GOLD RUSH.

Genesis had hardly recognized the other woman, sitting sad and lifeless beside her, as if every bit of joy and spunk had been sucked out of Cali's personality. While they certainly weren't on the best of terms, part of her had to admit that she felt for her old friend. Clearly there was more going on in her life than Genesis was even aware of.

Offering Cali a smile, like some metaphorical olive branch, the brunette turned to face her as she waited upon her drink. Even after all they'd been through these past few years, it was difficult to see her so sombre and alone, and the least she could do was offer her a friend. "No, no, that's not necessary. Is everything okay? I've actually been meaning to message you... and apologize. The way I treated you at the masquerade was pretty shitty and I'm sorry I couldn't see that you were just looking out for your best friend. It was a hard day for me, seeing Cameron with somebody else for the first time. But I shouldn't have put any of that on you."

Taking a sip of her champagne, Cali replaced the glass back down on the bar, strategically ignoring Genesis' question about how she was doing. In an effort to not ruin the mood, Cali forced a smile onto her face. "How are you doing? Are you here with anyone? Not that you need to tell me that at all, I'm sorry."

"Cali," he started softly, his voice uncharacteristically unsteady. He took a tentative step closer, his usual bravado and humor nowhere to be found. “Don’t… don’t do that. Don’t tell me to forget what you just said, because I can’t. I won’t.”

He ran a hand through his hair, his fingers trembling slightly. “You think I don’t feel the same way? You think I kissed you because I needed some backup, some ‘fun’? God, niña, that couldn’t be further from the truth.” His voice cracked, and he cursed under his breath before continuing. “I kissed you again because I’ve been in love with you since the first time I saw you, and I couldn’t keep it to myself anymore. I couldn’t. And yeah, I screwed up, because I thought… I thought you didn’t feel the same. That I ruined everything between us. And if I brought it up to you, you'd tell me we couldn't be friends anymore because of my obvious feelings for you." At this point, he couldn't help but let out a mirthless chuckle at just how completely wrong they had both gotten things.

He shook his head, his chest rising and falling as he tried to steady himself. “And you’re right. You do deserve better. You deserve someone who doesn’t screw up every chance he gets with you, like that night I went to jail, who doesn’t let his fear of losing you make everything worse. But if you think for one second that this is a joke to me, that you’re a second choice or some backup plan, then you don’t know me as well as I thought you did.”

His voice softened, his eyes locked on hers. “I’m here, Cali. I’m standing here, trying to figure out how the hell to fix this, because losing you isn’t an option for me. It never has been. So if you’re going to tell me to leave, you better mean it. Because if I walk out that door, it’s not because I want to. It’s because you don’t want me here.”

Marco took a shaky breath, his heart pounding as he stepped even closer. “But if there’s even a chance that you want me, that you want us… then I’m not going anywhere.”

"You have to, you have to forget because I can't lose you, I can't lose us." Shaking her head, Cali dropped her eyes to the floor, hoping it would somehow open up and swallow her whole. At least then she wouldn't need to deal with it.

His words didn't seem to be computing to her until she heard the words she never expected to hear from him. He loved her. He had kissed her because he loved her.

There was no stopping the tears now as they overflowed and ran down her cheeks, her bottom lip wobbling as she tried to keep herself from full blown ugly crying. As soon as her legs threatened to give way, Cali reached out to grip the back of the couch. There had been no possibility for her that he was going to reciprocate her feelings, only confirm she had been right but there he was. The man she had always loved, loved her too.

She could barely see his eyes through the tears but she stayed locked on him anyway, not even moving to wipe her cheeks, not trusting herself to move and not just crumple to the ground. She had fought against her feelings for so long but as Marco laid himself bare in front of her, she knew now she had to fight for her feelings, instead of against them. Letting go of the couch, Cali barely even noticed that she was moving until she was close enough to throw her arms around his neck. "Please don't go. Don't leave." Her voice was thick, lower than usual with emotion. She was a mess, but she had never felt so whole in her entire life. "Don't ever leave." Moving her hands to the side of his neck, she leaned in, pressing a kiss against his lips, the first of theirs that she had initiated.

It lasted only a couple of seconds before she pulled back, her eyes locking on his. "I do, I want you, I want us, I want everything. I've wanted it since we were kids, it's all I've ever wanted."

"I mean it's that or he's just no fun and I don't know which option I like best. Hot though." Shrugging a shoulder, Cali glanced down at the bit of beach they'd cleared and then quickly surveyed what the other people on the clean up had done. "I promised I would say something and my ankle is officially hurting." Reaching into her pocket and eating the last of the red vine she pulled out of there, Cali nodded towards the town. "Want to take a break and get a coffee?"

As the door finally flew open, Cali making it very clear she was angry at him, Marco's smirk only grew. It was like a shield; his smirky attitude at having successfully pushed her buttons shielded him from the very real heartbreak he was walking into. Marco knew if he let the facade slip even a little bit, Cali would be able to tell this was affecting him a lot more than he would admitted and he couldn't have that. He couldn't handle her pity, not about this.

"Or what, Calliope?" he asked, as she walked away from him. "What's she gunna do, huh, Alba, mi princesa?" The second question was obviously directed towards her dog as he bent down to scratch Alba behind the ears, lavishing her with some extra love since it had been so long.

Marco leaned against the doorframe, watching as Cali walked back to the couch without so much as a glance his way. She left the door open, but the wall she’d put up between them felt as solid as ever.

Alba trotted after her for a moment before circling back to him, tail wagging, and he bent down to scratch behind her ears one last time. “At least someone’s happy to see me,” he muttered before stepping inside and shutting the door behind him.

He tried to lighten the mood, tried to summon the easy banter that had always come naturally between them. “Nice to see you too,” he said, shoving his hands into his jacket pockets as he took a cautious step closer. “And for the record, Calliope Adriana Cabrera is a great name. I stand by it. It'd make an excellent soap opera star name.” He paused, hoping she'd look up to meet his gaze as he tried not to chuckle at the joke he was about to make. "Or, you know a fabulous porn star name."

If anything, seeing how unaffected he seemed only made everything feel worse. Whilst she'd barely left the house if it wasn't to walk Alba or for work, it looked like Marco was completely fine. She had begged him not to make her his second choice, to stop making her feel like she was just a plaything he could kiss when he needed fun and all he could in their first conversation since that, weeks later, was joke.

"Yeah well, you didn't make her feel like shit the last time you saw her, did you? So that tracks." Shaking her head, Cali threw her hands up in complete exasperation. "This really is just a joke to you, isn't it? Just go, just.. just get out." She could feel the tears stinging her eyes again and as she felt the ache in her chest, she felt like she was going to explode. "You are such a fucking dick, Marco! We've been friends since we were kids and this is how you treat me? I would never do this to you, ever! I left that party in tears and the first thing you say to me is that the fake name you came up with sounds like a porn star? Fuck you."

Everything would've been so much easier if she'd never fallen in love with him and not for the first time, she wished she could back and change that, just to save herself from the pain it was causing her now. "I deserve better than this, than all of this. I deserve better than you kissing me and not talking about it, I deserve better than feeling like your back up when you have no one else. I have been in love with you since we were teenagers and I get that you don't feel that way but that doesn't mean this doesn't hurt me!"

It was only after a few seconds of silence that she realised what she'd said. The secret she had kept from him for over twenty years and in one argument, there it was. Her hand flew to her mouth to cover it, her eyes wide and shining from the unshed tears. "Oh my god." Her voice was quiet and she quickly shook her head. "Forget I said anything, just go okay? I'll be fine in a few days."

Marco couldn't tell what was worse, the pit in his stomach he'd been carrying since Halloween, since he'd watched Cali cry because of him, or the knowledge that he was about to seal his fate on ever having a romantic relationship with Cali. It was almost Christmas, and after the dumpster-fire that was the Halloween party, Marco couldn't stand the thought of spending Christmas day, one of their favorite holidays, with this kind of awkwardness and tension between them.

He knew it was his fault, he'd screwed things up. Cali had made it very clear that while she'd gotten caught up in the heat of the moment both times, she didn't actually want him to kiss her. Not only that, but she'd somehow gotten it into her head that he had kissed her out of boredom or because he didn't have any one better around, and Marco couldn't stand the thought of Cali thinking that's all it meant to him.

So, after conversations with and the prodding of both Levi and Leyla, he was finally working up the courage to set the record straight. It had taken him so long to do so because he knew now that he was walking into rejection - but Cali understanding the truth, knowing she wasn't just an option because he didn't have anyone else around, was more important than him saving himself from rejection. He'd rather get his heart broken than have her thinking he thought that little of her.

On the Saturday before Christmas, when he knew she wouldn't be at work, he finally jogged the short distance between his grandparents' house and the Cabrera home, bracing himself against the cold weather and the heartache he was walking into. Knocking on the door, he waited for several minutes for her to answer. When she didn't, he knocked again. "Calliope Adriana Cabrera, open up! I know you're in there!!"

He knew, if there was any possible chance of him walking out of this conversation with at least his friendship even remotely in tact with Cali, he needed to take a light approach to this. Make it clear that he'd get by, that things didn't have to change between them.

She had been in a funk ever since she had run out of the Halloween party. She left the house to go to work, to get groceries and to walk Alba and that was pretty much it. She had barely seen anyone, except for Cameron who had come as soon as he'd heard the emotion in her voice over the phone. He'd listened as she'd cried but it hadn't made things any easier.

With the knock on her door, she had checked her doorbell camera and her heart had skipped a beat when she saw him on it. But still, she sat on her couch, ignoring her dog who had run over to the door as soon as she'd heard the knocks. She'd waited, watching the camera for him to assume she was out and leave, but he didn't. He just stayed.

"Calliope Adriana Cabrera, open up! I know you're in there!!"

Her jaw tightened at the annoying name he'd christened her when they'd been watching Grey's Anatomy and out of irritation only, she got up off the couch. As Alba barked, Cali could only roll her eyes. "Well done, now you've given us away." As her dog whined and pawed at the door, Cali couldn't help but narrow her eyes. "Traitor." Opening the door, suddenly extremely grateful that she had at least showered and washed her that morning, her mouth dried as she looked at him. "Call me that one more damn time, I dare you." Alba wasted no time in greeting him, rubbing her head against his leg and circling his legs. Assuming he wasn't going to buy that she was busy, she simply left the door open and walked back to the couch, hoping she didn't look quite as awful as she felt. "What are you doing here?"

She had a point. Marco had been too scared to make more than a few pathetic attempts at catching her. Letting out a sigh, he held up his hands in a show of guilt. "Okay, you're right. I coulda just come over." But it had almost been a relief, those times she had dodged him, because then he wasn't forced to finally confront whatever this was. Hadn't been forced to tip things over the ledge, one way or the other, by finally voicing his feelings for her.

His brows furrowed, and he tilted his head to the side in confusion, trying to piece together who she was talking about. Then, understanding dawned on him. She was referencing Kira. Of course. And while, yes, Kira was undeniably gorgeous, Marco had been far too head over heels in love with Cali to ever consider Kira as anything more than a friend.

Shaking his head with a soft chuckle, he murmured a breathless, "We caught an Uber to our separate homes together, but that was it. I didn't sleep with Kira nor is she waiting on me tonight."

Relief surged through him as the misunderstanding between them unraveled. The weight he'd felt moments ago lifted, replaced by a warmth he couldn’t contain. Without thinking, Marco closed the distance between them, eyes flitting down to her lips before meeting her gaze and then finally leaning down to capture her lips with his, a physical expression of his inability to keep his feelings for her to himself anymore.

"Cool." Her voice was quiet and for a second, she got lost in her head. Before they had kissed in the storm, her relationship with Marco had felt so much easier. As hard as it had been to keep her feelings a secret, at least she had known where they stood. They were best friends. But now, it felt like everything had changed, when nothing much actually had.

"What are you doing?" She looked up at him as she felt him close the distance between them but before she could say anything else, his lips were on hers again. For a few seconds, her mind was completely blank with just how perfect and right it felt to kiss him. The fireworks exploded in her stomach and it was complete instinct that had her body moulding to his and one hand winding around the back of his neck. It was almost too easy to sink into the kiss but as her lips parted, everything changed. Gone was the blankness of her mind and instead, she saw him laughing with Kira at the masquerade, her feeding him dessert. She saw him kissing other people, she saw him in a church, marrying someone who wasn't her.

Shaking her head, Cali stepped back and pulled away from the kiss. As she looked at him, her fingertips gently touched her lips and as much as she tried to hold them back, she could feel the tears starting to prick at her eyes. "I can't do this." Shaking her head again, she quickly reached for her bag on the counter. "I can't just be someone you kiss when you're not with someone else. I can't be your second best. Don't.. Don't do that to me." As a few other people stepped into the cloakroom, Cali used the distraction to take one more look at him before slipping out of the door. Within seconds, she was in a taxi and on her way home, the tears finally beginning to fall down her cheeks.

Once her coughing subsided, Mari picked up her beer and took a long drink from it. She needed to drown her original, highly negative reaction to the bombshell Cali just dropped and give herself some time to formulate a new plan. But the moments of silence as the finished off the contents of the glass bottle did nothing to curb the dangerous swell of emotions now coursing through the songwriter and, unable to stop herself, she blurted out. "You mean after he went home with another woman the night before?"

And there it was.

Her hand paused for a few seconds, noodles slipping from her chopsticks and back into the carton of food as Cali tried to process what she had been told. She worked on keeping her face neutral but inside, she was free falling. "He went home with someone?" Her voice was light but she couldn't even look at Mari. Instead, she shoved some noodles into her mouth and tried not to choke on them. She had never told anyone but Cameron exactly how she felt about Marco, mainly because he'd guessed, but she was sure that if anyone knew, it was her sisters. "You saw them come back here? To his place?"

river listens to cali with great attentiveness, her eyes locked on her friend as she speaks. each word that escapes cali's lips draws river in, eager to hear more. with steady nods of understanding, river encourages cali to continue, showing her unwavering interest in the conversation. as cali finishes sharing her thoughts, river's expression softens, and she offers her friend a warm, sympathetic smile that communicates empathy and reassurance. ❛ that must have been an incredibly difficult position for you to be in ... ❜ she begins, her voice gentle yet firm. ❛ i can only imagine how challenging it must have been to navigate such a complex situation. but at least you're able to recognize what happened, and the fact that you're owning up to it demonstrates immense strength and courage. ❜

river's laughter bubbles up as she twists slightly in her dance partner's grip, unable to hide the gleam of playful defiance in her eyes. ❛ oh, okay. so, no more dancing? ❜ she exclaims with a hint of sarcasm, her voice rising above the pulsing music that echoes through the crowded room. she feels a rush of excitement as she's pulled off the dance floor. cali catches her attention, and in an exasperated tone, she continues, ❛ fuck no, he doesn’t work with us. did that once upon a time and never again. christ, what a nightmare that was. ❜ the memory of that past relationship, with all its complications and awkward moments, flickers in her mind, serving as a reminder of why she’s reluctant to mix romance and work. it was a lesson learned the hard way, and now she’s adamant about keeping her personal life separate from her professional one.

river let's out a groan, feeling as if she was sinking deeper into her own whirlwind of thoughts and anxieties. and honestly, she felt justified in those worries. after all, her family history was not something she could easily overlook — it was a twisted legacy that often overshadowed her own life and choices, making her feel as though she had a unique set of fears to navigate. if it weren't for the numerous doses of alcohol she's received from alara tonight, river would likely be expressing more concern about the situation instead of laughing nervously in response to cali's enthusiasm. ❛ i get everyone has their own issues that they’re scared to share, but my baggage it's — it's a bit more complicated, don’t you think? ❜ she sighed deeply, her fingers fidgeting with a stray lock of hair while giving her friend a weary smile.

Laughing quietly as they moved to the edge of the dance floor, Cali shook her head. "We can dance more once we've finished talking about boys, but I'm old and need to concentrate when someone is talking to me." Nodding her head in agreement, Cali grimaced, also knowing the struggle of working with someone in that situation. "I mean we did not date but you know Jamie in accounts? Yeah, the holiday party a few years ago got a bit out of hand and I still don't want to look him in the eye."

Reaching out, Cali gently took hold of River's hand and gave it a squeeze. She might have her own baggage to explain, but it wasn't anything like what her friend would have to contend with. "I mean sure, but the right person won't care or it won't bother them at least, you know? The right person will want to walk through it with you and help you and if they run at the first hurdle, they don't deserve you anyway."

Cali returned her smile and even though their situations were completely different, there was something easily recognisable in what River was saying. She had lost count of the times she had wanted to just say something to Marco, but her fear or rejection and loss of their friendship kept her quiet. "It's not crazy, it's cute! Look, take it from someone who should've made a move twenty years ago, don't let it get this far along without doing anything. If he makes you comfortable enough to try? Then go for it."