golden girl (b.t.c.)

chapter one hundred + five

august 12th, 2026
     eliana came home from a long day at the gym to her little brownstone in greenwich village. she could hear ben in the living room, and went in to see him sitting on the floor, with their daughter, julia, on his lap.

"look, jules, mommy's home!" he stood up and kissed her on the cheek, and julia smiled her little three-year-old smile.

"hi, mommy!"

"hi, sweetie! how was your day with daddy?"

"we got ice-keem with sky!" she giggled.

"did you? well, you just love uncle sky, don't you?"

julia nodded, and ben sat down with her on the couch.

"where's parker?" eliana asked as she kicked her shoes off.

"i gave him a pb&j before we have to head to the show. he's in the dining room."

ben and his five year old son, parker, were starring in the revival of beauty and the beast as chip and lumiere, and parker was just as in love with the stage as his dad. he'd begged to take dance classes when he was just two, and ever since, eliana and ben just couldn't seem to keep him off of a stage.

"parker!" eliana called in a sing-song voice.

"mommy!" he called back, making her giggle. he came running out to the living room with peanut butter all over his face.

"oh, park, you're all messy." she kneeled down and rubbed the peanut butter off of his chin, and he laughed, his bouncy blonde curls shaking in front of the green eyes he shared with his mom.

"this is all you, right here." she said with a pointed glance at ben.

"you made our child like this."

ben just stuck his tongue out, which made her shake her head and glance back to parker. "you make sure you don't grow up to be like your father."

"daddy's the coolest!" he said.

"that's right, bud. daddy is the coolest." ben fist bumped him from over the back of the couch, and eliana sighed, laughing at her boys.

she lifted parker up and walked over to sit down next to ben, and rolled her eyes when she saw what was on screen. the 2016 women's all-around final from the rio olympics.

"are we really watching this?"

"you've never seen it, and it's the ten year anniversary."

"seriously?" her eyes widened.

"mmhmm." ben bounced julia on his knee as she watched the gymnasts on screen warm up.

eliana was the first one to come on screen with her bars routine. she watched herself salute, and smiled as she held ben's hand. halfway through the routine, when she caught the nabieva, julia gave a little gasp.

"i wanna do that!" she yelled.

"guess what, jules?" ben pulled her closer. "that's mommy up there."

julia's little blue eyes widened as she looked from her mom to the screen, where a ten-years-younger version of eliana was hugging lola.

julia smiled an even bigger grin and watched even closer when the bar routines came up. "i wanna fly like mommy." she said, tugging on ben's hair.

ben looked over to eliana.

she retired from elite gymnastics for good after the 2016 olympics. while it wasn't her original intention, when she tried to go back to the 2020 olympics, her body fought her so badly that she couldn't stand to do elite gymnastics anymore. instead, she started her own gym, where she trained competitive gymnasts and ben taught dance classes. they had sworn to never force any of their children to take a dance or gymnastics class, but it had worked out fine for parker.

eliana cracked her knuckles as she thought.

"alright, julia. i'll teach you to fly like me."

because a lot had changed in the last ten years, but a lot hadn't.