Married to Her Job, Single in Her Heart

by Revenant Wings

Chapter 14 - Drunken Confessions

14.

The orchestra in the park did provide some relief. Redheart and Caramel laid down on the soft grass and listened to the sounds of the orchestra playing their sweet tones across the night, Redheart leaning against Caramel and vice versa. For a long time, Redheart felt calm though she noted the orchestra had one extra seat empty but she soon pushed it out of her mind.

When the orchestra was over, Caramel and Redheart began to walk home. As they wandered through the streets back to Redheart’s apartment, the two passed Berry Punch’s bar where a familiar aquamarine unicorn was sitting outside looking dazed and partially on the verge of crying.

“Should we leave her there?” Redheart asked.

“I’m tempted to,” Caramel replied.

Redheart thought about it. “You have work tomorrow, don’t you?”

“Yeah…”

“Do you know where her house is?”

“Yeah, it’s on the way back to the apartment… but why? You don’t like her very much.”

“You should bring her home and tell your boss,” Redheart said. “We keep her off the streets and out of being fined and you can let the boss know of Lyra’s behavior outside of work.”

Caramel considered the idea. “Alright. Let’s go get her.”

The two walked over to Lyra, who was still sitting in nearly the same position as she was when they first arrived. Caramel tapped Lyra on the shoulder. “Lyra… what happened?”

Lyra’s face initially registered nothing. She looked over to Caramel, looking at her with some form of concern. Redheart could almost see the light go off in her head as she realized Caramel was standing in front of her, then threw her hooves around him and started crying. If she hadn’t been so rude for her, Redheart felt she would have been sorry for her.

“Oh, Caramel!” Lyra sobbed. “I had one more drink and I felt so sick and I went to the bathroom and I puked and it smelled so bad that I puked again and when I came out the others had left me!”

“Did they say any reason why?”

“I just wanted one more shot. Said that would be fine.”

“Nothing about asking if you were ready to go?”

“I don’t know. Don’t remember… more. I’ve been sitting out here ever since I left the bathroom because I was looking for them and couldn’t find them.”

Caramel sighed. “Come on, Lyra, let’s get you home.”

Caramel put his head under Lyra’s forehoof and lifted Lyra up around his neck. Redheart ended up doing the same around the opposite forehoof and lifted Lyra up as best as she could; the mare was acting like dead weight and was not even trying to walk straight.

Lyra again seemed to ignore that Redheart was even there. She looked over to Caramel with dreamy eyes. “Thank you so much for coming back,” she said. “I knew you would… somehow. I’ve had dreams you’d come and rescue me like this. Galloping off into the sunset. We could leave that bitch who punched me behind.”

“That bitch,” Caramel growled, “is the one who said we should carry you home.”

Lyra turned over to Redheart in shock as though she just noticed her; in her drunken-induced stupor, that was entirely likely. Redheart did her best not to look at Lyra, though she ended up being unable to hide a smirk.

“Don’t act so… full of yourself,” Lyra said.

“And you don’t act like you’re above being helped by someone other than Caramel,” Redheart fired back.

Lyra fell silent for the rest of the walk.

The unicorn’s house was a simple one-story place with rather plain walls but nicely furnished and full of color, certainly a lot brighter than Redheart’s. Lyra had trouble even opening the door, so Caramel had to go up and open the door for her. The unicorn walked in a few paces before swaying and falling down to the ground.

“I thought you had a housemate?” Caramel asked.

“Left me,” Lyra spoke for the first time in a few minutes. “He… he found someone else. Broke leaving things off nice with me.”

Probably better than you deserve anyways, Redheart thought. “Did he have a problem with you?” she asked.

Lyra didn’t move her head but pointed a hoof at Redheart. “Shut up,” she said. After a few moments, she sighed. “He didn’t like how I got jealous of others. Said I was being paranoid. So I… he broke up. Said I was being jealous and mean. Wouldn’t let anyone else in. Didn’t care for else.”

“Is that really what happened?” Caramel said, starting to sound sympathetic.

She shook her head. “He cheated on me and I cheated on him. Figured we didn’t mean much to the other.”

Redheart scoffed, but Caramel hadn’t been paying attention. Redheart yawned and looked at a nearby clock. “Caramel, it’s getting late,” she said.

Caramel nodded. “Know something we can do to help her hangover?”

“Make sure she drinks some water. And we can write a note telling her to have some aspirin for the headache and to make sure she eats something decent tomorrow morning. Aside from that, not much we can do at this stage.”

Caramel nodded and pulled out a piece of paper and pencil from the drawers around Lyra’s house. Redheart wrote the note and put it on the kitchen counter where she thought Lyra would see it. Meanwhile, the unicorn got up and managed to lean against the couch for support, though she was still wobbling.

“If you’re tired,” Caramel said softly to Redheart, “you can go home. I’ll deal with her and make sure she gets into bed since I know you don’t like her too much.”

Redheart nodded but felt dejected. “Thank you,” she said. She opened her mouth to say something else, but nothing came.

Redheart walked out of the house, turning around to close the door as she watched Caramel get under Lyra’s forehoof again and begin walking her back to her bedroom. When the door was closed, she walked home with her head drooped wishing it was she who got carried back to her bedroom by Caramel.

Author's Note:

...I think I'm somewhere between one-third and one-half done at this point.

...I think.

EDIT: It's not one-half.

Comments

[Lord Legion]

Well I like how this story is going. Hopefully Redheart will start to date Caramel steadily and Caramel remains faithful. It's a very good read so far.

[Tungsten Carbide]

I noticed that in the last couple of chapters... You've been a bit "loosey goosey". I cant really expain any better than that. That bs with the blood/alchohol level, totaly unnecessary.