Disclaimer: None of it belongs to me. Just this story.

Summary: Miriam Pataki makes a new friend. A riff on 'Summer Love'. Includes some exact dialogue from the episode.

cottoncandy_bingo prompt: beach

Strings

Miriam Pataki has always hated the beach. She hates everything about it – the glare of the searing sun, the sand. No amount of shaking things out gets rid of the grains and she despises the feeling of grit between her toes, in her clothes. And all those loud, happy, frolicking people only highlight how miserable she is.

Just once she wishes Big Bob would listen to her. Year after year she expresses her unhappiness. She understands that he loves the beach, but can't they do something else once in a while, just for a change of pace? Something she likes? But her interests and feelings forever go unacknowledged.

The grey shingled duplex house they've rented is a dump, but at least a strong sea breeze wafts through the open windows at night, keeping the rooms relatively comfortable, and she does like the smell of the salt air.

Big Bob will be out doing all the beach activities he does, by himself. Helga will be off with her little friend, that odd-looking blonde boy from her class. She'd seen him when she got out of the car. She'll spend the next seven days sitting out on the porch in the wicker chair with a pitcher full of whatever cold alcoholic beverage she chooses for the day and read until their 'family' vacation finally comes to an end. The way she does during every summer vacation.

At least the porch is sheltered. She doesn't even realize someone else is there that first morning she settles herself down, armed with a large pitcher of vodka-laced fruit punch and a thick magazine. Despite the roof she's under and the layers of sunscreen she's slathered on she also wears a large hat and a loose-fitting outfit that covers as much of her as possible. She wants to be hidden.

"Hi!"

Miriam half-chokes on the punch she's started to sip and the ice cubes in the pitcher clink loudly from her startled movement. She turns and regards the woman who has greeted her so enthusiastically, her neighbor staying in the other part of the duplex. She is holding a book, having settled down to read for the day too.

"Oh, hi."

"I'm Suzie."

"I'm..." Her brain is too foggy for a conversation. "Miriam. I'm Miriam"

"So, are you alone too?"

"Of course," she says dejectedly, her eyes downcast.

"Hello, ladies."

The man who has approached them is dark, handsome, and speaks with a charming accent.

"You two beautiful women don't look like you're having any fun at all. I could change that. Would you like to take a stimulating free dance class?"

His tone and the innuendo with which he infuses certain words draw them like moths to a flame and they lean forward to see the flyer he is holding out. They both balk at first, hemming and hawing about their husbands not approving. The man flashes them a brilliant smile, and after a brief glance at one another they begin to giggle, their minds changed.

"Did you say a free lesson?"

He leaves the flyer with them so they'll have the address and bids them hasta pronto.

Following Suzie's lead, Miriam loses the floppy hat and layers of clothing, wipes the white cream off of her face and dons a pretty skirt and tank top before they head off to Carlos's studio together.

They talk as they stroll into the beach town, sharing superficial things about themselves, the rest falling in between the lines. Miriam tells Suzie she's here with her husband and daughter, both off somewhere doing something. Suzie is married and lives in Hillwood too, not too far from them in the Sunset Arms boarding house. She doesn't say what her husband does for a living, only that she works full time at Tildales department store. He's left her alone on this vacation just as Bob has done to her.

Carlos is an excellent dancer. Attentive, smooth, flirtatious he makes them both feel important and attractive. They learn the samba, the mambo and the rhumba. Miriam can't remember the last time she enjoyed herself this much. Dancing feels good and infuses her with energy she didn't think she still had.

By the time she meets up with Big Bob at the house again he's as red as a beet, laid up in bed and trying to order her to wait on him hand and foot. It's only sunburn so she brushes it off and tells him she's going to meet her new friends Suzie and Carlos for breakfast.

"Then we're going back to Carlos's studio for a Watusi lesson," she says brightly and breezes out.

"Carlos? Watusi?" Bob is calling as she goes. "Miriam!"

#

Over a breakfast of fruit, an assortment of fresh baked breads and unlimited coffee Carlos regales them with stories of touring with a dance troupe, competing in ballroom dance competitions and eventually settling down. He asks them about themselves and Suzie tells them that she lived in Prague for a short time, where she taught English.

"Now it's the Czech Republic, but it was still Czechoslovakia then. I met my husband there."

The discussion shifts to traveling. Miriam had studied French and spent some time in Paris. She alludes briefly to meeting Bob after she returned to the states then steers the conversation back to things in France that she liked better.

The three of them finish breakfast and return to the studio where Carlos teaches them the Watusi, working with them for an extra half hour. He invites them to join him and his friends for dinner later. They thank him but they don't give him a definite yes yet. They need to check in 'at home' first.

After leaving the studio, Miriam and Suzie explore the small seaside village and poke around the quaint gift and novelty shops. There is an old-fashioned ice-cream parlor down a side street and they stop in for cones. They sit on the bench in front of the shop and enjoy their treats, agreeing that they should exchange phone numbers and try to meet once they're back in Hillwood. With melancholy and hope Miriam thinks of how she hasn't had a friend in a very long time and it would be nice to have someone to meet and talk with every once in a while. She hasn't known Suzie long enough to tell if they're kindred spirits, but on first impression she likes her.

It's already nearly four when they decide they should probably go back and see what their husbands are doing.

When they return to the beach they find themselves in the middle of a strange commotion involving Suzie's husband Oskar and his metal detector, a group of people accusing Oskar of stealing their jewelry, and another man from the boarding house who is buried up to his neck in the sand.

#

Now that Miriam has come to love the beach Big Bob hates it and has announced that they will never be going back again.

At least Suzie lives nearby. Back in the city Miriam meets her sometimes, for lunch or a movie or a visit to the art museum. When a new dance studio opens they pop in to observe, wondering if Carlos has followed them to Hillwood. Another man is running this studio but they have fun trying out the steps they learned from Carlos.

They still don't talk about their families. Miriam suspects that Suzie's husband isn't a bargain and wonders if Suzie has guessed the same about Big Bob. But they don't ask those questions and they find other common ground between them, other topics to discuss and laugh about.

Together they are just two women who are friends.