Ricki and Pete: My love will not let you down

Thoughts

Pete didn't sleep on that night and he closed his eyes every time Ricki turned around not wanting her to notice he was still awake and... Sweating. He was frightened by Sal telling everything he saw to his family. He could picture Maureen leaving and his children not talking to him anymore.
Ricki turned one more time, this time complete taking the  sheets away from Pete's body.
"Linda" he whispered, but she was snoring and didn't hear him.
He got up and went to the bathroom to wash his face. That sleepless night seemed everlasting and he didn't know what to do. He felt his pressure raising and his heart beating faster; all those thoughts about the consequences of that situation were overwhelming his head and the comforting words he was trying to whisper to him were weak and didn't work.
"Greg I told you".
Pete' traveling mind got distracted by Ricki talking in her sleep. Most of the words she said were meaningless and he couldn't understand what she was dreaming about. He sat on a chair and started staring at Ricki and then he moved his look around the dark room.
"I'm a ruined person" Ricki said.
"We both are ruined" whispered Pete moving to the bed again trying to sleep.
The sound of the crickets and the wind caressing the leaves on the trees slowly helped Pete to relax and close his eyes. With his mind off, Pete felt the night lasting just some minutes and when he opened his eyes again it was already morning. His phone was vibrating. Of course on the other side of the call there was Maureen. Pete went out on the balcony to talk, trying not to disturb Ricki who was still sleeping.
Maureen was happier, her father was suddenly getting better, although she thought it was better to stay some other days to see if the situation was stable or not. This time Pete told her he wanted to reach her by her father's house and to stay and support the family. Maureen was surprised by Pete's apparently good mood and she thanked him, but she told him to stay home. She had five sisters and the house was already full of people. Plus she didn't want to worry her father and make him think he was about to die as all the relatives were coming to visit him more often.
Pete nodded and after the call he went to the bathroom and started filling the bath with hot water.
He was way too confused. He thought that reaching Maureen would have helped him to leave Ricki and to make up his life's balance again.
While Pete was taking the bath, Ricki woke up not remembering for a moment where she was and also feeling a little disturbed by all the food she had eaten the previous night.
She called Pete's name, but she got no answer, so she got up and knocked at the bathroom door.
"Pete, are you in?"
"yes" he yelled to be sure she could listen.
"Uh, okay. Does it take long?" Ricki asked feeling like her eyelids couldn't open.
"Well, yes... I mean no... Wait five minutes" Pete answered.
Ricki laid back on the bed and she started thinking about Pete undressing her on the previous night. She could still feel his hand taking her clothes away. She breathed deeply and she kept on imagining that situation going on as it should had.
"Good morning" she heard all of a sudden. "Wake up lady".
Ricki got up and went straight to the bathroom forgetting to answer.
"We need to talk" said Pete.
"I need to pee" answered Ricki without even realizing what Pete had just told her.
Pete got dressed and waited for Ricki to come back in the bedroom.
"Good Lord, I thought I saw a panda first" joked Pete watching Ricki now without make up.
"You're not funny" said Ricki looking for her boots. "I'm hungry"
"We'll have breakfast soon. Linda..."
"Ricki, please call me Ricki. I beg you" Ricki sweetened her voice looking at Pete.
"Ricki... We need to talk"
Ricki hummed and let him speak.
"I don't want to go on with you. Our relationship ended years ago and there's no reason we should try to lit the flame again. I guess we're just nostalgic and we're playing with our instincts, turning each other on driving ourselves to something that's completely irrational" let off steam Pete. He kind of felt better for some seconds. He freed his chest from all the weight of his thoughts.
"Well, that's all love it's about. Driving two people into an irrational vortex. That's us. You know what I think. Life it's just one and I don't wanna spend it regretting or having doubts and questions"
"But you don't have a family! " yelled Pete.
Silence.
Ricki stared at Pete coldly:"I don't... I. HAVE. A. FAMILY! I always had. But somebody we both know pushed me away from it. He isolated me. Alienated. I wouldn't have been a perfect mother, but for sure I loved my kids more than anything else and you don't know how hard is to live without them. You don't know Pete. And you don't know how hard is to live without the person you actually love. You found yourself another wife, you fell in love again. You not me. So don't judge my life, cuz you don't know fucking anything about my feelings"

"Ricki, I'm sorry, I didn't mean..."
"Fuck off Pete!" shouted Ricki interrupting him and pushing him towards the door. "Go back home. Your fucking big, expensive home".
Pete went out the room and Ricki fell on the floor crying. The cold one was actually one of the most sensitive human beings ever and once she had found a sparkle of happiness it suddenly disappeared. Pete had no problems to build walls between her and her children and now that he was close to his 60s was afraid to ruin another marriage instead of catching the only moment life gave him to spend time with what he defined his "truest love".
Pete thought for a moment to apologize with Ricki, but then he thought it was best to separate and come back to his big, expensive and Empty home. It was more silent and colder than a cemetery.
Pete walked from a room to another opening the windows and letting the light in. The pictures with his family were all over the house and he stopped to stare at them. His children were happy and all those moments concerned Maureen too. She was the real mother of the house and Pete couldn't remember what Ricki looked like as a mother. He felt dumb for kissing Ricki and then let her kiss him back. He wasn't this passionate with his wife and maybe his body was just missing those acts.
Pete opened the window of "Ricki's" bedroom and noticed her suitcase and her guitar standing in the corner.
Suddenly he recalled Ricki sitting on a chair beside Joshua's crib playing "Somewhere over the rainbow" to make him fall asleep. He used watch the baby close his eyes and once they were sure he was sleeping, they left the room by stealth and had some time for each other until they too fell asleep.
"You see? You're just nostalgic!" Pete told to himself and following this wave of nostalgia he went searching Ricki's pictures. He kept them in a cartoon box together with the presents she gave him.
Yes, Ricki was a sweet mom too, maybe different from other moms. She was braver and crazier. She sometimes behaved like a child too, but she knew how to be strict too.
Joshua, Adam and Julie were way too cute ad children, but they looked like a normal, happy family and from those pictures nobody could have told they would soon break up.