Détente

“Are you alright? Aubrey asked. She was using Helena’s leash to walk the businesswoman down to the bar for their meeting. “You’re all growly again.”

“I’m not-” Hel stopped herself. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have snapped at you. I’m just not looking forward to this.”

“Neither am I.” The blonde admitted.

“Why did you volunteer to come?”

“Well, I know you’d do anything for me if I needed it. I think of us like family sometimes.”

The first statement was certainly true. But the second made her stomach sink for reasons she couldn’t explain if she tried. “I appreciate you.” She said, trying to simply ignore it.

By this point, they both could see the neon sign on the wooden shack. They were passing the bench just outside when Aubrey started another conversation.

“I want to warn you, she can be rather irresponsible with ****.”

“Her too?”

“I’m sorry?” Aubrey frowned.

“Nothing. What I meant to say was, how so?”

“She can get dangerously competitive. Last time I was here with her she challenged me to a drinking contest and passed out.”

“I see.” Richard, please don’t tell me that your type is alcoholic blondes. “What do you think about suggesting that we try to slow things down, so no one gets a new drink until everyone has finished the current one?” I know Maeve told me to be direct, but this is for the greater good.

“That kind of seems like overkill.”

“We don’t want her getting out of control, right?”

“I guess you’re right.” Aubrey admitted, remembering when she’d had to take care of Felicia while waiting for Ava to take over. She opened the door and strode in after Hel as they entered the bar together.

Felicia and Stella were already there, waiting in one of the booths. The blonde was nursing a bottle of cider, while the pinkette had an empty cocktail glass in front of her. They slid into the booth with the others.

“Good, you’re here.” Felicia said, taking another swig as they sat down.

“I’d like to set some rules before we begin.” Helena said.

“Whatcha’ got?”

“First rule: to make sure we stay rational, no one gets a new drink until everyone’s finished the previous round.”

“Sure.” Felicia agreed.

“Second rule: While we’re here, no one will discuss anything sexual they’ve done with Richard.”

“No.”

“Then we’ll put it to a vote.” The redhead waited for the other two women to weigh in.

“I- I guess I can live with that.” Stella agreed.

“Aubrey?” She waited. “Aubrey?”

“I’m not sure about it.” The traitor next to her confessed.

“What do you mean you’re not sure?!”

“What matters is that the vote fails.” Felicia tried to capitalize on the opportunity.

“It didn’t fail, there was a tie.”

“And if Dick was here, he’d tell you that ties would result in a bill failing-”

“This isn’t Congress, and we-”

“Guys?” Stella nervously interrupted.

“What is it?” Helena asked, trying to soften her voice.

“What if any two people can raise their hand if a subject gets uncomfortable, and the speaker has to back off? If it’s just one person who has a problem then they can go to the bathroom or something.”

“That sounds like a good idea.” Aubrey complimented.

“I can work with that.” Felicia agreed.

“As can I.” Helena prepared to pivot. “Now, what did you want me here for? You said your mentor wanted us to clear the air?”

“That’s my best guess at least, I didn’t feel like going up to the temple to ask her with how intense she is.” Felicia clarified. “Considering how we ended the challenge together, I don’t think either of us can deny how much of a good team we make. But you’ve been in my face for a while about how you don’t trust me. I can’t judge you as much as I normally might considering that I’ve lied to you at least a few times. But I thought maybe we could get a little tipsy and talk about why.”

“Can you start with telling me just what you’ve lied to me about?” Hel asked. She knew that she’d been lied to at least, but she was curious what her opponent would admit to.

“I’ve lied to you at least twice about my interest in him.”

“Oh? Tell me more.”

Aubrey raised her hand to try using Stella’s rule, frowning as no one joined her.

“Do you want to get us some drinks?” Helena asked her. “I or someone else can signal you when we’ve moved on.”

Aubrey shakily nodded before getting out and taking a seat at one of the stools.

“I’m assuming you’re admitting to more interest in him than you’ve told me the two times I’ve asked before?”

There was silence for a while as she stared down at the blonde. Felicia maintained eye contact for an unnecessary amount of time before taking a heavy swig of the cider. “Yes. Nearly the entire time I’ve known him?”

“Is this going back as far as he’s been your patient?”

“Not quite.” Felicia took another gulp of the cider. “But close. There was probably an eleven week gap. He was funny and so at his third appointment I had invited him to meet my friends and I for Invaders of Katann. He thrashed me in the game, and after that I couldn’t stop thinking about him.”

Stella rejoined the conversation. “It was losing something that made you like him? You hate losing to him!”

“Yeah, I do.”

“But you just said-”

“I know what I said. It does both so-”

“I’m going to go get my drink.” Helena said. She turned away from the girls and tried to tune them out for a moment. Shit. I’d need to walk to the bar. Should I ask one of them to help? No, I do not want to be involved right now. She got down on the floor and crawled across the room to where Aubrey was sitting and had apparently drank at least two cocktails in the short time she’d been sitting there.

“Time to go back?”

“Not yet. I’m taking a break myself before I try to ask a few more questions. Where’s my drink?”

“Sorry. I’ll replace it.” She held out her hand and another reddish cocktail appeared, which she handed over.”

“You already had two?”

“Yeah. There wasn’t much else to do, and Felicia didn’t notice so we’re fine.”

Right. Since I lied to her she thinks she’s not part of the problem. “Why don’t you take a break for now. I’ll let you know when to head back, maybe bring us all another at that point.” She downed the glass and set it back on the counter before crawling back to the booth. “So you’ve been interested in him for a while. Why lie about it? Why did you wait until Genet to actually do anything about it?”

“So I lied because for one, I’m kind of shit at the sappy stuff and I wasn’t even ready to admit interest in someone to their sister-”

“Stepsister.”

“-Admit interest to their stepsister after being rejected. Second, you can be pretty fucking intense sometimes and when you came at me I was trying to throw sand in your face until you went away.”

Feliia’s debatably valid reasons for lying zoomed past the billionaire as she zeroed in on one word. “When did he reject you?” He never told me about that, and it never showed up in his texts…

The blonde grimaced. “Technically he didn’t know he was rejecting me.”

How could he not know? There’s definitely a story here. Before asking for context, she signaled for Aubrey to come back.

“She’s finally done?”

“No, but I think you’ll want to hear this.” She turned back to Felicia, who’d only grown more exasperated. “So how did he accidentally turn you down?”

“You’re a real piece of work, you know that? None of these stories are fun for me.”

Stella slowly raised her hand to ask Helena to back off. Felicia joined her, and so Helena backed off partially. “You said that like it happened a few times. Can you just share one? I’ll try not to rub salt in the wound too much.”

“Fine.” Felicia finished the bottle while she tried to decide which to use. “This one you were technically involved in. I tried to give him the opportunity to teach me to play tennis and he invited you.”

“I remember when you gave me tennis lessons.” Aubrey offered towards her friend. The teacher was doing her best not to get territorial by reminiscing about the early days of their relationship. “Richard was so supportive and gentle, and you were so patient.”

“She might be a good teacher when she’s not acting like she’s insane. But like I told him last round, I didn’t want a fucking chaperone for what was supposed to be our first date!”

“That would’ve been a great date; guys love when they’re in a situation where they know more than you.” Aubrey had to give credit where it was due.

But Hel saw multiple problems. “First of all Aubrey, I don’t know how many times I’ve asked you to stop talking like it’s the 1950s. Second, he told me when I asked that it wasn’t a date. Did he not know?”

“No, it turned out he didn’t know.” Felicia glared at her.

“Is that what happened in your other stories? You forgot to tell him?”

“Yes! And don’t give me shit for it, I already talked this through with him and you took forever to notice the hints Hazel was giving you too. I just thought he’d be able to pick up my hints and not be such a dum-”

“Be very careful with your next words.” Helena warned.

“-a naive person. Happy?”

“Better.”

“That’s something you don’t understand about him. He’s so trusting he won’t even look for hints unless you tell him that there's something more you want him to look for.” Aubrey gushed.

“I get that now. It’s fucking annoying when I want him to do something.”

“I think it’s sweet.” Stella countered, earning looks from both the blondes. Helena tried to reassure her by resting her hand on top of the pinkette’s.

Felicia muttered something unintelligible before looking at her bottle. “It looks like we’ve all finished our drinks, should I get us another round?”

Aubrey nodded, and the group put in their orders. In the time it took her to come back Helena was thinking about what she’d learned. It seems less that she’s actively malicious and more… emotionally unstable. She can barely go two sentences without swearing. My worries about her not actually liking him appear to be part of her earlier lie, which is an improvement at least. Why he likes her, I still can’t understand. But if this is what he wants…

Another idea occurred to her. Maeve might not like this, but she and Richard will appreciate it long term. After Felicia came back with drinks, Hel asked. “Can you and Aubrey sit at the bar for a second? There’s something I wanted to ask Stella?”

The blondes agreed, but both were clearly a bit confused. They still went back to the bar to give them privacy.

“W-what did you want to ask me?”

“You said that you thought he was sweet?”

Stella giggled sheepishly.

“It’s perfectly fine to say yes. I trust you. There’s some level of a crush there?”

“Yes.”

“How do you feel about the others; Hazel, Aubrey, Felicia, being involved with him in the same way as you?”

“I… I honestly don’t mind them in theory. Like, it’d honestly be reassuring to have his attention split sometimes. But they make me nervous. Hazel’s so intense and the other two get competitive…”

“Stella.” The redhead smiled.

“Yes?”

“I promise you, you have nothing to fear from Hazel. She’s an angel, and we’re both here for you.”

“Thank you. I didn’t really know what to think of you for a while with what he and Luna have said. But you’ve always been so nice to me.”

Helena tried to ignore the pleasant sensation that flowed through her. “Of course. Would you mind getting Aubrey for me? I want to ask her some questions next.”

Stella nodded, tucking a pink loc of hair behind her ear. She went to where the blondes were sitting at the bar, and Aubrey took her place a moment later.

“What’s going on? When I volunteered to support you, this wasn’t really what I was expecting.”

“You love Richard, of course?”

Aubrey frowned. “More than anything. Why are you asking us all these questions?”

“I just want to make sure I understand where everyone’s coming from. Is there anything that’d make you willing to share your time with him?”

This time the blonde glared. “No. You should know that. I thought we were on the same team.”

“I’m sorry. Can you go get Felicia?”

“You better be at least as mean to her.” Her friend went back to the bar top.

Felicia replaced her. “I overheard your questions with the others. I’ve got to say, your comment about us being the same is a little more insulting watching you be so paternalistic.”

Hel ignored the barb. “So do you have answers?”

“Yes to the first question, for the second I might be willing to accept someone else in his life who was at least as healthy for him.”

“You don’t think anyone else is good for him?”

“The way I see it, Ava and Stella don’t really know what they want. Luna’s Luna. Neither Aubrey or your Hazel seem like they’re willing to talk back to him when he wants or needs it.”

The billionaire frowned at her girlfriend’s inclusion. “Hazel’s no sycophant.”

Felicia smirked. “I notice you didn’t disagree with any of the others. But she’s literally your servant, I have a hard time seeing her talking back.”

“Well, she does.”

“And I’ll believe it when I see it.”

“You will. She- ugh.” This isn’t worth another fight over. She made a mental note to discuss the critique with Hazel later and asked the others to come back.

“Can you tell us what the point of that was? It was hurtful for you to ask that when I thought Stella and I were your friends.” Aubrey griped as she and Stella slid into the booth.

“I just wanted to know where everyone stood. I apologize if anyone felt insulted or hurt.” She pivoted. “Before I did that we were all talking about how trusting and direct Richard can be. Can I tell you all a story about the first girl he met when he left for college?”

“I thought I was his first.” Aubrey questioned.

“The first woman that was successful with him, yes.”

“Oh! Go ahead then.”

Helena waited for Felicia’s approval.

“Don’t stop on my account, it sounds like something I’ll want to get his side of later.”

“So he had apparently implied some things about our fortune at a freshman event his first weekend. A few days later he was at the campus center getting dinner and this blonde came and sat across from him in the booth he was by himself at. She introduced herself as Violet in this thick French accent and started trying to flirt with him. I had asked Hazel to spend his first week on campus to make sure everything was safe there, and so she was around to tell me when this was starting. We were both a little suspicious about the French accent, so-”

“Why would a French accent be suspicious?” Stella asked.

“It’s a long story. The point is, I asked her to get a bit closer to the two of them. She was talking to him about all these events over the semester and places on campus she’d researched. Hazel heard Violet mention things about he and I that she shouldn’t have known, and we were kind of going back and forth on whether she was just an unusually clever gold digger or someone actually dangerous we needed to keep an eye on. The whole time she was talking he was taking notes on his phone and acting friendly, but not really responding to her attempts at innuendo.”

“As he should.” Aubrey affirmed.

“So at a certain point Violet realized that being friendly and subtle wasn’t working. Are you all familiar with the low, husky voice that some people can slip into?” Like Hazel? A part of her reminded herself, still stirred after Stella’s compliment towards her.

Stella giggled again, which Hel thought was a little odd.

Felicia was uncharacteristically blushy. “Yeah, I’m familiar.”

“So when Violet realized that being subtle wasn’t working, she slipped into that sort of voice. But she still hadn’t told my very kind, very direct stepbrother, who had very little experience with women, at any point that she was trying to flirt with him.”

“Oh no.” Felicia murmured, a bit louder than she’d intended.

“Yes, ‘oh no’.” The billionaire mused. “Richard heard this stranger’s voice suddenly drop an octave and he decided that she must be sick and the amount of talking she’d been doing had hurt her throat.”

Richard’s decision, combined with the rival that’d never been’s failure achieved what Helena had been hoping for as the blondes laughed together.

“Whether an assassin or just a gold digger, when he offered to get her medicine and canned soup at the convenience store downstairs she threw in the towel. She practically fled when he tried to check on how she was feeling when he saw her on the quad a few days later. He’s got the best memory I’ve ever seen, but he’s so innocent and trusting as long as you don’t give him a reason not to be like at work.” Her voice went a little quieter. “Sometimes I get worried that this place could be taking that away from him.”

“I don’t think that’ll happen.” Stella reassured her.

“I hope you’re right.”

“Can we hear another story?” Aubrey asked.

Helena nodded, trying to think of what to give them next.