❥𝐑𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬 || 𝐌𝐉 𝐈𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐞 ❥/𝑪𝒐𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒆𝒕𝒆𝒅/•

💜Part Five💜

To your relief, you had managed to get through the rest of the day without losing your direction, and you had to admit you were fairly pleased with how well you had adapted to Beth's absence - a task you had initially assumed to be far more difficult than it actually was. Over the course of the day, you had become acquainted with many talented people, all of which were simply lovely to meet. They were all strangers, but they had beautifully come together to plan the wedding that would more or less be the monument of the century - considering how grand the finer details sounded. It was admirable to see different hired individuals uniting and working so well together, a sight that managed to bring you a bit of comfort.

As the sun began to set, you walked out into the larger area of the gardens, taking one last look at the place before the darkness was scheduled to take over the sky. You nodded at a few assistants as they walked by, feeling that familiar, brief moment of comfort greet you ever so swiftly.

The more you basked in the cool, late afternoon air, the more you realized you wanted to stay outside for a bit longer. You smiled to yourself, inwardly delighted at the thought of spending a bit of time with nature. More often than not, it helped you clear your mind whenever you were troubled.

So, with a few stealthy movements, you stole away from everyone, more or less skipping off toward a more secluded area of the gardens, where the flowers were in full bloom, filling the evening air with a mix of floral notes that only nature itself could bring into existence.

Eventually, you found yourself strolling along casually, becoming more balanced as the skies grew darker. There was an inexplicably nostalgic feeling that overcame you whenever the evening sky took effect, the emotions usually intensified by the cool evening winds.

Through your mind, more than a million thoughts raced, and many of them just so happened to be about Michael. You hated that you felt bothered by his upcoming wedding, in which he was to take Beth as his wife, and even though you wanted for everything to be totally fine - it wasn't. The issue seemed even more complicated by the fact that you didn't know whether you might actually have...loved him.

"(Y/N)?"

You jumped back a little, spinning around on your heels at the unexpected sound of Michael's voice from behind you.

Somehow, he looked even more attractive in the early evening hue, but then again - he was alwayd attractive to you. Actually, he was a lot more than just attractive.

"Oh Lord," you whispered as you realized that you might truly have felt for him more than you wanted to.

"Are...you alright?" he began to walk up to you. "Everyone's back in the house...and I saw that you weren't. You had me worried about you for a second there," he chuckled.

You diverted your gaze as he got closer to you. His scent seemed more intoxicating now, and his voice...sounded so much smoother to you. It was only when he was about to belong to someone else that you realized how wrong you had been.

But even if you had been wrong, and even if you did want him...you couldn't. He was engaged to your best friend, and that was a line you swore you would never cross.

"Well I...." you trailed off. "I just...wanted to take a walk out here, you know, bask in the fresh air,"

He smiled, placing his hands behind his back. "May I walk with you?"

Your heart skipped a beat as you managed a nod, taking in a deep breath as the pair of you began to walk side by side.

"So uh...thank you, for saving my life today," you began awkwardly, laughing a little at the end. "If it hadn't been for you, I'd probably be in the morgue now,"

"Please don't even say that, I don't even want to imagine it," he scoffed, glancing at you. "It's not something you ever have to thank me for. It's what...friends do, right?"

Feeling a lump form in your throat, you nodded again.

"Y-Yeah," you raised your eyebrows, hurriedly making a move to change the subject. "Ah, that reminds me..." you looked back at him with a smirk. "You never did tell me how you and Beth got together,"

It could very well have just been your imagination, but you could have sworn that the subject appeared to dampen his spirits. A part of you thought about changing the subject again, but there was another part of you that wanted to hear what he had to say.

"Yeah...well it's....not much of a story, if I'm honest," he shrugged. "But one evening, not too long back, I was...on my way back from the studio, and it was...raining heavily," he began softly. "I was driving, and then I saw a silhouette, and it-" he stopped himself, as if he had almost blurted out something that he didn't want to. "Uh, she was waiting for the bus, and she didn't have an umbrella with her, so she was drenched. Naturally, I offered to take her home, but she mentioned she had just broken up with Dan," he referred to her ex-boyfriend, with whom she had been sharing a living space with at the time.

"Oh yeah, the dumbass, I remember," you rolled your eyes, earning a little giggle from him.

"I think we all thought about him like that," he said before continuing. "So I brought her back here for the night, just so she had somewhere to keep warm and safe...but one thing led to another, and we-"

"I think I get that part," you grimaced.

"Right," he cleared his throat. "Well, that's how it all started. The next morning...I'd felt horrible, considering the fact that a similar situation had happened before..." he hinted.

"With me," you caught on quickly. "What....was different?" you found yourself asking.

He stopped, pausing both his movements and his words, making you stop as well.

"The next morning....she....still wanted me," he sighed, not wanting to look at you.

Inside yourself, you felt broken beyond belief. After the night you had spent with him, you had never stood back to notice that you had hurt him more than you thought.

If only you could have told him that you now realized how wrong you had been to cease from engaging in a romantic relationship.

"Well..." you took in a shaky breath. "At least this time, the memories of our night together don't have to be constantly on your conscience - you pretty much got a chance to redo it with Beth, and it worked out well for you," you forced a smile. "This time, you weren't crazy drunk - so it's more solid,"

"(Y/N),"

Your eyes shot back up to him as he stared at you with the most sincere gaze you have ever had the opportunity to witness.

"I wasn't drunk that night," he stated. "I had a few drinks, but I was sober, and I....did everything purely because I wanted to," he took another step forward. "And you're wrong about the memories not being constantly on my mind, even after all these years. The truth is a lot more harrowing than you think,"

With large eyes, you studied him, riddled with newfound mind activity. "Why...do you say that?"

"Because when I first saw Beth's silhouette that evening, I only saw you,"

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