Archive of Our Own

Rio really loves working at Chuck E. Cheese.

Okay, sure – she wouldn’t blame you for thinking that sounds like a lie. It’s definitely not the most glamorous job in the world. She’s had to clean piss out of the crawl tubes more times than was dignified for any adult to have to do, not to mention the ball pit and, one memorable time, the skee ball machine. She was the one who had to answer to the ire of weird millennials who watched one conspiracy video online and decided that their pizzas were clearly assembled slices from multiple different pies – as though that was in any way easier than just making a new pizza.

But no matter how shitty the day-to-day gets, there’s something that just fundamentally charms her about a franchise built on an animatronic mouse-led band. Her location is one of the last to still have the full animatronics, much to the irritation of management, but so long as they keep it under the radar – and their team does all the repairs themselves rather than calling up corporate when something goes wrong – they basically have the green light to go rogue and keep the shows going.

Frankly, Rio’s convinced it’s why their location hasn’t suffered the same fate as the others in her region. They’re still booking birthday parties regularly, kids even come from a couple cities over just to hit up their location. The shows are old enough now that young parents get nostalgic over them and want their kids to have the same experience. And Rio can’t blame them for it, not when she gets to see their faces light up at the same songs she hears every single day.

All of this being said, Rio is pretty sure she’s the only one of her colleagues who enjoys the job. After an admittedly grueling day during which they’d had four separate vomiting incidents from three different kids, Alice slouches into a chair in the dining area across from where Rio is cleaning off Helen Henny’s beak. She lets out a loud groan.

“I’m quitting my job.”

“No, you’re not,” Rio responds automatically. She tosses the cleaning rag into the bucket at her feet and turns back to Alice.

“I am,” Alice insists. “I’m not doing one more day here. I’m out.”

“Please,” Jen says, heading their way from where she’d been rearranging the toys for ticket redemption. “You’d miss us too much.”

Alice does a bad job of hiding the smile that spreads across her face at Jen’s words. “Maybe. Maybe I’d forget about you by next week. I’ll get a job on a cruise ship or something, be surrounded by hot rich moms and their shitty husbands. And no more screaming kids.”

“People still puke on cruise ships,” Rio points out. “Maybe even more often. With seasickness and cocktails.”

“Yeah, and there would still definitely be screaming kids,” Jen agrees.

“Not on my cruise ship. My cruise is adults only. And I get to decide who’s worthy of drinking. And if you get seasick I’ll leave you at the next port.” Alice closes her eyes. “And if I get back pain, I get to take the week off. And no more fucking birthday parties.”

“No more fucking birthday parties,” Jen echoes. “I’d be right there with you.”

“The birthday parties are fun,” Rio says, and Alice and Jen give her matching eye rolls.

“Just because you’ve got a hard-on for Jasper the Mutt over there doesn’t mean the rest of us should be subjected to the hell of a birthday party,” Jen says.

Rio whips around to look back at the animatronic dog, as though she’s concerned he’ll hear them and get offended or uncomfortable. “Firstly, his name is Jasper T. Jowls.”

“Jesus Christ,” Jen says under her breath, and Alice giggles.

“Secondly,” Rio says sternly, glaring. “I don’t have a hard-on for him. Don’t be gross. I just appreciate the art of an animatronic show and I think Jasper’s incredibly talented. And he makes the kids happy, which is the whole point.”

“Will you take my shift tomorrow then?” Alice asks. “Birthday party at noon. The mom is a fucking nightmare. I mean it. She called to grill me about the ingredients we use in the cookie cakes. Sorry, lady, it’s a cookie. I don’t know what else to tell you. And her kid doesn’t even have allergies, she just wanted to be sure he’s getting the highest quality ingredients. Like, are you for real? You’re on the phone with a Chuck E. Cheese.”

“I will absolutely take your shift,” Rio agrees. She could use the help making her half of rent for this month after the bar she works nights on sometimes cut her shifts again . The glamor of a second job. “Want me to tell Lilia?”

“I can tell her,” Alice offers, shrugging. “Not like she cares so long as a body shows up.”

“She probably already knows,” Jen says. “I swear she’s half-psychic.”

“Doesn’t take a psychic to know that I’m not paying you all overtime to sit around and bitch about your jobs,” Lilia calls from the back, as if summoned by their conversation. She’s a good manager, if a little wacky. “Go home. Jen, Rio, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Rio offers to drive Alice back to the apartment they share, but Alice passes to go out with Jen instead.

“Have fun, be responsible, use protection!” Rio calls to them in the parking lot, and they both flip her off as she straddles her motorcycle and heads home.

***

She doesn’t know when Alice gets in, but the door to her room is closed when Rio stumbles out of bed and trips trying to put her socks on in the hallway.

She’s running late already somehow – working inconsistent nights at the bar means her sleep schedule is perpetually fucked, and she’s got 10 minutes to do the 30 minute drive to work.

Rio really tries to listen to road laws – she’s a rule follower in general – but the rules of being on time to work take precedence and she hurtles through the street as quickly as her bike will take her. She’s still running late as she careens into the parking lot. A car going the wrong way through the lot honks at her loudly when she cuts them off, as though they aren’t fucking up worse than she is.

She yanks her helmet off and jogs inside, patting down her sweaty hair as she runs. Lilia gives her a sharp look but doesn’t say anything beyond jerking a thumb back in the direction of the party room.

Fortunately, she’s still in before the party’s started, and she gets to work right away. Jen gives her an exhausted look. “I don’t want to be here.”

Rio laughs. “Don’t worry, I can handle the people side. If you want, you can just hit play on the show and run pizza and I’ll take the rest.”

“You’re an insane person,” Jen informs her. “I can’t believe you like this shit.”

“No swearing,” Rio says automatically, even though the door to the party room is closed. “Anyways, definitely easier to get excited when you’re working on a full 8 hours of sleep. When exactly did you and Alice head to your respective homes last night?”

Jen has the audacity not to blush, a big smile breaking out across her face instead. “Just past 2. Why? Did she say anything?”

“Hard to say anything when you’re passed out,” Rio says. “Anything I should know? Did you guys finally kiss?”

“No, we just talked,” Jen says. “But it was great. I think she might like me back.”

“I’m going to hit my head into the wall now,” Rio replies. “Please taxidermy me once I bleed out and then wire me up to join the band. It’s where I’ll finally find peace.”

“Shut up. You fucking freak.” Jen sprays a bottle of cleaning liquid in Rio’s direction. Rio ducks behind the animatronics where she finds a stain on the back of Mr. Munch’s foot. No one’s going to see it, but she scrubs at it anyways. “I know you think it’s obvious, but what if you’re wrong? I don’t want to make things awkward. And she doesn’t seem like she’s going to make the first move.”

“It is obvious. She likes you. Seriously, Jen, stop overthinking! Have fun. Let it happen.”

The door slams open, cutting off any response.

“Excuse me,” Rio says, reacting on instinct. “This room is closed for a party that’s starting soon.”

She pops up from behind Mr. Munch and finds herself face to face with easily the most beautiful woman she’s ever seen. Long, tangled dark waves of hair frame an angular face with high cheekbones and a nose Rio could write poems about.

“You,” the woman says, voice tinged with venom. Striking blue eyes narrow at her. Rio gulps.

“Me?”

“You almost hit me this morning.” The woman shifts, leaning towards Rio in a way that Rio’s sure is supposed to be menacing. In truth, it just shifts the collar of her button down enough to give Rio an opportunity to look down her shirt. Not that she ever would. Or does. Or- oh, shut up. Rio rips her eyes back up to the woman’s face.

“What are you talking about?” Rio feels her Apple Watch buzz on her wrist and is convinced it’s a high heart rate warning.

“You were the one on that… death-mobile, yes?” The woman arches an eyebrow at her.

“My bike?” Rio swallows. Fuck. “You were the one going the wrong way through the parking lot.”

“It’s a parking lot ,” the woman says. “Road laws aren’t real in a parking lot.”

“That’s not true,” Rio says weakly. She doesn’t bother saying that this belief is contradictory with the woman’s original point – if road laws aren’t real in parking lots, Rio did nothing wrong by cutting her off. Instead she stares, somewhat uselessly, at how stunning the woman is when she radiates with anger.

“You could’ve killed me. Or my son.”

“Son?” Rio echoes. She can feel Jen giving her a sharp look. Son. Of course, son. Of course this woman has a child. Why else would she be in a Chuck E. Cheese? Adults were barely even allowed in without kids. Get it together, Vidal.

“Please don’t tell me you're the one in charge around here. Where’s the person I spoke to on the phone yesterday? Alex?”

“I’m so sorry about her,” Jen says smoothly, stepping around a table to place herself between Rio and the woman. “I’ll be helping her handle Nicky’s birthday party, don’t worry. I’m Jen. Alice is out today but she filled me in on everything you talked about and we’re ready to make sure all the kids have a great day.”

The woman doesn’t respond for a second, sweeping her eyes up and down the two of them before pursing her lips. “I suppose you’ll do. You heard all of my requests?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Jen says patiently. “The only thing I should mention is that we do currently have a fully animatronic Chuck E. Cheese band back here so the mouse won’t actually be interacting with the kids while the band performs. But we do have a mascot version for after the performance – I just wanted to check in because some of our younger groups can be nervous around the mascot so we can pull that part if you think your son or his friends would have issue…?”

“He’s very brave,” the woman responds, sounding insulted.

“Great,” Jen says, her own voice taking on a tone of irritation. “I just wanted to check.”

The woman’s eyes slide back to Rio. “That’s not your job, is it?”

Rio flushes. She’s donned the mouse costume on more than one occasion, but it’s not typically her responsibility unless they’re really short-staffed. There’s something that’s always felt fucked up to her about pretending to be Chuck E. “No. No, I mostly run the show and lead group games.”

“Hm.”

Rio presses her tongue into the side of her cheek. “I promise your son is in great hands. And, uh, you got the full birthday package, too, so all the kids will have unlimited access to the games once they’re done eating.” She doesn’t know why she’s telling this woman what she bought. This woman probably thinks she’s an idiot.

But the woman’s face lines with concern instead, and she doesn’t seem bothered by Rio’s useless comments. “Yes. Well. We’ll see.”

“Is he out there now?” Rio asks, gesturing out the door. The woman turns to look, and Rio nearly chokes at the tendon that flexes in her neck with the movement.

“Yes,” she says finally, turning blue eyes back on Rio. Rio does her best not to pass out under the attention.

“We’re just about finished setting up in here, do you want to bring him in? We can show him the band up close while we wait for the other kids to get here.”

“Rio knows everything there is to know about our animatronics,” Jen says, equal parts dig and bragging. “If that’s something that Nicky’s interested in.”

“Well, that is why we picked this location,” the woman says, and she gives Rio an evaluating look now, dragging her eyes up and down her body in a way that makes Rio shiver. “Fine. Rio, you said?”

Rio has not said, actually. Rio has managed to not say much of anything useful. “That’s me.”

“This better be the best birthday of his life,” the woman says, instead of introducing herself. She gives Rio a long final look before turning around and sweeping out of the room to fetch her kid.

Rio and Jen let out matching long breaths. Jen punctuates her with a soft laugh.

“Still feeling good about taking Alice’s shift?”

Rio winces. “Maybe her kid’ll be nice?”

“With a mom that uptight? She clearly spoils him. You know he’s gonna be a snob.” Jen rolls her eyes. “At least it’s only a few hours.”

When the door swings open again, it’s Lilia who enters first, followed by the woman holding a little boy in her arms. He’s smaller than Rio expected, with big brown eyes and hair that almost brushes his shoulders.

“I take it you both have already met Agatha,” Lilia says, giving Rio a knowing look that makes her grimace. “This is Nicky. He’s turning six next week. Nicky, this is Jen and Rio.”

He’s small for six. Rio would’ve guessed maybe two years younger. Agatha murmurs something to him too quiet for anyone else in the room to catch and he shakes his head. Agatha looks like she’s about to argue back but instead just sets him down next to her and runs a hand over his hair affectionately.

“Hi, Nicky,” Rio says. “Your mom said you might want to check out the band?”

Nicky looks up at Agatha with wide eyes, and when Rio follows his gaze, Agatha looks the softest Rio’s seen her all day, sharp features melting away into kind eyes and a soft smile. “Go ahead,” she permits and he steps forward.

“I really like the dog,” he tells Rio, and Rio grins.

“He’s my favorite, too! Do you know his name?”

Nicky shakes his head and reaches up for Rio’s hand when she leads him over to the band. It turns out he’s actually really interested in how each character actually works, and she talks him through a simplified explanation of the air cylinders and each character’s joints. He absorbs it all with his jaw hanging open and his eyes wide, asks smart questions, and gets excited when she offers to let him run a sequence on one of their computers. Their performances are almost all pre-programmed sequences but since Rio had taken over repairs, she’d been working on upgrading their system to get them off of ancient floppy discs (yes, really) and DVDs and onto a more customizable platform. She doesn’t have it fully figured out, but she shows Nicky a button that makes Chuck E. tap his foot, which delights him. At one point she looks up to find Agatha saying something to Lilia and Jen, but when she’s finished with her comment, her eyes track immediately back to Rio and Nicky, watching them with an expression Rio can’t read.

“I think your first friends have started showing up,” Lilia says. “I’ll go get them. Agatha, do you want to come greet parents with me?” Agatha tenses at this but nods.

“Nicky, are you okay here?”

Nicky looks up and grins at her. “Look!” He hits the button and Chuck E. taps his left foot again.

“Are you okay here with Rio?”

Rio feels her heart thump loudly at Agatha saying her name. Jesus Christ, she needs to get a grip. But Nicky nods eagerly, and Agatha and Lilia head out to meet the other parents.

Nicky’s at the age where some of the parents stay and some don’t, so the room fills up with a mix of people. There are fewer kids than Rio expected – most of their birthday parties are for a kid’s entire class, but this group stays small, under ten kids and a handful of grown ups. There’s a red-haired woman who comes in last with two boys, and Agatha comes in behind her looking beautiful and pissed off. She says something to the woman that makes the woman flap a hand in her direction, and Agatha looks like she’s thinking about biting that hand off.

The woman leaves though, and the party proceeds largely without incident. The band plays and Rio and Jen serve pizza and Nicky asks her to sit next to him for the show, which is sweet even if she can’t say yes.

But the vibe shifts when the lights come on and they bring out the cookie cake. The other boys are pushy, and one of the boys that belonged to the redhead – Tommy – jumps up on the table to blow out the candles before Nicky can get a chance.

“Hey,” Rio reprimands, stepping in the second Nicky’s smile fades. “Let’s give the birthday boy his chance to blow out his own candles, okay?”

Tommy frowns. “But I wanted to!”

“It’s Nicky’s birthday. And I was just talking to Chuck E. backstage and he said that anyone who doesn’t let Nicky get to blow out his own candles and be the star of his own birthday won’t get to dance with him later.” Tommy quiets down at that, and Rio catches Nicky’s eye as she relights the candle. “Chuck E.’s super excited to party with you once the cake is done,” she tells him, and he looks up at her.

“Did he really say that?”

“He did,” Rio confirms, and Nicky allows a tiny smile before blowing out the candles. Jen takes the cake into the back to split up onto plates while Rio hits the button to play the birthday song, and the kids are blissfully distracted with dancing and stomping their feet for another few minutes. Nicky doesn’t stand with them, but he sways in his seat and claps his hands, and Agatha sits next to him and does the same. She glances over his head at Rio for a brief moment and mouths Thank you , and Rio blushes an embarrassing shade of red before running to the back room to tell the boy in the Chuck E. mascot costume today – William – that he better hype the fuck out of Nicky and maybe ignore Tommy the whole time. Whatever. Kids can be dicks, and sometimes the consequence for that is getting ignored by Chuck E. Cheese.

William comes out and puts on a great show, like he always does. There’s something about the energy of a 19 year old boy that Rio will always somewhat envy, and he gives the kids a good party, even lifting Nicky up on his shoulders for a while which is definitely against policy and makes Agatha nearly leap out of her chair in concern, but which leaves Nicky laughing loudly and makes the other kids jealous, so Rio thinks it’s worth it. Nicky is returned safely to Agatha once they dance is over, and she fusses over him for a minute before accepting that he’s totally fine.

Jen flicks on the lights and starts loading up the kids with game tokens, and they run, shrieking, out into the main room, save Nicky. He takes his time getting up with Agatha and walking into the other room. Rio was like that as a kid – a little more rough and tumble maybe, but she’d always preferred her own company to that of other kids. She’d climb trees but she’d do it on her own, didn’t really get along with the other kids in her grade who all thought she was strange. It gives her a soft spot for the smaller, less social kids. She holds the door for Nicky and Agatha and Agatha gives her another long look that spikes her heart rate.

Cool, cool, cool.

The rest of the party flies by – kids win tickets and prizes, William runs around in costume, and Rio and Jen make sure no one gets hurt on the floor. Nicky sticks close to Agatha, mostly playing the arcade games, and if Rio spends most of her time near them, well, sue her for giving the birthday boy extra attention. It has nothing to do with the way Agatha looks at her when she helps Nicky with his skee ball technique or when she bumps the pinball machine with her hip “on accident” to save his ball. She even gets a laugh out of Agatha when she’s a little too obvious in rigging one of the games in Nicky’s favor, a loud cackle that fills Rio’s chest with warmth and spreads through her body. It’s contagious – she knows she’s at work but she grins, too.

By the time the party wraps and the other parents come to collect their kids, Rio’s actually disappointed – tired, but there’s a part of her that doesn’t want Agatha and Nicky to go. He uses his tickets to get a massive Chuck E. Cheese plushie that’s almost the size of him, and Agatha’s face lights up when he shows it to her. Rio doesn’t realize she’s staring until a kid manages to throw a skee ball at her, knocking the wind out of her as she jumps back to dodge it, and then she’s too busy banning the kid from the skee ball machines to keep watching Agatha and Nicky.

The redhead from before is the last one to collect her kids, and the woman goes in for a hug with Agatha. Agatha’s eyes flash with what Rio thinks is irritation but she accepts the hug anyways. Rio’s gut pinches, which is entirely absurd.

But even if she wanted to interrogate the feeling, she doesn’t have a chance – as she, too, is being approached by the redhead.

“Hi!” the woman says excitedly, beaming. “I’m Wanda.”

“Okay,” Rio says, unsure what to do with this information. One of Wanda’s kids pushes the other one. She squints and tries to determine if the pusher is the same one who blew out Nicky’s birthday candles or if both of Wanda’s kids suck.

“It looks like the kids had a great time,” she says, one hand mindlessly ruffling through one boy’s hair.

“Great.”

“Well,” Wanda says awkwardly. “Thanks for having us!”

Rio waves stiffly, and Wanda shepherds her two kids out the door. Rio turns around to make sure there aren’t any kids still wandering around (one time a parent threw a fit over their kid going missing when they’d just been hiding in the crawl tube. Rio tries to make it a goal to get yelled at by as few parents as humanly possible.). She finds Nicky sitting on the edge of a skee ball machine, breathing hard, and she perches above the ball deposit next to him.

“Go too hard on the jungle gym?” she asks him, gesturing at the collection of netting and ladders and trampolines in the corner that leads to their skytubes. Nicky gives her a tired look.

“Thank you for my birthday, Rio,” he tells her.

“Hey, dude, thank your mom for that! I’m just glad I got to spend it with ya. And that someone else likes Jasper as much as I do.” Nicky smiles at her before going back to focusing on his breathing. “Where is your mom, by the way? I think I lost her when she was talking to parents.” Rio gives Nicky a conspiratorial eye roll which makes him burst out in giggles before dissolving into coughs. “Whoa, careful.” He gets it under control and she squints at him.

“She’s talking to Ms. Jen,” he answers once he can, and Rio’s head snaps up. Sure enough, Agatha is leaning in to Jen and whispering something to her. Jen nods, smiling too familiarly as she says something back, and Rio feels something gross twist up through her gut.

“Cool,” she says quietly, and has to rip her eyes away from Agatha to focus on the boy next to her again. “Is there anything that you didn’t get to do today that you wanted to do? Before your mom takes you home. Anything you want. More cake?”

Nicky’s eyes shine. “Can I?”

“Of course! It’s your birthday.”

“This is the best birthday ever ,” Nicky breathes out, and Rio laughs.

“I’ll be right back.” By the time she gets back with two paper plates of cookie cake, Agatha and Jen are gone and Lilia’s sitting with Nicky. Rio is absolutely not going to express any jealousy to a six year old. Not that it’s jealousy anyways! Agatha can talk to whomever she wants! Jen has as much right as Rio to be overwhelmed by that hair and those eyes and those cheekbones– “Where’s your mom?” Fuck .

Lilia gives her a look and snatches the plate that Rio had grabbed for herself. Rio rolls her eyes but gives Nicky the other plate. “She’s outside with Jen,” Lilia answers for Nicky. Nicky nods and takes a big bite that’s mostly blue frosting.

“Gotchaaaa,” Rio says, drawing out the vowel. “Cool. For sure.” Lilia glares a little and Rio bites the inside of her cheek before she can embarrass herself further. She’s saved – sorta – by Agatha and Jen’s reappearance and then Agatha is approaching to check in on Nicky and she’s standing too close for Rio to retain any coherent thoughts anyways.

“You’re going to get frosting on Chuck E.,” Agatha tells Nicky, and his eyebrows shoot up as he tries to scoot away from the stuffed animal he won. He’s sitting on its tail, and Rio dives in to catch it before it falls face-first into Nicky’s plate. “Ready to go home?”

“Can we stay?” Nicky asks plaintively, and Agatha looks genuinely conflicted when she tells him they have to get home.

“We’ll come back another time, okay?” Agatha promises, and Rio’s stupid stomach flips at the thought of seeing her again. “Wanna say goodbye to everyone?”

Nicky finishes his cookie cake and launches himself at Rio, little arms wrapping around her waist. “Bye, Rio!”

“Bye, Nicky. I hope we can see you soon!” Rio can feel Agatha’s eyes on her. It takes everything she has not to look up and meet blue with brown.

“Me, too,” he says, pulling back. He waves at Lilia and Jen and then grabs onto his mom’s leg.

“Thank you,” Agatha says to Lilia, then pauses and looks at Rio. “And you weren’t nearly as disappointing as I expected.”

Rio flushes. “Thanks.” Agatha’s gaze lingers, but not nearly as long as Rio would’ve liked. She and Nicky sweep out of the room as quickly as they’d come, and Lilia returns to the ticket counter to clean up.

“Gay ass,” Jen sings, and Rio’s eyes shoot over to hers.

“Shut up, Jen.”

“Come on . You only spent the past four hours drooling over her.”

“I’m not the one who was sneaking off to talk with her outside,” Rio snaps back, and fuck , there’s that stupid fucking jealousy. It’s fine! It’s fine .

Jen laughs meanly. “Jealous, Vidal?”

“I just don’t want Alice to get hurt,” Rio says, and Jen’s smile drops.

“Don’t be a dick. I talked to her outside for four seconds.”

Guilt twists Rio’s insides but she can’t take it back without admitting something stupider, so she shrugs. “I’m not being a dick.” She does make an apologetic face, though, and Jen drops it.

“Are you free tonight? I was gonna see if Alice could meet us for a drink.”

Rio shakes her head. “Ugh. No. I’m on shift tonight.”

“How much would you hate it if we grabbed a drink at your bar?”

“ Please . It’s a Friday, you guys would be a welcome reprieve from the usual assholes.”

“I’ll text her!”

“I don’t pay you to sit around and chat!” Lilia calls out from the ticket counter, and Rio and Jen share an eye roll before getting back to work.

***

For as much as Rio loves her day job at Chuck E. Cheese, she hates her night job at the bar.

It’s not a classy establishment. Every weekend she has to shoo away the underage college kids that the bouncer is too lazy to keep out, while fending off advances from the kind of adult men who don’t mind drinking at a place where their feet stick to the floor.

Rio very much minds that her feet stick to the floor. Fortunately, thanks to much intervention from Alice and Jen and the ill-advised number of dates they’d all brought back to the bar, the lesbian attendance has been slowly but surely on the rise. Unfortunately, Rio’s shitty boss still keeps bringing in his asshole friends and insisting they can drink for free, so. The douche to dyke ratio isn’t quite where Rio would prefer it.

Alice and Jen aren’t there yet when Rio ends up having to call the bouncer on a customer who tries to get handsy with her from across the bar, and she’s about ready to quit if one more guy calls her sweetheart .

Gross! It’s gross. And she’s working until close tonight, which means she isn’t free from this hell until 2 a.m. Ugh.

The other guy bartending with her knocks over an open can of pineapple, sending juice and fruit flying across the floor, and Rio winces as he kicks the pineapple chunks under the bar. As though this place could get grimier.

She’s relieved when Alice and Jen walk in. Alice holds the door for Jen and Rio clocks the way Jen blushes a little at her chivalry. Rio makes a mental note to make fun of them for it once they’ve gotten their shit together enough to joke about.

The barstools are all taken, but Alice wedges between two men to lean on the bar and ask for two beers. “I heard it was an eventful birthday party today,” she says as Rio pops the tops off of two Modelos. Rio flushes.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Jen “accidentally” jabs her elbow into one of the guys next to them and when he glares at her, she glares back until he gets up and she can steal his seat. “Rio spent the entire party up this lady’s ass.”

“She sounded so mean on the phone!” Alice says, and Jen snorts.

“So exactly Rio’s type.”

“You guys are the worst,” Rio grumbles.

“Did you at least get her number? Or make a move?” Jen’s sitting sideways on the barstool, and Alice shifts to stand between her legs, leaning back against her.

“Obviously not,” Jen answers for her, and Rio rolls her eyes.

“I’m a professional . I’m not hitting on moms at work.”

“You’re a professional at Chuck E. Cheese, babe,” Alice says. “I think you’re okay to hit on a mom once in a while.”

Rio is blissfully saved by another patron at the other end of the bar hitting his fist on the counter for her attention, and she heads over to see what he needs. As she pulls him a beer, the other bartender lets her know that he’s going on break, and she gives him a nod of acknowledgment and silently hopes no one else needs anything so she can take the 15 minutes to clean up the mess he’s made of their shared workspace.

By the time she makes it back to Alice and Jen, they’ve claimed another seat and are leaning into each other to hear over the general raucous atmosphere of the bar. Rio can’t really get away with leaning across the bar with them and neglecting her job that obviously, but when she returns, they lean towards her on the counter and shout loudly enough to include her.

The night isn’t bad but Rio’s tired . By midnight she’s about to call off on her break when her attention catches on the door swinging open and she sees someone walk in who makes her duck behind the bar on instinct.

“Rio?” Alice calls, and Rio swears. She’s a fucking idiot.

“Yeah,” Rio calls back. “Uh. Cleaning up a spill here.” She stares at an ice cube that’s melting on the ground. Jen starts laughing and Rio knows she’s been found out.

“Jesus Christ, Vidal. You’re so useless.”

Rio stands slowly, face brilliant red. “Everyone shut up.” She scans the room but Agatha’s disappeared into the crowd.

“I’m missing something,” Alice says, and Jen gives her a devious smile.

“The mom that Rio’s in love with just walked in.”

“ Don’t look– ” Rio hisses as Alice twists her whole body to see. “You’re the worst. You’re the worst and I hate you. Also I’m not in love with her.”

“Uh huh,” Jen says, eyes sparkling. She drains the rest of her beer. “Should we go over and say hi?”

“Don’t you dare.” Rio still can’t see Agatha through the crowd. Was that really her? Is she sitting down or would she be coming to the bar? There’s no way Agatha would be here. Maybe it’s someone else with the same wild hair and the same blue eyes and– okay, it’s definitely her. But what the hell is she doing here? Rio narrows her eyes at Jen. “You two were talking for a while. You didn’t–”

“Babe,” Jen interrupts, “I love you so much, but if you think I told Agatha what bar you work at so she could come surprise you and sweep you off your feet, you’re crazy.”

“No, I obviously didn’t think that,” Rio says. “Ugh. Whatever.” Rio gets waved down by a group of girls whose IDs she really should double check and makes them a round of green tea shots.

Her head jerks to the side when she hears her name and – oh. Oh, no .

“Rio, right?”

Wanda’s grin is almost as blinding as her red-ass hair. Rio pastes on a smile. “Uh. Hey, Wanda.” Her heart thuds dully in her chest. Is Wanda here with Agatha?

“Can I get a mojito aaaaand a G&T?”

Great, so she’s definitely here with Agatha. “Just a sec.”

Wanda leans forward. “I can’t believe you work here! What are the odds?”

The odds that a minimum wage Chuck E. Cheese employee would have a second job are actually pretty high. Rio doesn’t mention this. “Yeah. What, uh, what brings you here?”

“Oh, Agatha and I are grabbing a drink,” she says casually, jabbing her thumb back towards the crowd. Rio imagines what it would be like to say Agatha’s name like that, so certain that it belonged on her tongue. If she’s a little more aggressive than she usually would be as she muddles mint leaves at the bottom of her shaker, well, Wanda won’t know the difference anyways. Who the fuck orders a mojito at a bar like this anyways? Annoying ass order.

“Yeah? Do you… uh. Are you…” Rio has enough pride not to finish her sentence. “Cool.”

“My boys loved the party today, by the way,” Wanda says. “Their birthday is actually coming up soon. They’re twins.”

Rio’s head jerks up. Wanda wouldn’t steal another kid’s birthday , would she? The idea is nuts. Although she’s clearly here on a fucking date with Agatha, so maybe Agatha signed off on it. Maybe Rio will have to spend the rest of her life watching Agatha and Wanda become a beautiful, happy blended family with yearly trips to Chuck E. Cheese. She honestly can’t think of anything worse.

“What kind of packages do you guys offer? I loved what Agatha did.”

“Uh, I don’t really… I’m not at work right now. I mean, I am. But not… you can call about that tomorrow and we can help you over the phone.”

“Of course,” Wanda says breezily. “Didn’t mean to cross any lines.” Rio strains the mojito over a glass and hands it to Wanda before starting on the gin and tonic. “And I’ll start a tab,” Wanda adds. “Not sure how long we’ll be here.”

“Great,” Rio grits out. The second drink takes significantly less time and she slides it across the bar in exchange for Wanda’s card. “Well. If you or Agatha need anything…”

“We’ll come find you,” Wanda chirps, beaming. “Thank you!”

Rio presses her lips into a smile. She can’t think of a single thing worse than interacting with Agatha on a date. Wanda slips back into the crowd.

Rio still can’t figure out where they are, which must mean that Agatha has a seat somewhere – when the bar gets crowded like this, she loses visibility into the seats along the back wall. The guy bartending with her will do a lap every so often to check on those patrons, but as long as Rio stays behind the bar she should be safe.

“You should ask her out,” Alice says immediately as soon as Rio returns to her friends’ side, and Rio blinks at her.

“Huh?”

“The mom.” Alice gives her a look like it’s obvious. “Jen just caught me up. You should ask her out.”

“I absolutely should not ask her out,” Rio says. “She’s here on a date anyways.” Jen leans back in her chair to squint through the crowd and Rio grabs her by the wrist to drag her back towards the bar. “I’m so serious, do not look . They’re going to think we’re talking about them.”

“We are talking about them.” Jen rolls her eyes.

“Ugh, I know! I don’t want them to know. Look, just–” Rio goes to run her hand through her hair but the movement is thwarted by the fact that she’d tied her hair up into a ponytail before her bar shift started. She settles for pushing back the shorter pieces that have fallen out, and they flop back into place framing her face as soon as she drops her hand. “We can all be normal, okay? And not talk about my love life. Not that Agatha is part of my love life. Obviously!”

“Babe,” Jen says, pitching her voice to evoke sincerity as she places a hand over Rio’s. “Neither of us would ever mean to imply that you have a love life.”

Rio gives her a false smile and pulls her hand free to flip her off. “Do you need another beer?”

Jen slides her empty across the bar. “Yes, please .”

Jen and Alice only hang around for another half hour. The bar gets busier after midnight – kids celebrating their 21st birthdays, a bachelorette party, horny people who want a place to grind on a Friday night – and Rio regrettably gets too busy to talk anyways. And then at 1am, the other bartender gets a call from his girlfriend. “I have to go,” he tells Rio, not even bothering to sound sorry about it. “There’s an emergency at home.”

The whole thing reeks of bullshit, but Rio doesn’t press him. She’s tired, and there’s only an hour left anyways. Fuck him for leaving before she’s had a chance to take her break but whatever.

She’s making some peach schnapps-based monstrosity for a girl on a date who’d pulled up a recipe for her from TikTok when she hears her name again and looks up to see Wanda. The idea that she’s still here – that she and Agatha have apparently spent almost two hours together – sends an embarrassing wave of nausea through her, tempered only by the thought that if they’re still here it means they can’t be anywhere else, like back at Agatha’s place.

“Can I close my tab?” Wanda asks in that annoyingly perky voice, and Rio’s gut churns. Not that she’s jealous! Not that what Wanda and Agatha do has anything to do with her!

“You got it,” Rio says, delivering the drink she was working on and turning to close Wanda out. Even her signature is annoying – massive bubbly flourishes that ignore the signature line altogether. “Thanks.”

Wanda whirls around back to the crowd to make her exit, and Rio huffs out a breath. Well. That’s that then.

Except as the crowd thins out, she catches a flash of dark brown hair, and before she can think better of it, her feet are taking her across the room until she’s standing next to a table where Agatha is sitting alone.

“Hi,” Rio says stupidly, clearly not having planned this far ahead.

Agatha makes a humming noise in the back of her throat that sends a jolt through Rio’s whole body. Blue eyes sweep Rio from head to toe, taking in the black tank top and jeans she’s changed into. “Here I thought the staff here had forgotten about the tables entirely.”

“Sorry,” Rio says, hoping she’s not flushing as red as she feels like she is. “Uh, the other guy who was here was taking the back tables and he had to leave early.”

“Well, that’s a relief. I’d much prefer you anyway.” Agatha breaks eye contact to grab her glass and Rio can’t decide if she’s relieved at the break or if she already misses the feeling of being seen by this woman. Her thoughts disappear entirely when Agatha raises the glass to her lips and downs the rest of it. Rio’s eyes dart between where she can see Agatha’s throat move as she swallows and where Agatha’s lips press against glass. Agatha sets the drink down and looks back over at Rio. “It seems I need another drink.”

“Of course,” Rio says once she remembers how to talk, clearing her throat. “Another, uh…” She looks down and realizes it’s absolutely the same drink she gave Wanda two hours ago. “Gin and tonic?”

“Sure,” Agatha says, lifting one shoulder in a half-shrug. “Hurry back.” Rio has to remind herself that it would be pathetic beyond belief to sprint back behind the bar. It makes her hyperconscious of her steps, which makes her walk like she’s forgotten how, which is only slightly less humiliating than outright running.

Free from Agatha’s direct presence, Rio’s mind kicks into gear again, supplying her with all means of deeply unhelpful questions like Why didn’t she leave with Wanda? and What exactly does she mean by hurry back? coupled with Agatha’s voice saying I’d much prefer you anyway just echoing on a loop.

She’s feeling sooooo normal about this.

She’d forgotten altogether that Agatha’s drink was on Wanda’s tab, so she doesn’t bother ringing it up. The bar isn’t well-run enough to notice a couple missing drinks. Agatha’s eyes are on her again the second she re-emerges into her sight line, and Rio gives a soft smile as she approaches to set the drink down.

“So what were you and Wanda doing here?” Rio asks, hoping it sounds casual. “Just– I mean, I’ve never seen you here before. Either of you.”

“You remember everyone who walks through here?” Agatha asks. Rio thinks the smile playing at her lips is teasing but she can’t tell. Her palms sweat at her sides.

“I’d remember you,” Rio says, more impulsive than bold. “I mean. And Wanda. Red hair, and all that.”

“Do you think she’s pretty?” Agatha leans forward and whoa, Rio is so out of her depth.

“Uh,” she says articulately. Agatha raises her eyebrows expectantly. “Um. Sure. Yeah, she’s pretty. I guess.”

“You guess,” Agatha echoes. She leans back, looking somewhat disappointed, and something lurches in Rio’s stomach, a biological alarm bell screaming that she’s said the wrong thing.

She sucks in a breath through her teeth. “You could do better,” she says, which is markedly worse . “Fuck. I didn’t mean that. I mean, I did but not like – I’m going to stop talking now.”

Agatha snorts. “No, by all means, please continue talking.”

Rio’s going to quit her job tomorrow. Actually, Rio’s going to quit both of her jobs tomorrow. Rio’s going to become a hermit and sleep in a cave or something and live off the land. Anything that will save her the absolute mortification of having to speak to another human being ever again.

“I think it’s probably best that I don’t,” Rio says. “I’ve already insulted your girlfriend once, I–”

“Girlfriend?” Agatha interrupts, eyes gleaming.

“Well– yeah. I mean, she is, right? You’re here on a date.”

“Who said I was here on a date?”

Rio’s ears burn. “Maybe I missed something.”

Agatha stands then, and the movement brings her too close. Rio’s taller than her but she doesn’t feel it, not when Agatha leans in close to her ear. Rio considers holding her breath – she doesn’t want to be breathing all over Agatha, that feels rude – but then she’s not breathing and she has to suck in a breath before she accidentally starts hyperventilating. “If I were to be on a date with anyone tonight, it wouldn’t have been with Wanda ,” Agatha murmurs, and Rio’s whole breathing plan collapses anyways as her chest hitches. “Thanks for the drink.” She winks at Rio, which feels criminal, and then pushes past her towards the door.

“Agatha – wait,” Rio tries helplessly, and Agatha’s head tilts up as she laughs.

“I’ll see you around, Rio .”

***

Rio does, in fact, see Agatha around, although only because Wanda’s insane.

True to what she’d implied, two weeks later, they’re setting up another birthday party – a double birthday party for Tommy and Billy. Rio’s not thrilled about it. In the two weeks she’s spent trying to figure out what the hell Wanda and Agatha were doing getting a drink at her bar if it wasn’t a date, she’s come to settle on a soft sort of hatred for the redhead.

This hatred is not jealousy.

Jealousy would be hating Wanda for being close to Agatha. Hating Wanda for the familiar way she said Agatha’s name, for the way she could just go get a drink with Agatha whenever she wanted, for the way she clearly knew Agatha in a way Rio didn’t.

Irrational hatred.

Rio’s hatred for Wanda was incredibly rational, thank you very much.

Rio hated Wanda for normal, non-jealous reasons, including for being annoying, for stealing Nicky’s birthday plans, and for her kids being too pushy at Nicky’s party.

On top of this, William is out on a date – something that Rio, Alice, and Jen all gave him a ton of shit for before he pointed out that he’d been on more dates than all three of them combined in the past month. The kid’s a little shit. And he’s left Rio on mascot duty.

She has a shift at the bar after this, though fortunately it’s just for the first half of the night, so she carefully twists her hair into two French braids to keep it from becoming a wreck under the head. She uses bobby pins to pin back her bangs and stares miserably at the head.

“It just feels disrespectful,” she says, and Alice laughs.

“They’re not real, dude.”

“They have personalities! And lines! And I’m not him . I’m a pretender.”

“You’re a freak,” Jen cuts in, poking Rio in the side. Rio yelps and jumps out of the way. “Get the costume on, kids are arriving any minute.”

So the next time Rio sees Agatha, she’s wearing a big mouse costume and Agatha doesn’t recognize her at all.

Agatha also seems to be in a foul mood. She’s scowling from the second she walks in and barks at one of the other parents who walks too close to Nicky. Rio watches from behind the mesh eye hole as Agatha scans the room, and bites hard on her inner cheek when Agatha makes a beeline to Jen. Jen just nods the second she sees her and follows Agatha out the front door again, and Rio squints after them. What the fuck ?

She didn’t like how chummy Jen and Agatha had been last time, but Jen had sworn there was nothing going on. And when Rio was thinking clearer, even she could admit that it made no sense for Jen to be going after Agatha when she was so obviously head over heels for Alice.

But disappearing off into the parking lot again ?

“Chuck E. Cheese!” screams a child, nearly barrelling her over as they launch their little body at her legs. She braces just in time to absorb the hit and tries to put on her best Chuck E. Cheese, which turns into an impromptu dance party with a group of the kids.

Nicky isn’t among them. He stays at the table and barely even cracks a smile when Rio shoots finger guns at him. Rio wants to be worried, but she has a job to do, and while special treatment was okay when it was his birthday, she can’t really get away with it at someone else’s.

The lights flick once – Rio’s cue to go “backstage” so Chuck E. and the band can do their show, and Rio jogs back into the back room and gets settled to start the show.

It goes off without a hitch, which unfortunately means Rio has to pull on the head again to entertain. It’s sweaty in there, and smells like peanut butter, which is one of the foods that Rio had explicitly banned when they’d hired William as their primary mascot. She’ll have to have a talk with him when he’s back.

Agatha’s in the room when Rio reemerges, standing with her back against the wall and her arms crossed. Rio’s a little surprised – Nicky is definitely the kind of kid who’s behaved enough to let go to a birthday party by himself – but she tries not to let it faze her and focuses on the party.

She leads them in a game of freeze dance and then a game where they throw spotlights around the room and the kids have to be at the right spots when the music stops, like musical chairs. They intentionally make sure Billy and Tommy win, and Tommy sprints a victory lap around the room that almost ends in disaster when he nearly clips a table.

Nicky doesn’t participate in the games, either, and okay, Rio’s worried. When Jen and Alice start handing out pizza, she sits down at Nicky’s table and tilts her head at him, hoping he can read her expression. He gives a smile but doesn’t say anything. When his pizza comes, he picks at it listlessly and looks back at Agatha, who’s watching him with a creased brow.

Maybe it’s the whole stolen party thing? Rio should’ve nipped that in the bud the second Wanda suggested it. Is this her fault for not stepping in?

She has to move to Billy and Tommy’s table – it is their birthday, but even as the twins whoop at her, she keeps her eyes fixed on Nicky.

After cake – which Nicky has three bites of before stopping – he looks back at Agatha, longer this time, and she pushes off the wall, long hair falling in loose waves in front of her face as she moves towards him.

“Can you do any tricks?” Billy asks with wide eyes, and Rio looks down at him. She used to do handstands in the costume before an incident where she misplanted her hands and almost broke her wrist instead. These days most of the tricks she does are, like, playing air guitar and doing dumb dances that the kids will recognize from YouTube.

She’s saved from having to decide what “trick” to do by the cake ending and Alice moving everyone out to the main room. But when she looks up, Agatha and Nicky are gone.

Something thuds unpleasantly in her chest, a feeling that this is her fault.

As the boys hurtle out of the party room, Rio breaks for the employee exit, jogging around the side of the building to the main parking lot. The stupid costume is hot and slows her down, but by the time she reaches the front, Agatha is standing by her car – next to Jen, with whom she appears to be in deep conversation.

What is the deal with Jen and Agatha? Rio considers her options for retreat – but before she’s finished scoping out the scene, Agatha has spotted her, eyes narrowed.

“Hello?” Agatha calls from across the parking lot, and Rio is frozen in indecision when Jen scoffs loudly.

“Jesus Christ.” Jen’s grumble is audible from across the lot. She rolls her eyes at Rio and raises her hand to her mouth to amplify her shout when she calls out “She’s all yours!”

Well. This leaves Rio with very few normal options.

Jen strides back towards the building and Rio shuffles towards Agatha, whose expression has shifted into something like a glower.

“You’ve been staring at me and my son all day,” Agatha snaps once Rio is only a few paces off. “What the hell is your problem?”

Rio cringes, an expression lost behind the mask. “Sorry,” she says, muffled and breaking the primary rule of mascotting.

Agatha’s eyes flash wide. “ Rio ?”

And then Agatha’s crossing the distance between them to yank Rio’s head off – okay, maybe that’s the primary rule of mascoting. Either way Rio is not doing a stellar job here. The fresh air that hits Rio’s face as the head goes is a startling reminder of how sweaty she is, and she considers reaching to keep the head on just to preserve Agatha’s impression of her as someone who looks put together ever – Agatha shouldn’t be pulling by the ears anyways – but falls short at Agatha’s expression upon seeing her.

“Rio,” Agatha breathes out gently, and Rio bites the inside of her cheek.

“Sorry. Sorry if I was being weird, I just wanted to make sure – you’re leaving early. I wanted to make sure everything was okay.”

Agatha huffs out a laugh like she can’t quite believe what Rio’s saying. “Yeah, we’re…” She darts a look towards the back seat window, and Rio fills in the blank.

“I’m so sorry about Wanda trying to upstage Nicky’s party. I should have stopped her from booking or said something when she first suggested it – I know he was upset, that’s never what I want–”

“Rio.” Agatha’s voice is soft. A shiver goes up Rio’s spine and she resists reacting. “You’re okay. It’s nothing to do with Wanda.”

Rio furrows her brow. “Then what – I mean, was it something else?”

Agatha reaches out with the hand not currently holding Chuck E. Cheese’s head to tug at one of Rio’s braids, sweaty and coming loose in a dozen places. “You’re cute.”

“I– huh?”

“Do you know we weren’t going to come today at all? Unrelated to Wanda’s decisions.” Agatha withdraws her hand and Rio, foolish Rio, misses it. Agatha shifts her weight to her back foot, leaning heavily on one hip. “But Nicky wanted to see you. He hoped you’d be here.”

“I am here,” Rio blurts out, and Agatha laughs.

“Obviously. You put on a good show out there.”

Rio makes a face. “It was an okay show at best. I can admit my flaws.”

“I liked it. More finger guns than the other guy. More lame disco moves, too.” Agatha does a pretty awful job of hiding her smile.

“Well, you’ve gotta have your signature moves,” Rio says, flashing finger guns and immediately regretting it. “That’s, like, rule one of mascoting.”

It may be time to reveal that Rio has never read any list of rules on mascoting.

But it makes Agatha laugh, snorting a little in a way that sets Rio’s whole body alight in flames, and Rio grins back like an idiot.

“With moves like those, it feel unethical of me to keep you away from the party any longer,” Agatha says, and Rio immediately feels the loss. “But would you want to say hi to Nicky? Just – quickly, he’s, uh. Feeling a bit under the weather today.”

“I’d love to if you don’t mind.”

“You have to put the mask back on though,” Agatha says seriously.

Rio blinks. “What?”

“You can’t ruin the magic for him. A headless Chuck E. Cheese? He’ll be scarred for life.” Rio inhales, nods solemnly, and reaches for the head. Agatha bursts out laughing again. “I’m fucking with you. God, you’re fun.”

Rio blushes but smiles at Agatha’s back when the other woman turns to open the door to the back seat.

“Rio!” Nicky chirps, more energetic than Rio’s heard him all day, and Rio grins.

“Hey, Nicky! I missed you.”

“I missed you, too.” He still has that tinge of weariness to his voice. “Why weren’t you at the party?”

Rio, used to answering questions directly, opens her mouth to tell him. Agatha steps forward and elbows her sharply to the ribs, knocking the breath out of her lungs.

“She was running the show backstage this time. That’s why she’s wearing the outfit, she’s with the band.”

The explanation doesn’t cover why Rio’s arms are gray and furry, but the mascot costume was changed out when they slimmed down Chuck E. so it’s not totally implausible. Something inside Rio’s chest softens a little at Agatha genuinely wanting to protect the magic for Nicky, jokes aside.

“The band did a good job,” Nicky says slowly, and Rio smiles.

“Remember how it works from last time?”

He nods excitedly.

“Good. You better, because I’m counting on you to help me run it next time you come by, okay?”

“Really?” His eyes are sparkling when he looks over at Agatha. “Can I?”

“We’ll see,” Agatha says, but there’s a smile in her voice. “Say goodbye to Rio, Nicky. We’ve gotta hit the road.”

“Bye, Rio!”

Agatha shuts the door again once she’s sure Nicky’s limbs are all safely inside, and she turns back to Rio.

“ Bye, Rio ,” she repeats, her tone a seductive drawl, and Rio bites her lip hard to keep from saying something stupid.

“You’re really leaving?”

Agatha quirks an eyebrow. “Gonna miss me?”

Rio weighs her answer. “Yeah.”

“Good.” Agatha reaches out and tucks a strand of Rio’s bangs behind her ear. “I think you have a birthday party to get back to.”

“Right.” Rio’s smile is lopsided. “Well. I’ll head back in there.” She jabs a thumb back at the building. “I think Lilia’s probably going to kill me, so…”

“She better not,” Agatha says. “Don’t forget your head.” She holds Chuck E.’s head out by the ear and Rio takes it and pops it back on.

“Thank you,” she says, and Agatha pouts.

“C’mon, give it some pizzazz.”

Rio hesitates, then shoots a dramatic pair of finger guns at Agatha. “Bye, Agatha.”

She grins like she’s won the lottery under her mask. Agatha’s laugh follows her all the way back inside the building.

***

Two days later, Agatha calls while Rio’s at work.

Lilia gives Rio a significant look that Rio can’t read when she hands over the phone, and Rio frowns but answers. “Hello?”

“Is that Rio Vidal? I have a question that only she could possibly help me with.”

“You know this is the work phone, right?” Rio’s voice is tinged with alarm. Her volume falls into a frantic hiss when Lilia glares at her.

Agatha laughs down the line. “I do, but I like where your mind’s going. I’d take a personal number, if you’re offering.”

Rio exhales. “What’s up, Agatha?”

“What packages do you have that aren’t the birthday package? Asking about work-appropriate packages only, of course, although that phone number would still be welcome.”

Rio turns her back to Lilia to hide her smile, leaning one hip against the glass counter of the ticket booth. “You’re not planning on coming back already, are you?”

Agatha lets out a huff, and Rio can imagine her indignant expression. “Well. After Wanda ’s little show, I can’t have her upstaging Nicky’s birthday. Why shouldn’t I give him a second party?”

“A second party?”

“Are you implying that Nicky doesn’t deserve a second party?”

“Oh my God, no. No, Nicky deserves however many parties he wants. Two, three – seven, even.”

“Good, because I could’ve sworn someone offered him an exclusive position in the band.”

Jen walks into Rio’s view, pulled by a child complaining the ticket counter is broken. Thanks to Rio’s staunch refusal to accept any changes at their location, combined with Lilia’s lack of desire to learn new technology, they still have the old Ticket Muncher, not the new card system. Jen stares at it blankly. “Anytime he wants,” Rio says. Jen kicks the machine.

“So, your packages?”

“Agatha, you know you can just get that information online. It’s all on the website.”

Jen kicks the Ticket Muncher again and receipt paper starts shooting out of it.

“If I wanted to read off the website, I would’ve done that,” Agatha sniffs.

“Well, all I’m going to do is tell you what’s on the website.”

“Maybe that’s what I want. You know, this customer service is really questionable.”

“As America’s original birthday destination for kids, we at Chuck E. Cheese strongly believe every kid should get to have the incredible, amazing birthday experience of their dreams.” Rio’s voice is flat, a direct recital of the website content.

Agatha snickers.

“Agatha, if you’re going to laugh, I’m not going to tell you about the experiences we offer.”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Please, continue.”

Jen manages to get the Ticket Muncher under control and leaves the kid to feed his tickets to the machine.

“Every Chuck E. Cheese birthday package includes unlimited gameplay for the length of your two hour birthday party.” Agatha laughs again, and Rio rolls her eyes. “Agatha, I’m serious, you could so easily Google search this.”

That’s Agatha? Jen mouths, and Rio nods. Jen leans her elbow on the glass countertop and props her chin up against her hand.

“Maybe I just wanted to hear your voice.”

Rio flushes. “Well. That’s. Yeah.”

“You’re cute when you’re flustered.”

“I’m not, I’m just– I’m at work.”

Gay , Jen mouths, and turns her attention back to the room.

“I’ll leave you alone,” Agatha says, and Rio resists the urge to tell her that she’d rather be hit by a bus every day on her morning commute than have Agatha leave her alone.

“Come in soon,” Rio says. “We have plenty of non-birthday packages I think you’d enjoy.” Jen makes a gagging noise, and Rio immediately regrets her choice of words.

“ Rio ! And I thought you were at work.” Agatha’s charming when she’s making fun of Rio. Rio is charmed. “I’ll let you go. Talk soon, darling.”

A few days later, Agatha calls again. And again a few days after that. Then, a week later. Everytime, she asks for Rio, and asks the most obviously Googleable questions Rio’s ever heard, and teases her on the line until Rio is blushing too much for it to pass as a normal work call.

At one point, Lilia answers, and as Rio is heading over to take the phone, Lilia says, “Either ask her out or don’t. But these calls are monitored for quality assurance,” and slaps the phone back into its cradle. Rio quickly throws herself into cleaning and keeps the next calls succinct.

But she doesn’t see Agatha at all, which bothers her a little. It makes sense, really – no one goes to Chuck E. Cheese as, like, a regular event and Agatha’s got Nicky so it’s not like Rio would expect her to show up at the bar. But she misses her, more than she should, and it sits like an itch under her collar that never quite goes away.

The itch turns into a burn, very rapidly, when Wanda shows up at the bar.

She arrives at the tail end of Rio’s shift and insists on sitting with Alice and Jen and talking as a group. They learn, quickly, that Wanda has a big mouth. By the time Rio’s shift is over and she’s come around the bar to sit with her friends, they’ve learned Wanda’s entire family history, heard about her brother and her two kids, and could probably ace a round of Wanda Maximoff themed trivia.

“Agatha mentioned you the other day, by the way,” she says, half an hour in, as though that’s not something to lead with. Rio feels herself cleave in half – part burning to know that Agatha talks about her, Agatha thinks about her when she’s not around, and what did Agatha say while the other part heats up at the thought of Agatha talking to Wanda.

“How’d you two become so close anyways?” Rio mutters, trying and failing not to sound bitter if the look Alice shoots her is anything to go by. Whatever. She takes a swig of her beer.

“Oh, we dated for a long time ,” Wanda says. It takes everything Rio has not to spit out her drink.

“ What?”

“Yeah. She didn’t tell you? We almost got married.”

Almost married. Agatha almost got married to Wanda. Rio feels vaguely nauseous.

“It was never going to work between us. I don’t think Agatha’s really the settling down type, although I keep telling her she should. I mean, now she’s got Nicky, I’m sure romance is the last thing on her mind.” Wanda waves her hand. “We were great on paper. We both wanted kids, both had tough childhoods, you know. It just didn’t work. Agatha’s doesn’t really do relationships, anyways.”

“And you’re still… close?” Rio’s teeth are clenched so tightly together that she’s sure they’ll be nothing but bone dust when she finally pries them apart.

“Oh, yeah. I mean, we talk constantly. We used to live together, y’know? When you know someone like that, you don’t just stop knowing them. We’re meeting up tonight actually, I’m just here waiting for her to finish up with work.”

Wanda keeps chattering – something about meeting Agatha in college. Rio doesn’t even realize how tense her arms are until Jen grabs her by the bicep with one hand and rubs the other across the tight line of her back. “Simmer down, tiger,” she murmurs, and Rio forces herself to take a deep breath.

But she’s out of it the rest of the night, and she spends the next two weeks putting everything she has into her job – the job she loves, damn it – and tries not to think about Agatha and Wanda at all.

Her brain doesn’t help matters much. It keeps drawing up contrasts between Rio and Wanda – everything from how they look to how they talk to the structure of Rio’s life. How could someone who ever dated Wanda – who was happy to settle down with a chirpy redhead and her two asshole sons – be happy with someone like Rio? She resolutely decides to put Agatha out of her mind altogether.

This is made altogether more difficult when Agatha wanders in one day, sans Nicky, pushing her sunglasses back into her hair and blinking at the adjustment in lighting.

“Agatha,” Rio breathes out. “What are you doing here?”

Agatha puts on a serious face. “Well, the customer service over the phone has been deeply unsatisfying. I figured I was better off coming and getting what I need in person.”

Rio ignores the obvious innuendo. “Lilia’s going to fire me if you keep pulling me away from work.”

“Then I won’t pull you away from work. Give me your phone number.”

“You have–”

“Not the store number.” The corner of Agatha’s mouth pulls up into a half-smile. “I was hoping you’d let me take you somewhere that isn’t here.”

“Like a date?”

Agatha laughs, which is notably not a no. “You’re cute.”

“Can I see your phone?”

Agatha hands it over, and Rio enters herself as a contact and hands the phone back. “Thanks, sweetheart.” She shoves the phone into her back pocket. “I’ll text you.” Before Rio knows what’s happening, Agatha is sauntering back towards the door.

***

It’s all promising, except that Agatha never texts.

She stops calling at work, too.

Rio’s kinda depressed about the whole thing if she’s being honest. And worst of all, she has to be depressed while Jen and Alice are making googly eyes at each other over dinner. They seem to have figured out their shit enough to be functionally dating, just not kissing. It’s deeply frustrating.

“I’m sure she’ll call soon,” Alice says soothingly. Rio stares at her skillet of too-loud veggie fajitas and presses the tines of her fork against an onion so it sizzles louder against the surface.

“I’m an idiot,” Rio says. “She and Wanda are probably, like, sooooo happy together and rekindling their love over stupid fucking mojitos.”

“You are an idiot,” Jen agrees, and she yelps when Alice kicks her under the table. “What? I’m just saying. You gave her your number and didn’t get hers at all? She’s been calling you for weeks and you have no way of contacting her and asking what the fuck is up? That’s kinda on you.”

“Glad I can always count on your support,” Rio says glumly.

“Babe, I support you. I love you, and I think you deserve all the hot MILF sex you want. I just also think you should’ve gotten her number.”

“O kay !” Alice says loudly. “Changing the subject! Pride is, like, weeks away and we don’t have plans yet.” She and Jen lean forward to discuss their respective outfit ideas and Rio peels an over-cooked pepper off the skillet and pops it into her mouth.

Work picks up again and Rio makes progress on her work customizing new movements for the animatronics. There’s a Craigslist posting from another location claiming to be selling a head turn cylinder – some worker trying to make extra cash by selling off the least damaged parts of their animatronics – and she thinks she can figure out how to expand the range of movement if she can work out how to connect new joints. It’s almost $300 but she’s pretty sure she can threaten them into giving her a discount – management had wanted all of that destroyed, and it’s clearly labeled with the Chuck E. Cheese stamp that all of the parts are marked with.

She sends an email with her contact info and lets the seller know she’s available whenever. It’s getting into early summer, which means end-of-the-school-year parties are picking up, and it gets busy.

And before too long, she gets a text – an unknown number popping up on her phone that must be the Craigslist seller.

There’s no chance you’re still interested are you?

She responds immediately.

Of course I am. I’ll meet you wherever, happy to drive to you

I’m so glad to hear that. I was worried you’d lose interest since it took me a while to respond

No, this is perfect. When can we meet?

Someone’s eager.

I’ve been looking forward to this!

The seller sends over the address to a local bar, which Rio respects – she’s gone to some weird places for Craigslist, but a public location is always her preference – and asks if Friday night works for her, which it does, or, it does once she asks one of the other bartenders to take her shift. She’s really gonna have to put on the pressure on the seller to lower that price.

Alice and Jen are going on another one of those almost-dates that they go on, so Rio shares her location with them for the evening and lets them know her plans so if she ends up stabbed to death or something they can find her body. Then it’s just a matter of waiting.

She gets to the bar half an hour early. She waits outside for ten minutes, goes in and orders a drink, and then texts the seller fifteen minutes before their agreed upon time while chewing on a toothpick from the bar.

Fuck. I’m so sorry, Rio, I’m running late.

Please don’t take this to mean anything – I’m so excited to see you. Kid stuff.

I’ll be there in 30

If anything, this gives Rio a great opportunity to haggle the price down further – the seller’s already risking their job, now they’re late ? They owe Rio at least a $50 discount – so she doesn’t respond and instead tools around on her phone. She’s a big mobile games addict, so she’s got no shortage of entertainment. She’s about to resort to Subway Surfers when she hears her name and her avatar goes crashing into the first obstacle.

“I’m so sorry I’m late,” Agatha says, her voice rushed. She shoves her hair out of her face – it looks as beautiful as ever, a mess of loose waves and tangles down her back – and slides into a seat next to Rio. “I promise I would’ve been here earlier if I could. Actually, I’m sorry about the whole past month – God, I didn’t mean to disappear like that.”

“Agatha?” Rio asks dumbly. “What are you doing here?”

Agatha freezes. “What do you mean what am I doing here?”

“You’re not – wait.” Realization sets it, albeit slowly, crawling through Rio’s chest. “I was texting you ?”

“Yeah, of course. You thought you were texting someone else?” At Rio’s lack of response, Agatha’s eyes flash wide. “Jesus, you thought I was someone else. You’re here for a date with someone else. I am–” She stands up, still in a hurry. “Okay. Well. I’ll see you around, maybe.”

“No, Agatha, wait.” Rio grabs Agatha’s arm before she can run off and disappear again. “Wait. I– that was you ?”

Agatha’s face is getting that pinched, irritated look that Rio hasn’t seen directed at her since their first interaction. “Yes. Sorry to disappoint. Now, if you’ll unhand me, I can get out of your way, since you clearly thought you were texting some other woman–”

Rio laughs. “Agatha. There’s no other woman.” Realization is quickly being overtaken by elation, a joy that makes Rio feel downright giddy. It’s stupid – especially when Agatha clearly isn’t feeling the same – but Rio can’t dim the grin that spreads across her face.

“Some other– whatever, then.”

“Agatha, I thought you were here to sell me a hydraulic cylinder.”

This, at least, confuses Agatha enough that she stops looking annoying and stops trying to pull out of Rio’s grasp. Her stillness does, however, make Rio realize that she’s still touching her and holy fuck, she’s touching Agatha Harkness. Her fingers tingle.

“What are you talking about?”

“I thought the unknown number that texted me – with no intro, by the way, you really should work on that – was someone off Craigslist. I had no idea it was you. Honestly, I’d pretty much given up hope on you texting me ever .”

“Well. Clearly you were wrong.”

“Clearly. Thank God.” Rio tugs at Agatha’s wrist. “Sit down. Please . Can I get you a drink?”

Agatha presses her lips together, clearly weighing her options, before sitting down. “I can’t believe you didn’t realize it was me texting you.”

“In fairness, I thought you’d forgotten me and, like, found bliss with Wanda or whatever.”

“Wanda?” Agatha’s eyebrows nearly shoot off her face. “What the hell gave you that idea?”

“She did.” Rio shrugs. “She showed up at my bar talking about how you guys used to date and still hang out all the time.”

Agatha rolls her eyes. “I hang out with her all the time because she and her children imprinted on me like the world’s most annoying family of ducks. I can’t shake her off. You saw how we interact, why on Earth would you think I wanted to go be with her?”

“I don’t know! I mean, for a minute I thought you wanted to be with Jen so clearly I don’t think straight around you.”

“I’d be offended if you did,” Agatha says, and Rio blushes. “Jen?”

“You were always… off in secret with her when you came by.” It sounds silly to Rio’s ears when she says it out loud. “I don’t know, it was fishy.”

“She helped me store Nicky’s wheelchair in the storage room when we visited.” Something like amusement dances in Agatha’s eyes.

“Wheelchair?”

“Nicky uses a wheelchair sometimes. You happened to catch him on two good days – well, one good day, one less so, which is why we left early. But I don’t like it being out in the car if we’re going to be somewhere for a while, I want it on hand in case he needs it. Jen handled storing it and helped bring it back to the car.”

Rio doesn’t have a good response. Frankly, she should’ve paid closer attention. The day Agatha almost hit her with her car in the parking lot – the first day they met – she’d been careening towards an accessible parking spot. At the time, Rio had just assumed Agatha was an asshole.

“You didn’t text for a month.”

Agatha sighs heavily. “Nicky had some… tough health stuff going on. I promise I wanted to. I just couldn’t.”

Rio’s tongue finds the inside of her cheek, and she watches Agatha’s eyes track the movement. “I hope Nicky’s okay.”

“He’s much better now.”

“Good.” Rio leans forward just slightly. “I am so glad you texted. I’ve been thinking about you for… months, at this point.”

“Buy me a drink, Rio.”

Conversation is easy, easier than Rio could’ve dreamed. Agatha is even more charming than Rio remembered, she’s the right kind of mean about Wanda that leaves Rio cackling too loudly in the bar, and best of all, she lets Rio ramble about her plans to increase the number of useable joints on each animatronic.

“I’m thinking about starting with Mr. Munch, since he’s so big there’s plenty of space to play around with.”

“Mr. Munch?” Agatha makes a face that tells Rio there’s a joke Agatha’s thinking of that’s going over her head entirely.

“Yeah, Mr. Munch. He’s, uh, the big purple one.”

“Babe, if I’m lucky, Mr. Munch is sitting next to me at the bar right now.”

Rio flushes all the way down her neck. “Ah. Well.”

Her phone buzzes, saving her from having to have a clever response, and she looks at it quickly. Jen and Alice, making sure she isn’t dead.

I’m alive. Not Craigslist. On a date with Agatha.

WHAT?????? comes Jen’s response. Rio rolls her eyes.

WIll explain later. Turning off my phone bc I plan to actually kiss the woman I’m obsessed with. Love you both xoxo

“My friends are a disaster,” she explains to Agatha, holding down the power button. “They’ll never believe I actually ended up here.”

“I’m glad you did,” Agatha says. “But, you know, if Jen’s free, tell her I say hi.”

“Fuck off,” Rio snorts, shoving Agatha’s arm playfully, and Agatha laughs and grabs her hand before she can pull it away.

“I’m serious, though,” she says, and now she’s too close for Rio to function properly, eyes flicking down at Rio’s mouth. Rio bites her lip self-consciously, then realizes how that might look and presses her lips shut instead. Super cool, Vidal. “I missed talking to you.”

“You have no idea,” Rio says, huffing out a laugh. “I’ve thought about this since the day you first walked in.” She doesn’t realize it’s a confession until it’s already out of her mouth.

But instead of teasing her, Agatha softens. “I distinctly recall you not saying much of anything to me when we first met. You didn’t warm up until halfway through the party.”

“Agatha, I was trying to remember how to breathe.” Okay, so she’s not playing it cool. “The most beautiful woman I’d ever seen was yelling at me and I just kept thinking how much I wanted you to kiss me.”

“And do you?” Agatha asks, her voice barely above a whisper and Rio’s breath hitches. “Want to kiss me, that is?”

Rio swallows heavily. Nods. “I’d really like that.”

Agatha closes the gap, her lips soft and warm and electrifying against Rio’s.

***

They date for four years before Agatha accepts Rio’s proposal.

Rio tries to propose twice before then – three times, if you count the very drunken moment that she told Agatha she was the love of her life two months after they started dating in the ball pit of Chuck E. Cheese, where they, Jen, and Alice had broken in after hours. Agatha had laughed it off, but the feeling didn’t go away.

The second and third time, Agatha insists it’s too early, that Rio doesn’t know what she’s getting into yet. Rio, who’s gone with Agatha and Nicky to every doctor’s appointment, who moved in after a year, who met Agatha’s shitty mom and held her through the aftermath, who’s loved Agatha every minute she’s known her, vehemently disagrees.

But, as Jen and Alice tell her, matching rings decorating their own fingers, sometimes things take a while – and even if things are right, they have to happen in their own time. They kiss now, by the way. Everyone’s a lot happier about it.

When Agatha finally does accept, it’s Rio’s least planned proposal yet – mid-argument, Rio standing in her pajamas, Agatha covered in suds from washing dishes. Neither of them will remember what the argument was about in twenty-four hours. It doesn’t matter anyways.

They get married, and Nicky calls Rio Mom, and Rio takes over as franchise-owner of the Chuck E. Cheese when Lilia retires – a shockingly lucrative position, although Rio’s pretty convinced that Lilia must’ve done some witchcraft to get such a good deal in her contract. It’s enough that Rio can quit the job at the bar, and it helps pay for a new house for the three of them.

And she wouldn’t blame you for thinking it’s a lie, but Rio really loves working at Chuck E. Cheese.

But her job as Agatha Harkness’ wife will always be her favorite.