*****Willow's POV****
Once Emma had gone I finally allowed myself to enjoy the night and have a good time with Digby and the girls. I was more than a little tipsy by the time that we left but thankfully Digby looked after me and made sure we made it home safely before passing out to be woken up by a full hangover the next morning.
A few days later Liv messaged to see if I wanted to go out for lunch with her, Tabitha and Emily, which of course I accepted.
"This is a lot more civilised than the raunchy party we were at the other night." Liv told Tabitha who was not able to go.
"Don't we all love a bit of leather and lace." Emily commented.
"Wait what? Was this just you three?" Tabitha asked.
"Yeah just us three in the middle of London." Emily said. "There was quite a lot of people there. I mean Maeva she looked incredible but I could see what she had for dinner."
"It was so much fun." Liv said and then turned to Emily. "You and Miles made me laugh so much, I don't know how anything hasn't happened between you before like you have such a flirty friendship."
"I love the friendship that we have so much though. It's hard because if we did every overstep that line..."
"You want to date though don't you?" I asked.
"Each week's different for me. Harv and I are trying to be friends in some sort of way so soon and it's just not working for me. He keeps asking to come back to the flat but that's my flat and it's not his home anymore."
"Yeah."
"He then comes up and says he needs to grab something so I'm like right then I'll go for a walk. He'll then be like 'where are you, I'll come see you' and I'm like 'no don't do that because I don't want to see you'."
"He's not your problem anymore." I told her.
"Talking about problems," Liv said. "You got quite tipsy the other night. Looked like you were letting loose."
"Yeah, for weeks there's been this tension with Emma, you mentioned it and people have mentioned it. Then the other night came over and she kept making little comments that were getting to me so I just said everything I had to say."
"What did you say?" Emily asked.
"I just told her like Digby and I have been through so much and her little comments are doing nothing so she should just stop. Like I don't know how people have that much energy to be invested in someone's relationship. Go hang out with some other boys."
"So I think Rez is organising a boy's night tonight to cheer James up after everything that happened in Yorkshire." Liv said.
"Is James allowed out for boys night?"
"Well normally James looses his mind on boys night." Emily said. "He gets so drunk and then takes off his top swinging it about as his little party trick."
"Shall we do a girls night tomorrow?" Liv asked.
"Yes!"
"I actually can't come tomorrow night, Miles and I have had this dinner planned for so long that I just can't get out of it."
"Date night?"
"Absolutely not a date night."
"Keep telling yourself that babe. Well ours will be a friends night and that means one person definitely is not coming."
"Inga." I confirmed.
"That sounds mean, I don't want it to be but I just also want to have fun and I don't want it to be awkward."
"What about Maeva?" Emily asked.
"With her and I it's been a bit awkward since Inga and I fell out, We just don't really talk."
"I think she's team Inga."
"But I just want it to be drama free."
"I kind of want some drama." Tabitha said. "I'm going to secretly invite Inga"
"You dare"
****
The following night Liv organised for all the girls to go out to a nearby bar turned club. I had gone all out with my pink sequin mini dress and everyone did look stunning.
"Where's Emily?" Tiff asked as she stood with Liv and I.
"She's gone with Miles tonight, on what they say is a friendship night."
"She's pied off girls night for a boy. I feel like they've been hanging out a lot more since she's become single, I know they live quite close to each other but they are together a lot..."
"It's funny because when you bring it up she's like no, no. But then she'll laugh so I'm unsure."
"I feel like something will happen." I told them. "100%"
"I feel like I've missed so much." Tiff said. "Like there's been a literal proposal and I wish I was there for it. I was gutted."
"A proposal and a no." I confirmed.
"I mean I wouldn't no, I feel like I was really close with Maeva but then since I fell out with Inga she's been giving me strange looks which is weird, very frosty." Liv said.
"I feel like with Maeva it's either you're really close to her or she doesn't speak to you."
"But then I'm not sure why it's with me. I think her priority should be sorting out her cheating boyfriend."
"What?" I don't think I've gasped that hard in a while.
"She got sent a video of James drunkenly walking to a bar holding a girl's hand."
"Was she there?"
"No,"
"So he was on a boy's night?" Tiff asked.
"Yeah he was on a boy's night. I don't know this for certain but I spoke to Ruby earlier and Rez apparently said that they kissed, he was apparently really drunk and can't remember a thing. I think they were going to James tonight to say what they saw"
"Maeva doesn't strike me as someone who forgives this sort of thing." I said. "Like surely this spells big trouble for their relationship."
"Big trouble." Tiff confirmed.
****
I stayed with Liv and we decided that the best course of action would just be to go over to Maeva and sort the issue out here and now. There was no point in having this frostiness across the room.
"Hi," I said as walked up to Paris and Maeva. "How are you both?"
"I'm good thank you." Paris said.
"Good, surprised I've been invited to be honest." Maeva said.
"I'm more surprised with the frostiness I've received from you." Liv said. "I just wanted to see what the problem was."
"I think I'm going to speak for Inga here and I just don't understand why you dropped her basically."
"I didn't drop her, she was the one who started this whole situation and had the cheek to speak to me like a piece of shit in the middle of a nightclub."
"But do you know what's going on with her right now? She's split up with this boy and she sees you spending so much time with Sam Prince."
"Sam Prince I have known for 5 years, Inga I have known for 5 months." Liv argued. "It's two very different things."
"I know that,"
"She burnt that bridge when she basically called me a bitch, of course if I was still friends with her I would be supporting her and helping her, but we're not. I will still be friends with Sam Prince even when she's crying about it. But are you putting more attention on this because of other things that might be going on right now?"
"Well Inga..."
"I think she means James." I said. "What's going on with James?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well I presume you've seen the video that's circulating?" Liv said.
"Do we really need to talk about?"
"Yes, no seriously I want to know what's going on. When I saw that video I was shocked because James isn't like that so what's going on between the two of you."
"Everything is honestly fine, when James gets drunk he can get a bit like that. A bit too close, a bit too flirty."
"We're talking about full on cheating here though." Liv said. "Like that's the big issue. Him kissing someone"
"What do you mean?"
"This is what I've been told through Rez and then Ruby. So they saw James kissing a girl in the corner of the club, they've then gone over and told him to leave and put him in a taxi."
"Are you alright?" I asked noticing her watering eyes.
"Well no I'm not. I don't know, I'm going to speak to him. He's obviously being idiot James when he's drunk and after 3 years I don't deserve that. He has been a fucking idiot and if that's the truth I will break up with him."
"He doesn't deserve you if that's true, he's brought it on himself." I told her. "Drunk or not."
****
Instead of going out tonight Digby invited Gareth, Ollie and I over to his house for a little double date.
"I feel like we haven't done this in so long." I told them as we prepared the pizza for our outside pizza oven. "This feels like when I brought you along to properly speak to them before we made it official."
"That feels like a lifetime ago."
"How are you two?" Gareth asked. "Any drama?"
"Thankfully not, I get enough couple drama just speaking to all the girls. There was a little bit of tension between Emma and I but I just squashed it the other night, I don't know her well enough to care about her opinion and what she thinks about us."
"Yeah."
"Liv actually messaged me the other morning after we went out because there's been some more drama between her and Sam Prince, apparently they've kissed and Inga knows about it." I told them all."
"Inga can do what she likes and I know she's quite a head strong girl but I just think if she gets back with him now she's being stupid. Like this guy has continued to mug her off again and again." Ollie said.
"I get he's probably just immature and whatever but it's actually really hurtful." I told them. "Like he's almost gone to the people she hated the most right now and made the situation so much worse."
"Completely."
"What do you think Maeva is going to do?" Gareth asked.
"I also spoke to her the other night but she hadn't spoken to James. She was angry though at even the thought of it, like they've been together 3 years. I think kissing someone should be just a you're out of here, holding hands was bad enough."
"James knows he's in the wrong." Digby said. "He's just so drunk that he doesn't have a clue what happened to give her a straight answer."
"I almost don't understand why he's put himself in that situation if he can't handle the alcohol." Ollie said. "Like surely you can tell yourself when to stop."
"Maybe we should talk about something more cheerful." I said. "Have you two got any plans for the summer?"
"Obviously we're still going to be keeping to the surrogate schedule and trying to get that sorted as soon as possible. I think the plan is to go away a few times and get some sun, maybe Greece again." Gareth said.
"We liked Greece." Ollie confirmed. "What about you two?"
"I don't know that depends if Emma's inviting us back to her place." I joked with Digby.
"Ha ha." He sarcastically laughed. "I don't know, we've both said that for a while now we want to do a bit more travelling. Maybe somewhere in Asia, bit of Island hopping."
"I've always wanted to do that." I said. "Whilst we're both young and carefree I think now is the time to get our travelling out, go and see the world. Make some memories."
"That's the best way to do it."
"Exactly."
****Author's Note****
I hope you like this chapter.
Please vote and comment any suggestions.
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