under the cover of darkness [g.r]

twenty - january

She knew the extreme jealousy and panic she felt the night before was unhealthy, the distrust of George at the back of her mind. Yes, he had not been honest with her in the past, but it was not the first time such strong emotions had been caused by so little. She thought back to Mitch, how their relationship had stopped in its tracks when she broke down in tears about being unable to be in a relationship that wasn't 100% committed. She didn't want any more questioning of what their relationship was, two months and she needed all or nothing. But she had grown, she knew she had, but she still had lapses she needed to work through.

"We can work though it together, though." George frowned, rubbing his thumb over the back of her hand. "I understand you need time to heal, I still admire how strong you are after everything that happened when you were young." A painful reminder came to Abi in the form of a lump in her throat, grip tightening on George's hand. There was something she hadn't thought of in an awfully long time. "I love you too, I truly do. The last four months of having you back in my life have been the most amazing months and I hate myself for how I have treated you." Their eyes met, and Abi couldn't stop the butterflies. "I will do whatever I can for this, for us, to work. I can give you time, I can give you space. I promise you I will never fuck up again. Last night... Last night made me realise how desperately in love with you I am. When we walked the streets looking for you, I was so scared, so angry at myself. I need to work on myself, and I will, I promise." Abi sighed, bottom lip unsteady as she bit it.

"I don't know what to do for the best, George." She said softly, looking up at him. "I regret last night so much, I didn't mean what I said... I know you didn't mean to hurt Alex, to upset me like you did. Ideas were put in my mind. and I let them run away with themselves." She swallowed and rubbed her face with her hands. "You did nothing wrong last night and neither did I. We were sensible and rational and we both just decontextualised everything and our silly drunk minds overthought it." She sighed and shook her head. "We were both as bad as each other really, weren't we." She laughed, earning a warm smile from the lad.

"We were." He agreed. He wrapped his arms around Abi and pulled her close. "We both badly interpreted innocent situations. We overreacted." He murmured into her hair, eyes shutting as he breathed in her warming scent.

"We did." She agreed, face nuzzled into the warmth of George's clean skin. "We can work through this, I know we can." She mumbled as her eyes shut, a yawn escaping her dry lips. "We mustn't brush last night under the carpet though, it's something we need to work through." She added and felt George nod against her head.

"I'll do anything, Abs." George reassured before pulling away and cupping her face with his hands. "You mean too much to me for me to let myself ruin things again. 2019, this year i'm going to grow up and become the man I know I need to be." He said, heart warming at the smile that folded onto Abi's face. "If I break that promise you can drag me 'round the Williams office by my balls." They both laughed and Abi let out a slow breath.

"I will absolutely hold you to that." She whispered as, gently and hesitantly, George's lips were pressed to hers.

Callum was yet to speak as they sat opposite each other at lunch. Abi forked at her salad, anxious for her friend's words, and shovelled it into her mouth. Callum remained still, uncharacteristically silent. Abi gave him a cautious, anxious look, and then went back to her salad.

"I really don't know what you expect me to say." Callum said eventually. "You walk in on him and his ex getting all cozy, he punches his best mate because he thinks you two were getting off, and then begs you to stay." Abi placed her fork down and scratched the back of her neck. "You're an idiot," He said firmly, leaning back in his chair. "He would be straight to the streets if I were you. He would have been after you found out about Seychelle." He ran his tongue over his bottom lip and shook his head in disbelief. "It will not end well. Okay, you're getting therapy now, and so is he, but that isn't going to change the world. He is not the only man in the world for you, Abi. There are however many billion men in the world and any of them are going to treat you better." There wasn't the usual joking tone to his voice as he spoke, Abi's eyes on her plate, head hung in shame at the situation she had found herself in.