Ted's Narration, 2030
"That summer, I learned that when love begins and when love ends, the first thirty days are remarkably similar."
Summer 2006
"There's a reason you spend more time in bed."
On the first day, you could see Ted waking up with a smile. That second morning of his new relationship with Robin was basically a repeat of the previous morning, but with the difference that this time he woke up with Robin in his bed, in his apartment, not Robin's.
There, you could see the morning light filtering through his apartment window, illuminating the sleeping figure of Robin beside him, in an embrace under the covers. In contrast, just a few steps from that room was Marshall, who was awake, alone on one edge of the large bed he shared with Alyx and Lily. In this case, the opposite side where Alyx slept and the center where Lily always slept were both empty and cold, the sheets slightly disturbed by Marshall.
Meanwhile, in the living room of that same apartment, Alyx woke up on the sofa with a slightly stiff neck and a bitter taste in her mouth. She hadn't been able to enter the same room she shared with Marshall and Lily the previous night. The idea of lying next to him alone, without Lily, or knowing that there was no longer a specific relationship binding the three of them, made her feel incomplete without both of them. At that moment, it wasn't possible for her to seek that solace in his contact when the piece that completed that three-piece puzzle was missing. And even more so, knowing that she could have done something, since she knew the whole plot, all the situations—which, of course, everyone else was unaware of, and she had no way of telling them that Alyx knew their lives from a previous time, from a future era, in a very different context (but we'll see that later).
Day 3
While Ted and Robin were experiencing this new relationship, spending every moment together, always maintaining some kind of contact, some conversation, some smile—that thrill of discovering everything new about a romantic relationship, those fascinating moments...
During those first times, Ted always remained on that cloud of love and euphoria for having conquered what, at that moment, was the love of his life, so to speak: Robin. Meanwhile, Marshall, for his part, had turned his bed into a base of mourning. He spent all day in it. The sheets were already tangled from constant movement while he had a nightmare. He barely left the room to go to the bathroom, sometimes to get something from the kitchen, always dragging his feet as if he didn't have the strength to stand for long. It seemed as if he had sentenced himself to be locked away as much as possible in his room, as far from the outside world as possible and as close to what was once his happy place, somehow trying, in that universe, to keep all the focus of the warmth he once felt enclosed within those four walls, even if he was alone. Because even though his room held the best memories, it also held the one that hurt the most.
For her part, Alyx had declared a silent war against chaos. Because after the time shared and the love she felt for Lily and Marshall, Alyx didn't believe it was possible they would separate like this. Even though she knew everyone's lives and didn't remember every moment so clearly after integrating into her new life, she hadn't foreseen the moment this separation would explode or how much it would affect her. Although she knew the possible future where Lily would return and everything would go back to normal, she didn't know if her presence affected it or if there could be more changes she couldn't control.
Thus, she now wanted to control the things in her life. So, she began a silent battle against chaos through an insane dedication to cleaning every surface she could in the apartment. She organized every item in the kitchen alphabetically, constantly vacuumed with a meticulousness bordering on obsessive, every dish and kitchen utensil was washed and always arranged in a specific order. The pots they had were polished as much as possible, the wooden surfaces were kept as shiny as possible, and the marble or tiled surfaces were polished. She was engaged in such a grand attempt to control what she could within her shared apartment, being her only way to impose order in her daily life—something she couldn't do in her love life, which she had lost several days ago.
Although she kept herself constantly busy, whether organizing the apartment, working on her computer, or whatever, her gaze often oscillated between her activities and the closed door of the bedroom where Marshall was. Sometimes thinking about what would happen if Lily didn't return, if she returned to them, if she only wanted to return to Marshall, or if she decided on her. What would happen to everyone if the three of them took separate paths? If only two remained, what would she do? Because Alyx didn't feel it would be complete to continue either alone with Lily or alone with Marshall, because for her, they were simply the two with whom she saw herself sharing everything—every moment and minute of the day, her whole life.
Day 5
Ted and Robin's routine was established with laughter, sex, dates. The world was, for the two of them and their relationship, a point of constant discovery.
Marshall, meanwhile, was silent, sad, and always in bed, reviewing the days or the decisions made. Alyx was in control mode: cleaning, general surveillance, and her permanence on the sofa as her command post, basically reviewing the events of her life she could control, those she couldn't identify, and remembering what she could have done to stop Lily from leaving, or to have supported her at all times and convinced Marshall for the three of them to stay together.
That same day, Barney tried to get Marshall out of the room, formulating plans to go out for a drink, meet women, but he barely received a slight snort from Marshall. Alyx, who saw what was happening, didn't intervene, hoping that Barney's antics would help Marshall utter some word or leave the room for longer.
Day 7
A week had passed when Ted, after returning one night alone to the apartment from Robin's place, found Alyx sitting at the dining table reviewing an accounting book open on the kitchen table, and next to it, a mug of cold coffee. But her gaze was lost, directed at the opposite wall. There, Ted realized upon entering the rare, silent moment of Alyx, her distant gaze, and the apartment with a scent of clean, bleach, and impregnated sadness.
"How is he?" Ted asked, tilting his head toward the bedroom.
"Sleeping. Finally," Alyx replied without looking up. "I got him to eat half a sandwich. It's a start."
"And you? Have you eaten?"
She made a vague gesture with her hand. "Sure. Though the mess doesn't wait, Ted."
Ted looked around. The apartment was immaculate, like a museum—too orderly and shiny to be normal.
"It's curious," Alyx muttered, as if reading his mind. "We spend more time in bed when love begins... and when it ends. Only for such different reasons." Finally, she raised her gaze to Ted. Her eyes had a tinge of weariness. "Your bed is full, Ted. His... mine, or well, ours... isn't what it was anymore. Just a space that reminds us of what we're missing."
Alyx got up from the dining chair, closing the accounting book with her left hand and taking her mug of cold coffee with her right—the one she had been drinking hours earlier when it was still warm. With that, she headed to the sofa where she slept, ready for another long, sleepless night, passing her pain and thinking about how to comfort Marshall when he was ready to talk, thinking about how she would spend this night in a bed she couldn't occupy, because the person who made their triangle perfect had taken all the geometry with her.