Strawberry Forgiveness (L,C,M)

Luna left the dining hall. The three of them had worked out an arrangement for Stella to take over cooking whenever she wanted. She had to work with Genet’s menu, but that felt fair if she could walk out of the kitchen for any reason. Genet had asked her if they could use the wagyu she’d been admiring for when she catered the date tonight and Stella had been over the moon. She’d insisted that pineapple could not be part of the side dish, but the two had been excitedly planning when she left. Luna could chop veggies well enough, but Stella and the host could handle one meal easily by themselves.

Aubrey had come into the dining hall earlier to see what was for breakfast, but she’d walked out when Luna had tried to talk to her. Despite being roommates, they’d seen each other awake for less than an hour. Genet had informed her that she’d spent most of the round so far in a replica she’d had made of a bar back in campus at State. So the latina had found her way to the grove. She’d thought it’d been a bit weird when the outside looked like an ogre’s outhouse, but Genet had warned her that Aubrey thought it was a funny joke. So Luna went in and saw Murphy's empty, save for Aubrey and Maeve in the back. Maeve was at the dartboard, while Aubrey was sitting at the table next to her having a cheese pizza for brunch. Luna tried to move into the room quietly to avoid the blonde from storming out again.

“You’ll need to pick one of them to approach first. We’ll be here a long time, you should try to make some friends.”

“But Maeve, most of them hate me. How do I know which one of them to trust?” Aubrey said from the table.

“You can start with me.” Luna said as she approached.

Aubrey spun as she stood up, her golden mane whirling as she turned to face her roommate. “What are you doing here?” She growled.

“I want to help.”

Aubrey maintained her glare. “Last time you decided to get involved, you tore my life apart. Why in the frozen hell should I trust you now?”

“Because I want to fix things. I’m sorry for what happened last year. If you’ll take my apology, I can help fix what happened.”

“I don’t need your help. Maeve and I are figuring things out on our own, and Richard is already willing to work with us.”

“Aubrey.” Maeve had stepped away from the dartboard and put her hand on Aubrey’s shoulder. “We were just talking about getting to know the others better and softening how you you said they feel about you. If not her, then who?”

“You know what she did to me Maeve.”

“She’s still your roommate, at least until the end of the round. Things would be easier if you didn’t feel like you needed to avoid her.”

Aubrey looked back at Maeve, hurt. “You’re taking her side?”

“I’m not taking anyone’s side.” The older, curvier woman said as she looked between the two roommates she’d come to know in the past couple of days. “I know the two of you haven’t gotten along in the past, but she’s coming to you now. It doesn’t hurt to hear her out once.”

Aubrey turned back to Luna. “What do you want then?”

“I want you to kiss him at breakfast tomorrow morning. I’ll line him up for you, and you’ll kiss him as deeply as you want. I need you to channel all your feelings for him into that kiss, so he doesn’t have any blood left in his brain to think.” Luna said, enunciating with her arms.

Aubrey folded her arms together, trying to hide how nice that sounded. “I’m his girlfriend. I could kiss him whenever I wanted. Why do you need it to be at breakfast?”

“That’s the soonest we’ll have access to him, and we’ll need to break him out of his need to be responsible and protect us.”

Aubrey raised an eyebrow at her. “All of a sudden you’re worried about Richard being too responsible?”

Luna shook her head. “He’s too worried about keeping us safe to have fun. I might be his best friend, but there’s no one who can get him to live in the moment like you can.”

“So as much as you want to fix your mistake and get Richard and I back together, you really need my help.”

“Yes. Only you can help Richard right now.” Luna laid it on thick, hoping that appealing to Aubrey’s ego would help her bury the hatchet.

“You need true love’s kiss to fix him.” It was more a statement than a question.

Luna rolled with it. “Exactly.” Whatever gets her to forgive me.

Aubrey dug in. “I want your night with him.”

“I’m sorry?” Luna balked.

“Since you and the others took Richard away from me, I haven’t been with him in over a year.”

“I… Aubrey. What Genet gave me, Touch Base, it’s making me feel everything that Richard feels. The kiss that we need you to deliver to get him to calm down, I’m going to feel that too. I’ll be unbelievably pent up by the time my night comes”

Aubrey’s anger flared further. “So you’re saying that you need my help, and you’re going to sleep with my boyfriend? This is why I never wanted him joining that Friday group that ate his weekends.”

“If I had anyone else to choose, you have to believe that I would. If not for Genet, I never would consider seeing a coworker like that. It’s not like I have other options. though” She found herself looking at Maeve as she finished her sentence.

Maeve didn’t seem to notice. She maintained her focus on calming Aubrey. “If you’re worried about her intentions, I believe her. The show is trying to get us all towards him. If you need to be with him Aubrey, then you can have him on my afternoon. We were already planning for you to speak with him then, it’ll just be going a bit further than I had anticipated if he’s comfortable with that. That’ll be one day earlier than if Luna gave you her night anyways.”

Aubrey sighed. “Fine.”

“I can still help you with other things.” Luna offered. “I can spend a BP or two to upgrade Murphy’s, and I can help you bury the hatchet with Ava and Felicia.”

So it was the three of them. Aubrey realized. She normally wouldn’t call three a lot of people, but if it was half of a larger group then it could be a lot.

“Can we start with the bar?” Aubrey asked. The idea of a good drink was letting her put aside her grudge, at least for a moment.

“Of course. Let’s put together a list of five additions for Ata to add.” She sat down at Aubrey’s table and grabbed a napkin to write on. “What should be on their first?”

“We need a good cocktail, like a daiquiri or a grasshopper. I had to choose between the dartboard and the pool table, so it might be good to get the pool table back in here. Bringing in peanuts might be good, Richard likes something to snack on when he’s getting ready to talk. I don’t know what else to do.”

Luna looked up from the napkin. “We’ve still got two more if you want them.”

“Can I take them?” Maeve asked, pulling up a seat.

“Sure.” Aubrey said

“Could we get a nice salad, and some water? All we have is pizza and ****, and I can’t eat that for a third meal in a row.”

“I’m sorry Mo-Maeve.” Aubrey said guiltily.

“You’ve nothing to apologize for. We’re all trying to figure things out as best we can.” She reassured the anxious blonde.

“How are you so calm?” Luna asked “I’ve had dreams like this and I’m still having a hard time adjusting.” She rewrote the list a little cleaner on a new napkin.

Maeve sighed. “I’ve had this thing for as long as I can remember, where I have trouble getting too emotional if someone else already is. It’ll probably all hit me at once later, but I’ll be fine until that happens.”

“You’ll let us know when that starts to happen?” Luna asked.

“Of course, I’ll reach out to both of you if I need you.”

“Then I’ll go run this to the tower, and I’ll be back as soon as I can.” Luna left the bar, hurrying out of the grove to get it taken care of.

***

Almost two hours later, she arrived back at Murphy’s. Maeve had a chicken salad in front of her at the table they’d been sitting at. There was an empty strawberry daiquiri on the counter, and Maeve was trying to get Aubrey to slow down on the second glass.

“Hey!” Luna called out to them. Maeve was distracted and Aubrey chugged the last of the frozen cocktail.

Aubrey wiped the red liquor from the side of her mouth. “Thanks for buying that. You said you wanted to help me with the others?”

“Yeah, I think Stella and I can help you with Ava tomorrow. Whenever you have time you should be able to work with Felicia.”

“What’re we doing for Ava?”

“She was frustrated that Richard felt like he had to choose between you and our game nights. So I want to show her he won’t need to choose again, and she’ll teach you one of our games. Your choice whether it’s Wonders or G&G.”

“No, I’m not smart enough for that.”

Maeve put her arm on Aubrey’s shoulder, while Luna just looked at her doubtfully. “Aren’t you a teacher now?”

“So?”

“And you had an academic scholarship? I remember they gave you a full ride.”

“And? I’m still not smart enough for this”

“How are you not smart enough? They advertise Wonders to teenagers. You got a full ride, even Felicia didn’t get that.”

“My scholarship wasn’t for math. It wasn’t actually a full ride, half of it was just the most financial aid they were required to give. I still wouldn’t have been able to afford it if the linguistics department hadn’t sponsored me. I’ve seen how much math is in the games you guys play, I wouldn’t be able to keep up.”

Luna lowered her voice. “Aubrey, she’s taught elementary school kids how to play G&G. If it seems like you’re trying, she’d love to teach you. You can understand wanting to show someone what you love, right?”

The literature teacher at the other end of the table sighed. “Yeah, I can give it a try tomorrow. What did you want me to do about Felicia?”

“The easiest way to gain her respect is for her to show you something you care about, especially if it’s something you’re good at. I don’t know if you’d want to tell her about what you’re teaching or if you have something else in mind, but just show her something you do when Richard’s not around.”

“That’s easier than Ava. But why are you helping me with how things ended last time, when… when Richard and I took our break?”

Luna gave most of the truth. “Because we’re all in this together, and because I feel bad about what happened. I’m hoping that one day you may be able to forgive me.” She only left one part out. And because Richard needs you to be himself.

Aubrey smiled. “Get me another drink and I’ll work on that. I do appreciate your help.”

As Luna stepped away to the bartop, Dr.Petrov questioned Aubrey. “It’s barely one in the afternoon, should you be drinking this much right now?”

“I’m trying to make friends like you told me to, I just need this right now.” Aubrey pleaded.

**** was a terrible coping mechanism. That wasn’t in question. But whether that mattered more than Aubrey’s progress the past two days, that was hard for the doctor to say. “Just be careful, please.”

Richard’s lieutenant came back with Aubrey’s order. The three of them kept talking; about the gaming group tomorrow, about Maeve’s day with Richard, about the market and the confusing shopkeeper Maeve wanted to get their thoughts on.