It was raining for the sixth straight day. Production on Ectoplasmic Ranger had been shut down for five days. Rollie Tyler sat in his loft, chewing on the edge of a pencil as he pondered a design he had in mind for a gag coming up in the film. His mind was wandering as he smiled, thinking of Angie. She had gone on a shopping trip with Mira Sanchez, of all people. They would be hitting three States and raiding all the out of the way boutiques along the way. Mira had suggested it. This was a little disconcerting to Rollie as he never had thought of Mira as a clothes hound or a ‘shopper’ fanatic. Now for Angie, this was just plain bizarre. Angie shopped rarely and hit sales on an infrequent basis. He thought he could count the times she had bought something new. He knew of course, this had to do with Mira and Angie just talking to each other and he imagined talking about him, their relationship and what was going to happen in the future.

 

The future- as far as he was concerned, it could be here today but Angie was still nursing her wounds from the incredible past few months. After Loubar, the Avila trip and then the mess with the Loubar family, she had become more withdrawn and moody. When he would ask her about things, she would say it was nothing. He had not brought up the marriage proposal since after her release from the hospital. She had practically told him to just drop the subject during their captivity. But she did come back to the loft and she did stay with him. She would sleep with him, curled up around him and when they finally made love again after the ordeal in the warehouse, he was sure that she was holding back a part of herself. It was the wildly passionate woman he had begun to know in Avila that was missing.

 

A knock on the door broke his thoughts and he jumped up, welcomed for anyone that had disrupted the boredom he was feeling this morning. He pulled open the door and was surprised. Michael Sanchez was standing at his door, his head soaked from the rain as well as his clothes.

 

"Come in, mate," Rollie told him, shutting the door to the loft behind the dripping ex-cop, "hey, want a cup of coffee or tea?"

 

"I’ll take some Irish tea," Michael said, with a wet smile as Rollie raised his eyebrows slightly and walked over to his kitchen.

 

"So, what’s up, Michael?" Rollie asked, as the cup of tea was poured and he reached under his shelf for the whiskey. He poured a finger as Michael pushed his hand down on the neck of the bottle, distributing at least four more to boot. The fluid sloshed over the top of the cup as he took the cup with saucer, drank some off the top and took the saucer which had a fair amount in it, tipped it in his mouth to get the spillage there.

 

"You know, I could just as well poured you a glass, straight up," Rollie told him, smiling slightly as he noted the time, an hour until noon.

 

"Yeah well, the tea will do some good for me, you know," Michael replied, taking a deep breath and sank into the overstuffed couch nearby.

 

"Rollie," Michael said, after some moments of silence, "I gotta know something."

 

"Yeah, alright. I’m not going anywhere."

 

"See, ever since we talked about Mira and all, I have been trying to see her, talk with her, well damn- you know I want her back," he blurted out, taking another big swallow of the tea.

 

"Yeah, I know. I also know that Mira was pretty angry with me for trying to help you out in that department," Rollie added, rolling his eyes as Michael smiled and ran his hand through his thick, dark hair.

 

"That’s Mira. Angry first, questions later," Michael said, agreeing with him. Rollie noticed he was squirming on that couch as he finally propped himself forward resting his elbows on his knees and putting his cup down. He looked as if he was fighting some inner demon and didn’t know what to say next.

 

"You know, Michael, she cares deeply about you, I know that," Rollie told him, leaning forward in his chair toward Michael, "she would walk through fire for you, mate."

 

"Mmm, but she would be cussing at me the entire time as well, that one!" he replied, shaking his head, "still, man- I miss her so much. I hate to think of her ever being with someone else. There was even a time that I thought you and she…"

 

"Whoa, Michael- she’s a handful and although I think she is one gorgeous lady, I also know she had this man deep in her heart that she couldn’t let go of… from the first time I met her and how she acted with you in that bank hold-up," Rollie told him, shaking his head.

 

"Yeah, she got burned with me though, I left her holding the marriage and walked out for my job," he said remorsefully.

 

"Marriage, now that’s heady stuff!" Rollie said, his mind filled suddenly with Angie and his proposal while they were in captivity with the Loubars. He wanted to be with Angie for the rest of his life but did she really?

 

"Listen Rollie," Michael told him, pointing his finger at him, his eyes growing dark and dull, "you think long and hard before you walk down that aisle. You never know what is coming around the corner and the baggage you got now hanging on to you."

 

"Baggage?"

 

"Wife," Michael replied, then brighten up, his eyes warming as he smiled, "now, not that I’m trying to dissuade you or anything. I think that Angie is a knock-out."

 

"Who told you about…?"

 

"Women, they talk, I listen- hey, it’s part of my job," he said, shrugging his shoulders.

 

"Don’t tell me, you’ve been bugging Mira’s phone?" Rollie asked him, a little shocked.

 

"Phone and home," Michael replied, without a guilty bone in his body, "I mean, it’s for protection. I will always be her shadow."

 

"Yeah, but what about her privacy?" Rollie asked, thinking that Michael was overstepping his boundaries.

 

"Mira is my wife…"

 

"Was your wife," Rollie began, trying to get Michael to see his error in thought.

 

"What we had and still do, isn’t on some cheapo piece of paper, it’s here," Michael said, putting a thumb to his heart and then shrugging again added, "besides, I never signed my consent to the divorce."

 

"But she said it was uncontested, she has the decree," Rollie exclaimed, a little exasperated at Michael’s persistence.

 

"Not in the Catholic Church, she doesn’t. That is where we got married and that is where I am still married to her. She didn’t get permission there."

 

Rollie could see his voice was getting more strained and angry and Michael had already been drinking before he got to the loft. He decided to downplay the whole thing and get Michael on another subject.

 

"Hey, want to see an ectoplasmic ranger?" He pointed over to his newest creation covered by a plastic tarp.

 

Michael had been ready for a fight and had to shut his opened mouth, "…okay, sure- you movie guys and your monsters. By the way, what’s ectoplasmic?"

 

"It’s a ghostbuster for the future! This movie is going to have at least a dozen for the action shots. Come on, I’ll give you a peek at the next blockbuster," Rollie told him, standing up.

 

Michael diffused, stood up, a little wobbly and followed Rollie over to the tarp-draped creation.

 

As he pulled the tarp off his masterpiece, the door to the loft opened with a bang and the two women that were causing so much consternation in the male heart, ran in, carrying a trunk load of bags.

 

"Ange! Mira! Thought you weren’t coming back until tomorrow," Rollie exclaimed, dropping the tarp and walking over to greet them. Michael stayed sheepishly in the background as Mira’s eyebrow lifted and the bags that were carried by her, dropped with an angry thud.

 

Rollie grabbed Angie up off her feet, kissing her as she reddened slightly. He had missed her and hugged her tightly before letting her down. Mira cleared her throat as Michael approached her.

 

"I loved to greet you the same way, Mira…"

 

"I’d blow your head off, Sanchez," she warned him and he stopped in his tracks, agreeing with her as he smiled and she put her hands on her hips.

 

"So what are you doing here?" she asked him as Angie and Rollie moved away silently, gathering the bags and going upstairs to the bedroom.

 

Upstairs, they dropped the bags and Rollie looked at Angie and they both laughed, then held their hands over their mouths so that Mira and Michael wouldn’t hear them.

 

"Come ‘ere," Rollie told her, "you don’t know what I have gone through these past days in all this rain, a closed set and the ectoplasmic ranger isn’t ectoplasing enough goop."

 

She smiled, as he led her over to the bed and they bounced together on it, rolling over and kissing, still smothering their laughter over the couple downstairs.

 

"She didn’t stop talking about Michael the entire time we were out there," Angie said, up on one elbow as she look down at Rollie’s grinning face as he laid on his back, looking up at her. She traced the line of his nose to his lips and then kissed him again, the scratchiness of his beard burning her chin.

 

"You need to shave this mess off," she told him, making a face.

 

"Okay, as long as you do the shaving," he said, winking at her.

 

"Oh, I’m tempted, Rollie Tyler, but first- can I ask you something?"

 

"Ask away…my dearie, my life is an open book to you."

 

"I want you to talk to Dingo and Mangela."

 

"What? Okay, why?"

 

"Because…"

 

"Because why?"

 

"Aren’t you going to tell them something about us?"

 

Rollie stopped smiling and sat up, his face serious as Angie bit her lip and felt she had put her foot in her mouth.

 

"I am sure Mangela knows already- you know- mother earth probably told him in a dreamin’ or something," Rollie told her, then smiled because he could see she was attempting to talk about the proposal he had made to her for the first time since the Loubar incident, "as for Dingo, I don’t even know where to find him right now. He has an uncanny way of just showing up, you know."

 

"Yeah, but that’s when he usually is in trouble," Angie added, playing with her big toe which Rollie noted had the nail painted with a little star in the center.

 

"What the hell is that?" he asked her, pointing to her toenails, in shock. Angie never painted anything on her, much less her nails. She hardly wore any makeup but as he looked closer at her face, saw eyeshadow and blush.

 

Angie laughed, "It’s Frederico’s in Harlem. Mira took me there. Don’t worry…it’s not permanent! But the tattoo, now that’s a different story," Angie told him, sliding off the bed and reaching inside a shopping bag.

 

"Tattoo?"

 

Angie didn’t even turn around to look at his face for she knew what his expression would be without seeing it, "It’s small and very elegant. Did you know Mira had tattoos? I picked something that I thought you would like…"

 

"Angie!" Rollie grabbed her shoulders and turned her around, "Where in God’s name did you put a tattoo?"

 

"Oh, well- it was going to be a surprise, but since you are so uptight, I’ll show you now."

 

Angie started to unzip her jeans and Rollie shook his head, "Oh my God, not-"

 

She pulled her jeans down just below her right buttock and there, perfectly detailed on her creamy white skin just at the edge of her curve toward the hip was a little yellow rose.

 

"Isn’t it beautiful?"

 

Rollie held his breath and leaned over touching it gently with his finger, "It’s uh, well, it’s different."

 

Angie turned her head back over her shoulder and caught his expression of shock, "Rollie, it’s just a little rose."

 

"But, you could have caught AIDS or something, you know- the needle and all," he said, worried as he stood back up, looking at her strangely.

 

"Rollie! They used a sterile needle and the guy wore gloves and everything. Mira took me to a very high class joint for this!" Angie’s face was frowning. Obviously, Rollie had not said the right thing.

 

She pulled her pants up, zipped them in a flash and walked out of the room without turning around. Rollie just stood there and asked, "what did I say?"

 

"Well, did he like it?" Mira asked Angie as she stormed down the stairs, interrupting the feuding that was still going on between Mira and Michael.

 

"He told me I could have caught AIDS," Angie said, fuming as Mira opened her mouth and glared up at Rollie who was coming down the stairs, totally clueless.

 

Mira let out a sigh, put her hand up in the air and then dropped it, letting out a string of Spanish cuss words as Michael stepped back and shook his head at Rollie.

 

"You’re dead meat, Tyler. You might as well go back upstairs and not show your face for a little while. I’m already fully tenderized here from her tongue lashing," Michael told him and then added, "I’m out of here- Rollie, thanks for the tea. Angie, from what Mira tells me, your added artwork looks great and if it is anything like Mira’s, well- I remember what fun I had…"

 

Mira put her finger to her lips as a warning to him and he shut up, turning and went out the door. Mira looked back at Angie and smiled, "It was fun. It was great to go out and just shop and eat and be a woman- not a detective. We’ll talk later, okay?"

 

"Yeah, later," Angie told her, returning the smile and walked her to the door, waving as Mira ran to her car in the pouring rain. She tooted the horn and was gone, her car pulling out with a screech of tires.

 

Angie stood there, the door still open, the rain pouring down. She had been happy talking with Mira about the future and Rollie. The makeup and pedicure was just a lark! It wasn’t her and that was what the fun was all about. The tattoo, well- that was pure Angie and she didn’t care what Rollie thought.

 

She felt him behind her and she shut the door, moving back into him.

 

"Hey, listen Ange- give us a chance, huh? I need to just adjust to all this woman stuff you are doing. It’s a little unlike you, you know?" he said, as she leaned against him, her back against his chest.

 

"Yeah, I guess the tomboy stuff and the computer talk are more comfortable for you, huh?" she said, turning around and looked up at him.

 

"I’m in love with a woman, a tomboy and a computer nerd. And I guess, now, the Rose Tattoo," he said, with a sudden grimace.

 

"Don’t forget the stars on my toes," she added, as he kissed her nose, then her cheeks and her eyelids. He finally settled on her lips and he parted them with his own, as she returned his passion.

 

"Mmmm, let’s go take another look at that yellow rose," he murmured as he broke away from the kiss and she looked up at him, slightly breathless.

 

"I can make it move, you know…" she added, with a shy giggle as she walked up the stairs with him in tow.

 

"Oh Ange, I can see it moving right now!" Rollie said, his voice cracking behind her.

 

Later, Rollie did marvel at the little yellow rose as he traced it with his finger tip. Angie was asleep, on her side and he rested his head in the curve of her waist facing her hip. She had shocked him and in the end, he had loved it. He knew their lives together would be like this, ups and downs, adventures, tragedy, arguments…but he still wanted to have her as his wife. He just didn’t know if she wanted to hear that so soon again.

 

Angie moved suddenly and he lifted his head off of her and rejoined her on the pillow, his face to her face as she turned completely around in sleep. Her arms were folded up in front of her, her breasts peeking between them and he sighed.

 

Her eyes fluttered open, drowsy and heavy and she smiled, seeing him looking at her.

 

"Rol," she said, slightly groggy, "I was having this dream…and you know, Lucinda looks pretty nice in an amethyst gown."

 

"Luce?"

 

"Yeah, she was coming down this aisle in this long, amethyst gown. She was carrying these beautiful lilies and smiling at you."

 

"Umm, and where were you?"

 

"Oh, I was behind her, waiting…"

 

"Waiting for what?"

 

"The music to begin…Mira was already up there, standing next to you."

 

"What?"

 

"You know, she was wearing the same gown as Lucinda."

 

"And what were you wearing?"

 

"Actually, nothing," Angie began to giggle, "But- I had a beautiful bouquet of yellow roses and I was using them to cover my…"

 

"Bloody roses! You were naked at your wedding!" Rollie exclaimed, thinking of that scene from Angie’s dream.

 

"You didn’t seem to mind," Angie said, yawning then and Rollie kissed her.

 

"If you want to be naked at your wedding, then, so be it.." Rollie told her, grinning.

 

"Okay, I guess there is going to be one, then?" she asked, almost shyly.

 

Rollie looked at her and then exhaled deeply, "Of course, I’ve been waiting until you were ready to talk about it. I didn’t want to push."

 

"Push Rollie, push…" Angie told him and kissed him, abandoning her fears.