Seymour desperately turned the key in the ignition of his and Audrey's apparently traitorous car, simultaneously mentally cursing it for breaking down in The Middle of Nowhere, Nebraska as the sky got concerningly dark and instead of in one of its marginally less in the middle of nowhere towns, as well as himself for anything he might have done that led to this very humbling and potentially very dangerous moment. And for apparently not being able to discern the inner-workings of car engines as a man, especially a husband and provider, should be able to. He gratefully took a few of the candy raspberries and blackberries from the bag that Audrey sympathetically offered him, mumbling a distracted thanks while reflecting on the much nicer and non-gas station cuisine he would eventually be treating his lovely wife to in Denver if the currently hours-long trend of these seemingly forsaken backroads being bereft of their fellow mortals and potential salvation ever came to an end. As well as those botanical gardens…
Suddenly, Audrey snapped him out of his longing contemplations by addressing him. "...Seymour? Y'know how we've always almost seemed to attract terrible situations... like this one, and in my case they've tended to come in the form of drips and creeps like Orin... Scrivello DDS findin' me and houndin' me right after I've stopped seein' the last one for whatever reason?" ...Am...am I one of those guys?! We did start dating right after... His panicked thoughts were scattered as Audrey reassuringly placed an elegant hand on his and squeezed it. "Seymour, no, you're so much better than those guys, and I'm so thankful everyday that I have you instead a... one a them havin' me still..." Immensely relieved and even more overwhelmed with love for her than usual, Seymour stopped holding his breath and flipped his thankfully not shaking... too badly hand over so that he could hold hers. "I...I love you so much, Audrey, and I swear to you, I'll protect you from those jerks, I'll never let any of them hurt you ever again." Audrey gave his hand another squeeze, directing one of her enchanting smiles and her captivating gaze towards the floor of the car for a long moment, before meeting his eyes again and continuing to speak.
"...But I want you to, Seymour-just until we get outta here, anyway. I was thinking..." She briefly gave a knowing glance in a direction he could not comprehend, only adding to his alarmed confusion. "...maybe if we temporarily stopped seein' each other, another one a those guys would show up and be able to get us to a gas station with a phone, and we could call for help... after undoing it, of course." Despite the entirely staged and impermanent nature of Audrey's plan, stupid and illogical panic seared through Seymour, preventing him from responding for a hopefully not too long moment. "...Uh... yeah, we could try that..." As Audrey embraced him, he simultaneously reveled in the luckily now familiar feeling of her strong and soft arms and reviled himself for once again failing to hide a weak and emasculating emotional reaction from her, feeling her pull away from him slightly to face him after a moment. "Uh... okay, here goes... how dare you..." She let out one of her sublime laughs. "Oh God... it's hard for me to even think of anything... uh... I can't believe you took a day to remember to mow the lawn last week, Seymour, we are through!" Their laughter was almost immediately brought to a halt by the cursed sound of a motorcycle in the distance, and terror shot through Audrey's eyes for a moment before she buried her sweet face into Seymour's chest, breathing heavily.
And thus completely eliminated his ability and will to exit the car and wave down the motorcycle's rider. Or do much of anything besides lovingly stroke her exquisite back and offer her sweet and hopefully properly reassuring nothings. Fortunately, he heard the motorcycle skid to a halt nearby anyway, followed closely by Audrey getting her breathing back to its usual pace and lifting her head and a very enthused series of three knocks at the side window overlooking the driver's seat. Seymour managed to look around at the window, quickly doing a double take and spinning around in his seat when he saw that the driver of the motorcycle was Patrick Martin... what was it... Licensing and Marketing, World Botanical Enterprises? As Audrey reached over to the window crank and lowered it, Patrick leaned against the car with smug self-assurance. "Well, well, well, if it isn't the young botanical genius who was apparently too good for my... I mean our... incredible idea..."
Seymour barely managed to stop himself from punching him right in his stupid face as he flirtily winked at Audrey, flashing him a mocking look before continuing to gaze amorously at his wife. "As well as his oh so lovely girlfriend..." Seymour defensively took Audrey's hand in his. "Hey, Audrey is my wife..." He quickly trailed off as Audrey interrupted him, at the same time hesitantly... hopefully it was hesitantly... moving her hand. "Ex-wife... soon to be, anyway... unfortunately the marriage didn't survive the first vacation... and the car giving out has just added insult to injury, but thank God you're here and can help out with that second problem... if you wouldn't mind?" Patrick stared at them for a moment, matching Seymour with his confusion but not with his disgustingly prideful triumph and vulturine opportunism. "...Why, little lady, as a matter of fact, it would be nothing but my pleasure to offer my unending, all-encompassing, faithful assistance to you with both of those little predicaments a yours... although, I must say, I must admit that I am slightly puzzled at the... position I found you and this kid in?"
Seymour burst out of the car, unfortunately barely missing him with the car door as he cowardly jumped out of the way, and was calmed and reassured slightly as Audrey quickly made her way to his side and a short distance in front of him and gave him a brief, comforting hand squeeze. "...He... uh... took it well?" Patrick looked between them for a moment in confusion and suspicion for a moment before nodding, making his way over to them with that stupid grandiose gait of his, and walking them to his motorcycle, seemingly thinking better if he was even capable of doing such a thing of attempting to take Audrey by the hand after Seymour shot him a death-glare. They reached the motorcycle, and Seymour noted with satisfaction that his voice now had a definite intimidated note to it. "...Alright... well, boy-Krelborn, me'n this fine bird'll be getting some help to you in no time at all." He is NOT taking Audrey away from me even for a second! Especially after what was done to her the last time I was stupid enough to let one of these vile fuckers do that! "You are not lea-"
Audrey gave him another far too brief reassuring hand squeeze as she interrupted him. "If it wouldn't be too much trouble for you, could he come along with us? It looks like we could all fit on your... motorcycle at the same time... if we squeeze together a little bit..." Once again, Patrick gave them that stupid confused look. "...Uh... aren't you glad to have an opportunity to be rid of him for a while, after everything he's put you through? It must've been quite something if it got you to wake up, smell the coffee, and bravely break his hold on you." Audrey thought of a response for a moment while Seymour wondered what would happen if he kicked the stand of the motorcycle away from the ground while Patrick was on it. "...I... uh... also took it well?" After a moment of Patrick annoyingly looking between them, he nodded, briefly attempting to help Audrey onto the motorcycle before Seymour completed this task himself.
Her soothing and all too short-lived grip on his hand cut through his anger and insecurity somewhat, and they faded further but not completely as she melted into his embrace after he and Patrick had sat behind and in front of her respectively. Patrick awkwardly fumbled around for a moment before pulling out a second helmet. "I unfortunately only have the one spare helmet with this motorcycle at the moment... of course, it should rightfully be bestowed to-" He stopped speaking and giving Audrey that fucking audaciously flirtatious look as Seymour unceremoniously took the helmet from his hands and handed it to his wife much more gently than he had taken it, receiving a grateful and loving look in return. "...Thanks... I really do appreciate you helping us like this." As she took a brief moment to figure out how to get it on, Seymour recalled with horror that Orin had not shown her the apparently not basic or universal courtesy of caring whether or not she would, God forbid, be... killed in a motorcycle crash, causing him to tighten his hold on her, admittedly in an effort to reassure himself as well as her.
Patrick repositioned his gaze from them to the road, finally getting his stupid motorcycle which wasn't even a Harley, apparently it was a BMW, which was probably a much worse brand, started. "...Oh, it's my pleasure, don't you worry your pretty little head about a thing." The agonizingly awkward drive went by mercifully quickly, especially after Audrey wordlessly pointed out a western prairie fringed orchid to him. Whether she had remembered him telling her that they were rare or just thought that it was pretty he couldn't be sure, but he couldn't help but hope for the former. As the very odd and unfortunately still banded together motley crew fortunately reached a now weirdly beautiful gas station, Seymour jumped off of the motorcycle and out of Patrick's infuriating presence slightly before it had come to a complete stop, nearly falling over, before stopping his fall with a pole and helping a now concerned Audrey off of the motorcycle.
As Patrick addressed them, Audrey hesitantly and unfortunately let go of Seymour's hand, quickly looked through the windows of the gas station's convenience store, likely confirming that it did in fact have a phone so that they wouldn't get stranded again, and gave him his spare helmet back. "...Well, Miss Fulquard, I must say, it has been absolutely delightful seeing you aga-" As he attempted to hand Audrey some kind of idiotic business card, Seymour defensively made his way to her side and slightly in front of her, taking her hand in his. "Uh-huh, yeah, great, thanks, leave." Patrick oh so gratifyingly backed away from him slightly after he added an edge to his voice before almost concernedly addressing Audrey. "...Au... Miss Fulquard, is this guy bothering you? I would be more than happy to take care of it for you in the event that he was." Audrey gave him a quick, reassuring head shake before leaning into Seymour's side, comforting him slightly and increasing the love he felt for her even further. "No, he's not, don't worry... I appreciate your concern, though."
As another moment passed without Patrick getting on his dumb motorcycle and getting the hell away from them, Seymour stepped towards him in a fashion that hopefully came across as menacing. "So get out of here! Go on!" After a gratefully much less long moment, Patrick exasperatedly got on his stupid motorcycle. "Alright! Fine! I'm leaving!" He somehow had the audacity to give Audrey a flirty "I'll call you" gesture before cowardly driving away immediately afterwards, but Seymour found it difficult to care too much about that after she embraced him. "Seymour, I'm sorry, it's just that he seemed so angry with you and so... well... forward with me... I was worried that he might not be willing to help us... or at least you... if he knew that we're together still." She added a flirtatious and joking note to her voice. "If you'll take me back, that is." He lovingly ran a hand along her back, coming down from his anxiety further as she melted into him. "Of course, Audrey! And it's okay, I'm sorry this vacation hasn't exactly been shaping up to what you deserve so far." Audrey tightened her embrace for a moment before unfortunately breaking away from him, taking him by the hand before starting to head towards the convenience store, with him quickly following her lead. "That's not your fault, Seymour-and besides, I'm sure things'll start looking up soon... Maybe they'll even have some more of those really good candies in there!"