IC contact for wethelost

[devoutish]

Solomons & Melborn
1108 Sweet Cream Street

[Feel free to use this space for letter/package deliveries as well as visits/knocks on the front door!]

Comments

[devoutish]

I think I would feel threatened by me, if I were in your situation. You may be a bigger person than I.

[avere]

[ She tilts her head to the side. ]

Is it because you and Royce are close?

[devoutish]

He told me I'm as important to him as you are.

[He says this softly, sincerely hoping that it doesn't come off as bragging - or worse, threatening.]

[avere]

[ She smiles. ]

I know. I'm fine with that. [ She leans forward, stretching out. ] That's a good thing, that he can have more than one important person in his life. And you aren't the first person he's compared to me, either.

[devoutish]

Mm.

I've finally come to feel as if I've sorted things out with him, but I do think it's gonna take me longer to feel like less of a prick around you.

[He still worries that he's taking Royce from her, somehow; taking a part of him that is supposed to belong only to her.]

[avere]

[ She nods a little. ]

That's understandable. If it helps, I don't even particularly think of it as sharing him between the two of us, even. Royce doesn't belong to anybody. He just gives out pieces of his heart to the people he loves, and he loves very few of them. The size doesn't matter. [ She winks at him. ] Just the offer itself.

[devoutish]

I've never heard a wife talk like that before.

[avere]

Well, I was a prostitute.

[devoutish]

[Alfie sputters, caught between laughter and surprise. He had not been expecting that answer.]

Yes, you were--

[avere]

[ She laughs, clear like a bell, musical. ]

You've been spending too much time around Royce. I'm sure he talks me up like I'm some sort of saint, but I'm not. [ She reaches to take Alfie's hand. ] Listen. I don't want to belong to anybody. He doesn't either. It's why we work.

We're not normal, good people. I slept with people for money. He killed them for the same. We know we're not normal, and so what we make between the two of us - it won't be normal, either.

[devoutish]

I do know you're not a saint.

[He lets his hand rest easily in hers, fingers loose and relaxed.]

Nobody really is, are they.

[avere]

No, they aren't. [ She says, firmly. ] All that I'm concerned about is that he's happy. And you make him happy. You make me happy, too. I look forward to our letters.

[ A beat. ] Let me tell you a story. It's a short one, I promise.

[devoutish]

[He gives her a nod. Go on.]

[avere]

Years ago, I read Royce's palm.

I Saw that he would come to a point along his path where there were two lights, and one of them would be suddenly snuffed out, and he would be unable to go on. I was so, so sure, in my heart of hearts, that the light was Hadrian. I was sure that if he didn't go with Hadrian, save Hadrian - he would break.

But it wasn't Hadrian. It was me. And I didn't realize that until we ended up on that bridge, in the snow.

[devoutish]

[Alfie nods again, but says nothing. He's familiar with this story - though, obviously, from Royce's point of view.]

[avere]

It took me a while, to understand that I was important to him. [ She says, looking out across the village. ] That I was that important to him. And when I did realize it, I felt guilty. Surely I was distracting. Surely, I couldn't be as important to him as Hadrian was.

[ A pause. ] But I am. For different reasons, and for some of the same reasons. I thought about what I Saw, and Alfie - I don't think that light that was put out had anything to do with me. I think that it could've been Hadrian, too.

What I was Seeing - I think it was telling me that he was going to lose one of us, and it was up to the other to keep him loved and cared for until the other could come back to help.

[devoutish]

And you truly think this situation, here, is the same as that one back then?

[avere]

Yes. I assume you don't think so.

[devoutish]

[Another pause.]

Two years ago I would have said that.

[avere]

Would have said what?

[devoutish]

That I don't think the situations are at all the same; could at all be the same.

[avere]

And what do you think now?

[devoutish]

I think I can understand his way of thinking, and that I may come to understand yours, as well.

[avere]

That is a very diplomatic answer.

[devoutish]

No, it's a truly honest one.