Until You Met Me

Feeling a soft touch against the side of his jaw, Gerard smiled sleepily, his stare tracking Molly as she stepped past him and across the kitchen, retrieving her favourite mug from inside of a cupboard. He couldn’t remember the last time that he had woken up in his home, and she hadn’t been there. After a long period of time when they had both found themselves busy, the period of time after their engagement had been as calm and comfortable as any part of their relationship had been, and whilst they were in the process of trying to move things forwards, Gerard was in no hurry to change it. They had been to look at houses, and a couple of weeks previous, they had met with the wedding planner that Poppy had recommended, but nothing had been set in stone, and for a while, that was what Gerard wanted. He liked that they were moving forwards, but he also liked that, for the first time in a long time, they were completely happy and comfortable where they were.

“I left you asleep” Gerard quipped “I thought you’d stay that way for a while. Unlike me, you haven’t got anywhere to be” he added.

Molly, who’d slipped into the stool next to him, shrugged, sipping on the drink she had made herself. “I do actually have an appointment this morning” she said.

“Did I know that?” Gerard asked, blinking in confusion.

Molly’s lips quirked upwards, amused by the expression on his face, before she shook her head. “I don’t think I mentioned it” she said “But I spoke to Pop last night. She offered to go with me to visit a bridal boutique, and before I could say no, she’d made the appointment. I told her that buying a dress was getting a little ahead of ourselves, seeing as we haven’t even picked a date yet, but she said there was no harm in looking, and I...I kind of agreed to go” she added, letting out a slightly embarrassed laugh as her cheeks turned a light shade of pink.

Gerard's forehead creased a little, causing Molly to frown too. “Is something wrong?” she asked.

Gerard blinked, his expression clearing, before he shook his head. “Of course not” he answered “You just surprised me. Pop wants to look at wedding dresses with you?” he prodded, trying to ignore the fact that his voice had come out a little more forced than he had meant.

Molly nodded her head, fiddling with the mug in her hands. “I don’t know if she really wants to, but she offered to” she said “She knows that things are still a little off with Ava and Sofia, so she’s been going out of her way to spend a little more time with me and be excited about the stuff I thought they’d be excited about. I don’t know if she really wants to go, but she asked, and I said yes” she added.

Gerard gently wrapped a hand around hers, squeezing it gently before he pressed a soft kiss against her temple. “Pop wouldn’t ask if she didn’t want to go” he murmured “It’ll be a lot of fun” he added.

Molly closed her eyes, leaning into their embrace for a few moments, before she turned her head and pressed her lips to his briefly. “That’s why I am marrying you” she murmured between kisses.

Gerard let out a slightly surprised laugh. “Because I give good pep talks?” he quipped.

Molly grinned up at him and nodded. “Amongst a million other reasons” she replied.

~#~
“Gerard?”

Gerard blinked at the sound of his name, dragging his stare away from the phone in his hand and settling it on Cesc who was sat across the table from him, frowning. He hadn’t been listening. Almost as soon as he had sat down, his phone had started buzzing with texts from Molly, telling him all about how her morning with Poppy had gone, and whilst he had tried to ignore them, he hadn’t been able to ignore the slight tightness that had appeared in his chest when he had read how excited she was. “Huh?” he spluttered.

“Are you OK?” Cesc prodded “You look like you’ve seen a ghost” he added with an amused grin.

Gerard shook his head, slipping his phone back into his jacket pocket. “I’m fine” he said “Just reading some texts from Molly. She went to look at wedding dresses with her sister this morning, and she’s pretty excited about it” he added.

“Did you guys pick a date without telling anyone?” Cesc teased, sipping on his glass of water.

Gerard replied with a shake of his head that made Cesc frown slightly. It had been just a little too quick. “We haven’t” he said “We met with a wedding planner a couple of weeks ago, but it was just a preliminary thing. She wanted to get a sense of us as a couple. She has sent Molly a couple of emails, but we’re not rushing anything” he added.

Cesc was quiet for a moment, his eyes studying Gerard's face, before he let out a quiet sigh. “Molly’s looking at wedding dresses” he pointed out.

“I know” Gerard replied “I just told you that” he added.

Cesc shook his head. “I think she is probably going to want to have a date to plan around sooner rather than later” he replied “You don’t go and look at dresses if you’re not actually planning on wearing it some time soon. I guess what I am asking is, are you ready to actually pick a date? Because once you do, there’s no getting out of it without someone, almost certainly the woman you love, getting hurt, and looking at you, you don’t look ready. You look terrified” he added.

Gerard wanted to shake his head. He wanted to dismiss Cesc comment, and insist that if Molly was ready to choose a date, then he was too, but the way his stomach twisted uncomfortably stopped him. It wasn’t the first time he had felt it. When Molly had asked about their living arrangements, and about how long their engagement was going to be, he had felt a similar twist, and he knew what it meant. It meant that he was scared, that as much as he had thought through proposing, the suddenness of it had caught him off guard, and, most importantly, it meant having a conversation with Molly and asking her to wait a little longer, something he was scared would only prove to push her away.