Getting With The Program

Chloe had had a really good day yesterday. Lots of kissing her girlfriend. Going to the spa, which turned out to be a normal spa, much to Chloe’s disappointment, she then fell asleep with Aubrey in her arms. When Chloe woke up, she could already tell Aubrey was stirring as well, so she sat up a little and went to give Aubrey a good morning kiss on the lips. Aubrey didn’t stop her but also didn’t really kiss her back. Chloe sighed a little in disappointment. “So I guess the spring wore off didn’t it?”

Aubrey sat up and hugged Chloe. “Yeah…”

“Aubrey… About what we did yesterday. Does any of that bother you now?”

She thought it over. Then shook her head. “No. I liked it at the time. Though I wouldn’t really be into it now. I am glad we followed Mary’s advice though. I don’t think I would have been okay with things now had we done anything particularly sexual.”

“I’m glad to hear it.”

Aubrey could tell Chloe was mulling something over. “Chloe what is it? Just be candid, I know whatever it is you mean well, so just say whatever it is.”

“So, I’m not pressuring you or need a definitive answer now or anything but… I was sort of wondering, at what point would you change your sexuality for us? Sorry that sounds really horrible.”

“Chloe, I told you to be candid. I don’t have a definitive answer, I know it isn’t now but I also know that it isn’t in like a month from now either. Yesterday was really nice, I also think I need to thank Laura for yesterday too.”

“Laura? Why?”

“Well… remember how Laura made it so I had never had a serious romantic relationship before. Well that didn’t make it so I didn’t consider our relationship serious. Just that I didn’t have any prior experience. So I got to experience our relationship as if it was my first serious one. I think it helped me figure some things out. Like, I can say that for certain now, Chloe, that my feelings for you are romantic in nature.” Chloe was bouncing for joy in the bed. “Settle down, I don’t want to fall out of bed. Chloe we need to talk about a few things seriously okay.” Aubrey’s tone was rather uncomfortable.

“Aubrey what’s wrong?” Chloe was concerned.

“Nothing is wrong. Not that kind of talk. Also not directly about our relationship. But I don’t think you are going to like either topic of the conversation.”

“See that sounds like something is a problem…”

“Okay, a few things. I’m worried about you. Like really worried.”

“Worried about me? I’m confused, Aubrey.”

“Do you like Mark?”

“That came out of nowhere. I don’t really know Mark. I mean sure we both ran track and cross country together for a year. But the men’s and women’s teams trained separately a lot. I didn't know him that well. Why is this important?”

“Chloe, I’m concerned you aren’t going to end up getting with the program and that will end poorly for you… for us. Right now you said you didn’t really know him, which means the reverse is true. Your feud with Freya is probably not helping either.”

“I don’t have a feud with Freya.”

Aubrey looked at Chloe with disbelief. “You can’t seriously expect me to believe you are serious when you say that right?”

“Aubrey, I don’t have a feud with Freya.”

“OH, Crap. This is a Sadie situation all over again isn’t it?”

“Why are you bringing her up?”

“Because it took you the better part of nearly two years for you to realize that you and her were actively going at each other constantly. You kept insisting, oh we’re friends nothing is wrong. No, of course I don’t hate her guts. Despite actively doing things to make her upset, then she would retaliate, then you would and so on and so on. All because you both liked the same guy and she asked him out first because you couldn’t figure out that you actually liked him, as more than a friend.”

“Yes, Aubrey, I do remember, I just don’t get how that is applicable here.”

“It’s the same situation with Freya.”

“It really isn’t.”

“Chloe, answer my original question, do you like Mark, yes or no?

“I. Do not. Know. Him.”

“Fine, are you attracted to him?”

“Sure, he’s decent looking. But I don’t have any feelings for him.”

“So, why then did you get so bent out of shape about Freya being with Mark?”

Chloe looked at Aubrey, still confused.

“Chloe, how you acted at the slumber party is not normal. You need to talk to Freya and apologize. I get where you’re coming from about us not accepting Mark simply being with whoever he pleases. He even promised me that he wouldn’t be with anyone else unless everyone else was okay with it. But telling Freya that she can't be with Mark unless she joins the Harem wasn't okay.”

“So, I should just be okay with him ogling other women who aren’t in the same position as I am?”

“First of all. Why do you care? You just said you don’t have feelings for him. Second, Freya might not be bound exactly like the rest of us are to Mark, but she is still bound to him for the rest of Mark’s life. She might actually be more restricted than the rest of us, she has to serve him as his butler. We are free to determine what our relationship will look like. So go find Freya and apologize. Because you were right the two of them DO like each other, which seems like more than you are willing to admit to yourself about Mark.”

“I’ll consider it. You said Mark promised you he wouldn’t be with others without permission, did you feel like he was being honest?”

“Yes. I even suggested that he makes it a binding part of your wedding vows when you end up marrying him.”

“Why do you think I'm going to marry him?”

“Three reasons, first you’re the type of woman who wants a commitment from her partner, which Mark will end up being. Second, you want to marry me right? I’m not saying that marrying Mark is a condition of that but remember Mark IS, going to be the father of my children, and if you and I get married they WILL BE, your children as well. If we are going to work you will need to have a good relationship with the father of our kids, that IS a precondition of us getting married. Third, and this brings us to the second topic of the conversation, because if you don’t your siblings will nag you about it and you know I’m right.”

“Okay… those are decent points. But what about my siblings do you want to talk about? I mean sure, they are definitely not going to be thrilled about this unless magic is used to make them ignore the polygamy aspect.”

“So… On my date with Mark, as I mentioned, the topic of you marrying him came up. Specifically so you could use your TF to make your vows binding and that it would include a clause that Mark has to ask for everyone’s permission to be with anyone outside of the Harem. Which he was actually fine with. He also was curious that I thought you would end up as his wife… I might have mentioned that you might marry him just to shut up your siblings if nothing else, but didn’t think that would be the case, you would do it because you wanted to…”

“Okay… Don’t see the big issue here.”

Aubrey bit her lower lip really not wanting to continue but pushed on. “Mark… might have asked a question when I brought up your siblings pushing you to get married… Why them? Why… Why not your parents… and I may have snapped at him and gone on a small rant about them.”

Chloe’s expression turned sour. “What did you tell him?”

“Not much, I told him it wasn’t my place to reveal details. Just when he mentioned your parents… I told him not to mention them to you with a lot of vitriol in my voice. And I might have yelled about how people have said ‘but they’re your family’ and that those people could go fuck themselves… and that your family currently consists of your siblings… and… and myself.” Aubrey blushed a little at that last part. “But I didn’t give him any details about why your parents are an issue. I told him I would talk to you about it, so he doesn’t step into something by accident.”

“Okay, thank you for not telling him about what happened. Also thank you for being so angry about it on my behalf. Finally Aubrey… You ARE family. No matter what happens here, between us romantically, that won’t change. You are a member of my family, end of discussion. That was true before I fell in love with you. So don’t ever feel like you need to be embarrassed about saying that.”

“So you’re not mad? That I brought them up?” Aubrey feeling a bit reassured by Chloe’s reaction

“First of all from the sound of it you didn’t actually bring them up first. You reacted to Mark bringing them up. And no, it is something that would come out eventually, might as well deal with it before it explodes into a whole thing. I’ll talk to him about it on my date night with him. I’m not upset with you about this. Okay?” Chloe cupped Aubrey’s cheek and smiled at her.

“Okay.”

“Good. Now, I want a hug.” Which Aubrey gladly provided.

Sam had found Laura first and got the gist of her conversation with Mark, then went and found Talia getting a lot more specifics. Just great, this has the potential to spiral if not dealt with. I guess I did essentially tell him how things were going to be while yelling at him on our date night. Sam Sighed. Well he genuinely didn’t seem upset with me. So that’s good. Talia actually seemed contrite, and Laura was clearly really happy for some reason, so this will probably be fine. Sam went around and explained the situation to everyone one at a time essentially just repeating the same short conversation that consisted of telling them: Mark was upset because he feels like we aren’t treating him with genuine respect; That we need to stop trying to yell at him to get our way; He isn’t going to take being insulted and interrupted anymore; Finally that Mark did actually want to have a conversation with each of them about boundaries in general and that they should think about what their boundaries are. Sam chose to talk to Allie last hoping they could do something afterwards.

“Okay, yeah that definitely sounds like an issue,” Allie told Sam as she finished the conversation. “Not for me really. Mark and I already dealt with something similar, and have pretty decent boundaries set. I wouldn’t worry about it too much Sam, I can tell Mark likes you and his boundaries aren’t something obnoxious either. I should actually talk to him a bit more about this, I guess. Things have changed a lot and maybe some boundaries need to change. Thanks for handling this for him.”

“It’s not a problem, really I want to help him out. Though I just realized something… I probably could have done a better job at resolving this problem for him.”

“Sam, I’m sure you did fine.” Allie tried to comfort her.

“Oh, it’s not that Allie. Yeah, I did a good job, that both isn’t and is the problem. I did a GOOD job. Not a perfect one. I can tell resolving problems for Mark is something I’m going to have to get better at, because of my TF.”

“Well, we need to get a handle on that soon because that is going to become a problem, fast.” Allie’s brows furrowed in frustration. “Okay, we are spending the rest of the day looking for a way to solve this problem.”

“I mean Mark is already helping… Right which makes this Mark’s problem too, okay fine, let’s do this. I was really hoping we could have done something fun together, today.”

“Who says we can’t have some fun while doing this? I mean we can definitely make out, we could do it nude, take some breaks and try on outfits and stuff to make a day of it.”

“Um, I would rather not do it nude but otherwise that sounds great.”

“Perfect, now come here and kiss me.” Allie said, pulling Sam closer.