Long Live the King

Nineteen

Marshall was still soundly sleeping when Adrienne woke up the next morning. She had glanced over at him and eased slowly out of the room--skipping the shower for the now. It was still early, only seven in the morning, and there was no reason to bother him.

She headed for the lobby, intent on getting a chocolate bar from the shop. As she stood in front of the limited selection, trying to decide between dark and milk, she noticed Archer leaning against the beverage cooler. Her hand lifted halfway in greeting before her mind caught up and realized that he could see her and she probably didn't want to talk to him anyways. Turning away from him, she stopped as she heard something that sounded like her name.

"--drienne and I got drinks last night and I promise you she doesn't know shit," he mumbled into the receiver.

Adrienne ducked around the hat rack and continually traced the word "Sassy" with her eyes on a pretty pink baseball cap. She held her breath and listened.

"I don't think him shooting you down has anything to do with that," he continued. "I mean it would have been nice to have him in your pocket but--no. No. Well, isn't it obvious? I think you're overthinking this. You are at least five steps ahead of her which means you're at least seven steps ahead of him. I'll meet you there in a few minutes G. Sorry. Okay, bye."

He slipped the phone into his pocket and pushed off of the cooler. As he passed by Adrienne tilted herself toward the wall. Only when he had left the shop did she resume breathing normally. She slid out from behind the hat rack, grabbed one of the chocolate bars, and slapped it on the counter. Once she had paid, she walked quickly back to her room.

"Addy," Marshall said as she breezed into the room. He was already awake, dressed in fresh clothes with damp hair. "I'm glad you're back. I thought maybe we should talk about--"

"Not right now," she stopped him. "We have more important things to talk about. I just overheard something and you're probably not going to believe it..."

#

"Maybe it's not what you're thinking," Marshall said after being filled in on the conversation she had overheard. Even as the one voicing doubt though, he neither looked nor sounded sure of himself. "A lot gets lost in a one-sided conversation. Who knows if it was even Regina. Does Archer even call her G? Is there some reason you couldn't tell me this in the room?"

They were sitting out on a pair of rocks near the beach, soaking in the early morning rays. Adrienne just closed her eyes and shook her head slowly.

"I know you like to play Devil's Advocate and all," she said, "but seriously, the conversation was pretty damn suspicious. And we couldn't talk about it upstairs on the off chance she bugged our room. I mean, I don't think she did or she'd probably know more... but you never know. I should have been more careful from the start. I never even really researched this bitch."

Adrienne pulled her phone out of her pocket and typed the name "Regina Sturm" in. The search engine spit out thousands of results, many of them not the person she was looking for.

"Okay yes, it was definitely suspicious. I just can't figure out why Regina would be working against us. It feels like there has to be some other explanation."

"Look at this," Adrienne said, holding up her phone which displayed a picture of a high school volleyball squad. On the left side was a much younger Regina. "Who names their kid Regina Angelina... and then throws two last names on top of it? Regina Angelina DuMarc Sturm. That's a mouthful." She pulled her phone back and continued to scroll through the results. As she moved down the list several photos of Regina hugging the arm of a familiar man made Adrienne uneasy. "Didn't she say she wasn't very close to her uncle?"

"I think she did, yeah. Why?"

"Because that's him." She showed him the phone again and he took it from her. "He's also there and there and there and... need I go on?"

"Why does it matter if she was close to him?"

"Well, for starters, if she lied about this then what else is she lying about?"

"Maybe she thought you'd hold it against her if you knew she was closer to him. I mean you were appalled at the mere blood relation."

"I would have!" Adrienne admitted without shame. She pushed the phone into his hand. "And for good reason too. He was scum. Yeah, yeah, my father was too but I wasn't close to him. I didn't condone his behavior."

"It's probably not what it looks like." He handed the phone back. "You know what, though? We can always ask Ben. I'm sure he knows."

"We can ask Ben," Adrienne repeated. "Good idea. Don't breathe a word about this to Regina though."

"I know." He put his hands on his knees and squeezed, casting his gaze out at the water. "Anyways... look, I don't want to put any pressure on you but I really do think that maybe we should talk about..."

"Yeah." She sighed heavily. "I was out of line. I think I just got... weirdly jealous or something when I saw you with Regina and it wasn't fair to you for me to act on that and give you the impression that I... Marshall, I still don't really know if I can be in a relationship."

He smiled, looked at her and pushed a thread of hair away from her face. Her eyes slid to the side, watching his hand while she thought to herself how oddly intimate the gesture seemed.

"You know a year ago you thought you absolutely couldn't be in a relationship," he said. "Now you don't know. Maybe someday you will think that you can. I have to say though--don't panic--from where I'm standing we're already pretty close. "

"It just feels like you're waiting for me," she said, "and I don't know if I'm ever going to be in a place to give you the relationship you deserve."

"Forget about what you think I deserve. I'm not waiting for anything Addy, I'm happy with what we have. If it turns into something more, great. If it doesn't... I'm not complaining."

"But you don't date... you just spend all your time on me. You don't think you're going to regret that if this is all there ever is?"

"Well, you're wrong about that." He leaned back. "I do date on occasion. It's just that when I'm spending time with them it's stale. I find that I'd rather be with spending time with you."

"I don't get it," she said. "I don't understand what keeps you here. There are a lot of other great girls out there."

"Me neither," he said, reaching out and entwining his fingers with hers. "But I gave up trying to figure it out. I don't think it matters why I like being with you over anyone else. The only thing that matters is that I do--and if you'll keep putting up with me, I'm going to be here."

"Good," she said quietly, letting her head fall onto his shoulders. "I want you here."