The Flower Girl and the Gangster (Rio GG fanfic)

14

It's been several days and Peri has since left to return to NYC, and Rio has been dealing with Beth and her group, he had sent me short messages, but I haven't seen him. I've been working and going home alone.

I decided to take a chance and drop by the bar. He was there, playing pool with Mick, "Hey, mama." he greets me. 

"Hi." I replied, sliding onto a stool nearby. 

"Can I get you anything?" the bartender asks. 

"Just a water, thank you." I mumbled.

I casually sip at it, while watching them play. 

Once they finish a game, Rio turns to me, "You play?" 

"I know how." I slide off the stool and watch as he sets up a new game. 

"Wanna break, Darlin'?" he asks. 

"You can." I shrug. 

He smirks before leaning over the table. I debate smacking his butt with the stick, but I didn't know how he would react in front Mick. Eh, Imma do it. I hold the stick like a baseball bat and lightly swing it to smack him. He jumps slightly and quickly spins around to face me and Mick, to which I was laughing and Mick was trying not to, "Wanna play games, now, Mama?" he smirks. 

"Isn't that what pool is, Papi?" I retort. He nods his head and turns back.

The balls bounce all around the table as he breaks, the striped violet 12 landing in the pocket, meaning I'm solids. 

He hit another ball, that just barely missed the pocket. 

"Your turn, mama." he announces. I walk around to the cue ball, studying the table before leaning over. 

"Need help?" he whispers, moving my hair away from my ear. 

I pull the stick back and hit the cue into the 2 ball, sending it flying into the pocket, I raise back up and face him, "I think I got it." I smirk, sliding to the other side of the rectangle table. As long as I don't think too hard about my moves, I can be pretty decent at pool. 

Mick stands to the side and watches us play, until the door swings open, causing me to smack the cue ball too hard. Beth strolls over as Rio bends over the table to take his turn.

"Hot tubs." she says. 

Rio easily smacks the dark red 15 into the pocket before raising back up, not giving Beth too much attention as she explains her plan. 

Rio says something to Mick in Spanish and I instantly regret taking French...

She keeps going telling him how it would be easy to change the books. 

"You said I needed a system. This is my system." she finishes. 

"Sistema." Mick chuckles, and Rio joins him. Now, that word I can figure out...

Beth quickly gets annoyed and picks up a ball, throwing it at the large sepia tone picture behind me. I quickly duck, dropping the stick and covering my head, taking them away when I hear the ball hit the ground. Rio still ignores her and rushes to my side, looking me over as Mick moves in closer to Beth. 

"You good?" he asks. I nod and he helps me stand back up. 

"Go ahead and hate it because you didn't think of it." she smirks. 

"You threw a ball right by her head, because I ignored you and all you have to say is I'm jealous of your little plan?" he spits. 

"Your stupid little car wash is one of the IRS's first targets, right behind coin laundromats. I Googled it. Guess what's not on the list? Hot tubs." she says.