Erich laughs when ada tells him he doesn't suck. She always was very supportive in Erich's music. Even though he had the strongest feeling that she would have never listened to it unless they were together. Thinking more on the ancient history with Nina t...whom was rumored to be dead,was weird. She had been an almost taboo subject since that day. "I'll give you that it could have been seen as inappropriate. But i figured it was fine. You were on the ship too. " erich shrugs and lets the memory fade back to obscurity. It was nice to hear that ada believed him now. But..it was too late. Erich returned to his seat. He assumed his pacing would only serve to make the anxious Ada even more so. He places his feet back on the table and wiggles his toes in thought. If they were being honest about the past,he may as well speak his mind on it. " i knew you were scared of losing me. I could feel it..and..well,that's a crushing thing to live under,you know? It was like,nothing i did was ever that little bit that would finally be the bow that tied the package up for you. But, I adored you,so it was fine." Erich says,looking down at Ada's feet. He randomly thinks of dustyn's foot fetish and smiles slightly. Erich wasn't sure where they went from here. Did he and Ada just pretend that the previous few minutes didn't happen? It would be exceptionally easy to hide any occurrence here tonight from selene..aside from erich was a terrible liar and it was unfair to make Ada the other woman. But,Erich couldn't help but notice Ada's wording. " what did you want?" He asks far more bluntly than he intended. He really only assumed the shame of thinking of dirty possibilities with an ex were his alone.

It did feel nice to have his thoughts on certain aspects of the relationship with Ada be validated...by a source that wasn't biased towards him. But still,he felt bad that this might be taken as sort of attacking Ada,which is wasn't. "But there were great times too. Let's not focus on just the bad. I'm a grown ass man and could have left if it was too unbrarable. Besides,we got a Marlena out of it. So that seems pretty good." Erich says, looking to get some of the jovial feeling of the night back. It was terribly unfair to remember their time together as bad. It wasn't .at all. If it was,they wouldn't be in this room together. Erich widens his eyes at Ada being more ballsy than himself in her reply. She was far more honest about the situation than he was. He leans back in his chair and looks at Ada briefly. He wanted to sit beside her and hold her as she looked upset. But that would probably look sleazy,given the conversation. " yeah..." Erich starts and sighs. "Are we terrible people? " he asks Ada quietly before adding," am I terrible for wondering how if there is a way this could work?" He says with a humorless laugh,already knowing the answer.

Erich closes his eyes and visualizes the first year of their life together. It had been good,certainly as good as any other relationship their friends had. Possibly better in some repsects. Erich couldn't remember Ada or himself trying to manipulate the other. " a good year is a pretty good run,right? Especially in celebrity circles. That is like 14 years in normal time." Erich laughs warmly. "I can't help but wonder what things would have went...you know." Erich says,trailing off. He did not want to actually use the word cult. He was sure Ada had heard it enough. " it's hard to say, but i think we may have split anyway. Or just be weird about it and live on two separate floors of the same building." He jokes and slips down in his chair in an attempt to get comfortable. The relative comfort in which they had went back to speaking to each other made erich think even in a normal split,they may have still been sort of around each other. Erich thinks on Ada's words and gives a slow nod. " there is something there. You still do make me laugh." He agrees in a hushed tone. It was wrong and he knew it was wrong ,but he did want to be honest with ada. His mind did float to selene. It would be super easy to get away with this. They lived very separate lives and went weeks without speaking. Erich looked over Ada hugging her pillow and sighed. "Maybe it's just lust,right? It's been a long time.." He offers as an excuse. " and it would probably be really awkward.".

erich certainly did not expect to hear that ada thought their issues were fixable at all. while there were few details he knew about the cult thing,he assumed desperation made it sound good to hear. though he was pretty sure nobody looks around something that is clearly a cult and joins. "you really think so? i thought i was supposed to be the pessimist of us." he laughs and looks ada over again. it was nice to see her again,he pushed her so far out of his mind for so long that he still was occasionally surprised about how much me missed her. " though,you may be right. if anything,we'd have stuck it out from sheer stubberness and made it work." he says with a little laugh. one thing that he and ada had in common was they werent easily dissuaded from something they wanted. if ada hadnt left,he couldnt see himself actually leaving her. erich bit his lip in thought.again,ada did have a point. there was potential things to be very good. after all,make up sex years in the making...they write epic films about stuff like that. erich sighed a little and looked for a pillow of his own to play with,there was none. so he picked up his sprite can. "i..guess,lets put the tom jones back on and see where this crazy ride ends up." erich says with a little shrug and offering his hand for a dance.
"though i do warn you,i'm a terrible liar. people may know." he says as the final toe that still remained on the other side of the threshold

"i guess years away will do that,right?" erich says with a little smirk. the longer he was with ada,the more and more the whole thing about her leaving him felt like a skit on tv. ada was fairly young when they first got together. she was a full fledged adult now,she was a mom and a seemingly functional adult. if anything,she was probably more of an actual adult than erich. erich had never paid a bill or took care of a sick child. he had people who took care of his daily expenses (who before cassie came along were robbing him blind.) until today,parenthood was sort of a vague happening in erich's mind. erich was rather interested to get to know ada again. in his mind,he hadnt really changed. in fact,in the hess clan,he was the only constant. all his other friend had sort of progressed in life. he was like the world's oldest juvenile delinquent . erich sat the sprite can down and figured it was time to let ada in on his personal life. it probably was only right,things had the potential to get very personal between them later." ada...i dont want to seem like i'm justifying something which..cmon,we both know is wrong. but..she.." erich wasnt sure how affairs worked. was the unknowing person ever spoken of? he really didnt know and didnt want to say her name,just in case. "she and i...dont exactly spend a lot of time together. hell,i havent seen her since april. she works a very demanding corporate job and i..well,you know. i'm always on the road. it's not like after tonight i'll be going home to her for dinner. but..if it wasnt you? i would never even entertain this." erich tells ada,in what became a rather blatant justifying of erich's thoughts. but he wasnt lying. even at his b list fame,sex for sex's sake was available. the flame erich had for ada had never quite snuffed itself out. the ember was still smoldering. erich also assumed he knew ada well enough to know that being the other woman wouldnt really sit well with her.

erich wasnt sure if it was better or worse that neither he or ada would do such a thing with other people. a romantic person may think that this was sweet and that erich and ada were simply meant to be. several romantic comedies seemed to use that premise. others would find it far worse that it wasnt about just sex. it was strange that for all of erich's degeneracy,he'd never cheated on a lover before. but that just wasnt his kick. he actually preferred stability in his personal life. he had enough chaos in his life and liked at least one aspect to be a constant. erich nods at ada's words. they did seem to understand each other after all this time. erich watched the pillow fall and expected ada to perhaps start dancing or something semi innocent. but no. before he realized her lips were on his and he was kissing her back. the drug made the kiss feel like it was transferring the very essence of ada to him. it was amazing instead of awkward. erich held ada's hands as they kissed. the line was crossed and righteous justice hadnt struck either of then down. when the kiss broke,erich still held on to ada's hands. "well...that wasnt awkward at all." he tells her with a slight grin. he really hadnt expected that at all. like disaster victim on tv,it had all happened so fast.

erich laughs when ada just up and leave him there in his chair. "what? you're now the love em and leave em sort?" erich playfully teases the now distant ada. thanks to the mescaline,the spatial distortion did make it seem like she was miles away. much like a drug taken,they were now in this for the duration. the innocent visit for hallucinogen taking was gone. kissing ada felt as close as it ever did. it didnt feel dirty at all and the ember that still burned for her did catch fire. erich uses the arms of the chair to pull himself up to the standing position and he reached out to ada while the sounds of what's new,pussycat ? fills the room. the walls dissolve to the open sea and roof above them becomes clouds. "let's wiggle and dance,miss ada." erich asks ada with a grin.

ada's actions were much more the ada erich had remembered. she wasnt a stranger whom he had to put some thought into what he said or did. she was just ada. it was refreshing but comfortable. to be completely honest,the wrongness of it all was rather thrilling. it was the adult version of sneaking a cookie from the cookie jar. only this cookie wasnt just tasty and fun,it was the sort of cookie that nourished one's very being. having ada's hand while she danced was like holding on to the tail of a tiger, it was like giving the finger to god itself. hearing her sing was a bit of a mind fuck since she sounded a lot like gretchen. germanish people had been in short supply around erich lately. ada's voice came like a rotary speaker and it hit erich at his very being. it was very rare to have the same hallucination as someone else. this had been the cement that held erich and erica together since they were 17. its possible he misheard ada,but erich took it to heart. she could also see the bounding waves,the cartoon duke, and the sky that looked like an aztec sun. they were there together. "i think it was always you,ada. tom jones knows. that thick motherfucker knows whats up." erich says with certainty.

they were officially partners in crime now. they both didnt just cross the line,they held hands and skipped over it. how would tomorrow be? how would the next day be? they already established they were terrible liars. did this make it better? being a good liar wasnt exactly an admirable trait. they were going to be caught eventually,there was no doubt about this. ada's arms went around erich's neck and his arms went around her waist. he could feel the curve from where waist became hips. this wasnt the place one held another in a completely innocent dance. in his closed eye visuals with each blink,erich saw tom jones giving him a wink. tom knew what was up. erich remembered wearing a skirt made of crystals from a chandelier of the duke during their kiss,but he may have been remembering another time with ada on the ship. they had spent so many happy hours on the ship,unlike erica and nicole. erich didnt remember many of their fights happening on the ship. the duke was pure. the apartment where fat and hairy dietrich slept however..." it was and is nice,ada." erich says with a smile before holding her face with both hands and kissing her very lightly,as if she could get scared at any moment and run off. he still wanted to give her an out in case reality came barging in.

ada's words sounded correct. it was something very much that erich would do. much like most of his existence,there was erich hess the character and erich hess the person. erich hess,the man, had a hard time coming to understand that anyone would be interested in him.on the duke,he wasnt the persona that he thought people wanted him to be. he was the scared and crushingly insecure man that he always was. which is probably why he and ada got a long so. there was a lot of shared ground between them. ada had seen that,she had lived with it and yet hadnt rejected him."i dont remember that very clearly,miss ada." erich admits quietly. he feels guilty about this and looks slightly away from ada before looking back to her again. "but i do remember hiding behind a joke that i was interested in you." erich tells ada. if there was any time to be completely open with her,it was now. with her head on his chest,erich caresses ada's head. he had missed her blonde hair. he had met her with red hair,but it was eventually blonde towards the end. " i missed kissing you too. you gave the best kisses." he tells her,resting his chin on her head. he didnt care if it never went any further than this. it didnt matter. nothing could be more intimate than two exes talking about what once was while the potential of trying it again was there.