Max Main ≡ Lois Lane (bylined) wrote in musingslogs, @ 2011-05-12 02:46:00 |
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Entry tags: | lois lane |
Who: Max
What: Narrative: Bedding
Where: Aubade
When: Say nowish
Warnings: Not a one
It didn’t take Max long to realize that expensive bedding utilized the fewest colors possible, and the designer Thomas had suggested she speak to felt that expensive bedding for a man meant the color spectrum was even further diminished to shades of tan or gray.
She met with the woman, who was older and wore her hair in a painstakingly perfect twist, the day after her reconciliation with Thomas. She hadn’t told Audrey that she was moving, not yet, and she hadn’t actually packed anything. Instead, she opted to spend her entire lunch hour arguing with the woman over a designer salad in a restaurant with too many windows and fake smiles. The discussion involved enough cursing on Max's part for the designer to apologize repeatedly to the waiter, and ended with Max insisting that Thomas would not be traumatized by the introduction of red into his life.
In the end, the designer capitulated out of sheer frustration, offering up the least offensive and most expensive set of red bedding she had in her portfolio. Max, feeling victorious, returned to work and made it partway through the afternoon before calling the woman back.
She didn’t have much to pack. She’d never replaced the things lost when the Bathos apartment was destroyed, and she’d never taken anything to Aubade beyond a bag of clothing, which had been easy enough to grab when she left. She’d never peppered either apartment - Audrey’s or Thomas’ - with anything that was definitively hers, but for different reasons.
With Thomas, the invitation to Aubade had come for a reason, and she’d known that. He had requested she give up her independence for a few months, not forever, and she’d treated her stay there as a guest would, trying to make as few waves in the everyday business of his life as possible. With Audrey, she had hoped she would not need to stay for long. And, admittedly, if the stay had become longer, she would have found her own space, somewhere she could have Amanda without bothering her sister with a newborn.
Now, two months later, things had changed. Thomas had always accused her of leaving, of offering to leave, of threatening to; he had been right. She had been a guest, and guests always left when they were no longer welcome. This time, she was moving in. Thomas might not see the nuanced difference, but she did.
When she arrived in Aubade that evening, it was late and Alina informed her that neither Luke nor Thomas were home. The designer had come by once they’d left, and Alina looked mildly horrified at Thomas’ impending reaction to anything in his apartment being turned upside down. When the woman asked if she could go spend the evening with her sister, Max readily agreed. Getting used to things would be easier alone.
The designer had only touched the bedroom, and Max stopped and picked up the baby before walking into the room with her military duffel, which she let drop beside the doorway.
A few hours later, Max, Amanda and a pink flamingo had fallen asleep on the new bedding, which was not red, her discarded heels on the new rug. She had stolen one of Thomas’ work shirts to sleep in (unaware of the cost of said shirt), and the baby (who was dressed in a bright red onesie) was hemmed in by Max's body and the control laptop for the comm network, which was open near the center of the bed. The laptop volume was turned up, and steady beeps - indicative of comms turning on and off, of trouble or safety - were a steady pattern in the otherwise silent room.