Truth.

Beth froze as her mind tried to come up with something. "You know... just trying to help a brother out..."
"Beth..." Kyle seemed suddenly quite lucid, in contrast to her own drunken fuzziness.
"What?"
"I'm pretty good at knowing when I'm being bullshitted." He watched her calmly. "So tell me the truth."
"...I....I don't know... when we were getting to know each other today, I got...I started to feel att...attracted to you... so, I guess I was overcompensating." She put her face in her hands. "Goddd....can we change the subject?"
"Are you and my brother... doing okay?" His question was soft-spoken and probing. She started to cry.
"Not....not exactly..." slowly, in fits and starts, she spilled out the truth of what had been happening since Brian got put on a partner track. The neglect, the fatigue, the way their sex life had dried up and that the sex they did have usually focused on him because she was usually just glad to be having any at all.
"Have you talked about your feelings with him?"
"Of course I have, and it's always the same: 'I'm sorry, I'm trying, things will be better once I've made partner, I want the best life for us, and all the things we want.' Sometimes I believe him, and sometimes I worry that this is my life now, and it's never going to change." She was admitting things new that she hadn't really even admitted to herself before.
"That sounds like a tough situation."
"It is, and it's all the worse because it's not like I don't still love him. I do still love him, and I don't want.... I want things to go back to when they were good, but I have needs...and wants...and..." she looked at him through her tears. "I'm sorry."
"It's okay. My brother might have done a bad thing, but I don't believe he's a bad guy."
"I'm just wondering how patient I'm going to have to be."
They talked for a little while longer. Kyle offered encouragement, which quite frankly didn't do anything to help her attraction towards him. Well now that it's out in the open, it can't hurt us. Kyle won't let me do anything stupid.
Kyle helped her up the stairs, though he wasn't much steadier on his feet than her. She turned to give him a kiss on the cheek that smeared drunkenly close to his lips when she misstepped. "Thanks for listening... It helped a lot."
"You're welcome. We're going to be family one day, so you can always talk to me." He was holding her close, after her stumble. He's strong... I like that...
Get to bed{if Formation = 1}.{else
}, you drunk slut. {endif
}
Beth peeled off her outfit and slipped into the bed. Brian murmured in his sleep, but continued snoring. Beth passed out into troubled dreams.