2020-03-22 - One Beer Therapy

Leaning up against the wall outside the church Easton smokes a cigarette a few minutes before the session is supposed to start. He tries to imagine what might come up in the session and how he would force himself to talk about things he doesn't normally talk about. Yes, he's basically psyching himself up for this. With a minute to go he puts out the cigarette and walks down the hall looking determined and perhaps just a touch more fierce than he means to. He knocks on the open door and enters, dressed in his usual jeans and a thin down jacket over a nearly worn through henley shirt.

"Alright. And hear I almost brought a flask to make sure I talked, glad to see we're on the same page." Apparently the sight of the beer is a welcome one.

"Hey!" She greets with a wave, placing g a pen behind her ear, Maggi reaches for a key-chain with a bottle opener on her hip and cracks the condensation ladened bottles open. The caps are flourished into her pocket. Rule one of delinquency being a lack of tractable evidence. "Comfort is key," she states, raising her stout to her lips and a sarcastic eyebrow. The pen is retrieved, she waits for him to join her.

Easton doesn't need to be told twice, he gladly picks up his bottle and takes a drink. Technically he's not breaking any of his drinking rules right now, so he's in the clear. He settles into the chair and nods a few times. "So, uh.. sorry for cutting last time short. I do honestly want to do this." It's awkward, but even in his his voice is louder than normal conversational levels, a trademark of Easton at this point.

This gets a slightly raspy laugh from Maggi as she watches Easton with a jovial blue gaze. "I'm not going to be offended by that, I hated talking to other psyc majors honestly, never bang one." The remark is flippant, but there was often a know-it all persona that accompanied those in the mental health field. This was part of the reason she had gone for something a bit more left of center. "You and Bennie seem to have worked things out." Maggi comments casually, taking another swig.

"Appreciate the tip." He laughs easily at her advice on partners to avoid and tries to relax into the conversation. His posture is still far too upright and the tension in his body is easily visible. He even rocks ever so slightly with a bit of nervous energy. "We are!" His face brightens and says, "It's been good. She's been working on .. stuff. I've been .." he smirks at the beer and says, "Honestly, I've been drinking less. It's been a thing, for a while.. so I'm working on that." Thing. Stuff. Way to dig deep Marshall.

"Other than the drinking competition." Maggi adds with a pointed raise of her drink. Way to go Magdalena, setting people backwards in their personal goals. "Was for charity though, so all good things." She adds to alleviate dissonance. "Meant the world to Leon" Maggi adds as an afterthought.

"Why did you decide to work on that?" She pokes quizzically. Always interesting to know someones motivation for a goal. She herself had been trying not to leave dirty dishes in Leon's sink because it made him twitch.

Easton says, "Well yea. Those excluded." Easton grins and says, "Because if you're gonna drink you better be a damn winner at it." There is a little laugh, "Good, I'm glad. I'm always happy to help for veteran causes." Not that he knows Leon well but he's glad to hear it.

"Bennie and I both decided. When we uh, got back together that some things needed to change. I've been drinking pretty heavy since the accident, and it hasn't exactly helped my decision making skills." He would laugh if he knew about the dirty dishes as he's still working with Bennie on where her shoes go. So much twitching."

She shifts her legs in an attempt to make the metal chair less uncomfortable, which was just expecting something of the chair beyond it's design. Her mood for the day was along the lines of 'fuck it', so maybe more beer would help. The 'veteran's causes' remark gets a grin.

"Sounds like she seems to understand you pretty well." The statement is filled with approval. "Even if it's not something you want to tell be do you guys have a plan for replacement behaviors, or what to do when faced with triggers for it?" Just something to consider. "Are there things that make sticking with that harder than others for you?"

The fact that there's only one beer for him in someways makes it worse because he has to drink it slowly. "She does. I think.. I think it helps that she has her own issues to get over." Which he obviously doesn't want to talk about. He smirks and considers making some flippant remark. But he thinks better of it, "I .. don't have much of a plan?" He just shrugs and says, "I mean I could bullshit about working out, but honestly I've been limiting the drinking but not really great at figuring out a replacement."

With a look down at the beer and then raising his eyebrows, ""Well, my ex-fiance is in town and involved in the largest financial deal of my life, so that probably counts in that column." Yea. Probably.

This gets a small nod. Humans primarily wanted to do what they wanted to do, more often selfish creature, no judgement their. "Having issues is in fact allowed." Maggi jokes at Easton's assessment. At least he was realistic. "If you feel like it maybe just try different stuff until you find something that works, don't just try to force yourself to do the thing you think should work."

She gives a pause for a moment, thinking back to the event. "She was at the Pourhouse on St. Patrick's Day?" An innocent enough question, at one point Easton's mood did drop that she had noted. "Tough break regardless."

Easton opens both hands and says, "Yea that's probably true." at the fact taht people are allowed issues. He nods and says, "That's helpful." He thinks abck to some of Geoff's more arcane suggestions for redirecting his attention and shakes his head a bit amused. "I'm sure I can find something." And he needs to.

Taking in a breath and then nodding slowly, "Yeea. I may or may not have said shit that I regret that night, and then again when she showed up at my bar." He shakes his head and says, "I need to figure out how to deal with her because it definitely makes me want to just .. drown this."

Maggi sets her own beer on the not table. She would take the that as an admission that Easton would at least give the concept a try as a win for the day. "Is she being needlessly antagonistic?" Someone being a pain in the butt and not respecting personal boundaries is a different pot of stew. "Does Bennie know about the stress it causes or could she help you out with it?" The showing up at his bar part Maggi certainly hoped was an accident, she was not a fan of needlessly vindictive.

Easton's eyes slide off to the side at questions of Katherine's behavior. He says, "Maybe? But.. more likely I'm just pissed cause she's here? And .." He hems and haws for a moment before finishing, "I probably haven't dealt with how things ended." He is saved from continuing down that line of thought for the moment by the next question. "Bennie knows. We haven't talked much about it? But she knows, and that's good."

Not a bad spread of information given his general reluctance to talk about himself. "Being angry is valid, you're trying to build something for yourself and it's a life you have worked hard for. Do you think you could be comfortable telling the ex that you just want your own space? You can't control where someone is is GPS proximity, but maybe if she understands you're working on your own shit, it could be a little less difficult? After all you seem happy." She gives a glance around the dusty space. "Alternatively if you don't think that's an option,you may just have to work out what you haven't let go of, not caring is neutrality. You have your own life to live, the power you give her is up to you."

The beer is finished despite Easton's best attempt to drink it slowly, but he keeps in his hands and passes it back and forth. He raises his eyebrow, "I.. think I would need to drink a shit ton to get that out to her, which would kind of defeat the purpose." He is definitely being more open this time around. Maybe it's the topic. His lips go tight for a moment and then says, "But. I probably need to apologize for.. a lot of shit." It's not so much a long list, as a short one. "And I'm pretty sure her power is in the suits and the weirdly shiny hair."

A beat is taken as Maggi finishes chugging her own beer. She takes the bottle in a single hand and bends down to place it in a canvas messenger bag. This gives her a pause to think on what he says. "Maybe just take it a step at a time. If you can get to a point where you can talk to yourself about it without it being such a big deal go from there. I suck at being wrong and I am wrong all the time. I just revisit it until I figure out what is more worth it, either being justified or being less angry. You seem like you want things that matter more than just being mad or numb, that's pretty badass." She stands and folds up her chair. "Let me know when you want to have another beer, we can just talk till it's gone. That way you can always decide when you're sick of me." She give a wry grin. "And if you do talk to your ex, ask what she uses on her hair. I could use it."

Easton nods and looks appreciative of the words. "Yea. That's probably fair." He doesn't looks exactly happy about it but he's not scowling, so that's good. He stands when she does, likewise folding his beer. He shakes his head and says, "I will probably not ask that, but I'm betting it's baby tears." Because yes, sometimes it's fun to villainize his ex, even if there's no real heat behind it. He asks, "Who knows maybe next time, we'll work our way up to two beers."

Maggi holds the door open for him as they depart into the newly spring weather, still chilly in it's evenings. "I'll be pretty solid then, children hate me. Just text me to let me know amount of beers if it deviates from one. I'm not here to fuck your goals up." Maggi notes the lack of bite to his words and appreciates the humor with a sarcastic grin. "Good to see you Easton, maybe one day I'll even be able to show up to your bar without prejudice." All in good fun, she did after-all genuinely like him as a person.

Easton laughs and says, "See? You're already on your way to shiny hair." The thought of her harvesting baby tears is pretty great. "And I appreciate it." He grins at her talking about showing up at his bar, "And maybe we won't throw things at you and mix you weak drinks if you do. Maybe." He takes his bottle with him and waves, hopping into his jeep. He leans out the window to yell at the church, "You're probably fuckin haunted with dead children!" Before looking at her and shrugging, "It didn't feel right to just let it off easy this time."