Chapter Text
If Raven had known just how awful it would be to be at a wedding as part of the wait staff and not a guest, she would never have taken the job. Well, she desperately needed the cash since she was recently evicted, so she still would have taken it, but she would’ve been far less emphatic in her agreement to do it.
Everyone had already finished their meals so she was mostly just cleaning up empty glasses for the drunken guests, waiting for the night to wind down.
Almost everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, but she’d noticed one of the guests just sitting at his table the whole night. He hadn’t gotten up to dance once, and didn’t glance even at his phone (assuming he even had one). If this were a regular job and Raven knew her co-workers, she would’ve made bets about how long he’d stay or how many drinks he’d order. But this wasn’t an ordinary job, and honestly, she felt kind of bad for him.
Without even thinking about it, she walked over to him and tapped him on the shoulder. He glanced up at her, his miserable expression unchanging. She gave him a kind smile.
“Hey,” she began. “Do you want to go for a walk with me?” She expected him to say no. What kind of a person agrees to go for a walk with the waitress from the wedding they’re at?
To her surprise, he shrugged and said, “Sure.” He stood up and they walked out the front doors together, somehow without Raven’s manager even noticing.
It was a warm spring night and the pavement was wet. “It looks like it’s been raining,” Raven noted, only now realising how awkward it was to walk with a total stranger. The man didn’t say anything, and Raven took it as a hint.
They walked in silence for a few minutes before he decided to speak. “My name’s Murphy,” he said. “Well, my name’s John, but I prefer to go by my last name.”
Raven smiled. “I’m Raven,” she replied. Murphy didn’t respond, he just looked at the ground in front of him as they walked. “I didn’t expect you to agree to walk with me,” Raven told him. He finally looked at her, curiously.
“Why did you invite me to walk with you?” he asked. “For all you know, I could be a murderer.”
Raven shrugged. “I’d been watching you,” she admitted nonchalantly. Murphy raised an eyebrow at her and she hurried to explain herself. “Not in a creepy way! You just stood out, like you really didn’t want to be there. You looked kind of… sad.”
Murphy sighed. “I was dumped recently,” he told her. Raven gave him a sympathetic look. “Well, it was almost a year ago, but it was pretty brutal. I’d built her a house as a grand, romantic proposal, with the idea that it was the house we’d be living in when we got married.”
“You built her a house?” Raven asked, stunned. Murphy nodded.
“I’m an architect so it seemed fitting,” he elaborated, as if that explained everything. “I designed and built her a house in our home town, Arkadia. I thought it was perfect.”
“Architect or not, that’s huge,” Raven said, shaking her head in astonishment. “Whatever happened to the classic engagement ring?”
“Maybe that’s what she thought,” Murphy sighed, shoving his hands in his pockets. “Because not only did she turn me down but she completely dumped me.”
Raven continued to shake her head in disbelief. “Wow, that is rough,” she responded. “So where is she now, this nameless heartbreaker?”
“Emori, is her name,” Murphy said. He shrugged. “Probably still there, I guess. I dunno, I moved pretty much as soon as she left me.”
“So that house is just sitting there, empty?” Raven asked. Murphy nodded. “That’s crazy. What a waste.”
They continued to walk around the block, and just as they neared the hotel where the wedding reception was being held, it started to pour. They ran to the hotel and stopped just under the awning, shielded from the rain but dripping wet and panting. Murphy looked at Raven and she gave him a small smile. He smiled back, for what seemed like the first time all night, and she couldn’t tell if her heart was pounding from running or because she had started to feel something for this man she’d just met.
He brushed her hair from her face and gently tilted her chin towards him, and their lips touched ever so slightly.
“Would you like to come up?” Murphy asked softly, and Raven nodded once in response.
-
They made love for half the night, and when they finally drifted off to sleep Raven found it was the best she’d slept in a long time.
She woke up slowly, blinking several times for her eyes to adjust. She looked up at the alarm clock next to the bed and found it was nearly 10am. She patted the bed next to her, finding it empty. She sat up abruptly and looked around, realising she was in the room alone and Murphy had obviously already packed up and left.
Well, if he was going to leave her high and dry, Raven was going to take her time leaving the room. Maybe at least she could do was make him pay for late check out, and everything the mini fridge had to offer.
She spent half an hour in the shower, cleaning every single inch of her body and performing a concert of half wrong Queen songs. She went rummaging through all of the drawers and cupboards and, by some miracle, found John Murphy’s old business card from Arkadia, complete with address. That’s when she came up with the most devious plan to both get back at Murphy, and score herself free accommodation.
-
Raven drove her old beat up Mustang to the small town of Arkadia. A town of only about 2000 people, according the population sign on the outskirts of town. It was kind of perfect. All she brought with her was a small suitcase filled with everything she owned and $12.50 cash.
She pulled up to the address that was written on the business card and found an abandoned office with a defaced poster of Murphy in the window and little else. Of course, it was his old business office. Raven half expected to arrive at the house he’d built for Emori, but now that she thought about it, it seemed ridiculous.
She figured it wouldn’t be very hard in such a small town to figure out where it was, so she drove further into town until she found the general store. It was very quaint and she hadn’t seen anything quite like it. She wandered the aisles and picked up a few bits and pieces before lining up at the register.
“Just put this on my account thanks, Gabriel,” the man in front of her said to the store clerk. Raven couldn’t believe this town was so stuck in the past that it’s general store still had accounts for the people who lived there. Although, maybe it could work in her favour.
“Not a problem, Bellamy,” Gabriel replied, ringing him up. “Say hello to Clarke for me, okay?” Bellamy gave him a nod and picked up his items. Raven smiled at Gabriel as she stepped up to the counter.
“Hello,” she greeted him.
“How are you today?” Gabriel asked with a smile, starting to ring her items up.
“Fantastic, thank you,” Raven grinned. “Would, uh, John Murphy happen to have an account with you?”
Bellamy, who had gotten halfway to the exit, stopped in his tracks and turned toward her.
“He does indeed. And who might you be?” Gabriel asked her.
“Oh, how rude of me,” Raven said. “My name’s Raven. I’m just moving in to that beautiful house he built for Emori.”
“You mean the one at the top of Hillside Drive? By the lake?” Gabriel queried. “It’s been sitting there empty, still with the big bow on it. I’m glad it’s finally being used.” Bingo. Raven beamed at him.
“John Murphy hasn’t been back in almost a year,” Bellamy interrupted. “What the hell are you doing moving into his house?”
Raven turned to Bellamy, her smile never waning. “Oh, haven’t you heard?” she said sweetly. “I’m his wife.”