Having arrived at the reception, Beatrice didn't really know what to do. She had a lot of spare time right now and both her fish-friends were working. Maybe she should talk with Viv again? She didn't know exactly if she wanted to, but there weren't many other options right now.

Before she could make her way to the clownfish, Lenny called her towards the receptiondesk. Right now, there was no queue waiting to be checked in, so Beatrice guessed he had some free time.

"I'm so sorry about what happened, Bee. I really am. I know this was my responsibility, I know I should've convinced Ria to let you renovate the menu. It's just... Ria's really scary, I didn't want to make her mad," Lenny explained to her.

Beatrice let out a laugh. "Yeah, she's pretty scary."

"Anyway," Lenny went on, "I shouldn't have put you in that situation, Beatrice. I'm sorry."

For a second, Beatrice felt weird hearing her own name again. It was as if she'd almost forgotten it. It was nice to hear her full name though. She felt the same feeling you feel when you come home after a long journey, but to a lesser extent.

"That's alright," she assured Lenny.

"And thanks for sticking up for me. We really do have each other's backs, don't we?" Lenny grinned at her.

Beatrice agreed with a nod. "I think so." She couldn't help but think about what Ria had told her a few minutes ago.

"He says a lot of things, you know." The words echoed through Beatrice's mind. What could Lenny be hiding? Did something happen between him and Ria?

Beatrice decided it never hurts to simply ask. "Why does Ria..." Beatrice stopped right there. Although she wanted to end her sentence with a "... dislike you?", she simply couldn't. It's never nice to hear that you're not liked by someone, Beatrice knew that very well.

"Hate me?" Lenny shrugged. "It's just that..." He also seemed to be at a loss for words. "We just don't get on well," he decided to finally say.

"But that doesn't matter. Her domain's the kitchen, and all this here, this is my land. We don't have to interact that much with each other, we don't have to stand in each other's way. It's fine like this."

"I don't know... Maybe if you were friends, Ria would've told the boss the truth. She maybe would've taken the blame," Beatrice argued.

"Maybe," Lenny said, "but what you have to understand is that sometimes people just don't get on. Sometimes they simply dislike each other and that's too bad, but it's the way it is."

All Beatrice wanted to do was argue. The two of them probably just never gave each other a chance. Did they ever really talk with each other? She didn't think so. If they had they would've found that they're both ambitious and hard-working fish, who actually have a lot in common.

This whole situation reminded her of her own dispute with Viv. Did she give Viv a fair chance? Of course, she did, Beatrice thought.

Just like Ria'd said however, it's not easy to admit to ones own mistakes. Beatrice wasn't ready to admit to hers just yet.

"How was your workday? Did you co-workers bother you with the whole fiasco?" Lenny asked.

"Yeah... They couldn't stop talking about it."

Lenny gave her an apologetic smile. "Oh.."

"They kept on whispering behind my back and no one wanted to talk to me during lunch." To Beatrice's great embarrassment, her eyes started to sting. She felt like crying. A bad day and not enough sleep was not a good combination.

"Hey, don't cry. It's okay." Lenny swam towards her, leaving his desk empty. Gently, he put his tail on her shoulder. It felt heavy, a lot heavier than Beatrice expected at least, but it was a nice gesture. "Listen, I know this really sucks, but you can't let it get to you. If I would worry about what everyone thinks of me, I would be miserable. People have lots of opinions about me, all the time, as you may have noticed already. You have to learn that no matter what you do, people are going to have an opinion. That's just the way we're all wired."

This thought didn't make Beatrice feel any better.

"But that's okay. Now you know that no matter what you do, there'll always be people who don't necessarily agree with it. So, you might as well just do whatever you feel like. People are gonna have opinions anyway, so who the hell cares? You did what you thought was right. You saved my ass back there. The boss was gonna blame me and Ria wasn't gonna do anything about it. Others might judge you for being disrespectful towards the boss, or maybe they'll just think you're plain stupid, I don't know."

That also didn't really help...

"My point is that it doesn't matter. There are also plenty of people who think you were brave for talking to her. I think you're brave, at least."

That did help a little. Beatrice managed to stop the tears from falling. In the end, as long as her friends here didn't think any less of her, it didn't really matter what she did. "Thanks."

The eel let go of her shoulder. "I know it's hard. I used to care a lot about what others thought of me. You'll learn that it doesn't really matter that much. You'll see, it'll come."

"I hope that realization comes quickly..." Beatrice said

"It'll come. When you're worrying too much about those stupid things just remind yourself, you shouldn't care about little stuff like that. Don't bother yourself with it. It's not productive, or healthy for that matter."

"I'll try."

"That's all you can do."

Beatrice didn't respond for a while, but then she said, "You're a good friend, Lenny."

She saw how his eyes widened. "Really? You think so?"

"You're probably my best friend here, actually."

This made Lenny cringe slightly. "Oh god, I feel sorry for you. If you think I am a good friend I can't imagine how terrible your other friends here are."

Confused, Beatrice shook her head. "No, don't sell yourself short. You're actually a very supportive and kind person. Why wouldn't you be a good friend?"

It seemed that Lenny didn't want to talk about it. He went back to his desk and avoided Beatrice's eyes. "I've got work to do," he said while grabbing random papers from one of the drawers with his mouth.

"Everything okay? Did I say something to upset you, or..?" Beatrice asked.

Lenny let out a sigh. "No, you only say nice things to me, don't worry about it. This is just an issue I have with myself and I don't really want to talk about it."

It stung a little that Lenny didn't feel close enough to her to open up about his issue, but all she could do was accept it. "I'll leave you alone," Beatrice told him.

Just as she wanted to go to make her way to the lounge, someone stopped her. Beatrice felt a fin holding her hand. Confused, she looked to her side. It was Viv.

"Wait, I want to talk to you," she told Beatrice. Her eyes screamed desperation.

"Fine," Beatrice begrudgingly said. "What is it?"

"You're sort of right. I'm quick to judge others. I mean, it's not like I have much else to do. I have to hang around the receptionhall every day. All I can do is watch people and judge them, that's all I've got."

Beatrice rolled her eyes. It wasn't completely intentional, it was more of a reflex. "You could just talk to people, you know?"

"It's so hard to talk to people! Don't you feel that too? I thought you did... You always look a bit uncomfortable and awkward."

"Wow, thanks."

"I'm sorry, that came out wrong. I just wanted to say, I don't do well in social interactions. Only when I see other people who seem to struggle a bit in the social department, only then do I feel safe enough to talk to them. I can't keep up a conversation! Not at all. I'm a bad listener and a bad storyteller. What am I supposed to do? When I meet other people who find that stuff difficult, it doesn't matter that much anymore, because we both suck at it."

"You do realize that you're kind of insulting me right now? That's not a good way to apologize," Beatrice said calmly.

The clownfish looked upset now. She frowned. "I'm not here to apologize. I only wanted to tell you my side of the story, something you didn't even try to hear when we started this... discussion."

"Well no, not really. You started insulting my friends." Beatrice was pretty done with this conversation, she wanted to go to the lounge.

"Okay, maybe I'm sorry for offending you then. Can't you just understand that I have somewhat of a reason for judging them? I don't mean that there's anything wrong with them, but since I'm stuck watching people all day I-"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it. You have nothing better to do with your life so you judge other people in a sad attempt to feel a little bit better about your own sorry life," Beatrice said hastily. She wanted to go.

Viv stopped holding her hand. She looked at the ground and muttered something Beatrice couldn't make out.

The clownfish's feelings were hurt. She didn't respond to Beatrice's harsh words.

The lack of response made Beatrice feel a little bit guilty, just a little. It was enough for her to try to break the awkward silence in order to save the conversation. "Why are you sitting here all day long anyway? Why is that so important?"

Viv still didn't look up to Beatrice. "It's my job," she simply said. After that she went back to her seat.

Beatrice bit her lip. She hated fighting with other people, but what was she supposed to do, just let her talk trash about Glen and Lenny?

What Beatrice didn't want to admit was that she wasn't just defending Glen and Lenny anymore. She'd taken the whole situation to a more personal level. She'd insulted Viv and she'd been too stubborn to be patient with her. The whole situation had escalated, unnecessarily, because of her.

But admitting to your own faults is hard, so Beatrice just went to the lounge and waited for Henry to arrive for her daily interview. Only Henry was already waiting for her and he wasn't alone. 

A bit of a longer chapter. I hope you enjoyed it! In the next chapter Beatrice will meet someone important...