Blame her for the argument

I pulled out my phone as I left Opal's room. There was barely fifteen minutes left before Mr. Astor's deadline. I walked down the hall towards Nicole's room as I checked the app. I found that everything looked the same as the last time except Nicole had a new resistance to believing that I'd ever joke about our relationship. So there was no chance that I could make the "it was just a joke" lie work, but that was okay, I had a different story in mind.

Then I checked the group profiles page and noticed something. All the beliefs for the "Nicole Astor's Bride's Maids" group were now at 100%, including the one about how I would always be faithful to Nicole. So Opal now believed that I was faithfully in love with Nicole despite the fact that she had just participated in me being unfaithful. How the fuck did that work?

Forgetting that paradox for a moment, when did she start believing that? She'd specifically said that I was cheating on Nicole when we started, so she hadn't believed it then. I guess the belief spread to her while we were together. So a belief doesn't just spread from the person I implanted it into, I can spread it as well.

I put my phone away. I was at Nicole's door and there was no time to figure this out. I knocked on her door.

Kennedy opened it.

She looked at me sternly, but not as harshly as I expected. Kennedy was a couple of inches taller than me, so she could be quite intimidating when she wanted to be, but right now she looked like she was trying to hold it in.

The tall brunette looked over her shoulder, then back at me. Quietly, she said, "What were you thinking with that joke? That was obnoxious as hell! Ainsley and I have been trying to convince her that you were only kidding, but she's won't believe us."

The pieces snapped together in my head. Most of the bride's maids believed at that point that I was "faithfully in love" with Nicole, and those were the people who hadn't said anything at the table. Only Nicole, her father, and Opal had actually thought I was serious. These group profiles were useful! It was too bad Nicole wasn't part of the group. However, it was still a huge boost that these girls had tried to smooth things over, and it gave me a new idea for the most productive way to phrase things.

"Can I talk to her?"

Kennedy took a deep breath, then nodded. She stepped aside and let me pass.

Nicole was sitting on her bed, sobbing. Ainsley was sitting next to her, rubbing her arm.

"Nicole, can we talk?"

My fiancé wiped her eyes clear and nodded to her friends. They quietly left. Once they were gone she said, "So? What do you have to say?"

I sat next to Nicole on the bed, took her hand, and said, "I forgive you."

Predictably, she did not react well to this. "What?!"

"Nicole, I'm not mad. You made a scene and embarrassed me, but we'll get through this."

Nicole never got angry. She was the kind of pampered princess who'd never even had to throw a fit to get what she wanted because it was always provided to her immediately. So instead of anger, she was filled with confusion.

"However," I continued, "you really should remember that you're an example to your bride's maids. Look how upset this whole thing has made them! What have they been telling you for the last half hour?"

"They... they've been saying that you love me and you'd never be unfaithful. But-"

"And you're supposed to be looking out for your bride's maids, making sure they have a good time at your wedding. Do they look happy right now?"

She looked confused, which wasn't surprising since this must have seemed like a total deflection from the argument. "No, they're very unhappy."

"That's right, this argument you've caused is making everyone very upset. This is your wedding, your big event! You're should be taking more responsibility with all the wedding guests, especially your bride's maids. You've been letting Simone run things with them, but you're the bride. You have just as much sway over them as the maid of honor."

"Yes, well..."

-5 BS. 32 Remaining.

The idea that the bride should have total say over everything at the wedding is pretty common, but Simone has always been the leader of this little friend group. I was basically picking off the weak member of the herd by going after Nicole. So naturally Nicole took the title of "maid of honor" to mean Simone had more responsibility than usual and put herself in charge of the other bride's maids. Their schedules, the bachelorette activities, etc. However, that meant any beliefs I tried to spread could either be to Nicole or to Simone and the group, not both. Hopefully...

Update: The profile Nicole Astor's Bride's Maids has changed to Nicole Astor and her Bride's Maids.

Yes! I wasn't planning on this initially and it cost me some BS, but hopefully the encouragement from Kennedy and Ainsley gave her enough doubt so that I could pull off my main fallacy with a little less BS.

Nicole stood up, gaining a slight bit of defiance that I had never seen from her before. "Alright, I'll try to be a little more on top of things for now. But that doesn't mean you can ask my friends for blowjobs!"

I stood up next to her. "Except for Ainsley."

"Well... yes. Obviously it's not cheating if it's with Ainsley."

This was it. I placed my hands on her shoulders, doing my best to exude the confidence of a parent who is sure they can calm down their child and explain things to them. "Nicole, that doesn't even make sense. Blowjobs are not cheating. Period."

She looked shook. "What?"

"Would it make sense that one person, and one person only, can do anything short of sex and it not be cheating? No! It's not cheating for anyone! There was a survey saying that 99% of people don't consider anything less than a penis going into a vagina to be cheating. That's a well known, published fact, not just an Ainsley thing."

"Wait, you mean..."

"Yes. If it's not fucking, it's not cheating. That's obvious, Nicole."

Her eyes went blank.

-25 BS. 7 Remaining.

Oh, thank fucking Christ. It took way more BS to get her to believe the same thing as Ainsley, but the payoff should be higher, too.

"I'm sorry, baby!" said Nicole. "I don't know why I was getting so upset! Of course you can ask Kennedy to suck you off! In fact, I'll tell her to do it tomorrow!"

I hugged her. She laid her head against my shoulder and I patted her hair. "That's okay. I understand that the wedding has you a little on edge. Don't worry, I'm here to make sure things stay on track. You can depend on me." Then I just stayed quiet and felt her chest moving against my chest as I thought about Kennedy, wearing a swim suit that showed off those insanely long legs, walking up to me on the beach tomorrow and offering me a blowjob.

There was a knock on the door. Right on time.

"I'll get that!" said Nicole.

She disengaged from the hug and went to the door. Her father was outside, fuming, but he calmed down when he saw her smiling. She went out into the hallway and closed the door. I could only hear the vaguest noise through the door, but then I got another head notification from the app.

New profile added: The Taylor-Astor Wedding Party.

With that, I knew that everything was going to be okay. Nicole taking responsibility for the guests meant she was in a position of authority over them, including her own father. Right now, she was explaining that she'd apologized for the misunderstanding. She was also spreading her new belief on the nature of cheating.

That was just the first of many beliefs that Nicole was going to spread for me.