Imperfectly Beautiful (Jordan Knight Fanfic, Liadan #3)

Impressions and Innocence

Song lyric credit:

We Are The Champions by Queen | Songwriter: Freddie Mercury

-LIA-

"We are the champions, my friends

And we'll keep on fighting 'til the end

We are the champions

We are the champions

No time for losers

'Cause we are the champions of the world!"

I shook my head and laughed to myself as I gathered up dirty plates and dishes while I watched Alex and Jon triumphantly dance and sing around their "award winning" gingerbread house creation in the dining room.

"Oh, sit down," Jordan said jokingly and pelted a marshmallow in his brother's direction.

"My goodness, what have I done?" My older sister, Gina giggled and followed after me into the kitchen.

I shook my head and smiled, "This was fun, sis. I'm glad you thought of it."

"Well, I was hoping it'd be an exciting couple activity," she bit her lip. "But then after the fact, I thought about and I noticed Maria hasn't been around much. I hope it didn't make her feel left out."

I softened and looked across the room to where she sat on the floor with the kids playing Candyland, "I think she's just keeping to herself in general. It's been a rough few days. She and Tony split, which I think is for the best, but it's still hard."

Gina nodded, "Yeah, it's always hard losing somebody you love. It's why I stayed with Devin so long. I loved him and he was Aiden's dad."

"He tried to kill you," I didn't even try to hide my dislike for her ex as I settled the plates in the sink.

"I know, Lia, I know. He was a horrible boyfriend and it took counseling to really get my head out of that space, but I'm just saying how I felt at the time—I loved him and it didn't matter that splitting from him was better for me, it still hurt."

I sighed, "Things between Maria and Tony weren't quite that bad. He could be mean, but he wasn't physical with her or anything. Maria was planning to go to counseling, but then this whole gentlemen's club scandal happened out of nowhere and turned it all on its head."

Gina's gray eyes softened, "Well, I have to say, I saw that coming forever ago. Obviously not with Tony involved, but that there'd be a scandal with that place."

"Really?" I asked, surprised.

"Well, you remember I used to work at Devin's Drinkery as a waitress when we were on good terms and then at Richie's lingerie lounge whenever Devin would fire me?"

"Yeah, of course I remember," I nodded solemnly.

In the community where we grew up most of the women were either in some underpaid occupation like our mother, who'd worked as a maid or they worked in nightlife. I never had liked the idea of my sister working in positions like that, but during our early years, that was the way she'd paid the bills and provided a life for her and Aiden when she hadn't had much else of a choice.

"Well, a few of the girls that worked at Devin's and Richie's places would talk about the gentlemen's club and how much more you could make over there. One of the girls even got me an interview once."

"You didn't work there, did you?" I glanced at her while I filled the sink with water. "Please tell me you didn't do that, sis."

"Well, no, I didn't," Gina shook her head slowly. "But I'll be honest, I thought about it. It was a really nice place, much nicer than anything I'd ever seen. All the guys were wealthy and most of them were a lot more attractive than the rough characters I was used to. It was honestly, a really tempting job, but I ended up deciding that I wasn't willing to take the risk of getting in legal trouble, no matter how much money I could make. Aiden was worth too much for me. Mallory, on the other hand, didn't really have anything to lose."