Maysie's Galaxy ONC 2023

Punishment

Maysie managed to get out of their seclusion--once she was mostly recovered--with Ethan's neverending presence.

"Where do you want to go, olufẹ mi?"

"What does that even mean?"  She muttered her question under her breath because she knew him--he wasn't going to tell her. All she knew is this phrase was a shift in his thoughts about her.

He heard her but said nothing. She didn't even have to see his face to know that expression.  It was the first time in her life that she ever wanted to kiss that tight mouth senseless, just to shut the silence up. "Does the Uffizi still exist?"

"Yeah...let's go." His choice of vehicle for this inner-city trip was a heavily armored SUV that had fake weathering, making it look more like a poor man's ride. He drove with one hand on the wheel and one on the gear shift--although it was an automatic. She'd never seen him put his hand that close to her for a whole ride. Maysie could have taken his arm. Instead, she kept her hands to herself, remembering that she had some self-control after yesterday's failures. That progress made her feel like shit.

After parking, they walked a short distance to enter the museum, "do you want to take the short route or the classic, Maysie?"

"Short..." Either route would take her through the older era when art was based more on real people. She never understood wanting vague blobs like impressionism, and she still was too close to Alder's rants on Picasso, Warhol, and Pollock to ever enjoy their works, either.

Works by Giotto, Lorenzetti, and Masaccio blended in a strangled mind. Even Botticelli's Birth of Venus failed to keep her mind from worrying about her fears, and she started to walk away when she realized that Ethan was still staring at the woman on the clamshell.

Maysie walked back and stood at his side. Ethan threw his arm over her shoulder and pulled her against his side without focusing on her.

"What are you seeing Ethan?"

"You."

"I don't look that good."

"No, you don't look that soft. But it's you. Same hair, same stepping into this world fully grown, and no real understanding of things you should have learned as a child. The wants and needs of a woman fully grown, as untouchable as the sea and sacrificial offering. You looked like a gift from the gods, capable of battling enemies and so damned vulnerable."

"Don't you have a copy of this in your bedroom?"

"How did you know?"

"Some of the men talk."

Ethan breathed out, causing him to tremble--a man who she thought incapable of weakness caught a chill that left him with distinct goosebumps down to his wrists. She could feel his hand shaking her arm,  gently. "The known effects of this particular drug sometimes don't end for months. You won't be cleared for a good half a year. I can try to be more...friendly, for your sake. But what happened last night?  We can't repeat that."

"But what if it's real?"

"Falling in love was never real, Maysie, whether a drug or natural. It's the lie our primitive brains tell us to make it easier to endure people's company until we learn to truly love them, or until it fades and we run off to cling to the next high. If there is any truth to what we have, it will show itself in due time."

"But you've seen me as this since I was 19?"

"Yes."

"What does that even mean?"

"That my thoughts are unchanged."

Ethan was very relieved that she misunderstood him, in the coming months.