room, and living rooms were relatively large. “It’s really nice. I love how green it is here and the neighborhood seems really nice and quiet. Big difference, compared to LA.”
Liz brought in another box. “The furniture should be here at two. Then the house should look a little more filled.” She put her hands on her hips, looking around the front room. “I still cannot believe we knocked out all the furniture shopping in two days.” She sighed, nodding her head.
“I know.” Scarlette placed a box next to the one Liz had brought in. “I’m quiet please with myself in that.” She smiled. “Now, all I have to do is paint this place. White walls are quiet drab.”
Sophia nodded. “Where are the paint swatches?”
“In the car.” Scarlette handed Sophia the keys to her car, Sophia went to go get the swatches.
Liz eyed Scarlette, debating if now was the time to bring him up. “So…” She started off slowly. “Have you heard from him?”
She turned her head a bit to look at Liz. “No, but I heard from his lawyer.” She picked up the box again and walked towards the kitchen.
“And…?” Liz followed her.
She set the box down on the black marble countertop. “He’s going to drag this out as painfully long as he can.” She sighed. “I called Tony, my lawyer, and he’s trying to move things as fast as he can but Rob’s lawyer isn’t being very cooperative either.”
“You think he’s doing it on purpose ‘til he gets back into the US? Maybe try to win you back?”
“Undoubtedly.” She let out a heavy sigh.
“Shit.” She placed a hand on Scarlette’s back.
She shook her head. “It’s going to be a battle.”
By this time, Sophia had found them in the kitchen. She handed Scarlette the paint swatches. “Forget it, let’s start picking out colors and making this place a home for you.” She smiled.
Scarlette nodded. “But let’s get the rest of the boxes in here and maybe order some Chinese take out?”
Liz and Sophia smiled and nodded in union.
They all went out and in of the house a little more than a dozen times, but brought in every last box and placed them in the respective rooms. They all took a seat on the beige carpet floor in the living room. They all sipped on their bottled water as Liz called in the Chinese food order. They had a couple of hours before the movers brought in the furniture.
Scarlette laid on the floor, staring up at the ceiling. She sighed happily and stretched. “I think this room would look good in a light mauve color and a deeper accenting color on a wall, maybe leaving the trim white?”
Sophia nodded. “Yeah, I think that would look really nice. And the three bathrooms do them in some shades of blues or teals. I think those colors would accent the tan tiles in them nicely.”
Liz joined in the conversation once she got off the phone with the Chinese restaurant that was going to deliver the food. By the time the food arrived they had already looked through the swatches, coming up with color schemes, placed the coordinating swatches in the respective rooms, and made plans to go buy the paints the next day.
Excitement filled the room as they ate and discussed how the furniture could be arranged. Then the talk of getting a dog or two came up.
“I just think you should have some sort of security.” Liz stuffed moo shu pork into her mouth and Sophia nodded in agreement.
Scarlette shook her head. “I have a security company coming in to install in two days, plus I think I travel too much. Who’s going to watch the dogs when I’m gone?”
“What about D?”
Sophia and Scarlette looked at Liz as she made her suggestion, making her quickly regret that she had said that. Scarlette looked down and let a silence fall down over them.
“I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”
Scarlette shook her head. “Don’t worry about it.” She poked at her General Tso’s Chicken with her chopstick.
Sophia looked at Scarlette. “I’m sure someone could take your dog in, I would if I wasn’t traveling myself.”
Scarlette shrugged half-heartedly. “I’ll think about it.”
Sophia shot Liz a look, as if to say “See what you did?! Fix it.”
Liz looked at Sophia and shrugged. “We should go curtain shopping tonight.” She continued to look at Sophia, shaking her head and shrugging.
Scarlette nodded. “Yeah, that might be a good idea since we already picked out the colors.”
They started to gather the take out containers and clean up since there was about forty-five minutes before the movers would arrive. Liz opened the door so the movers could just walk in and Sophia went around the house to make sure none of the boxes were in the way. Scarlette opened the backdoors to let some fresh air in. She took a few steps out into the back yard and surveyed the area. It was really large, even though it had a decently sized pool. She tried to visualize what type of patio furniture she wanted, something that would look well with the red bricked and Spanish tiled grill/bar area.
As she was deep in thought, she about jumped out of her skin when she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. She answered it up without looking at the caller ID, a habit she was going to have to change. “Hello?”
“Hey.” The voice on the other end made her catch her breath in her throat. “Are you busy?”
She shook her head. “Uh, no no.” He was the last person she had expected to call her, she was taken aback to say the least.
“I just thought we should talk.”
“Talk?” She tried to keep her voice calm and even, she was slightly scared where this conversation could be going since they had not talk in a long while and the last time they talked, it did not end well for Scarlette.
“Look, I’m sorry I was an ass the last time we talked. I just… can you blame me for not believing you? After all the other breakups and get back togethers.”
“If this is going to be about the past then I really think this conversation should end now. I’m trying to move forward with my life, not hang out in the past like I always use to and I don’t need someone constantly reminding me of what a fucking moron I use to be.” She didn’t mean to snap at him, but it was bound to come out sooner or later. “I’m tired of him thinking I’m always going to stick around when he treats me like trash and I’m tired of you thinking I’m some poor weak helpless little girl. Either you move forward with me or you can kindly get the fuck out of my life now.” She ground her teeth as she drove her last point home.
He sighed. “I’m really sorry. I never meant to doubt you.”
She scoffed at that. It wasn’t that she was so much angry at him, she was hurt and disappointed with him, especially since he had been calling himself her best friend for years. She let other things go when he had turned his back on her and would go on for months without talking to her. The straw that had broke more than one camel’s back, was when a sex tape of a groupie and Rob had been released on the internet. It sent off such a chain reaction between not only Scarlette and Rob, but Scarlette and D.
Even though the turning point of their friendship was at the surprise wedding in Vegas, it had always been rocky since she had moved out of the apartment, D and Lara had shared, two years after she had moved in. Though, she was hardly there once she had signed on to a contract with Christine, to begin with, Scarlette could never figure out why exactly they had let their friendship get that way. She left it to the reason of him and Lara’s planning of their wedding and relationship issues. Scarlette tried to be their for the both of them, but learned she would have to back away from both friendships, as to not let them think she was choosing one more over than the other.
“Can we start from where we left off?” He had an edge of pleading in his voice.
Scarlette closed her eyes and wavered her head in though. “Perhaps.” She shook her head.
“Okay then.” He took in a deep breath. “How are things with you today?” He tried to lighten his voice, slightly failing.
“I’m fine. A little exhausted since I’m moving into my new house.”
“Oh?”
It was an awkward conversation but she tried to put the awkwardness aside. “Yeah, I’m living in San Diego now. It’s really nice here.”
“San Diego? Wow. You really are moving on, I’m happy for you.”
She smiled. “Thanks.”
“If you need anything, help moving in furniture, painting, or whatever, let me know. I want to make up for all the lost times I haven’t had with you.”
“Well, the movers are bringing in the furniture right now as we speak… but we are planning to start painting by, hopefully, tomorrow.”
“Okay, I’ll drive down there tomorrow in the early morning. Maybe we can talk more, in person, so it’s not so awkward.”
She nodded. “Okay yeah, but Sophia and Liz will be here too.”
“That’s fine. Just send me the directions to my phone and I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Okay. I’ll talk to you then.” She hung up her phone and walked back inside where Sophia and Liz stood staring at her. “He’ll be here tomorrow morning to talk and help out.”
They looked at each other and Liz spoke up. “By he, you mean D, right?”
Scarlette nodded. “I assume you both were listening in.”
They looked away from her sheepishly. “Yeah, but we also have been telling the movers where to put everything too.” Liz shrugged.
Scarlette rolled her eyes then looked around the room. Thankfully, all the furniture was still wrapped in plastic, one less thing for them to do before they started painting. “Then you can send him the directions to the house, Liz.” She raised an eyebrow at Liz. She didn’t care that they were listening, she actually figured that they would, which was funny to her. ”We need to pick up plastic sheets or painters cloth to lay on the floors tomorrow.”
“Oooh random thought,” Sophia chimed in. “We should plan for a house warming party too!”
Scarlette and Liz both looked at Sophia. “That’s all you ever want to do it party.” Scarlette laughed.
“Hell yeah!” She stuck out her tongue and made the devil horns with her right hand.
They all started laughing and resumed watching and directing the movers where to go.
It was about eight o’clock in the morning when Scarlette and the girls got up. They had past out early, being exhausted from the all the moving, arranging, and rearranging of everything. All three had past out on the plastic covered bed in the large master bedroom. Some how, during sometime in the night, someone went out to a car a grabbed a blanket from Scarlette’s SVU. She always kept a thick blanket in her vehicles, just in case, part of an emergency kit of sorts.
The three went to the bathroom and tried to freshen up as much as possible, washing the sleep off their faces as much as they could. Once Scarlette had just finished toweling off her face, she received a text from D letting her know he was ten minutes away from the house. Sophia had offered herself to go out and get coffee and food. Liz went with her to make sure she got everything and had help, it was just an excuse to give Scarlette and D privacy.
Once they left Scarlette had changed her shirt and jeans to some older and ratty shirt and jeans, since they were going to be painting. She pulled her waist length hair into a folded ponytail and pushed her bangs back with an old thin white plastic headband.
Just as she was finishing up in the bathroom, the door bell rang. She slowly made her way over to the front door. Once she reached it she took a deep breath and unlocked the door.
She opened the door. “Hi. Come on in.” She stepped to the side.
D was wearing paint stained jeans and a white shirt. He ran his hand through his short black hair. “Thanks.” He stepped inside and looked around. “This is really nice. Really beautiful.” He nodded. “Hell of a lot better than LA.”
She closed the door and walked past him. “Thanks.”
He followed her into the kitchen/dining room area. He leaned against the counter top of the bar. Scarlette was leaning against the countertop across from him, facing him. “It’s a really nice place here, Scarlette.”
She nodded, looking at him straight on, waiting. Arms crossed in front of her.
He sighed heavily. “Alright, I’m sorry for that past few…” He searched his mind for the word he was looking for. “Years.” He hung his head slightly. “I know I probably don’t deserve forgiveness at this point, but I want you to know I am sorry. For everything.” He cleared his throat. “I know excuses are lame and that’s all explanations are but it’s been really hard, especially the past two years or so. Stressful is too light of a word for it.” He smirked. “It may sound selfish but I really didn’t want to hear the repeat problems of yours and deal with the reality of mine at the same time.”
Scarlette raised an eyebrow.
He leaned back a little and let out a sad sigh. “Lara and I had been going through some problems, as you know, but they only got worse. Then after the baby…”
“Baby?” She interrupted him, with her eyes widened with shock and confusion. With all the mutual friends that had had, she knew of the problems he and Lara had faced over the years but none of them ever mentioned them having a baby.
He leaned forward onto the bar, resting his elbows on the cold counter top and pressed his palms into his eyes. “I really wanted to tell you. I really did.” He shook his head. “I didn’t want to drag anyone down with me, with us. It was hard enough as it was and Lara… She just disappeared. Not physically, but mentally. The lights were on but no one was home.” His voice started to shake.
Scarlette’s back became rigid, her mouth dropping open a little as she slowly figured out what he meant. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry.” Was all she could come up with. She debated on what to do, deciding that anything else rather than standing there and staring at him, was better. She walked around to him and placed a hand on his back softly, letting him know she was there.
“I just…” He shook his head slowly. “I didn’t know what to do, how to deal with it. I was just so stricken with grief.” A tear rolled down his cheek. “I thought Lara would snap out of it, but no. Instead she took it out on me, blaming me.” He put his face back into his palms, sobbing heavily.
Scarlette felt her heartbreak with him. She wrapped her arms around him, moving her hand in small circles on his back, and rocked him. Here she was half his size, trying to console him for once. She had a mix of emotions run through her, she still wanted to be pissed at him for leaving her stranded but then guilty for never knowing what was really happening between Lara and him, even more so when this news. Maybe she should have called to see what was going on, maybe then he would have told her. There was no use in dwelling on the past though.
“I lost her.” Was all he said in between slowed sobs. He stiffened and stood up straighter.
Scarlette let go of him and watched him, handing him a rough napkin from the previous nights Chinese take out. “Sorry, it’s all I have.” She gave him a weak smile.
He took it, thanking her with his own weak smile. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be.” She rested a hand on his shoulder.
He sighed letting his muscular shoulders slump forward. “I tried, I really did. I suggested therapy, moving, everything and anything. Then she said she was moving back home to see if that would help.” He shook his head and turned to look at Scarlette. “She served me with divorce papers two weeks ago.”
She squeezed his shoulder. She didn’t want to ask him any questions or push him to talk, she just wanted him to know that she was there for him.
He shook his head again and walked around to the kitchen sink. He splashed cold water on his face, then wiped his face on his old worn shirt. “I said I would help paint. I can’t do that bawling my eyes out and feeling sorry for myself.”
Scarlette gave a weak smile, shaking her head. “If you need anything, and I mean anything…” She stood next to him. “Let me know.”
“Even after everything?”
She smiled and nodded. “I told you I wanted to leave things in the past, and well that is the past.”
He rubbed the back of his head. “I still have to make it up to you somehow, I was a pretty shitty person, especially when you called me to tell me it was over between you two.”
She shrugged. “Let’s just not let anything get in between or friendship again, okay?”
He nodded.
Just then Liz and Sophia came through the door, yelling for help to get the rest of the coffee and food from the car. After everyone settled in and got organized, the food was handed out and coffee was creamed and sugared. It was like old times, everyone laughing and smiling. It continued through out the day and well into the night. Things were starting to look up for the best.
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