Part Four
It was plain as day that Piper had tensed up, and Fiona was doing her best to keep her even keeled. They'd taken a few minutes to walk around a bit, the two of them both needing a breather before they got down to the roughest part of Piper's story.
Piper had insisted that they not shy away from the dark heart of what had happened to her, but agreed that taking a few minutes to recover and rebuild her energies before getting into the ugliest period of her life would be helpful.
Fiona had found a lot to admire about the brunette, which was good, because Piper had made it very clear that she wasn't going to let go of Andy for any reason. She had known exactly what a good man Andy was before she'd arrived, because she and Andy had shared a long, deep history before she'd agreed to move here, but it was good to see Piper felt the same way.
Andy and Fiona had been friends before they'd been lovers, lovers before they'd been roommates, and every step of the way, Andy had always put her needs above his own, to the point where she'd had to actively make sure he wasn't causing himself too much trouble for her benefit. He was selfless, often to a fault and his own detriment.
That had been quite some time ago, though, and time had a way of changing people, and not often for the better. Some of the people they'd went to college with had gone on to become the sort of folks that Andy and Fi wouldn't want to consider friends anymore - they'd been unfaithful to partners, committed crimes, exploited employees, and just generally turned into awful shits. In fact, Fiona's best friend in college, a woman named Emily Emmanuel, had gone on to become a CEO of one of the most abusive and awful companies around. She'd told Fi that she'd felt abandoned when Fi moved to Washington, and their friendship had basically died around the same time that her and Andy's relationship had broken off.
Andy, in stark contrast Fi realized, had just gotten, well, more
Andy
. There was something kind about the core of the man, like he was constantly trying to see the best in people, and to help them up to live up to that ideal as much as they could on a day-to-day basis. It hadn't gotten him far in terms of business, but he'd done well with friends and even better with women, as he hadn't fallen in with anyone who would take advantage of his trusting nature.
From what Ash had told her, Andy's last relationship in the Bay before the pandemic was with the kind of woman who'd nearly broken that kindhearted spirit out of him. But instead of taking the wrong lesson from it - that people were often out to hurt him - he'd taken the
right
one from it instead, which was that sometimes the best thing you could do with a problematic partner was to let them go, or even push them away if they just weren't the right fit for you.
She wasn't entirely certain that all of Andy's partners would be good fits for him in the long term, but Fi supposed that was why there were so many of them, so that the ones who didn't see Andy as more than a solution to their physical needs could minimize their time with him. While many of his partners seemed to have genuine affection for him, at least a couple of them hadn't really built deep and meaningful connections with him. At least not as deep as others.
For the younger girls, it just made sense. Both Hannah and Asha weren't old enough to know what they wanted to do with their lives, so how could they be expected to know what they truly wanted out of a partner? They'd show Andy a good time, certainly, and keep his libido stoked, but she wouldn't be surprised if they didn't want children with him when all the dust settled.
All of the fiancΓ©s were definitely in it for the long haul, though. They'd all seemed like they were excellent matches for him, even if some of them Fi would've considered slightly out of Andy's league, despite loving him as much as she did. But good on him for capturing the hearts of such highly regarded actresses as Emily Stevens and Sarah Washington. The heart wants what the heart wants, and if they wanted him, she would respect that.
Lauren and Taylor, by contrast, were definitely emotionally invested in Andy, but not nearly as much as they were each other. Fiona also suspected that maybe Sheridan and Tala might be the same way, but hadn't had enough time to get a good enough read on the two of them yet to make a conclusive decision. The same was true for the newest additions, all of whom probably didn't even know which season Andy was born in, much less how they felt about him. It was too early for them to have established deep feelings one way or another about Andy.
Piper? Piper had made it clear that she'd rather die than be parted from Andy, and Fiona was still coming to understand why that was, as she'd really only known Andy a few weeks now. She felt like the solution to that particular puzzle would lay in the last part of the story, but to get to that part, they'd need to get through the darkest part first.
During the walk, Piper spent most of the time in their break asking questions about Fiona's past, focusing mostly on her time between graduating from college and her arrival in New Eden. Fiona understood how Piper wanted to spend the interval getting to know a little bit about her instead of talking more about herself. It was a chance to reclaim a bit of power in the conversation, and a chance to listen instead of talking.
For her part, Fiona did everything she could to tell Piper about herself, being generous with the details and honesty, sparing none of the gory details she might have left out otherwise. While her story didn't have as many abductions, there
were
more gunfights and that seemed to make Piper laugh and giggle in glee.
Piper had made it clear she was as straight as the day was long, so Fiona wouldn't pressure her, but she would've been lying if she didn't admit to herself that she would've loved to have a bit of fun with her in the sack at some point.
She was easy to like, easier still to get along with, and she seemed genuinely intent on learning as much as she could about Fiona. She also made an attempt to keep Fiona's spirits up, even though it was Piper's spirit that Fiona felt they should
both
be worried about. It was a miracle that the woman had come through it all with her spirit unbroken.
They completed their lap around the yard and headed back towards the house. They'd been talking much of the day, barring a half an hour break during which Piper had squeezed in a quick workout while Fiona had taken Moira into Andy's office for a chat, but now the sun was starting to set and the story was taking its turn into the nightmare portion Piper had clearly been avoiding.
"Alright, can't dodge it forever," Piper sighed as her and Fiona made their way back up towards one of the front facing balconies this time, just for a change of pace. "Time to get down to the scariest few days of my life. The important thing, the
most
important thing, before I get into this, the most important thing is to remember that I came through
okay
, and I'm here, now, happy, with a great man and wonderful girlfriends. So keep that in mind when we're talking about this."
"I don't want to push you, Piper," Fiona said to her. "If you're not ready to talk about this-"
"I'm never going to be
ready