Counting down the seconds, Gwen couldn't have been more impatient for the last two minutes of a full five to pass.
Twenty seconds left.
Fifteen seconds left.
Ten... Nine... Eight...
Seven... Six... Five...
Four... Three... Two...
One second left.
Those five minutes were up. Opening her eyes, Gwen glanced down and swallowed hard as she saw what she'd been waiting for. She drew in a breath as her mind raced over a thousand different scenarios. She gave herself a minute to let the truth sink in; a truth that would either make them or break them. Down below in the kitchen, she could hear Peter pattering about, clearing everything away from Sunday night dinner and she was still curious to hear whatever it was that he'd wanted to tell her the other day before she'd fallen asleep. Deciding that it was the perfect time for them both to say what they'd wanted to say before anything else could distract them, she placed the object in her hands down on the counter top and exited the room, heading downstairs into the kitchen.
Busy loading up the dishwasher, Peter hadn't yet noticed her enter the room. Walking slowly over to him, she caught him by surprise as she wrapped her arms around his waist from behind. He put the glass down that was in his hands, and lifted his head with a smile.
"P- Peter..." Gwen began.
"Yes?" He questioned, placing his hands on hers.
"Remember the other day when we had things to say?" She asked.
"Of course..." He answered, wondering where she was taking the conversation.
"Well... Now I kinda have to say it, but I also really wanna know what you have to say. Do you think we could sit down to talk for a minute or two?" She requested.
"Absolutely." He agreed, wiping his wet hands on a tea towel and moving over to the kitchen table.
Once he'd sat down, she sat down herself and licked her lips as she tried to think of where to begin. "Well... Remember those days back before graduation where we would talk about the future and we would make all those plans..." She began.
"Those were some good times we had together back then... And hey, we managed to fulfill a few of those too." He said, feeling fond of the memories in question.
"Yeah, I guess we did. But what if, hypothetically speaking, something were to happen that wouldn't fit into those plans or wasn't exactly a part of them?" She questioned.
Feeling confused, Peter thought deeply about her question before providing his answer. "I'm sure that whatever life throws our way, that we can work around it and build new plans." He answered carefully. "But this is a hypothetical question, is it not?" He asked.
"Not exactly." She admitted.
"I tried to explain back in the truck but obviously that didn't work out, but what I'm trying to say is that-" Gwen broke off abruptly as a loud ringing that she quickly realized was coming from Peter's phone, wailed through the air.
"Can you take that later?" She pleaded.
"I'm sorry, but it's Aunt May and it might be something important." He protested.
"But this is important. Even more so now than it was a few days ago." She told him.
"I'm really sorry, I'll be five minutes." He promised, swiping the screen to answer and walking into the hall.
With a frustrated sigh, Gwen stood up from the chair and walked over to the sink, grabbing a nearby glass, filling it with water and downing it quickly. Every single time she tried, something always interrupted without fail. As she rinsed the glass out and put it back in the sink, Peter walked back in the room with a huge smile on his face.
YOU ARE READING
The Afterglow
FanfictionSEQUEL TO SHOWING HER THE ROPES. 1 Year after they left for Oxford, Peter and Gwen are now back in New York City and newly married too. They had left thinking that Venom was gone, along with Harry Osborne. Harry is dead. But Venom could still return...
