Until You Met Me

Sixty Four

“What are you doing?”

Molly, who’d been staring up at Tiago, jumped at the sound of Ava’s voice, her stare moving towards her friend who was glaring up at Tiago. She was grateful that someone had broken the silence. With Tiago’s comment hanging in the air, Molly had been momentarily unsure of what to say, and she knew that the longer was quiet for, the worse things looked. She knew how it looked to Tiago. For as long as they had been together, Molly had told him time and time again that her relationship with Gerard was completely platonic, and whilst it had been the truth then, it wasn’t the truth any more, something she understood had cast doubt onto every time she had said it in the past.

She had meant it. Whenever Tiago had asked her what Gerard was to her, she had told him that he was her friend, and that that was probably all he was ever going to be, but things had changed. Molly’s relationship with Tiago had ended, and in his absence, Molly had had the chance to examine her feelings for Gerard and realise that they were a lot bigger than she had thought.

“Just offering my congratulations” Tiago replied, his words slightly slurred “I saw the champagne and assumed we were celebrating” he added.

“Go away, Tiago” Ava said “You’re just embarrassing yourself” she added.

Tiago scoffed, but didn’t reply to Ava, his eyes still fixed on Molly. “You promised me that it wasn’t like that between you two” he said “Do you remember that? You’d introduced me to him, and I saw how he looked at you, and I asked you if there was anything I should know. You swore to me that there wasn’t, and now? Now you’re going to marry him” he added, a pained laugh falling out of his mouth.

Molly fiddled with her engagement ring before she shook her head, glancing back up at Tiago. “You never believed me, anyway” she said.

“Are you admitting that you lied?” Tiago asked.

“I never lied to you” Molly answered “When you asked me, I told you the truth. It was platonic. We had been friends since I was eleven years old, and it had never been anything more, but you never believed me when I said it. You kept insisting it was more, so much so, it was one of the reasons you gave me when we broke up. I told you I wanted my future to be with you, Tiago, and when you told me that you didn’t feel the same way, I moved on. I wasn’t in love with him before you, but I am in love with him now, so I am going to marry him, and I don’t care what you think about it” she added.

Tiago stared at her for a long moment before he glanced at Ava and Sofia. “You’ve not tried to talk her out of it?” he asked.

“Tiago” Molly warned.

“They’ve not told you how they feel about him?” Tiago pressed.

“Tiago...”

“They were always surprised that you two were still friends” Tiago continued speaking, talking over Ava who had tried to interject “I mean, you have very little in common, and you’re two very different people. They were amazed that you managed to keep your friendship going, but I imagine that they’re even more surprised about your relationship. Ava, Sofia?” he pressed.

Molly wanted to fire something back. She wanted to insist that she and her friends had talked about her relationship with Gerard, and that they were supportive of it, but when she spotted the hesitant expressions on Ava and Sofia’s faces, her expression softened, the words on the tip of her tongue disappearing. “Is he right?” she asked softly.

Ava opened and closed her mouth a couple of times, trying to think of something to say, before she let out a soft sigh. “We want you to be happy” she said carefully “And we know that you are with Gerard. We would never try to talk you out of being with him, but...but it doesn’t stop us from being a little worried about you sometimes. You are very different, and whilst you’ve got a shared history, we sometimes worry that...that it’ll burn out” she added.

For a moment, all Molly could do was stare at Ava as she tried to get her head around what she was saying, before eventually, she blew out a shaky breath, her stare dropping to the table in front of her. “Why’ve you never said anything before?” she asked.

“You’re happy” Sofia answered “And we don’t want to ruin that. We’re not saying you shouldn’t be with him...”

“Of course we’re not saying that” Ava insisted “You’ve been so freaking happy, and we’re happy for you. We just worry about you, Molly. He’s a big person in your life to lose” she added.

“So you think I am going to lose him?” Molly pressed.

Ava and Sofia shared a look, something which made Molly shake her head, rubbing at her forehead in an attempt to get rid of the headache that was starting to grow. After a long moment of silence, she pushed herself up to her feet, stopping in front of Tiago. “Thank you” she muttered “For proving that not ending up with you was a blessing in disguise. I thought that you were the one that got away for a long time, but I am increasingly happy that we ended when we did” she added.

Tiago tried to keep his expression from flinching, but he failed.

Molly collected her bag, but before she could get too far away, Ava gently grasped her wrist. “Molly” she protested “We didn’t meant to...we weren’t trying to upset you. We were just trying to look out for you. It was just...just a conversation we had just in case. We want you to be happy, and for it to work out” she added.

Molly stared down at Ava’s hand for a long moment before she gently tugged her wrist back, offering her friend a sad smile. “I know” she murmured “I just...I don’t know. I guess I thought that you were as excited as me. I didn’t know that you were so dubious about it. Gerard's always making jokes about how you don’t like him, and I always tell him that he’s wrong, but...but I guess that he was closer to the mark than I thought” she added.

“Molly...”

Molly shook her head, stopping Sofia’s protest. “I’ve got to go” she murmured “I’ll call you both soon, OK?” she added before she turned and walked away, trying, and failing, to swallow the lump that had grown in her throat.
♠ ♠ ♠
Thanks to Twisted;;Symphony for the comment :)