Aubrey's Playground

:72:

Aubrey ran his hand down his head smoothing down his hair, he paused for a moment as he shook his head and sighed. "I don't know, but it's not going as planned." He said sounding tired, he spoke lowly as he slotted back in his chair.

"So, it's not a distraction from Robyn?" Mark asked curiously with creased eyebrows as he pushed the Cartier eyeglasses up the bridge of his nose. Nessel stared curiously as he too tried to figure out Aubrey's sudden shift in relationship with Lori.

Aubrey frowned and cocked his head back. "When did I say she was a distraction! Why does everybody keep asking me that!? So, this is how we really feel about me?..."

"This is what I know of you." Mark replied raising his eyebrows.

"This whole, questioning my sincerity is starting to make me feel some type of way." he spat back sounding frustrated in the direction of the conversation.

Mark stared blindly. "That's not my fault," he said honestly calmly pressing his fingers into his chest, he looked at Nessel who pressed his lips together, and remained silent as he raised his hands defending his silence. Mark looked back at Aubrey who was visibly irritated by the unwarranted but humbling conversation. "You're about to spend half a million dollars in jewelry on a woman you've known for six months... This isn't... Different." Mark confessed as he explained the cycle in which he saw Aubrey's love life travel. Mark meant no harm in his questions and Aubrey knew that he simply grew genuinely curious and was amongst the very few men that could even question Aubrey and his intentions in life.

Aubrey dropped his head on the back of the chair and closed his eyes, he left out a drawn-out sigh and shook his head from side to side, he lifted his head and rubbed his eyes tirelessly with his thumb and index finger. "At this moment it's different than what I've had, when I was with Robyn at that moment... it felt different than what I had ever had. Maybe this is a year-long stint, maybe this is a five-year thing, maybe this is it. I don't know? But... this is the least stressed I've been with a woman, contract or not and there's been some... questionable moments that were red flags but she didn't judge, she didn't accuse, we sat down like adults and spoke about it and that's every conversation and that's what's working for me at this moment."

Mark raised his hands. "Hey, as long as you're happy..." Aubrey pulled his phone from his pocket and began scrolling through it, he pulled up several photos of Lori and handed Mark the phone, he leaned forward looking down at the screen then quickly looked back up at Aubrey. "Ok, I get it."

"You're an idiot." Aubrey mumbled as he pulled his phone away and stood up shoving his phone back in his pocket and turning around, Nessel stood up and began walking behind him.

"If I knew she looked like that I wouldn't have questioned it." Mark mumbled to Nessel in his defense as he too stood up. "You knew she looked like!?" he asked him curiously as he followed behind him.

"Yeah." He replied.

"Why you didn't say something?! Now I look stupid!"

"You are stupid!" Nessel said looking back.

"I'm just saying if I knew she looked like that I'd feel different too!" Mark defended himself. "You're stupid!" Aubrey stood at the waist-high glass counter and looked at the five pieces of jewelry as they each were being packaged individually. Mark fixed his hat before he leaned against the glass and smirked at Nessel. "While you standing there looking dumb maybe you should be buying Jess something." Mark teased as he looked at him.