Technicolor (M,C)

Maeve left the dining hall after Genet had dismissed her. She hadn’t expected Genet to actually open up to her. The woman was busy and the topic was incredibly personal. But she’d established a first try, and hopefully if she kept making herself available their host would come to her when she was ready.

Richard had asked her to help with Aubrey. He’d been worried that she might never forgive her for what happened last night, especially after she’d explained to him that it wasn’t just that they could be together, but that to some level they needed to be. So after hearing so much about their relationship from him, she could finally get the chance to meet Aubrey and get her side of things.

Knocking at the door of the Pomegranate Cottage hadn’t helped her find her. If she was in there, then the young woman was keeping quiet and didn’t want to be found. If she was trying to hide, then she probably needed space from everyone that deserved to be respected. She’d still keep looking in case Aubrey was somewhere else.

But where else could she be? There weren’t many places to go on the island. Maeve had been in the dining hall all morning. Aubrey wouldn’t know about what had been under the auditorium, she wasn't there when Maeve had told Luna and Felicia. Richard said that Aubrey didn’t know most of the other women very well, so it felt less likely that she’d be in one of the other cottages. She shouldn’t be at the tower, if she’d bought a plot for the bar then she’d probably be out of BP to spend there. Where could she be?

Then it hit her. Aubrey had bought a plot in the forest. From what Richard had told her the bar she put there was their meeting place when the relationship had been at its most stable. If there was anywhere outside of her house that Aubrey would be, it’d be there.

She turned back towards the dining hall and went down the path down the hill. After maybe ten minutes, she reached the bottom of the hill and saw two buildings at the first few. She remembered Richard’s story and went towards the smaller wooden building Richard had mentioned. Dr.Petrov opened the door to the shack with the neon sign Murphy’s.

She saw Aubrey there in the very back. The younger blonde woman didn’t seem to notice the door open as she threw darts at a board on the wall, and so Maeve stepped inside. The bar was cluttered and messy. The bartop and every table in the bar was covered with uneaten pizza, and the smell of sausage permeated the air like ozone. There were probably at least twenty unopened bottles with the pizza. It was like someone had prepared food for a football team and then just abandoned the feast.

“Aubrey?” Dr.Petrov said, trying to get her attention as she walked to the far side of the bar.

“Dr.Petrov? What are you doing here?” The blonde woman shrank back towards the wall.

“Richard told me what happened. He was worried about you, and I offered to check on you.”

“He was worried about me?” Aubrey latched on to that part. She seemed less embarrassed now and more curious, yearning to hear more about him.

“He was worried he had upset you and wanted to give you some space. He did say he’s ready to apologize later if you’re ready.”

Aubrey almost looked frustrated hearing that. “Of course he just wants to bury things and pretend there’s not a problem anymore. I’d kind of prefer to wait until I’ve fixed whatever he was actually mad about before he has to see me again. I think I know what it is, I just don’t know how to prove to him that he won’t need to worry about it.”

Dr.Petrov was a bit uncertain hearing that. From Richard’s recounting this morning, he’d been explicit about why he had been trying to keep his distance. Either his perspective had been a bit skewed or she’d taken things worse than expected. Not quite worse in the way Richard had been worried about though. She seemed at least as sure that she was the problem as he’d been that he was the problem by the end of their conversation this morning. And if she was trying to prove that she was improving, the discarded pizzas on every surface seemed like a poor way to show it.

“What do you think the problem was?” Dr.Petrov probed.

“He can’t afford to keep cleaning up after me. If I’m going to stay with him, if I deserve him, I need to make sure that I don’t leave messes that he’ll need to fix.” She turned back to the dartboard and made a throw. It thumped just shy of the bullseye.

That didn’t sound like the Richard she knew, or the story he’d told her. “Is that what he said?”

“No, he was trying to spare my feelings like he did last time. Told me some story about how he wasn’t healthy for me to be around.” She tossed another dart and it veered less than a quarter inch in the opposite direction of the first, drilling into the board.

“You don’t think he was being honest with you? Dr.Petrov asked.

“It felt like he was just trying to let me down easy. I appreciate that he wanted to avoid hurting me, but I still wish he could’ve told me the truth.”

“Why don’t you believe him?” she tried to get Aubrey to keep talking. Richard always said that he could never get her to answer why she needed to try so hard. She felt close.

“His story doesn’t make sense.”

“Why not?” The answer was right there.

“That’s not how relationships are supposed to work!” Aubrey shouted, her voice growing shrill. She was shaking with emotion, although Maeve couldn’t tell if it was anger at her, frustration, or something else.

Aubrey loosed the last dart at the board. It sailed through the air, nudging its siblings out of the way to embed itself perfectly in the center of the bullseye. “He doesn’t make sense.” She murmured much quieter. Dr.Petrov barely picked it up.

She tried to maintain her calm for the agitated young woman. “Why don’t we sit down?” she suggested, guiding Aubrey to the floor so she could lean against the wall. “Can you tell me about how relationships are supposed to work?”

Aubrey answered immediately, as if Dr.Petrov had asked what color her hair was or what Richard’s last name was. “You give everything for the person you love. If you’re lucky and they’re a good person, then they might love you back. And then you’ll be together forever, and you’ll raise children together that you’re both nice to.” There was a lot to unpack there. She’d been worried it might be something formulaic like that, and the deservingness aspect wasn’t surprising. The kids bit at the end had come out of nowhere. She didn’t think she’d be able to address all of that tonight, but she tried to concentrate on what the most obvious issue was now. “So that’s why you don’t think that Richard’s reason makes sense?”

Aubrey nodded.

“Does it help to hear that Richard gave me the same reason?”

Aubrey shook her head slightly. “Not really.”

“Do you think he would lie to me?”

“No.”

“Do you trust me right now?”

“Yeah, he’s told me how helpful you were after the accident.”

“It’s good to hear that. I know that it can be hard to accept something that goes against your experience, but try to keep in mind that's the only reason he ever gave me.

Is Richard the only person you’ve ever dated?”

Sitting next to her, Aubrey looked down at the floor. “He’s my third boyfriend.”

“What happened to the other two?”

“I dated Sam in high school. He was nice, but he left for a private college that wouldn’t give me the same scholarships that State did. Dad didn’t want me taking on that kind of debt when I didn’t have to.

Before Richard and I met, I’d been dating a guy named Evan. When I was coming back to his dorm with some laundry I’d done for him one afternoon, I caught him with Tiffany’s older sister.”

Dr.Petrov didn’t know who Tiffany was. But she got the important parts. “Were Sam and Evan when you started getting worried about people leaving?”

“No.”

“Can I ask what started it then?”

“I don’t really want to talk about it. I don’t want Richard to find out.”

Dr.Petrov nodded. “That’s alright. I wouldn’t tell Richard even if you told me, although I think it’d be good for you to consider trusting him with that secret. But whether or not you tell him, he regrets what happened yesterday. He wants to try again with you if that’s alright.”

“Do you know when he’ll be available?” Aubrey asked, looking at her now. She brushed a long blonde strand of hair out of her eyes, staring at Dr.Petrov’s silver hair.

“He should be available most mornings. If you’d like, you can spend the afternoon with us when I have my day with him later this week.” Maeve said. She hadn’t yet figured out what she wanted to do with Richard when she would be **** to take her patient out on a date. Being able to help fix him and Aubrey’s relationship after not being able to stop it from crumbling would be nice.

“I think I’d like that.” Aubrey said softly. “Can you stay awhile?”

“We’ll both need to go back to our rooms tonight, but we can definitely spend a bit longer here. We definitely have enough to eat here.” Maeve joked.

“I wish that we could be roommates. Mine hates me.” Aubrey complained.

“How do you know that? Do you think she has any reason to hate you?”

“It could be a lot of things. But even if multiple people had been complaining about me, only Luna, Helena, or maybe you could have persuaded him to end things last time. You and Helena are my only friends here, so Luna would’ve had to have been leading things.” she concluded.

“How much time did you spend with the others when you and Richard were dating the first time?” Dr.Petrov asked.

“As little as possible. I didn’t really like that he was spending that much time with that many other women.”

“So even if they don’t like you, they don't know you very well. You’re a smart girl, you can fix that. We’re all going to be on this island together for a while. If you want to do anything to improve things, start trying to make more time for yourself, and see if you might have anything in common with the other women your age. Even on a harem show, there’s more to life than just a boy.”

The two of them just sat in silence for a while as Aubrey chewed on the advice. “You’re probably right.” She admitted. “But I still wish we could be rooming together instead.”

“Maybe we can ask for that next round. Since you wanted us to stay here, do you want to teach me how to throw darts? You seem pretty good at it.”

Aubrey felt herself crying for the second night in a row. But they weren’t tears of sadness like yesterday, tears of losing something. Today she felt tears of relief, like the world had been made a little more colorful. “That sounds nice.”