You Can Keep the Dime
By Missy


SERIES: You Can Keep The Dime
PART: 1 of 1
RATING: R (Language)
PAIRING(s): Past L/C; Current L/L
DISTRIBUTION: To LW, Kai, Myself so far; any other archives are welcome to ask, but disclaimers must be included, my email left intact. send a URL, and provide full disclaimers as well as credit me fully. Please inform me if you are going to submit my work to any sort of search engine. Please do not submit my work to a search engine that picks out random sets of words and uses them as key words, such as "Google"

Please contact me in order for this story to be placed on an archive, or if you want know of a friend who would enjoy my works, please email me their address and I will mail them the stories, expressly for the purpose of link trading. MiSTiers are welcomed! Please do inform me that you'd like to do the MiSTing, however, and send me a copy of the finished product. I'd also love to archive any MiSTings that are made
of my work!
CATEGORY: Drama
FEEDBACK: PLEASE?!
SETTING IN TIMELINE: California-era, post-cannon.
SPOILLER/SUMMARY: The last cut is always the deepest.
NOTES: Inspired by the Jim Croce song "Operator (That's Not The Way It Feels)"

****

"Why the hell are you callin' here?"

The words scorch his ears like a poisoned knife. "I'm just breezin' through. Sayin' hi."

"Who told ya to do that, Carmine?" The words snap defensively. "My Pop? Shirley, bless her heart?"

"No, I'm doin' it of my own free will."

"Yeah. You do everything that way."

***

It had started as an innocent little fling, the sort that everyone in the world seemed to enjoy at one point or another. It was sex. No, sex put it too high in the order of life's pleasures; they fucked. And everyone was happy for awhile.

He didn't think it was a relationship. He respected her, liked her, wanted her mouth on his dick. That simple.

He didn't remember when he'd stopped believing in love. It was probably around the same time that Shirley said "I'm in love with Walter Meeney".

But she had a way of changing that. Too bad making him care was almost a betrayal. So he did what any man looking for a way out of a relationship does.

He only woke up to his betrayl at the sight of her tear-stained eyes.

He really shouldn't have used her bed.

***

"How's the kid?"

"You mean my son, Tom? He's gorgeous. He's walking, he's talking."

"With Lenny as a father, that's a big accomplishment."

"If you're gonna say stuff like that, I'm hangin' up."

***

He had begged her for weeks to take him back. It was his stupidity, his fear, that had caused him to go out behind her back.

He hadn't reckoned that he would come up against her walls.

Once Laverne DeFazio experienced betrayal, they shot up; they formed a fortress. She sneered at his overtures.

Days down the road, he would reflect on her behavior throughout the course of the relationship and realized that Laverne had never even tried to charm him with words of love. He hadn't ever met a woman like her. She sure as hell wasn't like Shirley.

Soon, she laughed more. She smiled more. She danced all night.

Not on his arm, however.

***

"Anyway, the reason I called..."

"Yeah?"

"I was wondering if you'd wanna come down...I could leave ya tickets at the door."

The phone rattled. The sound of two people laughing in the background, one childish voice calling to a smaller child's. The noise fades as she moves.

"Do you wanna to know why I slept with you, Carmine?"

There's an awful tone to her voice; the sort of anger that seemed to gather like a wave and gush into his ear.

"Cause I was Shirley's leavings?"

"No. You were a nice guy, a good lay, and a cheap date. You stuck your dick in my cunt. That was what it was all about. And ya know what? I don't miss it."

"Laverne, you're takin' it wrong..."

"No, I ain't takin' anything wrong!" She shouted. "You're the one who fucked around on me! You're the one who, what did ya say? Followed the breeze around. Well, now you ain't got anything but the breeze. Enjoy it."

"Laverne, it ain't fair..."

"Climb the hell off your cross, Carmine. It's gonna be a cold winter."

"Why can't we go back?"

"Because my name's Laverne Kosnoski."

The words slammed into him like a semi truck.

"You're standin there like it's 1969 when it's 1977."

"We could still..."

"Go home, Carmine. Go to your wife and try to scrape yer marriage back up."

"But..."

"Fix yourself up, before ya can't."

"Go to hell!"

"You're already there!"

"Laverne..."

"I'm praying for ya, Carmine."

"Why? You think you can save me, huh?"

"Love saved me. One day, it'll save you. And until it does? Don't call this number again."

And the phone burred its timeless signal into his ear.