Water Ch. 191 - The Smokes The Ghost That Keeps You Close

 

"Hey, do you have a minute?  I need to talk to you." Jon asks, when the phone gets answered.

 

"Yeah man, what's up?"  replies Richie.

 

Jon takes a deep breathe and knows that he is in a situation that has no good outcome.  To reassure himself of the truth, he needs to break a deal that he made with Beth, because he knows that Rick can't be trusted.  Jon felt like an idiot, accusing Beth without actual proof in his hand.  He went with his heart, instead of his mind and that tends to get him in trouble.  He knew that her cast was pink, why did he accept the fact that it was purple, and how could he really think that Beth would do that to him?

 

"I know about you and Beth, but I need to hear it from you.  What happened in LA?" he can't believe that he let those words fall out of his mouth.  He had just betrayed Beth's trust, because he felt he needed to.

 

Richie, quickly on the defensive, asks, "What are you talking about?"

 

"I know you kissed her, Rich.  Was that all that happened between you?" Jon blurts out.

 

Richie is quiet for a few moments and knows he needs to tell Jon the truth.  He's pissed that Beth told Jon, but he understood.  Beth is a woman of integrity and one that prides herself on being open and honest, Richie isn't shocked that she told him.

 

"That's all that happened.  I was feeling vulnerable and lonely and she stopped by.  It was the night after a big poker game here.   She stopped by, I kissed her and pissed her off.  That is all that ever happened, why?  Is someone saying different?"

 

"Well, it stared back in Salt Lake - you know, where you walked in on us having sex.  Anyway, the video that was made and put on the Internet, I had Rick investigate who made it.  In his investigating, he says he found out that you and Beth had an affair.  Provided me with pictures of two people that fit both descriptions, the woman even had a cast on.  I didn't catch on that it was the wrong color.  I came home from meeting him today and laid into her.  Didn't even let her talk."

 

"Jon, what are you going to do?"

 

"She gave me an hour to get Rick here and provide her with proof. Now I can't get Rick on the phone, which further proves Beth is telling the truth.  And you know me, I always insert my foot without thinking.  I couldn't shut my mouth, I just kept at her.  So, to put my mind at ease I'm calling you."  Jon gets up from his office chair and walks out the french door, into the back yard.  Stopping, he looks into the family room window and he can see Beth sitting there with the kids, Romeo on her lap.  She's laughing with them and that makes Jon smile.  "Rich, I know the kiss was it - I just needed to hear it from you."

 

"I swear, that was it and the only time.  And hey, I'm sorry about it too, Jon.  She is such a great girl, it's hard to not be attracted to her."

 

"Let's put it behind us, NEVER LET IT HAPPEN AGAIN and move on.  I gotta go save my relationship."

 

"Jon?" 

 

"Yeah?"

 

"I'm really sorry, please let me know what happens."

 

"Will do."

 

And he hangs up.  Walking back into his office, he sets his phone down and goes and gets Beth.  "Can we talk?"

 

She looks at him, as he leans against the door frame looking back at her.  She can tell that he's calmed down a little bit, and she wonders if he did what she demanded he do.  With a sigh, she sets Romeo on the couch next to her and she gets up.  Stopping at the door, face to face again with Jon, she asks, "Is Rick here or on his way?"

 

"NO.  Let's go into the office and talk."

 

"No, Jon.  We have nothing to say until Rick gets here." she responds with a heavy whisper.

 

He takes her hand, "He's not coming.  I can't reach him by phone.  Can we please go in the office and talk about this?"

 

Stepping around him, she says, "Whatever." and walks into Jon's office.  He follows her in.  Closing the door behind him he starts with, "I called Richie."

 

"What the hell for?" she barks back at him.

 

"To hear the truth from someone else."

 

"I know Jon, my word wasn't good enough, was it." she sits on the couch and gives him her version of the stink eye.  "You had to call Richie, really? Really, Jon.  You had to drag him into this damn mess, that once again I am in the heart of and didn't sign up for."

 

"I needed to hear it from him, right from the horses mouth." he tries to explain it to her, but he can't find the words.  He struggles and then decides that he's just going to say what he's thinking. "I guess I just needed assurance from Richie that you were telling the truth, not that I thought you were lying, once I gave it thought.  Babe, I know I acted like an asshole and I'm sorry.  But I'm sure you can see how I could have believed that?  The pictures, they were you and Richie as soon as I looked at them."

 

"What did Richie tell you?"

 

"That it was just a kiss, and it was only one time.  Just like you said." he sits down next to her. "When you add all that information with the person that recorded us having sex, I couldn't control my thoughts or my feelings.  With all the crap that Rick was telling me and showing me, you were guilty as hell."  He looks her in the eye and follows up with, "And I knew in my heart that you would never do that to me, to us."

 

"Who recorded us?  Was it Dillon or Richie?" keeping that eye contact, she made sure that Jon knew she wasn't in the mood for bullshit, she wasn't going to play a game here.  She wanted answers and she wanted them now.

 

"It was Dillon.  He had days worth of footage, he had been following us for days.  And it looks like he has been in your house in LA. The new house."

 

Her heart sinks and she's starting to put somethings together.  She came home from work one day, and her patio plants had been moved.  Her gardener wasn't there that day.  She came home from dinner one night and there was a chair under her bedroom window.  Just a few odd things that she can now make sense of.  "Dillon, really?"  Her thoughts shift and she feels like she wants to vomit.

 

"Rick tracked him down at your parents home in Chicago.  While investigating him, Rick had found a small shrine in your honor, in our honor.  With one small weird detail."  He pauses and lets her absorb that part.

 

"What detail?"

 

"In the pictures, our eyes are blackened out.  Just shit that psycho's do."

 

Beth blankly looks at Jon, wondering if he thought that this was funny.  "Blackened out?"

 

"Yeah, just our eyes.  Colored black with pen or marker."

 

"That's crazy."

 

"I called for security.  When I was with Rick, he said that Dillon is here in the tri-state area.  Last he knew, he was spotted in Boston.  In any case, you will have a body guard with you 24/7 whether you like it or not."

 

"No, I won't.  Jon, you better not.  I'm not afraid of Dillon."

 

"Well, after what I heard and seen, I am.  And you will have someone with you at all times."

 

Beth can't win and she doesn't even try.  "Romeo has a low grade fever.  He needs another dose of medicine."  She gets up and goes and takes care of Romeo.  While she's doing that, she thinks to herself, Why would my own brother record me having sex?  That thought was unsettling to her, she knows that Dillon wasn't smart enough to plan this and act on it alone.  He had to be working with someone.