No, I wasn’t doing it. I wasn’t to be played around with. Whether it was Molly, Dom, Mum, or bloody Lord Hastings, I wasn’t having it.
I was fucking Harry Fischer, and I was done with that shit.
Harry
After all my bravado, I wasn’t sure how to start the conversation, considering it had been years since I’d broken up with someone. And it had never been for a spectacular reason such as discovering that my best friend was posing as my fiancée to sext me, especially post-engagement announcement.
It had been a few hours since we left the pub, and she knew something was wrong. I was sure that was why she had been extra clingy.
I had told her I was ill and needed to go home, which resulted in her clamping onto my arm and forcing me to talk to people. Or rather, she talked and I stood there like an ornament.
It was interesting if I viewed it completely subjectively. Molly knew my aversion to making a scene meant I wouldn't fight to get away, which resulted in my fingers digging into my thighs as I sat facing her on our sofa because I was so frustrated. It was exactly the same position we had when she announced she wanted to take a break.
Molly had a hopeful expression on her face, our knees touching, a cup of tea warming her palms as she watched me, which really made everything worse.
We’d been together long enough that I knew her temperament, and if I instantly launched into ‘I want to break up’, it might result with the tea dumped on my head. And I really liked the sofa.
“So, what did you want to talk about?” she asked.
I thought I would be used to guilt by now, but it still beat inside me. I needed to remind myself that I wasn’t the only one in the wrong, even though I messed up so badly and went that far with Dom.
Technically Molly and I hadn’t been together, at least in her mind, but almost everything I went through was under the pretext that we would still be engaged when she returned. But she said she hadn't seen it as an engagement in the first place, despite that party mainly being for her, rather than us. Because she was very happy to continue having fun while I had a breakdown in the bathroom until Ralph came to check on me half an hour later.
“Is it about setting up a meeting with your mum for the wedding plans? Because if you just give me her number, I can work on that myself. She already said she had booked somewhere for a party and she even wanted to invite some reporters! So we definitely need to prepare for that in advance.”
Anger whipped through me so quickly that I almost choked as my eyes widened. I couldn’t believe she’d said that when she had barely landed twenty-four hours ago.
“You are not meeting my mother,” I said coldly, and confusion creased her face.
“Why not? It makes sense for the bride and the mother of the groom to liaise, especially when she’s paying for most of it.”
I didn’t want to shout at her, but the anger that had burst from me when I first discovered Dom’s betrayal was clawing at me as I stared at her. She had no clue what she was even saying.
“You’ve avoided my mum as much as you could the entire time we’ve been together. You never have a kind word to say about her whenever I bring her up, and yet you want to start a relationship with her now that she’s suddenly paying for something?”
I wanted to ease into it gently, but it looked like I hadn’t dealt with my feelings over the situation after all.
“It’s a marriage, Harry. It’s not just what I want to do.”
“And have you asked me at all since you returned if I want to be with you? Because, as far as I can see, you have simply told me you want to get married, and then run around arranging things without consulting me.”
“But you made it clear that you didn’t want to be involved in the wedding process,” she said, focusing on entirely the wrong thing.
“And when did I say that? Was it during the conversation where you asked me how I’ve been since you left for Norway?Or was it when you asked me how the vote went? Or how about when you announced our engagement to all of our friends before confirming anything with me?”
She paused like she was trying to remember when we had those conversations, but there would be nothing there.
“We haven’t spoken properly once since you came back. And you used to repeatedly tell me over and over again how we had no time for each other. Then, when I was ill, you ran around making plans for yourself without a second thought about the person who was going to be most involved with them.”
“But I didn’t want to put any pressure on you.”
“Then why did you leave in the first place!? I know you don’t care about what I do for work, but I wished that you cared thatIfind it important. But the vote hasn’t crossed your lips once since you returned.”
“I didn’t need to ask about it though, because I knew you would win. There was no way you weren’t going to beat out your mum. Anyway, I saw on the news that you won, and I’ve been so busy since I got back that I forgot to say congratulations.”
I squeezed my eyes closed, because my anger flared up even more fiercely.
It felt like a repeat of the conversation I had with Dom after I told him to get out of my life, except that Dom admitted that he had messed up. He tried to apologise, despite arguing with me. And, even though it was a stupid reason, he said that he had been doing it for me the whole time. He defendedhimself, yes, but it wasn’t the same kind of ignorance that Molly seemed to have.