Heart to Heart

Unlike Leopold, who was exceedingly hopeful about his prospects, Elisabeth felt as though she had little to no idea what to do with herself. This year was shaping up to be nothing like her prior breeding cycle, and more than that the fight between her and Sara had caused a great distance between her and one of the few people she truly counted as a friend in the world. While Sara had a way of getting under her skin, Elisabeth truly did value her friendship, and if she weren't so bitter about how she had interfered in the first place Sara would have been the first person she would have turned to to help ease the raging torrent of thoughts that plagued her mind. In her absence she had tried to read to ease her thoughts, but it had only served to further exasperate her already troubled mind. In a last ditch effort to clear her head she headed to the outdoor fittness area for a quick run. It was a cool spring morning and the chill in the air stung as the wind whipped against her skin. To some, perhaps this sensation would have been off-putting, but at the moment it was exactly what Elisabeth needed. It provided a sense of clarity and focus that she had desperately been craving since the invitations were sent out. For just a little while it was nice not to have to worry about anything but the wind against her face and the pavement below her feet. So single-minded was her focus that she didn't even notice when another woman had decided to join her on her run.

Maria Sanchez had happened by on her way to the indoor fitness center when she noticed that Elisabeth was out for a run. While most of the women looked at Elisabeth's recent behavior with a sort of strange curiosity or even pitty, Maria saw a reflection of herself. After all, it hadn't been that long since she herself had had been in a similar situation. She knew very well how isolated Elisabeth likely felt at the moment. As such, she felt compelled to offer some sort of solace. It was for this reason that she headed out to speak to Elisabeth, even knowing that her help may not be desired or appreciated, as her relationship with the king had created an obvious disconnect between her and the other ladies of rose palace.

It didn't take long for Maria to catch up with Elisabeth and make her presence known. Upon seeing Maria, Elisabeth's heart dropped. she felt certain that Maria was just going to prod for information while gushing about her own love, but she couldn't have been more wrong.

"So," Maria asked. "Are you nervous?" She paused expecting some sort of reply, but Elisabeth remained silent, so she tried again. "It's an impossible place isn't it? No matter what you do you are going to disappoint someone. If you choose to mate for love, than you disappoint all the practical people out there and run the risk of heartbreak, but if you choose the practical choice you feel like you'll betray your own heart."

Elisabeth listened to Maria's words, feeling sorrowful and conflicted. The weight of this decision was enough to stop her dead in her tracks, but not even Maria could have imagined the question that followed. "What if there is no right choice, or no practical choice, for that matter? What if I feel something I can't explain for both of them? What then? How do I choose?" As Elisabeth spoke her words tumbled out one the other. The confusion and heartbreak were evident in her voice.

Maria was stunned by this question, so much so that she too stopped in her tracks. Her connection with the king had overwhelmed everything else so quickly upon meeting him that it was hard for her to understand Elisabeth's heart in this matter, however she still wanted to understand. Perhaps it was because she had been so isolated in The Rose Palace or maybe it was just the natural kindness that grew in her own heart, but she felt a strong desire to understand, if only so that Elisabeth didn't have to feel as alone as she did this whole time. Her eyes grew wide and she fumbled for words as she spoke. "What is it that draws you to each of them?" She enquired. "How do they make you feel?"

Elisabeth had anticipated a multitude of possible responses to her questions, but this wasn't one of them, and the earnest nature of Maria's questions left her completely of guard. Before she knew it all the little details of her encounters with the two men came pouring forth from her lips. She talked about everything from the way she had met Bill and how it felt seeing him again to the excessively calculated and arrogant nature of Leopold's first impression and how strange and compelling it was when he opened up that night, everything down to his sudden confession at the end of the night. When she finally finished she looked breathlessly at Maria, who was still unpacking everything that she just heard. Without any signs of a response she added, "I have wanted to meet Bill again ever since I first met him. All I really wanted was to thank him, but now, I don't know, there's just something more. And Leopold makes things so much more complicated. I just don't know what to do." She looked at Maria with eyes brimming up with tears that she had been holding back this whole time.

Maria didn't waste a moment before wrapping her in a warm hug and assuring her that it would be ok. This was all it took for the damb of emotions that Elisabeth had been suppressing to burst, bringing forth a virtual flood of tears. The two of them stayed that way until her tears dried up. Only then did Maria ask the questions that had been on her mind. It hadn't taken her long to figure out who she was talking about. She fully understood why a girl like Elisabeth would feel drawn to a man like Bill Thompson. He was a handsome, yet strange man, who completely obsessed over his work. From everything she had heard he never showed any real interest in the breeding program, but it was exactly this that would have attracted Elisabeth to him. Not only was she a somewhat obsessive intellectual type herself, but she always seemed to be looking for something more than she could have. Leopold McAllister, on the other hand, was a man she had met personally, on more than one occasion. She found his personality to be somewhat off-putting, in large part because of the issue he had with her relationship with the king. she simply couldn't imagine this man being someone who could cause such emotions in Elisabeth. She searched for her words carefully as she asked, "What is it about Leopold that you find so compelling? What makes him a complication?"

Elisabeth laughed whole heartedly at this question and smiled brightly as she responded with an answer that surprised even her. "He's just like me!" She exclaimed. "He spends so much of his time being and doing, saying, and acting in the way that others expect of him that when he found himself opening up he didn't really know what to say, yet at the same time he craved that interaction so much that watching him was like looking into a mirror. I want to feel something so intense that the whole world turns upside down, even if just for a year, and when I look at him I feel as if I could do just that."

With this Maria finally understood and gained a new perspective on not one, but two people in her life. Despite her understanding, she had no real advice to give. Instead, she clasped Elisabeth's hands and gave her a kiss on the forehead. She looked at her seriously and said the only thing she knew to be true. "No matter what happens, I know you'll make the right choice, so long as you are true to yourself. Just this once, forget everyone else and do what makes you happy."

This marked the end of the fated conversation between the two, each one talking something different from the interaction. Elisabeth gained the confidence to make a choice that had been weighing so heavily on her mind, and Maria gained an understanding of a plight that was different from her own. Regardless of the immediate takeaway, however, both girls gained something invaluable, a friendship that would last a lifetime.