Hashing Things Out

Mark had found the garden that Chloe had mentioned. It had a tree in the center surrounded by various florals, and there were different plants all along the edge with a few park benches to sit and enjoy the space. Mark had sat down on one of the benches that had another bench just on the other side of the path but also was large enough that Chloe could be on the same bench if she wanted. Guess that’s her now. Mark thought as he heard heels on the smooth cobblestone road.

Sure enough she entered the garden in moments. She didn’t look directly at Mark and hesitantly said, “Hey Mark.”

“Hi, Chloe.” Mark said rather warmly, which surprised Chloe.

She walked over to where he was seated and sat on the same bench as him but on the other end. “I’m sorry for lashing out and storming off yesterday.” Mark just gave her time and space to say her piece. She sat there for a bit saying nothing about, to speak a few times but closed her mouth. Eventually, she just blurted out. “Mark, I don't really know how to do this. I got angry at Sam for saying stuff about my past relationships yesterday because she was right. I’ve not been great at relaying my feelings and I can get a bit jealous over my partners.”

“Okay. Here are the things that I get: you're stressed because of the show; you’re probably pissed off for being **** into a relationship; you want to protect your autonomy. Now what I don’t get is why you are taking your frustration about those things out on Freya and myself. Especially Freya, as I kind of get why me.”

“Last night, some of it, is a little fuzzy, but Laura mentioned something…” Chloe hesitated and then nearly blurted out the question so fast Mark couldn’t understand “Did Sadie Harper really ask you out in our junior year?”

“Yes, she did. I turned her down because I had a girlfriend at the time.”

“Well, that at least makes me understand why I was getting irrationally angry sometimes looking at your face.” Mark raised an eyebrow. “So, Laura said she told you about Sadie, right?”

“Yeah, she did.”

“So you know I had a crush on you apparently.” Mark nodded. “It’s weird because I remember you on the track and cross country teams but I don’t remember it being you I was interested in.”

“Well my style did change in college a bit. Plus most of the time you saw me would have been in athletic gear, which is very much not what I wore otherwise.”

“Fair. Anyway I hate Sadie, like our friends tried to step in to resolve the issue but it didn’t ultimately work. It also doesn’t help that we work in the same field too. She works for a competitor and is constantly trying to sabotage my career. I think the only people I dislike more than her on a personal level are my parents. We can talk about them in a bit, but I want to work out stuff here first.”

“Wait, this is the first I’m hearing about you still interacting with her, after college.”

“Yeah, well we were classmates, looking to go into the same line of work. We became friends not like, super close or anything but classmates friends, drinking buddies, we pledge the same sorority together. So friends, close enough that I confided in her my crush about you. I didn’t handle her asking you out well, especially after I had just told her I was into you. I did something petty and hid one of her textbooks which made her turn in an assignment late, because she needed it. Things just escalated from there when she found out I had done that. It got to the point that we went from small petty stuff, to actual vindictiveness. After our friends had intervened, I realized how dumb I had been. I wanted to just be done with her, I hoped that after I graduated I would never see her again. But when applying for jobs towards the end of senior year, she actually sabotaged my interviews when she could, and would apply to the same positions as well. The position she’s in is actually one I had really wanted, but I’m happy with my current place of work. I’ve actually filed police reports over it, because the office keeps getting anonymous complaints about me. Which are either just fabricated or simply attempts at character **** by bringing up stuff about my parents…” Chloe sighed, “and a deceased friend.”

“Wow she sounds like a real cunt.”

“HAHAHAHA, I typically say bitch but yeah, that works too.”

“Are you sure it’s her?”

“Pretty sure, I don’t know who else would do that. And there are some details in some of the calls that wouldn’t be easy if even possible for someone to have known without talking to me or someone very close to me. Some are supposedly from people who either knew me or knew of me in college. But Sadie is smart, and knows how to cover her tracks assuming it’s her. So, I’m sorry. I think that’s why I have been acting a bit strange and hostile towards you. I would look at you and it would make me feel like I do towards Sadie.”

“What about now?”

“I don’t feel like that anymore, I mean I get mad a bit, but at Sadie not you. I mostly feel regretful.”

“Regretful? Why?”

“Well, if I just didn’t mess with Sadie, I probably would have asked you out when you were single again. We might have been able to have a relationship, and maybe… we wouldn’t all be here.”

“Chloe. Look at me.” He waited until Chloe was looking right at him. “You are not at fault here. Period. If you think that’s the case, then most of us are probably at fault to some degree. I definitely would be right? If I and Merida had just stayed in touch I would have had a relationship with her. I’ve seen a lot of different ways for both her and Talia that I would have had a relationship with them. A relationship that would have started before the point you are talking about. Also and this is more important, I am currently in a happy, loving relationship with Allie. Unless Allie is the exception where I shouldn’t have ended up with her, or things would have turned out poorly between us eventually, then it wouldn’t have mattered if I was dating you or any of the others. Cassandra could still have brought us here.”

Chloe, thought over Mark’s points. “That… Huh. Why didn’t the fact you were in a relationship strike home.”

“Because you’re stressed. Because every time you saw me was a subconscious reminder of a person you despise. Now is projecting your issues with Sadie onto Freya why you’ve had an issue with her?”

“A bit probably. Rather I think it’s affected how I’ve handled it. I don’t have an issue with Freya and I did apologize to her last night.”

“Yes, I heard.” Which caused Chloe to react with embarrassment.

“I see... Look, I don't like having to share you with others. At all. But Aubrey made some really good points yesterday. I was being unfair and hypocritical towards you. Like I said I don’t have an issue with Freya, but I do have an issue with you being with Freya. Especially right now with the show going on. I’m still not happy with the idea of you having more women. But Aubrey is right, I don't have a right to demand that from you. At least not yet.”

“Look Chloe, do you not remember how upset Aubrey got and how she had to browbeat me into making her a promise? I’ve planned to not do that from the start.”

“But after the show?”

“We’ll see. Freya has a valid point, about her ability to have a relationship outside of the Harem. I do like and trust her. But I’m not risking anyone here to pursue that. End of discussion about that. Now, I’d like to know are there things that I’ve done personally that you have a problem with?”

“I thought there were, but now I’m not so sure.”

“Please go through them so we can address them and make sure. I was serious before, I want to establish healthy boundaries. I won’t let you dictate things to me but if I’m doing something that I don’t realize is an issue and not doing that isn’t overly burdensome. I’ll try my best not to do that.”

“Well… I guess, Starting at the beginning of the show and moving on. You talking about enslaving us. How you handled the thing with Flora, though that is resolved now. Not telling us about the birth control issue when you learned of it. You, messing with Talia. You, invading our privacy. And you feel like you get a say in our TFs and that you will just buy things for us, if we don’t suggest something ourselves.”

“Okay let’s start with the easiest to resolve. As you said the Flora situation is resolved. For the birth control, I wasn’t hiding it. I reacted poorly when I found out about it and stuff happened that day and I forgot about it. As soon as I remembered I reached out to Laura. Merida already knew as well, she was there when Cassandra told me. So I don’t think it’s fair to blame me for not telling you about something Cassandra did.”

“That’s fair I guess, and no harm came of it. I guess you were panicking that you got Allie pregnant or something right?”

“Exactly that. Cassandra said she wasn’t but panic doesn’t just instantly go away like that. Next the enslaving you bit. Is. A. Fantasy. Only. I do not want an actual sex ****. What I want in a woman I am having sex with is intimacy, and love. I told Sam and Laura that just yesterday. It’s why I turned Laura down so much this week. If I wanted one of you to be a fuck toy, Laura would have been a fairly easy option to shape into one. But I don’t want that. Laura is an amazing person, awesome in bed and looks like a goddess now. Why would I want to ruin that?”

“You really, like her don’t you?”

“Yes, I do. Look Chloe, I told Ellen this on our date I’d be more than happy if the show could end right now, any negative TFs be removed, and go back to our lives. But Chloe, even if that was possible, I would actually ask Sam, Flora, Laura and Merida if they were interested in a relationship. Sam already told me that she would be and that she told you the same thing yesterday.”

“Yeah she did. I’m a little surprised that you would ask anyone besides Sam though.”

“I don’t want to get into it again in detail, but I respect all of them, and they all have things I’m looking for, and with the exception of Merida, all are bisexual and think everyone involved is attractive. None are totally opposed to sharing either. Moving on for Talia, I didn’t want that. I told her repeatedly not to take the deal. I consulted with her. In the end she came up with two things she actually asked to be changed. She took the deal knowing I would need to make some of the choices myself. Talia has told me she is happier now than she was before. So I don’t think you have a right to complain about that when Talia isn’t.”

“Now, onto the more complicated topics, that you mentioned Chloe. First the spending of my BP on all of you. I’ve not bought anything for anyone without their expressed consent. I don’t know what more you want from me there, because either I spend the BP or Cassandra does. I’d like you to actually tell me, would you want Cassandra to spend 10000 BP on purchases for us?”

“No, of course not.”

“We are in agreement then. I need to spend my BP. Now that means either I or one of you find something to spend it on. Good news is that I have quite a few things already queued up that I want to buy that I don’t think anyone will have a problem with. But I am still going to ask first. What more do you want from me on this?”

Chloe was seething in frustration. “I don’t know. Nothing I guess. I’m just angry about it.”

“That’s fine. You can be angry about it if you want. I have a problem with you taking that anger out on me when I’m actively doing the best that I can in this situation.”

“I’m sorry you’re right.”

“Now the last thing, which I will say is actually something I can understand you being upset with me for. Which is the invasion of privacy.”

“So you’ll stop looking at our status pages and purchase histories?”

“No, I won’t” Chloe’s expression turned angry and hard. “Please let me finish before yelling at me. First, when I pull up your contact info on my phone it pulls up your status page. I literally can’t not see them when contacting you. Second, Merida is right. It allows me to keep the infighting between all of you to a minimum if I can see what you bought. Third, at some point we will hopefully become partners, Chloe. Aubrey was of the opinion you’d want to marry me eventually if we were in a healthy relationship. You need to get used to me being able to see your financials because they'll be shared eventually. Fourth I need to be able to read over the exact wording of your TFs which are on your status pages. So, no, I will not stop using them.”

That mollified Chloe a bit but she was still clearly upset.

“So, have any questions or opinions on what I said or things I’ve left unaddressed.”

“Not really. I feel like I need to hit something though. Not you. I'm just so frustrated that I can’t do anything about any of this.”

“Okay, well, the fitness center has stuff to allow that. Though it might not be what you’re looking for.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well on Sam’s date we sparred with staves like full contact and everything. The ring was enchanted though so no pain would be felt or damage done. Rather it would be pleasurable instead.”

“Not interested. I want to break things right now.”

Mark cocked his head to one side in thought. “Well… I bet there is something for that here. Let me ask Cassandra.”

Mark: Hey Cassandra do you have something like a rage room where we can just smash stuff?”

Cassandra: Why would we have a place solely for you to break things?

Mark: Because smashing things can be really fun and cathartic.

Cassandra: Huh… We do have a place for that.

Mark: Mind telling me where it is. Also I find it concerning that you started that message with a ‘Huh’ like you didn’t know that you had a place for this, and someone else added it. Especially after the malfunction the other day.

Cassandra: Calm your dick Mark, and Mary’s tits. It was added by Maja and Freya. Both have helped design some things in the past. I don’t bother with approval where magic is not used directly on a person or while they are present, or if it is an already approved use of magic. The place only has a couple minor magical effects like a safety field which is standard for dangerous activities, so they didn’t need to even talk to me about it.

Mark: Okay… So where is it?

Cassandra: I’m sending you the location, it's not in town. It’s at our disposal site.

“Yep, there’s a place if you want to go smash stuff. Maybe there are left over busts of Cassandra’s head or extra unneeded statues, we can smash.” Which got a smile and chuckle out of Chloe.

~Ping~

Mark didn’t want to check his messages but realized he probably should, to avoid a situation like yesterday.

Cassandra: Not funny Mark.

Mark: Why don’t we let the audience decide that. Also Chloe laughed. So I think you’re currently out voted. Want me to drop it in the group chat to poll them? Maybe ask Freya and her sisters too. Bet we would get a majority to laugh at the idea.

Cassandra: No I don’t. SIGH, Could you please at least try to be more respectful towards me?

Mark: When, you stop actively messing with us, sure. Until then the best you’re getting out of me is being frenemies. Because you are messing with us. I understand you aren’t evil and don’t want to be antagonistic towards us. But your whole job is antagonistic towards us.

Cassandra didn’t respond further so Mark left it at that.

“So, what do you want to do?” Mark asked Chloe.

“Yeah, let’s go break things. Probably would help as well when talking about my parents to be able to shatter something when I do it.” So the left town in the direction of the mountain to where Cassandra said the disposal site was set up.