Girl Meets Season 4

23. Girl Meets the One that Got Away

Joshua Matthews never thought about the consequences of losing Maya until he talked to his oldest brother Eric, not so naïve Eric who loved a girl for so long yet let her get away. He let her fall for someone else, and comforted her whenever her relationships didn't end well. Josh watched his brother's smiles and they reminded him of Riley's voice when she told him about the triangle, even when she wanted to end it and let Maya have everything, it was the same feeling he got whenever she told him anything about Maya and someone else. The Matthews weren't the best at taking what they wanted, and most of the time hurt themselves in order for the ones they cared about to be happy.

Then he thought about his brother Cory, and how he had been the luckiest person in the world to have found Topanga, and while they had their problems they were happy because they were together. For a long time he wondered how Cory had gotten so lucky to meet Topanga, but now he thinks about Maya the same way. He's known her for years, and her persistence was one thing he was glad about, even when he almost messed everything up by letting her go. Maya was the sun in his life, and if it wasn't for Riley he doesn't know if he would have ever met her.

Riley had told him about the dance that was coming up, and with the permission of both Shawn and Cory he had asked her to the dance. They hadn't had the chance to go on a date, but lately their shifts at Topanga's had been the same. They talked about almost anything and he smiled when she started talking about art, he knew that she was passionate about it but he also knew how scared she was for liking something. He knew her fears and he tried his best to help her work through them. Lately they talked about her father, she had told him about how it felt when he left. Whenever she became emotional over her father he would take her hand in his and give it a squeeze, before bringing up to his lips and kissing it. They still hadn't had their first kiss, he wanted it to be special because like everyone else he knew moments were important. So they planned on going to the dance, and Josh planned on the perfect moment to kiss her. She wanted to go as Cinderella and he was fine with it because was he was excited to see her in her dress.

A week before the dance he dropped by to see his brother Cory, only to sit in the living room with Riley and talk about the dance, when there was a thud on the door.

"Come in Uncle Eric," Riley yelled at the door.

"How do you know it's him?" Josh asked looking at the door.

"He's the only one who knocks like that."

Eric opened the door and stood there for a moment, he was dressed in a suit making Josh smile because his brother was reelected to the New York State senate, which surprised him but Josh knew his brother was good at his job. He believed in the people so of course they believed in him.

"Hello niche," he said when he saw Riley. "My brother."

"My brother," Josh said hugging his brother. "What brings you to our neighborhood?"

"Vacation... they told me to take it and stop working so much," he said smiling. "But the people need me so I'm just going to take the weekend off and hang with my brothers' and my family here. Next weekend I'm going to visit mom and dad."

"Cool," Riley said as Eric sat down. "It's so nice to see you Uncle Eric."

"It's nice to see the two of you, now tell me stuff."

The two of them told him about their lives, and about their relationships, it wasn't lost on either Josh or Riley how Eric looked at them with longing in his eyes.

"So Eric," Josh said. "Anyone special in your life?"

"No," Eric said his eyes trained on the floor. "No one special."