Girl Meets Plus One || BOOK 2

We Meet Mothers

"So who has the key to your heart?" Maya asks as she and Riley plop down on either side of him on the couch while I mold into the chair next to it.

"Yeah, you ever been in love or what?" I ask. He looks as Cory and Topanga.

"Rachel time?"

"Seems unavoidable."

"Rachel?" Riley asks.

"Spill it," Maya demands.

 "Yeah, was she all funny-clumsy-female-you type?" I ask.

"You guys want to know how they fell in love?" Cory asks.

"His best friend fell for her."

"What?" Riley shouts.

"I can explain that."

"Girls, trust us, it was very romantic in college."

"So basically he fell in love with an image before getting to know the work behind it?" I deduce.

"It was doomed from the start," Maya hypotheses.

"Never let me do that," Riley notes to us.

"We would kill it immediately," Maya assures

"That's what best friends are supposed to do," I add.

"Ring power!" Maya shouts.

"Ring power!" Riley and I reply putting our hands that hold our rings in the air as does Maya.

"Thunder!"

"Lightning!"

"Tornado!"

"So where's Rachel now?" Maya asks.

"She moved back to where she's from, that's about all I know. We talk ever now and then, but when I was younger I stepped out of the way so my friend could have her."

"So who couldn't commit? Who didn't stay?"

"It wasn't me, I know that much, but then again, I wasn't with her at the time. People should know this about me; I would do anything to protect the ones I love."

"Yeah, I'm normally the one who stays a lot of that too. I'm not the one who leaves. So, who's on your list?" I say sitting down next to him.

"Best friend and girl of my dreams. So who'd you stay loyal to when they didn't to you?"

"Definitely father, and a whole bunch of other people."

"Why? What did your father do?" Cory asks from the kitchen.

"Yeah, I've never actually heard," Eric adds. Riley and Maya look at me with sadness in their eyes. I look down.

"He... he's dead. And, let's just say he wasn't a good man. He... did some very, very bad things. He hurt some good people who didn't deserve such horrid things." He looks angry, he places his hand on my shoulder making me flinch; he sees my reaction as I slowly relax, "I-I'm sorry." He looks at me pleadingly.

"Idina, you shouldn't have to be sorry for anything. No person should make another human being feel that way or go through that. How could your own father..." he stops, "No one should have to go through that."

"Now it's looking like my mom might be on the list too."

"Why?"

"Well lately, the clinic's taken first priority to me. It just seems like it's been me and Ollie."

"Ollie?" he asks, just then Auggie runs in chasing a small running figure, my beagle, Ollie. I lift the dog up to my chest and smile, making his paw wave at Eric.