truce

All was forgiven. Mikey was back in his own bed and Roxxi and Chase were back on track. The bar of forgiveness could have been set a little higher for Roxxi, jumping through a few more hoops to prove she was sorry. Maybe. The mentioned video could have played a part in that as well, not that Mikey had been bold enough to bring it up with Chase. Curious sat like an itch beneath the surface not to the point he was going to remind his brother about the video. He tried his best not to pass judgement on Roxxi either without knowing the full story.

Slipping back into his own bed was nice but the space on the right was vacant. Yeah he had more room to starfish, but there was no warmth next to him in the night. It was interesting how quickly he grew accustomed to Mab lying next to him. He’d never shared his space with a woman before either, but he was happy to let her in. He was certain there was a flicker of disappointment across Mab’s face when he told her he was moving back in with his brother, but that wasn’t the end of everything for them. They still exchanged text messages everyday and saw each other frequently. It was a friendship they both needed, someone to rely on.

There were two downsides to his job. The first was dealing with ridiculous requests from customers about their food like they were some fucking five star diner with Gordan Ramsey managing the place. They pay seven dollars for a burger, so what were they expecting? It infuriated Mikey, but not to the extent it angered Dom. There had been times he had to stop Dom from going out into the diner and killing someone. The second thing was coming home feeling all sticky and craving a shower. It felt like someone had blasting a heater into the kitchen that day. Plus there was that usual smell of fries clinging to his clothing.

He unlocked the front door, stepping into Chase’s apartment. He threw his bag down by the door before heading toward the kitchen as he could hear Chase clambering around in there. But his heart sank when he realised it wasn’t Chase, it was Roxxi. The disappointment was apparent in her face too when she spotted him coming into the kitchen. It had gone from joy to dissatisfaction. Roxxi tried to salvage the situation with a smile. Mikey tried his best to match it, but he was still lingering near the door, ready to disappear if things became sour.

Slowly he stepped away from the door though. “Um...” The answer was yes, but he took a second to consider the question. Him, Chase and Roxxi all sitting around a dinner table together. He felt he needed to double check with Chase first before agreeing, but by doing so he'd be shining a light on the issue. “Yeah. I think so.” He hadn’t fully committed to dinner, leaving one foot out the door in case Chase wasn’t okay with it.

The food did look good though. Far fancier than the shit he threw together at the diner, but again, it was seven dollar burgers. “My what? I ain’t got a girlfriend.” Oh fuck, she was talking about Mab. Mab had told him she’d had the pleasure of meeting Roxxi, although it wasn’t clear how that interaction went. Both of them were fiery women, so not well? “Mab ain’t my girlfriend.” The two had only hugged once and that was when Mikey was leaving Mab’s. A thank you hug, along with the flowers and bottle of wine he also bought for her to say thank you.

Roxxi addressed the elephant in the room first, cutting through the tense with a knife to drop the bombshell. Were they okay? Fuck, Mikey had no idea. Roxxi was the one grimacing when Mikey walked into the kitchen. “Yeah we’re okay. I’ve moved past it, so has Chase, so have you. There’s no reason we can’t be civil.” Unless she was unnecessarily rude to Mab when they met.

Now they’d glossed over everything he was free to leave the kitchen without it looking like he was running away from Roxxi, but he didn’t rush for the door. “I gotta ask you one thing before we put everythin’ to bed. That video Chase mentioned? What is it?” He needed to know before he could fully accept Roxxi into their family.


ROXANNE BRASCHI

The Sicillan comment kind of went over Mikey’s head. He was too busy trying to understand why Roxxi thought Mab was his girlfriend. Yes they shared a bed back at Mab’s apartment and yes she had been coming around to Chase’s apartment, sometimes staying over, but that didn’t mean they were together. They were just friends. Good friends who watched movies together, had sleepovers and called each other most days. “We ain’t together.” He felt the need to repeat that to Roxxi, but also partly saying it to himself as he realised Roxxi seeing Mab emerging from Mikey’s bedroom wearing his clothes in the morning did look a little suspicious.

The conversation thankfully moved on as the topic was making Mikey feel a little uncomfortable, but it jumped to another awkward topic as Roxxi asked if they were okay. Everything was civil though and they’d moved past whatever the fuck happened between them. “Sounds good.” He muttered quietly, his attention diverted to the door as he was preparing himself to leave Roxxi to it, except he didn’t.

The question about the video had been playing on his mind since it was blurted out by Chase during their argument. He wasn’t stupid either, he knew what type of video it could have been, but he wanted to hear the story from Roxxi. “I don’t go on the internet.” It had advanced far too much since he’d been inside, leaving him feeling out of his depth with it all. They taught them the basics in jail, but they were never given full access to the internet. Google was a fucking minefield to Mikey. He wouldn’t even know where to find this video. Plus, he had no reason to watch it. He’d seen it all before. He stayed silent as Roxxi reeled off the story. “Fuck…” He muttered once it was clear she’d finished talking, “That’s heavy… I’m sorry that happened to you.” Some part of him wanted to reach forward and give Roxxi a hug, “What happened to the girl who sent it? Surprised you ain’t found her and killed her.” There was a hint of humour in his voice at the last part, a tiny smile on his face.


ROXANNE BRASCHI - wrap with yours?