Nicole

I was not prepared for this. Because firstly, I had no idea this was the person Lucas would be meeting with, and secondly, because even if I had spend the last days thinking of what to say when I saw Matt, I would probably still not know what words would come out of my mouth at this very moment. 

I saw his figure from behind. It was undoubtedly him, the guy who broke my heart.

Lucas parked my car not too far away and we were now walking to meet Matthew, side by side.

"Good evening, sir." Lucas said with his gentle voice that I adored. 

When Matthew turned around in his heels and his eyes landed on me, I knew he was caught up in a surprise. 

"Nicole..."

"Hi." I said flatly, emotionless. 

"I didn't expect to see you here."

"I didn't expect to see you either." Inside I was shaking, but I knew on the outside I was making him question even wanting to buy the ring that I wanted to just stomp on and make it just disappear once and for all.

"Well, um... this is awkward." 

Of course it was. It all made sense - at least, some sense - to me now. Lucas said the buyer - Matt - wanted to buy the ring and try to get the girl he lost - me - back. Which also explained why he'd been trying to reach out to me with calls, texts and e-mails that I deliberately ignored. No wonder he thought this was awkward. 

"Yeah, tell me about it." When he didn't say anything else, I continued. "You must be happy, that you found the ring." 

"Nic, it's not-"

"Nicole." I corrected him. Only Lucas could call me Nic, Matt had lost his Nic rights.

"Nicole." He said, his hands made their way up in defense.

"Save it. Look, you wanted that ring and you're gonna get it now. It was your money on the line, I get it. Just don't come and tell me you loved me because that is not true." I was sounding way harsher than I had initially intended, and I had to take a deep breath to cool myself down.

"I want to talk to you, if you're okay with it."

"Shoot."

"This will be a lot more awkward with him here, but... I want you to reconsider us, Nicole. Let's just put what happened behind us, let's focus on ourselves and where we can go from here. I know I made a lot of mistakes, and I know I probably deserved to hear a lot of the things that you said to me but, you have to believe that I've changed."

"I appreciate you trying to change, I really do. And if anything, I hope that it helps you with your future relationships. But I can't ever let you back in again, I just can't." My voice tried to betray me but I didn't took the bait, and carried on talking with the best vocal consistency that I could muster. "You hurt me a lot-"

"I know I did." He cut me off this time.

"You hurt me a lot, and I could, I can forgive you. But I found love in the process of getting hurt and getting over you. There is no easy way to say this, but Lucas is the person I love. He's taught me how to love and how to feel loved. I found a very good man who makes me happy, and I'm not letting him go, ever. And specially not for you."

"Ouch."

"I'm sorry if this came out too harsh, I really didn't mean to. All I'm trying to say is, you're wasting your time trying to get me back. You won't get me back, it's over for us. But if it helps in any way, or if this makes you feel any better, I do believe that you've changed. I've always trusted you, that's not gonna change now, and if you say you've changed it's because you have. And I am really happy for you, and proud of you for acknowledging your mistakes, owning up to them and making a change. One day you're gonna find a girl who's gonna be everything that you look for and she's gonna be nothing like me, and that's when you're going to fully understand the meaning behind all I'm saying right now."

Lucas' hand rested on my waist while I spoke, and after I did, he removed it to look at Matt, who seemed to be still processing everything I had just said. 

"Okay, well... you said the word. I won't reach out for you anymore, consider yourself free from me."

This time it was my heart that felt tight at the sight in front of me.

"Matt, please don't take what I said the wrong way. I didn't mean to hurt you."

"You know, you may have not meant to hurt me, but you did." I was the quiet one now. "You keep saying that I hurt you, and I did, but you hurt me too. Because I never thought that anything could ever come in between us, but it did. I never thought that me, saving up to buy my girlfriend a decent engagement ring would be a problem but apparently, it was such a problem that it broke us apart!"

I felt small. I felt tiny. I felt naked. I felt vulnerable in the worst possible way.

When I wanted to come with Lucas and talk with Matthew, I only thought about my side of things, and what I would say. But I never thought about what he had to say, and how right he could be. 

Because he was.

"Look Nicole, I don't want to fight with you. But I feel the need to call you out on your bullshit too."

I felt out of place, I felt like I was being stomped to the ground, but worse than that feeling, was feeling like Matt was right.

"During the time we spent apart I thought a lot about what happened, what had gone wrong, and I guess I was wrong to pay more attention to a diamond ring when my fiancee was right there, but I also feel like you didn't see my point of view. I wasted a lot of money on this ring, I wanted to give you everything. I wanted to give you the best ring I could find. You have to understand, I meant well. I had good intentions behind what I did." He blinked twice to keep his tears at bay, just like I was doing, and he continued. Neither me or Lucas stopped him. "Overall, we're different people and I'm so sorry that it's taken me this long to realize that. We were just never meant to be. If we stayed together we'd probably end up fighting over where we'd have our wedding or what house to buy, or even how many kids we'd have and what school we'd send them to. I get it now, it was better that way. We're better apart."

I don't know why, I don't know what came over me, but I rushed to him and hugged him tight. And it felt so good. I didn't feel as good as when I hug Lucas, but it felt amazing that we'd just talked things out like two adults, I felt like this hug was necessary, and Matt must have felt the same because he didn't even waste two seconds before he wrapped his arms around my back tightly.

When he let go of each other, he kept rubbing my back with his hand and offered me a sweet smile.

"I'm sorry, Matt. I feel like a fucking bitch right now."

"Hey, none of that. I just wanted to clear things up between us. We both acted wrong in our own way, and that's okay. What matters is that we both learned from our past together, I know I did. And I'm glad you're happy now, you deserve it."

"You'll be very happy too, Matt. With someone else, who you're gonna feel completed with." 

His expression was soft and so was mine, as I felt my muscles relax.

"I guess I can say thank you? For making me realize that we would never be anything more than just friends. And for making me better, and encouraging me to get out there again."

"You don't have to thank me for anything. I just hope everything works out for the best."

"Me too." 

I took a few steps backwards and stood by Lucas' side, who gave me a knowing look and a warm smile.

This whole scene must have been so awkward and gut wrenching for him to watch, but he still stood there, watching it all unfold before his eyes.

"Um, you still want to buy the ring?" Was all Lucas asked Matthew and now it was my turn to just stand there and watch their interaction. 

"Well, I'm not gonna use it to win Nicole over so, I don't really need it." With a shrug of his shoulders, Matthew nodded his head in confusion and let out a nervous laugh. "I don't know what to do."

"Well, we agreed on only a thousand pounds for the ring. If you want to keep it, you keep it. If not, I'm sure you can try to sell it here in America for a good five thousand. This is a great ring."

Without thinking any more about it, Matt handed Lucas a few bills tied with an elastic band and Lucas took the blue box out of his pocket and handed it to Matthew. The exchange was made.

We could finally put a pin on this, once and for all. I felt a wave of relief wash over me, when Matthew interrupted my thoughts.

"It's funny how life works, isn't it?"

Lucas and I stood quiet in our place, looking at Matthew, hoping he'd elaborate more. 

"How this ring, somehow made its way back to you." I thought about his words and I nodded in agreement.

"I didn't even know about it until now. It's weird, isn't it? How it's been right next to me the entire time."

Matthew let out a quiet chuckle before we said goodbye to each other with another hug. While Lucas and I were making our way back to the car, Matt called out for Lucas. I looked back for a while and kept on making my way back to the vehicle, sitting in the passenger's side, waiting for my boyfriend to come back.

It didn't take long for Lucas to come back and once he did, we hit the road back to my place in San Francisco, where we'd spend the night before going back to Malibu, first thing tomorrow morning. 

 * * *

"No boy band posters here, and the bed is bigger!" I winked at Lucas while sticking my tongue out, jokingly. He simply laughed at me and kissed my forehead. 

"It is definitely nicer."

"I'm sorry for... everything."

"What are you talking about?" He pulled his sweater over his head causing his hair to look beautifully disheveled, yet my eyes traveled to his toned and tanned abdomen. 

"The things you had to hear from Matt now, it's... You have every right to hate me right now."

"Are you loon?" He let out a laugh and kissed my cheek gently, before looking at me in the eye. "I could never hate you. I love you."

I gave him a weak smile and looked down as I let my fingers busy themselves with the hem of my sweater. "It's just that... what he said? He was right. And now I feel like such a bitch for ending things between us just for the simple fact that he was looking for the ring he saved up to buy. For me!" 

"Well, but it wasn't just for that, wasn't it?" When I didn't reply, he squeezed my hand and sat by my side and I noticed he was already in his pajama shirt. "That was only the tip of the iceberg, the final drop... It's what Matt was saying, you'd probably never be actually happy with each other. You just realized that when you did and... well, you know the rest."

"Okay, explain me something - what did I do to deserve you?" 

His expression softened even more - as if that was possible! - and he smashed his lips against mine in a loving, long kiss.

Without breaking our kiss I shifted in my seat and got up a little to throw a leg over his lap, wrapping my hands around his neck. I was now straddling him.

I felt his hand roam my thighs and then my ass cheeks through my jeans and I moaned against his mouth, my lips parting and our connection now over. 

"I love you so much." I whispered. He let his hands travel up my back while he attacked my neck with kisses. 

"I love you too. So fucking much." His breath tickled my neck and I felt a tingling feeling go down my spine and down where I needed him to touch me the most. 

Without even knowing how, I was kissing him again, this time it was a more sloppy kiss, our tongues were battling for dominance as my hips rolled and humped his bulge. 

I got up from his lap, he got up from the mattress and we both took our time taking each other's clothes off, touching and kissing on the spots we didn't even know we needed to be touched.

He knew my body better than a musician knows their music notes, better than a an actor knows their lines, and I felt totally and absolutely loved whenever we were together, he worshiped my body more than I ever thought was possible and to say I felt like a queen was the understatement of the century.

With our clothes now discarded all over the floor, and our naked bodies on the bed again, he pushed inside me gently before pulling back and then back in slowly, so painfully slowly I could swear my eyes actually rolled to the back of my head in pleasure. 

He started to move faster and by this point, I felt so high on ecstasy I could have waken up the entire building with my loud moans in the moment I came undone on him. My chest was rising and falling quickly as I tried to catch my breath when I heard him groan and let out a low, sexy "Fuck." while I felt him explode inside me. 

He grabbed my face with his hand and brought my lips to his in a sloppy kiss, our breaths mingling, and he failed to keep his lips steadily on mine as we both failed to fight our genuine smiles.

 * * *

Author's Note:

So... what did you think? I had this little secret kept since the beginning of this story and it's finally out there! 🙈

As always please tap the little star below, and if you want to, you can leave a comment for me to read, I'll really appreciate it! ❤

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Xoxo, Mars