But see I know that you may be just a bit jealous of me

Nick sat patiently by and listened as Mary explained everything about the dreams she’d had, and the doubts that filled her heart as a result of them.

It was rather difficult to hear, to be honest.

“…And that’s it,” she said quietly. “That’s the dream I had, as a result of Morgana’s diary.”

A silence fell over the room for a second.

“…But it’s alright!” She quickly stated. “Everything is okay! It’s not like I’m still upset, Rose and I talked before, and we… well…”

She glanced at Rose briefly, then turned back to Nick, forcing a smile onto her face. She took a deep breath, then exhaled.

“Rose said that she wasn’t trying to steal you from me. That I didn’t have anything to worry about. And of course, part of me knew that already… after all, it’s not like you belong to me or anything like that,” she said, looking very much like she was going to cry soon. “I was just being insecure…”

Nick winced. What a mess.

This was a tricky situation that he would have had to resolve at some point or another. After all, he was partially-responsible for the conflict here. He was in love with Rose, but he was also married to Mary. (There were several other women he had feelings for as well, but thinking about them would just muddy the waters. Right now, best to focus on the two people who were actually the source of the problem he was facing.)

In the real world, he’d be seen as a cheating scumbag. But Mary had given him permission to love other people, even though she was married to him. But she was still only human. Her feelings for Nick weren’t going to just magically get better just because she acknowledged that Nick was in love with other people and gave her permission.

Mary could sense the heat in Nick’s gaze and quickly threw up her hands.

“It’s fine!” She exclaimed. “Really, it’s fine. I’m fine! There’s nothing to worry about, I swear! Rose and I, we were just talking, and we worked it out!”

“Really?” Nick asked suspiciously, sensing the desperation in his wife’s voice.

Mary nodded her head up and down rapidly.

“Really,” she promised.

“Sadly, Mary didn’t want to play out her cuck fantasies in real time,” Rose said sadly. “This would all have been so much easier if she wanted to Holly this…”

Mary turned and gave her a dirty look. Nick wasn’t exactly amused by Rose’s taunts either.

“Rose,” he said warningly, narrowing his eyes. She threw up her hands and took a step back.

“Hey! Come on, I’m kidding! She knows I’m kidding! But really, would that have been so bad, playing out the night together? Me, seizing control?”

Nick couldn’t say he didn’t find the idea arousing. But it was a nonstarter because it would hurt Mary. And not in the fun, “Gina” way of hurting someone, this could possibly cause her poor heart to break in two.

He didn’t want that. Not for one of the women he loved.

“That may be true, it would be exciting,” he said slowly, giving Rose the respectful consideration she deserved. “But I don’t want to have sex that will hurt someone’s feelings.”

With Holly it was different. She ate up his cuckolding of her with a big spoon. But Mary wasn’t like that. She’d be willing to put up with it for his sake, but there would be no way she’d actually want those things to happen. Her love took a different form than the one Holly had for Nick.

The fact that Mary was even letting him sleep with other women he loved at all showed just how much she’d changed. But Nick didn’t want to **** even more changes onto her, changes that she might not enjoy.

Now if only I knew what I could do to resolve this problem, he thought, biting his lip. The situation he found himself in wasn’t exactly a pleasant one, that was for sure. Sylvia wasn’t wrong when she’d said that it was like she was getting a “new mommy” (well, she was, but mainly because she wasn’t actually his daughter) because just a day ago, Nick felt like he’d very much love to be married to Rose. But that ignored the fact that he was already married. This was all just so complicated.

Sighing, Nick stepped forward and wrapped his arms around Mary, hugging the surprised redhead tightly.

“It’s okay,” he said softly, stroking her hair. “I know this is one big, complicated mess. Really, I get it. But the thing you’ve got to realize is that just because I love Rose and the other girls, that doesn’t mean I love you any less, right?”

He knew Mary had to know that. She must, after everything they’ve been through together. And her sweet smile as she heard those words reassured him that he was right.

“I know that,” she said, nodding. “I know how much you love me, dummy.” She reached up and cradled his cheek.

“But even so… even I can feel insecure at times,” she reminded him, absentmindedly twisting the ring on her finger. “I know how much you love me, but that love isn’t always enough. Sometimes, a girl wants to FEEL like she’s the belle of the ball, you know?”

“Yeah, I absolutely understand,” Rose said, nodding in agreement with her rival. “Why do you think I went on that date in the first place? Besides wanting to show off Paris to Nick. And wanting to see it myself. Also, I really wanted to appeal to him so that he’d fall in love with me for real instead of just seeing me as a tease, and… where was I going with this again?”

Rose realized that she’d drifted away from her metaphor pretty considerably. She tittered and scratched her head sheepishly, knowing how weird everything was.

While that was going on, though, there was someone who had heard Mary’s words and taken them to heart.

Gina stared at the redhead in muted surprise, not sure how to process what she’d just heard.

“Sometimes, a girl wants to FEEL like she’s the belle of the ball, you know?”

That was a wild way to think about things. It struck a chord with Gina deep in her heart, touching her in a way that she couldn’t quite verbalize.

But she didn’t push the issue; she knew that the moment wasn’t about her, it was about Nick and Mary (and Rose, to a degree).

The compulsion inside her to be a good girl started to rear its ugly head, and with a sigh, she stepped back and took Sylvia’s wrist.

“We should go,” she whispered to Sylvia, before raising her voice and saying the exact same thing to Nick and the others.

“Wait, you guys are going?” Rose asked, surprised.

“Oh, you don’t have to do that!” Mary said, shaking her head frantically. “After all, we’re going to be starting a cooking lesson really soon, if you want to sit in for that!”

Gina glanced at Mary for a second and then smiled, and shook her head. “No, that’s okay. But thank you for the offer! I just really think it’s important that you guys get to have a serious, honest conversation, without any distractions. You know?”

Mary was surprised to hear that, and so were Nick and Rose. But no one was as surprised as Gina herself was.

“Wow, I can say some good stuff sometimes, huh?” She laughed, cracking a grin. “Well, that’s how it goes, I guess!”

She winked to the other girls and tugged on Sylvia’s arm, urging her to follow along.

Sylvia wanted to stay, but she also knew that if she stayed, it could lead to some bad blood between her and her “Daddy” and she already had enough strikes against her in that category. Plus, she was concerned about Mary, too.

“Mary,” she said, shaking free of Gina’s hand and approaching the redhead. Mary eyed her warily for obvious reasons, but Sylvia didn’t mind.

“What is it?” Mary asked cautiously.

“Your feelings for Daddy are real and genuine,” Sylvia said, confusing the farmgirl slightly.

“…I know?” Mary tilted her head to the side, confused.

“But so are Daddy’s feelings for you,” Sylvia said, turning back to Nick. “Right, Daddy?”

“Yeah, that’s… right…” Nick confirmed. It felt twisted agreeing when Sylvia called him that, but she wasn’t wrong. His feelings for Mary were the real deal.

“He chose you, so have some faith in that, okay?” Sylvia’s empathy for the situation was even more shocking than Gina’s. “Trust me, I’ve been watching you guys the whole time, and it’s obvious that you really want what’s best for each other,” Sylvia assured them.

Mary’s jaw dropped. “You’ve been watching!? You mean, even when we…”

“She was the host, Mary,” Rose pointed out. “She probably saw you guys doing all sorts of things together through the cameras. She probably saw us all doing stuff.”

Sylvia let out a soft sigh. Rose wasn’t wrong, but she had no idea what Sylvia had occupied herself with from Nick’s relationship with Mary.

If she closed her eyes, she could still picture the loving couple doting on Sylvia like the daughter they didn’t have (yet).

It made her feel warm and tingly inside, and kind of sad, too.

“Hope you guys manage to work it out,” she said softly, as she and Gina split from the group, leaving Nick and the two women who were kinda fighting over him but not really.

An awkward silence fell over the room.

“So, uh… what now?” Nick asked, looking between the two women before his eyes fell on Mary. “Mary, about your dream… is there anything I can do to help?”

Mary sniffled and wiped her eyes. “Well, there is one thing,” she said thoughtfully.

A big part of her insecurity was the clash between thinking that Rose wasn’t good enough of a wife for Nick, and also dreading that she’d become better than her.

The only way Mary had to fight off this fear was by turning Rose into the perfect wife for Nick. That’s what made her loins tingle from contemplation and possibility, and brought a thoughtful smile to her lips, even though she knew that was part of her newest transformation wreaking havoc on her common sense.

She still wanted to give into it, though, and she reached for the knot on the front of her shirt to undo it.

“Okay, I had an idea,” she said, taking a deep breath and exhaling. “Just hear me out, okay? Will you two promise to hear me out?”

“…That depends,” Rose said, glancing at Mary’s chest, wondering why she was planning to take her shirt off. “What were you thinking of doing?”

“Nick,” Mary said, addressing the source of the issue itself, “I know that you and Rose are planning to get married. She said as much, after all. Even if it’s a long ways off.”

Rose turned red, and Nick shivered a little from the embarrassment. He couldn’t deny what Mary was saying if he wanted to.

“Well, Mary-”

She held her hand up to stop him. “I already told you, I’m fine with it,” she said again. Honestly, she was starting to get annoyed by how much she had to clarify that she was okay with him seeing, and even marrying, someone else he loved.

After all, that would make him happy. How could she get angry about the fact that her husband was happy? It just wasn’t a rational thing to do.

“There’s only one thing I’m not fine with,” Mary said, giving Rose a side-eye. “And that’s the fact that Rose isn’t your perfect wife!”

“Perfect wife?!” Nick sputtered in disbelief.

“Not yet, she’s not,” Mary said, shaking her head. “And that’s the problem! Marry her if you want, I’ll even be the maid of honor. But I’m not giving this relationship my blessing until I’m certain that she can provide for all your needs.”

“Oh, trust me,” Rose said, licking her lips teasingly. “I make sure that his needs are very… well-provided for.”

Mary rolled her eyes. “You know exactly what I’m talking about, stop messing around,” she scoffed. “This is serious, Rose! You have to be able to make him happy, as a wife!”

“I was happy,” Nick protested. ‘Touring Paris with her yesterday. It’s a beautiful country, Mary, we should go sometime.”

“City,” a slightly-miffed Rose corrected him, clearing her throat. “There’s more to France than just Paris, you know.”

Maybe, but Nick didn’t care about that right now.

Mary wasn’t exactly onboard either.

“I know it seems absurd,” Mary said, “given how happy together you guys already are, but Rose agreed to this, Nick. We’re going to whip her into shape and make her the best wife you’ve ever had! That’s why I need to do this!”

She took a deep breath and exhaled, then clasped the two ends of her knot and tugged.

Seconds later, the flannel shirt wrapped around her body fell to the floor, revealing her massive freckled chest to the world. She futilely tried to preserve her modesty a little by covering her chest with her hands, but it was obvious that she wasn’t hiding much of anything.

“What are you doing!?” Nick sputtered, shielding his eyes.

“To figure out what we need Rose to improve on, then we need to give her my milk,” Mary said simply. “That will turn her into your ideal wife.”

Nick turned pale. He’d forgotten for a moment that Mary’s breast milk could do that.

“Wait, are you sure about this?” He asked. “I-I don’t think… I don’t know if I’m ready to meet my ideal wife yet…”

“No, it doesn’t work that way,” she said quickly, shaking her head “I tried it out with the other Gina last night. The one from the mirror transformation? She didn’t turn into your objectively ideal wife or anything like that.”

Nick relaxed a hair. That was good, at least. The last thing he needed was for Mary to turn Rose into his perfect woman, and for Rose to rub that in her face for the rest of the life, making fun of all the ways that Mary was different.

“It turns the other person into whatever they think your ideal is,” Mary explained. “So it all depends on how well they know your tastes, and their own personal feelings about what you would like. Does that make sense?”

Nick nodded. That definitely made sense. The only issue was that he was still doubting if that would be okay for Mary or not.

But Mary wasn’t the one he should be worried about.

“Okay, I’m going to stop you both right there,” Rose said, cutting in between the two of them. “Because I’m not a fan of this at all, okay?”

“Huh?” Mary blinked, surprised. “Why not? You agreed to the bridal training, right?”

“That… that was just training though,” Rose pointed out, shaking her head frantically. “That’s an entirely different matter from agreeing to turn into a… well, you know, being completely changed into a different person!”

“You’re an actress, though,” Nick pointed out. Even as he said that, though, he knew that had nothing to do with anything. So he followed it up with “but I understand. After what happened when you came onto the show, pretending to be someone you’re not, that was a real struggle for you, wasn’t it?”

Rose had a bit of a compulsion to lie. But usually, they were soft lies, for her entertainment and amusement. Not changing who she fundamentally was.

“Rose, I know you’re a really honest person,” Mary said, approaching the other blonde and placing her hand on her shoulder. “…I mean, apart from all the times you’ve lied…”

Rose winced.

“…I mean it!” Mary said. “You’re always very blunt and honest with the people around you. You treat them with total candor, when you’re not trying to goad them or play pranks on them. I find that to be very respectable.”

“I always try to be honest about myself,” Rose said. She silently added, even though I fail sometimes.

“Trust me, we’ve noticed,” Nick said, laughing slightly. He was glad that the conversation was shifting in a more positive direction that spoke to the girls getting along better.

“That’s why I don’t want to drink your milk,” Rose said adamantly. “I don’t want to change into a different person.”

“Not even for Nick’s sake? Not even if it will be temporary?” Mary asked. “I know that if it could make Nick happy, I would change into whatever he wanted.”

“Still, no,” Rose said, shaking her head.

Nick actually agreed with that. “Um, Mary, nobody’s asking you to change yourself for my sake,” he pleaded. “I love you just the way you are.”

Mary turned bright red. Her train of thought got derailed pulling into the station, and she had to stare blankly at nothing for a few seconds before regaining her bearings.

“That… no, that’s not the issue,” Mary said, shaking her head. “I just think that if we see what Rose’s ideal view of herself as your wife is, then it will help us understand what she’s working towards!”

Nick wasn’t sure he understood that explanation.

“What do you mean?” He asked, confused.

Mary sighed. “Well, I’m trying to help Rose become the best bride she can be. But if she has an ideal in mind, then that’s what she’ll be devoting her energy towards, right? This would be like a sneak preview, sort of. And if the person she’s trying to be isn’t a good fit for you, well, we can just correct her behavior, right?”

Rose shivered a little when she heard that, and Nick wasn’t exactly thrilled either. “Correcting Rose’s behavior” didn’t sound like the right course of action here.

“Um, Mary…” Nick winced.

“I’m not trying to, like, condition her or anything!” Mary exclaimed. “But what if she’s got some weird habits? What if her ideal wife lifestyle is just lounging around, letting you wait on her hand and foot? We need to nip those bad behaviors in the bud!”

Nick wasn’t so sure about this.

And Rose DEFINITELY wasn’t.

“No milk,” she said adamantly, shaking her head. For once, she wasn’t smiling. “I don’t want to change.”

There were obvious reasons for her to say that. And yet, when she saw the look of disappointment on Mary’s face as she slowly tried to tie her shirt back around her boobs, she felt her heart waver.