"Please, Edmund, just give her a chance," Lucy pleaded for the fifth time in two minutes.

"I told you, Luce, no," he replied, walking at a faster pace to increase the distance between the two of them.

"She's a wonderful young lady," she responded, keeping up with his steps.

"How young?" he turned and stopped. He was not particularly interested in how young she was, more like how much younger she was.

"Twenty-three, why?"

"Lion's sake, Lucy," he chuckled sardonically. "I'm thirty-three. I'm ten years older than her." Sweet Aslan, I'm old.

"So? Age is only a number. Besides, I'm positive that you will like her. Seda is...oh, just have dinner with her."

"Lucy," he gritted his teeth in frustration then relaxed with a sigh. "You don't understand."

"It's been thirteen years. You need to move on."

"I don't want to," he lowered his voice. "Moreover, I don't think I can."

"Sure you can," Lucy gave him an encouraging smile. "You'll be fine."

"If I agree to this, will you leave me alone?"

"Yes."

"Fine."

Edmund had a massive headache. Ever since they had sat down to dinner, she had not stopped talking. Their one-sided conversation had been one giant run-on sentence. Her hair's too blonde. She's too skinny. She has the worst teeth I have ever seen. Ok, well, she's sort of pretty I guess. But her voice! It's so whiney and high pitched. Elaina, now there's a lovely lady...if only she were here. I'm not sure if I can take much more of this. Focus, Ed, she'll probably shut up soon.

In fact, she shut up about five minutes later; five minutes after he finally got a word in edgewise. Soon after that, she decided that it was "far too late for a lady to stay awake" and left with a whimsical wave of her hand, a "fare thee well" and a melodramatic turn for the door. The second the door closed, Edmund realized that it was definitely a good thing she was gone. Otherwise he might have gotten far too drunk in an attempt make her words interesting and he would have lost all control of himself. If that happened, he would be furious with himself for the rest of his life. As he made his way to his room, Lucy encountered him.

"Don't even ask. Never, ever again," he said shortly, slamming the door in her face. Perhaps it was a bit unnecessary but it made him feel better. He walked over to his bed and flopped down on it amidst a disarray of sheets and blankets. He glanced into an antechamber where he and Elaina had an argument over how far their relationship should go at that present point in time. He had been unaware of her previous situation with Kemen and now he regretted even bringing up the matter.

"Edmund, you don't understand," she said exasperatedly.

"No, I don't please explain," he had replied. The whole situation made him incredibly aggravated for some reason unbeknownst to him.

"I...I just can't. Please, Edmund, stop acting so childish. I can't tell you why but I just don't want to!" she sat down on the sofa with her head in her hands.

"If you don't want to then why are you such a tease?" he asked, the words spilling out of his mouth before he had time to consider them.

"I beg your pardon?" she exclaimed, raising her fiery gaze on him in disbelief. "A tease? Is that what you take me for?"

"Well you dance around like a little whore, swinging your hips, moving your body in such a way that all a man can think about is what's beneath your clothes and how he can ingratiate himself to find out!" She stared at him, her expression going from angered to hurt to blank to furious.

"So," she stood. In that one word, he felt such a chill in her voice that it froze him to the core. "Is that what you've been doing?"

"No, no, of course not."

"Then what are you thinking about when I dance?" It grew silent as the tension between them thickened. He did not reply. "That's what I thought. Goodnight, Edmund." She started to leave.

"Elaina," he said, catching her hand, his voice soft. She turned to glare at him. He winced internally. "I...I'm sorry. I didn't mean...I just...I can't even tell you how sorry I am."

"Yeah you're sorry alright." With that, she walked out of the room.

After that, he had sent her hundreds of bouquets of flowers, gift upon gift, apology after apology. He had never felt so low, until now of course. Right now, all he wanted was to hold her in his arms. Just hold her...forever...

Edmund awoke to see sunlight pouring through the open window. He yawned as his head suddenly felt like it was bursting open. He groaned and cursed quietly. He did not think he would ever understand his fascination with alcohol. Sure, it was fun for a while, but the next day, he would rather die. Fascination? More like stupidity he thought. He cursed again.

Then, for some reason, he felt like he had three arms. He recalled only having two, so why did he suspect another had somehow come to be? He lifted up the sheet and realized that he did have three arms, except the extra was not his. Then the arm moved itself and he felt someone roll over beside him. He turned over onto his stomach and propped up on his elbows. He could not see her face, but he knew it was Elaina. He turned over again and wrapped his arms around her waist, kissing the back of her head.

"Good morning," he whispered.

"Good morning," she replied, turning to look at him. Edmund felt his stomach drop. This was not Elaina.

"Seda?" he exclaimed, jumping out of the bed. Then, realizing he was completely nude ripped a sheet off of the bed and wrapped it around his waist. "What are you doing in my bed? Get out! Now!"

"Oh, stop being dramatic. This is our bed remember?"

A/N: so there, chapter 14. i have chapter 15 mostly ready, but i really want some reviews on this before i post that one. please please review!