This episode takes place just after Mia leaves the Insurance Agency and about 4 days after Demitrios reveals the truth of his past to his girlfriend, Dixie.
Location: Millème Boulangerie Pâtisserie Café, Námestí Jirího z Podebrad 4
Time: Thursday, 12 Noon
Characters: Mia (LadyBelz) and Dixie (CharlotteCarrendar)
LadyBelz: After having been to the insurance agency, Mia decided to take advantage of the unseasonable weather and headed deeper into the city to her favorite café, the Millème Boulangerie Pâtisserie Café. She sat outside at a table, slowly sipping her third cup of coffee as she slowly went through the day’s newspaper. She had not heard from Steven in nearly a week, and Andrei had also made himself scarce, but that didn’t mean either man was plotting something. She was taking this time to plot ideas of her own regarding the two men, for she had no doubt in her mind that they would show. They were like a dog with a bone in that aspect and she wanted to be ready. She was also thinking about Dixie. Lately she’d been having the oddest feeling that something was going on with her favorite Aussie and she had tried to call her after leaving the agency, but there had been no answer and it seemed as if the answering machine had been turned off as well. She only had gut instinct and speculation and it was worrying. Sighing, she finished her cup of coffee and ordered a fourth, taking time while the waitress left to turn the page on her newspaper, folding it over so she could read and drink her coffee at the same time. Setting down the cup, she reached into her clutch bag and pulled out a cigarette, lighting the tip with a match before taking a deep toke and allowing the nicotine to invade her system. She exhaled smoke and went back to reading the paper. She looked almost unrecognizable in the business-type suit and her hair up in a professional style.
CharlotteCarrendar: ;- Dixie was out and about, though she seemed to be in something of a daze. Her dark glasses kept hidden a secret, for her eyes were red from the many tears, dark circles from the lack of sleep. She took out her cell, standing on the street corner, and of course, there was another message from Kraus, of how they were off to Japan, and wished she was well. It included a picture of them all at the airport, with a big Hello Kitty Mascot, and Nanna Noonie eying off one of the pilots. Dixie sighed, and slid the screen, placing her phone back in her pocket. She had cash, so it was not money troubles that plagued her thoughts, but something else. Walking past the Millème Boulangerie Pâtisserie Café, she spotted Mia, who looked as elegant as ever, enjoying a coffee, but goodness knows how many she had had. Knowing she may well be spotted if she walked on by, she instead pulled up a chair, and sat down uninvited, as a waiter brought her a menu. “I will have pancakes….six stack, and a jug of maple syrup, with two scoops of ice cream. A white coffee, and …the lunch menu.”- she said, before coughing loudly. “You want anything, Queenie?” she said with an odd tone in her voice. Seems like she was ready to eat her way through depression.
LadyBelz: Hearing a chair sliding out across from her, Mia didn’t immediately snap to the fact that her solitude was now interrupted. But she recognized the voice when they placed an order. She looked up from her paper, to the woman who had been on her thoughts. She looked a bit pale and Mia contemplated the large amount of food that had just been ordered. The waitress looked at Mia expectantly. “Raspberry scone, if you’ve got them. And another cup of coffee.” she replied, tapping her nearly empty cup. The waitress nodded and walked away. Mia stared at Dixie, the dark sunglasses on the young woman’s face fooling no one, including Mia. She stabbed out her cigarette and simply stared at Dix, waiting.
CharlotteCarrendar: :- “I didn’t know you liked Raspberry…let alone that they made it into a scone. I prefer buttermilk ones, but that’s me, you know.” She blew out and then slowly took off her sunglasses, tossing them on the table haphazardly. Reaching up she tousled her hair and then pouted, seeing her reflection in the mirror. “I…look like shit.”- and it was true. She did. Now, turning her gaze back to the immaculate Mia she folded her arms on the table and leaned forward. “Do you have a butler or…I don’t know, a personal assistant to keep you looking so damn sparkling every day? And….I know, before you ask. Yes, I am addicted to pancakes.”
LadyBelz: “Raspberry is a weakness of mine. I like to indulge when the mood strikes me.” Mia replied, sitting back in her chair and crossing her legs. She took in the red eyes and dried tear tracks and decided that this situation called for delicate handling. Most didn’t know that Mia could be downright serious when she needed to be. “If I had a butler, I wouldn’t be living in that hellhole I call an apartment, now would I?” she smiled a little before leaning forward to rest her elbows on the table. She caught Dix with her direct gaze. “What happened?” Blunt, no-nonsense and to the point. That was Mia to the bone, especially when it came to serious conversations.
CharlotteCarrendar: You learn something new every day, and this would be that Mia had a weakness. Who would have thought that could be the case? Certainly not Dixie, who was fidgeting with her fingers, tugging on loose strands of hair. Mia answered her questions, but then there was the way in which she sat forward, a no nonsense look on her face. “What happened?” Dixie took a deep breath, which she held inside her as though she would burst. At first her mouth opened, like she wanted to speak, but….feared what she may say. “I think I made a mistake.” Dixie paused, looking up at the sky a moment, and you could see her swallowing, trying to maintain her composure. “I uhm…learned somethings about Dem, that I…” her voice cut out again and she looked out for the waitress. “Why are they taking so long?” Dixie sighed and then went back to the matter at hand. “What would you do, if your lover told you, his darkest pain, and….you couldn’t fix it?”
LadyBelz: Mia watched the girl fidget and babble her statements and that final question. She sat back, silent for a moment, having an idea of what was going on and trying to decide how to best approach this without revealing some of her own past. “He told you…about Marianna.” Mia stated. It wasn’t a question. It wasn’t a guess. It was something she herself had known about having heard Dem talking in his sleep during nightmares when he’d first rescued Mia from that hellhole. She never questioned him about it, preferring to keep her own council on something that was obviously very painful and very private to the man. For him to tell Dixie, his current love about it, he must have truly loved Dixie to share that part of himself. “I wish there was some way to tell you some kind of quick fix for this. There isn’t a quick fix. This is something you need to work out between you and him. But let me ask you something and I want an honest answer from you.” Her eyes, nearly dark blue in their intensity seemed to drill into Dixie’s own. “Do you love him?”
CharlotteCarrendar: – “He told you…about Marianna.” Dixie looked incredulous. “You know about that, about her? God…what?” – Dixie pushed back in her chair, reeling that Mia would know something so intimate about Dem, and say it so easily. Dixie rubbed her swollen left eye with her fist, half angered by this revelation and more to the fact, she started to feel like there was so much more she didn’t know, and that hurt. Mia spoke of wishing there was quick fixes to her problem but there wasn’t. Dixie was recoiling, reeling from sharing this with Mia, who knew more about Dem. “Do you love him?” Ah, the sixty four thousand dollar question. “Would I be sitting here about to drown my sorrows in a stack of pancakes, if I didn’t? Love him? He is everything to me. I love him more than words. Which is why this hurts so damn much. Look at me?” she gestured to her face. “Would I look this bad if I was like….fuck you and your problems, I will go find someone else. It’s eating me inside. I can’t sleep, I can’t think. He won’t talk to me, and I can’t find the way to make his pain go away. Now I feel it. If that is not love, I don’t know what is.”
LadyBelz: Mia took Dixie’s anger in stride. It was the reaction she was hoping for, instead of seeing the girl miserable and trying to drown herself in pancakes. The smile that lit her face looked totally out of character for the discussion they were having. “I know *OF* her from listening to Dem when he thought no one was listening.” was all she was willing to concede to. “I know she meant a great deal to him, and that she died. And that’s all I know. So get off your high horse, Missy and listen to what I have to say.” Mia stated, her body language radiating calm but her voice as hard as granite. “You say you love him, and I believe you. But why the fuck are you here, now, at this place, when you should be back there with him, supporting him, loving him with everything that you have. You don’t have to understand shit-all about the situation, but by your presence alone, you can support him. I have been with him a very long time and I have seen the hell he has gone through. But fucking hell woman! When you walked into his life, it was as if the sun started shining out of his ass. I have never seen him so happy, so carefree, then when he’s with you, near you, around you. If he could eat you like chocolate, he probably fucking would. So don’t sit there and rail at me about the injustice of it all. It was not my secret to tell, and you should be fucking honored…no, not honored…you should be fucking *BLESSED* that he told you. Now I don’t know the details, and I’m assuming from how you’re acting, you do, and I don’t want to know because I refuse to break his trust that way. But you should know…that man loves you, is willing to kill for you, would probably die for you right now, and you’re sitting here being a selfish bitch because you can’t handle it.” By the end of her rant, Mia’s chest was heaving with the force of her anger. She hadn’t meant to explode like that, but she hated seeing such an injustice when it could be prevented. Dem had been through to much, and Mia owed him her life and loyalty. She wasn’t going to let Dix screw with his heart and happiness that way.
CharlotteCarrendar: :- What is it, when a woman lets go, and completely lets the bitch take over and run someone into the dirt for their misbehavior. Dixie had been selfish, her actions and carry on showed a great deal of immaturity that was to be expected since she was not even twenty. Mia on the other hand, had experienced a great deal in her life, and owed Dem for her freedom in a sense. So to see and hear Dixie, was like releasing the Mother of all rants, and even capped anything Dixie’s own father could have said. Every time, Mia paused to take a breath in her tirade, Dixie tried to interject, but basically got driven over by Mia’s wall of words. You could actually see Dixie shrink back in her chair, then looking around at the other patrons, who had all stopped eating, and drinking their coffees, to see the immaculate woman give the young Aussie a good verbal back hander. . It was not my secret to tell, and you should be fucking honoured…no, not honoured…you should be fucking *BLESSED* that he told you.” – This was true of course, and Dixie picked up her sunglasses and put them on, trying to hide, as Mia kept it up. ‘Yes I know…but…” But, it was no use, Mia was not stopping now. “That man loves you, is willing to kill for you, would probably die for you right now, and you’re sitting here being a selfish bitch because you can’t handle it.” Woah…that was a knife right there. Calling her a selfish bitch. “I WOULD BE BY HIS SIDE IF I COULD FIND HIM!!” Dixie screamed back, her own chest heaving, as you could see her bottom lip trembling. “I can’t find him.”- her voice tapered off, as she heaved a sob.
LadyBelz: “I WOULD BE BY HIS SIDE IF I COULD FIND HIM!!” Dixie screamed back. Mia watched her struggling to catch her breath as her bottom lip trembled. “I can’t find him.” That small voice at the end, deflated Mia’s anger like a slow-leaking balloon. She sat back, sighing deeply. She pulled out two cigarettes from her purse, pushing one across the table with the book of matches to Dixie. “I’m sorry I ranted at you that way.” Mia apologized sincerely, lighting her cigarette. “I did so without a proper reason and I apologize. I didn’t know he’d upped and vanished on you.” Glancing around the café and noticing quite a few people were now *very* interested in their conversation, caused Mia’s anger to return tenfold. “What the fuck are you vultures staring at?” she scowled. She was like a mama bear protecting her cub and most of the viewers quickly turned back to their own discussions. She looked back at Dixie, the woman looking like she had shrunk in her seat. “He’ll turn up. You have to believe that. He’s a man of honor, but he’s also a private person. I imagine he wasn’t used to bearing his soul to you like that and it…embarrassed him. Why men feel they can’t share their feelings in front of a woman and all that shit is beyond me. Men say they don’t understand women?” she scoffed. “Should be the other goddamn way around if you ask me.”
CharlotteCarrendar: Like a wandering blind kitten that had strayed too far from its Mother, and was crying, lost and alone, this was exactly how Dixie was acting. She masked it, by her bad ass attitude, and her wild looks, but in fact, she was very much lost and alone in Prague. Dixie had not seen Dem for days. The long hours sitting in the garage ate away at her. The nights in bed, staring at the ceiling, pawing at his pillow. The endless tears that had been a well of saltwater, but now had run dry. She couldn’t cry if she wanted too. Her eyes were swollen, red and incredibly sore. When Mia passed over the cigarette, and matches, Dixie took it up and place it between her lips, then tried to strike a match, breaking it just as Mia shrieked at the other patrons, who were watching the spectacle like it was this week’s episode of Bold and the Beautiful. “Bugger.” She said, dropping the broken match and taking out another, but waited to strike it, till she thought Mia was going to speak calmly. Mia, did calm down, maybe it was the nicotine, or seeing the young Aussie show her soft underside. “Dad said, Men are from Mars and Women are from the Kitchen. I didn’t really have a good role model.”
LadyBelz: Mia wanted to chuckle at that, she really did, but she restrained herself. It sounded as if Dix didn’t have the best of a home life and needed to talk about it. “Pops a bit of an asshole, huh?” Mia asked softly, not wanting to break the mood. She couldn’t imagine a father not liking his own child. Her own father doted on Mia until the day he died and she missed him and her mother terribly, especially at this time of year. “Want to tell me about him?” Mia asked, wondering if Dix would clam up about it.
CharlotteCarrendar: – Dixie struck the match, that blazed up and she lit the cigarette, flicking the match till the fire died and tossing it in the ashtray. She tilted her head back, blowing up the smoke, before she breathed a sigh of relief. Oh the calm, it started to sweep over her. “Asshole is not the word I would use. Try, tyrant…dictator. He ran the pub and Mum, like it was his own private hell hole. Mum did whatever he said. Bla…only good thing he did was sending me to Paris. Then I had to go fuck that up by getting robbed.” Dixie had never revealed to Mia just how she ended up in Prague. “We had a love hate relationship, especially after the crash. He didn’t know how to deal with me, so he sent me away. NOW, he wants me back. I ain’t going back. No.” She took another drag of the cigarettes. “Dad used to wander around the house above the pub in his Y fronts. God, the things I have seen. You don’t want to know the horror, of seeing skid marks when he wandered past in the morning, when I was watching cartoon network.”
LadyBelz: Mia blinked in fascinated horror, listening to Dixie speak of her father. She wanted to ask about the “crash” part of the conversation but felt she didn’t have a right to so kept silent. She had been taking a sip of her coffee when Dix started talking of her father walking around in dirty shorts and promptly swallowed the wrong way, coughing violently as she tried to catch her breath. She looked at Dix, eyes watery and wide. “What were you doing in Europe to be getting robbed?” she was curious. She always wondered how the young woman ended up on a bus full of footballers. This was a side of Dixie Mia had never heard about before and she was fascinated. In the back of her mind, a little voice was telling Mia that this is what most people would call “Girl Talk” but she ruthlessly kicked that voice in the balls and shoved it in a closet, tied up in duct tape. She didn’t do “Girl Talk”.
CharlotteCarrendar: Placing the cigarette down in the ashtray, Dixie brought around her bag, and opened out the flap, then took out a large sketch book, and handed it over to Mia. If Mia was to open the book, she would find page after page, of sketches, of everyone in the Death club, Dem, even Mia herself. The art work was impressive to say the least, captured from her mind’s eye, and drawn in such a way to give a sense of emotion to the image. Sighing, Dixie folded her arms, leaning on the table. “I was going to study art, and had a place at this school my Dad had found in Paris. Course, my bag got switched at the airport, and I lost all my savings, and….wound up sitting at the bus stop outside the airport. The tour bus happened to be up a bit and one of the trainers knew my Dad. Recognized me from the Pub, and invited me on the bus. They took care of me, till I got to Prague. And here I am.”-she said sadly.
LadyBelz: Mia took the book, slowly going through all the sketches until she came to one of herself. It looked as if it had been done around Halloween. She recognized the costume store in the background, and her sketch self was laughing, probably at Nick dressed in drag. Dixie was *VERY* good if she could do this from memory. “I was going to study art, and had a place at this school my Dad had found in Paris. Course, my bag got switched at the airport, and I lost all my savings, and….” Dixie continued to explain. “…And here I am.” Dixie finished as Mia passed the book back to her. “And now your dad wants you to come home, live under lock and key.” Mia deducted. “What an asshole!” Mia exclaimed, slapping her hand on the table loud enough to make the other patrons jump in surprise. “He shouldn’t even be called a man, let alone a father for the way he treated you!” Mia looked disgusted by the mere thought of it and if she could, she would have flown to wherever the man lived and shot his nuts off. “He’s not fit to be in your company.”
CharlotteCarrendar: There was a lot that could be said her father, but the wonderful part was, he was on the far side of the world, well out of reach. He didn’t have the money to come chasing her and bringing her back by the scruff of her neck, so in a way that was a good thing. Taking back the sketch book, she neatly stuffed it back into her bag and hung it on the back of her chair. Dixie finally removed the sunglasses, and Mia could see, the true pain behind her eyes. “I don’t think I completely told you everything. Might as well, since you know more than most, aside from Dem. “Part of the reason I was sent here. To send me far away from the city I lived. Maybe they thought it best, since I had to live with the guilt of the crash.” Slowly, the door to her past opened up. “End of school night, a car…..five friends. My boyfriend.”- she toyed with the match box, speaking with her eyes cast down. “Ever stop to think of what ifs? Taking a minute longer, can change your whole world, so I discovered.” People don’t understand, what is left behind when others die so unexpectedly, and how those deaths impact on a whole community. Her eyes flicked for a moment, and she sighed. “I fought my demons, or thought I had. You’re the second person to know.” She said, with a shrug of her shoulders-
LadyBelz: “Ever stop to think of what ifs?” That question repeated itself over and over in Mia’s head as she thought of her own past. She thought of those what ifs all the time: What if her parents hadn’t died in that fire? What if she had stayed in the US and did her studying? She wouldn’t have ended up in Yuri’s clutches and her life would have been so much more different. She would still have her family. She looked at Dix, pain, but also strength and conviction mirrored in her own eyes. “I know all about what ifs and the choices that lead us to ask those questions. Those reminders only serve to make us stronger. Stronger in mind, stronger in body, stronger in soul and heart. If we continue to live with regret…” her voice trailed off and she spread her hands helplessly. “We may as well just curl up and die.” she finished. She sat up straighter in her seat, feeling the force of her convictions course through her body like wildfire. “But sweetie…you can’t curl up and die. He needs you now, more than ever. If he feels you’re pulling away from him…you might as well just pick up a gun, put it to his chest and shoot him in the heart.” Mia was honestly blunt, but she needed to get her point across to the young woman in front of her.
CharlotteCarrendar: There was a change in Mia, surprisingly from what Dix had asked. Had Dix touched on a subject that Mia held close to her own chest? Had Mia suffered even greater loss that what Dix had? Could it be, that in all of us, we suffer from the pain of losing those to us? A fact of life. Truth is, we are all susceptible to the fragile nature of simply being human. Try as we might, to show tough exteriors, we are all haunted by the same sorts of tragedies. How we cope and deal with such comes out in various ways. Some use addictions, other sex, shopping, or simply treating others harshly, in a way of getting revenge on a society that rather cover up its faults. Pictures painted of happy families and joy are nothing but fabrication to make us believe that there is a better life on the other side of the fence. Dixie took in every word, as though carving it on her very soul. “I didn’t give up on him, I gave up on me. I thought I wasn’t enough. I mean, if I was, he wouldn’t have gone away.” She reached across the table for Mia’s hand. “Help me find him…please?”
LadyBelz: Smiling, Mia grabbed Dixie’s hand in her own. “That was your first mistake. If you give up on yourself, then the game is over before it’s even begun. And yes, I will help you find him. But you need to understand there’s a chance we won’t find him right now, especially if he doesn’t want to be found. You have to place your faith and trust in him and he will come back to you when he’s ready. You just have to give him his space, let him come to terms with all that he’s told you in his own heart and mind first. He loves you, I’ve seen just how much. A blind monkey searching for his ass with a flashlight in the darkest jungle in Africa can see that.” She grinned, hoping to get a chuckle or two out of Dixie. “He’s not going to voluntarily walk away from that, from you. I can sense that much, and my instincts are usually right.”
CharlotteCarrendar: – Dixie was first of all, shocked at her own action, to reach out to Mia, but even more so that Mia actually, grabbed her hand. If Dixie had been chewing gum, she would have swallowed it and choked. Mia was right, since Dixie had made the error of letting herself go. Giving up on yourself is the worst thing you can do. How can you help anyone, if you can’t help yourself? Dixie thought for a moment. “I need to go home, and fix myself up. Tidy the garage. Maybe make him a nice dinner. He could come home at any time. Thank you.”- Dixie jumped to her feet, taking up her bag and placing the strap over her head. With new resolve, she now knew what to do. She took out some Euros and placed it down for the pancakes, she would not be eating. “You can have the pancakes. They will make me fat.”- A big smile finally made Dixie’s face shine, and with that, she took off up the street, racing home, to wait for her man.
LadyBelz: Mia laughed as Dixie took off in a rush, her own heart feeling lighter than it had in years. Still chuckling, she reached over, pulling the plate of pancakes in front of her and soaking them in maple syrup. After taking a couple of bites, she took up her coffee cup and saluted Dix, even though she was no longer present. “To you and Dem, Miss Dixie. May you forever enjoy happiness.” She finished her impromptu brunch, dropped a few more Euros on the table, grabbed up her insurance portfolio and headed for home. She had her own plans to make.
