Sara’s POV
Shopping with Amy and Brian had been fun. I wasn’t too eager to admit to it, but the way Brian had been looking at my friend all afternoon only strengthened me in the idea I already had. He might’ve not been ready to admit it before, but he was definitely crazy for Amy now. Maybe the love thing he had spilled over the press conference was even a claim of truth. It certainly looked like it.

Brian hadn´t left Amy´s side during the whole trip through the mall. He kept within a foot distance of her, holding her hand, putting his arm around her, or finding some other way to touch her. It made me a little sad Matt had decided to stay behind though. It would have been so good to go on this double shopping date, finally, as two real couples.

Even though I still wasn´t sure how Amy thought of all of this, they sure acted like they belonged together and not in the awkward way they had been in the past few days. The way Brian had been over Amy this afternoon and the way she glowed on his attention, it had to be the beginning of something beautiful. They didn’t even need Matt and me to help.

I was dying to find out how Amy stood in all of this. She really appeared to be happy with Brian, and how he treated her, but it took a trained eye like mine to see she wasn’t fully in yet, she was holding back for some reason, and I couldn’t wait to find out why. I would be the first to shoot down Brian, but if they loved each other, they shouldn’t be holding back, they should go for it. Amy deserved a good thing.

And if Brian would hurt Amy after all, I would be ready to kick his ass so hard, he’d wish he never even laid eyes on her.

“Are you finally going to tell me what is going on with you two?” I pulled my new shirt over my head, before I would put the last hand to Amy’s hair and make-up. She looked beautiful in her new dress, that was just perfect for the occasion. We were finally alone in one of the guestrooms and I needed some information immediately.

“He loves me”
“Amy, the whole world heard that!” I laughed as Amy giggled shortly.
“But he really means it” the blush on her face was deep now and she turned her head to me to look me in the eye and told me about everything that happened after they left the venue. How they called her parents, how Brian told her he loved her over and over again. And how she really wanted to believe him.
“Are you going to? Believe him?”
My best friend nodded shyly and my smile couldn’t get wider. “Oh Amy! I’m so happy for you. Have you said it back? You feel the same, right?!”
“I do, and I will say it back” She got a devious smile on her face “I might wait for a unfit moment to tell him too”

We both laughed and I turned her back around to continue with her hair. We decided to redo everything after we bought the dress. Amy looked so amazing now and I saw her shot a look at herself in the mirror.
“You know…It’s not that I’m not happy with my new dress, but now I’m almost done, I realize that Matt’s hesitation earlier had nothing to do with me or with what I was wearing” Amy smiled at me through the mirror.
“What do you mean?” I continued putting her hair up, sticking pins here and there.
“He was too busy looking at you adoringly to even mind me”
Now it was my time to blushed deeply and averted my eyes.
“You and him… you guys are the real deal” My best friend stated, no doubt at all in her voice. She put a hand on mine to stop me from putting more stuff into her hair. “I never saw you like this, Sara, you look so happy and relaxed”

Amy was right, I never really felt like this in any relationship before. I had no idea how things would go once we had to go back to our normal lives again, but I really didn’t want to think about it either. So I stuck to the obvious “He is amazing”
“You two have been inseparable, it was a little weird that he let you go shopping alone” Amy teased.
“Absence makes the heart grow fonder” I winked back at her.

“AMY, ARE YOU READY?! WE NEED TO LEAVE!” Amy and I looked at each other and giggled.
“My god, first it’s all ‘I love you’ and now he yells for me like we are married for 40 years?”
When we reached the top of the stairs Amy yelled back at him “I’M COMING!”
“Definitely later!” Brian’s voice and face was full of laughter now, but then he really saw Amy and his mouth fell open.

“Wow, you look amazing!” He took her of the last step of the stairs and held her close, before he let her slide down his body. When their faces were at the same height he kissed her deeply. There was no doubt about the feelings they had for each other.

When they finally parted, Brian looked at me “Is it okay if we drop you off at the beginning of Matt’s street? It’s easier for us to get to my parents and we are already late”
“Sure! Let’s go”

After a few minutes in the car with Brian and Amy, I was happy I could get out, the sexual tension was tangible. I wondered how they would get through the dinner with the parents.

“Here we are” Brian looked over his shoulder with a smile. I couldn’t help but return, the man looked too happy for his own good. I put my hand on his shoulder and squeezed it gently “Thank you for the shirt, Brian, I’m sure Matt will like it. Have fun at your parents. Bye Amy” I quickly pecked Amy’s cheek and got out of the car.

I jogged the last part into Matt’s street. There was a car parked in front of the house that I hadn’t seen before, who would be over? I pushed the nagging feeling that was starting to form, aside by letting it overflow with excitement of presenting myself to whoever it was as Matt’s girlfriend. It was a foreign feeling to me to want to put a claim on someone to the outside world, but I couldn’t wait to do it with Matt.

I opened the door to Matt’s house and fixed the shirt Brian brought for me. It had all kinds of straps on the back that were tight in bows. Matt said he wanted to unwrap me, I would give him something to unwrap, as soon as his guest would leave.

The minute I stepped in the house my nostrils were filled with perfume, women perfume. It was too sweet, too much, it was giving me an instant headache. My stomach made a tumble, because of the perfume, it must be the perfume.

As if my feet were moving on their own I made my way over to the living room, but I stepped dead in my tracks when I saw Matt and the woman. They were just talking, but they were too close. The woman’s back was turned to me, but she looked strangely familiar. When she started to talk, my whole idea of just walking in moved to the back of my mind, something felt off, and I moved to the side, making myself disappear against the wall.

“Matt, honey, you really do look amazing, this holiday has done you good. It was good for us to be apart for a little while” She moved her hand over Matt’s arm, as she moved a little closer to him. He didn’t stop her. He even closed his eyes at her touch. What. The. Hell.

I put one step forward, heading in to kick some serious ass, when two things happened and my stomach landed down at my feet. First the woman turned a little to the side and I recognized her, it was Michelle, Brian’s ex. Then Matt wrapped his arms around her, in a big bear hug like I had only seen him do with me, sticking his nose in her hair, pulling her even tighter, finishing it off with a kiss on the top of her head.

My heart couldn’t believe what my eyes were seeing, but it was time to put that heart on the floor, next to where my stomach already was and get the hell out of here.

I quickly rushed on the stairs, as quiet as possible and went straight into ‘my’ room. Without even thinking I put my laptop and my files into my workbag, while I called a cab company to come and pick me up. Next I drew my suitcase from under the bed, and put it on top of it. Matt had just made me unpack yesterday, how stupid had I been?

The piles of clothes were still neatly organized and maybe even too easy to place back into my suitcase. The heart I was sure I left downstairs on the floor was shattering with every piece of clothing I placed back. How could he have played me like this? He told me he as divorced, but he never told me about the affair he was having with his best friend’s ex! How could he even do that to Brian?!

My sadness was mixing with anger now, I wasn’t sure if the tears that were rolling down my cheeks were flowing out of the first or the second emotion, but I was leaning towards the anger. Especially when I threw my shoes in the suitcase just a little too hard, making it fall to the floor with a bang.

“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” Ugh, I had to get out of here! Preferably before Matt noticed I was here and gone again. I didn’t need to see him. Now that Amy was settling with Brian, there was no need for me to be here anymore. I would take the first flight back to Phoenix and go back to my life. It was time for me to move on from this holiday fling! I really, really didn’t want to see him anymore. I was so busy packing, that I didn’t hear the one person I didn’t want to see, enter the room.

“What are you doing?”

Brian’s POV
Amy’s sweaty palm grabbed mine and we looked at each other. “I’m so scared to meet your family, what if they don’t like me?” Amy whispered. Her eyes had so much fear in them and I just couldn’t understand, they would love her, why was she so anxious about this?

I turned her and wrapped my arms around her, and stared into her eyes. “They will love you, just like I do. It will be fun. You have met my dad already, Suzy is a sweetheart and my brother and sister, well… they have to like you or I will kick their ass” I smirked at the shocked look in her eyes.

“You are enjoying this way too much!” she slapped my shoulder “What if-“ I couldn’t hear anymore what if’s. I was too happy she was with me, I was too happy I finally told her how I felt and I was too happy knowing she thought exactly the same of me, even though she hadn’t told me yet. How did I know? She told me she would get back to me when I would meet her parents. That was future, that was our future and I couldn’t wait for it to start. So I bend over to take her lips hostage, not planning to stop anytime soon.

“See! Brian! I told you I heard someone at the door!” The door slung open and Amy jumped away from me, as if she got burned. Suzy immediately pulled her in a hug, while my father appeared and gave me a short hug, before taking Amy out of Suzy’s arms.

Amy looked at me with panic in her eyes and I gave her hand a squeeze before I was forced to let go. I hoped she would relax a little, it wouldn’t be that bad. How bad could it be after my dad walked in on us a few days ago?
“Are McKenna and the asshole already here?” I joked when we walked in and I noticed my brother already sitting at the table.
“Nice to see you again too, you jackass” He got up and hugged me “Amy, meet my asshole brother Brent” I pulled Amy against me and ushered her towards my brother so they could shake hands. Of course that wasn’t enough for my brother and he pulled her to him, kissing her cheek “Welcome to the family, Mrs. Haner”

A giggle came out of Amy’s mouth and she beamed a smile back at my brother. “You might want to reconsider your choice of Haner, after this dinner, how quick can you get divorced?” Brent continued as Amy sat down opposite of him.

“Can you please just shut up? She is mine, I put a ring on her, my name, nothing you can do about it” I smirked at him, trying to keep the smug tone of my voice, not succeeding. “She already has the name, it’s easy for me to just sweep in”
My brother never knew when to stop, he just kept going. He was like Zack in a way. Maybe that was the reason Zack and I acted like brothers more than I did with the others. He reminded me of Brent. And right now… I wanted to kick Brent’s ass, just like I did so many times before with Zack’s.

As I got up to at least slap his head, I was stopped by the voice of my little sister “BRI! I’m so happy you are here! I missed you so much!” She ran over to me and I was just able to stop away from the table to catch her without causing any damage to the setting.
“Mac! I missed you too! I want you to meet Amy”

Mac shook Amy’s hand and glared at her without saying a word. She sat down next to Brent, but kept staring at Amy, occasionally pointing her look at me.
“McKenna! Staring is impolite!” Suzy chastised her as she joined the table, just like my dead.

“It is not impolite if I’m trying to figure out if she is a gold digger, just like that bitch Michelle” The frown under her purple bangs was deep now and I couldn’t suppress a chuckle, making Suzy shoot an angry glare at me.
“McKenna! I realize you didn’t have the best examples, but I didn’t raise you to talk like your father or one of your 6 brothers”

Amy shot me an confused look at the remark. She was probably trying to figure out how to place the 6 brothers, seeing I told her I only had one brother.
“Suzy refers to the guys as her brothers too, we were always sticking up for her when she was younger. Mac has always been surrounded by 6 older boys to help her in any way possible.” Amy nodded with a smile and then turned to my sister.

“I really don’t know Michelle, so I can’t say anything about that, but I promise I’m not a gold digger, if you catch me doing it anyway, you can kick my ass back to Phoenix, okay?” She turned to Suzy “Sorry for my language”
Suzy lifted her hands in the air, as if she wanted to say ‘It’s out of my hands anyway, so be my guest’

Mac seemed to think about Amy’s answer for a bit and then the signature Haner smirk came through on her face and she nodded.

Now the hostilities were out of the way, the conversation flowed easily around the table. Everyone was asking Amy questions, about her life before me, about her life with me. Suzy kept asking her about how I treated her and put her hand on mine approvingly “I’m happy to hear some of my upbringing stuck”.

“We saw you at the press conference, you did very well dear” My father turned to Amy and softly squeezed her hand “Handling the press is a pain in all our asses and you did so good for your first time. I’m beginning to think my son finally has found the right woman” Amy flushed deeply now and avoided my dad’s eyes.

It was kinda cute how she was so tough and funny and totally able to keep up with the guys and me, at one moment and at the other, she was so shy and could so easily be embarrassed. I let my hand go over her leg, stroking up and down gently. I couldn’t keep my hands off of her, she was so amazing and I was so far gone for her.

She put her hand on my and smiled up at me, leaning in just a little bit. I guess it was never her intention, but I couldn’t stop myself from claiming her lips in what started as a small sweet kiss, but quickly grew more and more heated.
“I’m totally fine with you kissing your wife like that, but not at my dining table” Suzy broke us up, and started serving the food.

For a moment we all just ate in silent. My stepmom was a great cook and it was always good to be able to join the table when I was home. Our family was pretty close and our family dinners were always busy and full of jokes and laughter, but we would always stick up for each other.

“But Bri” Mac emptied her mouth before she broke the eating silence “I can’t believe you got married without us and in Vegas! I would have laughed so hard at an Elvis impersonator. You could have given me that. Now I will never see my brother marry!” She pouted.
“Hey!” Brent interrupted “I will invite you to my wedding”
“As if you ever will get married, there will be no woman crazy enough to marry you” Mac teased and she got her shoulder punched by Brent.

“Are you going to throw a party for everyone that was not at the wedding?” Mac continued.

Just as I was about to answer my sister’s question, I felt my phone buzz in my pocket. I took my phone out and looked at the caller ID. “It’s Matt” I shot my parents an apologetic look and pressed the answer button “Matt, this is not a good time”
“I need to talk to Amy” he rushed out, no hello, no nothing “I was calling her, but she is not picking up, I need to talk to her, can you put her on, please?”
“What is going on?” I tried to get through the waterfall of words that was coming out of my friends’ mouth, there was something terribly wrong “Matt!”

“She is gone Brian, Sara is gone”

Notes

Did we really do that? I guess we did :P


To add to your misery... this story is slowly ending, we are wrapping it up, it has been great :-)