I stood beside Mary as she stirred the pasta sauce, making a salad. I had asked her repeatedly why we were making so much food and every single time, she'd reply: "We might eat more than we expect" but her teasing smile made me question how true that statement really was.

As I was pouring the chopped tomatoes into a wooden bowl, the sound of the bell rang throughout the house.

"Can you please get that Victoria? The sauce is done so I can set up." I nodded my head sombrely and walked to the door. When I opened it, I was surprised to find my two friends at the door.

"What are you guys doing here?" I asked them, moving aside to let them in. Ashley hugged me tightly as Fae entered, closing the door behind her.

"Mary told us what happened earlier at work so we thought we'd join you," she said as she pulled away.

At the mention of what had happened at work, my eyes began to sting as tears threatened to fall. I shook my head in an attempt to keep the tears from coming out but that didn't work as a lone tear fell.

"Why are you here Fae?" I asked her, wiping away the tear.

"Are we not friends anymore?" she asked, a small smile on her lips.

"Are you all going to stay at the door or join me for dinner?" Mary asked from the kitchen. I felt my lips turn into a small smile as I followed them towards the dining room.

"We're coming Mary," Ashley said, chuckling slightly.

We walked into the dining room to find the table already set for dinner. How did she so that so quickly, I thought to myself as she walked to Fae and Ashley, hugging both of them briefly.

~~♡~~♡~~♡~~

It had been a week since I had come to terms with the way I felt about Mike but I still wasn't sure if these feeling were past infatuation. I knew that they were strong feelings but how strong they were was a mystery to me.

As I was walking into my office for lunch, I felt my phone vibrate in my coat. Reluctantly, I took it out to find a text message. I didn't open it until I was sitting on my chair.

My heart pounded very quickly in my chest as I read the three words over and over from the man I had not heard from for a very long time.

Can we talk? - Mike

I swallowed a lump in my throat as I replied to him, asking where and when he wanted to talk; but before I could send it, my phone vibrated in my hand with his name on the screen.

"Hello?" I answered. I heard the release of a breath on the other end of the line.

"I was afraid you were ignoring me Tori," he said. I felt my back stiffen as he used my nickname. It had been so long since he had called me that─too long.

"I'm not ignoring you Mike. When did you want to talk?" I asked him slowly. There was a pause before he spoke, almost as if he was thinking of how to answer.

"Are you busy now?"

"No."

"Why don't we meet at my dad's restaurant then?" That restaurant had so many memories but the most recent ones were not very pleasant. Knowing that, I still agreed.

"I'll be there in ten minutes." I hung up the phone and grabbed my bag from the desk after taking off my coat.

"Are you going somewhere?" Ashley asked me when I walked outside. I nodded my head.

"I'm going to the Matthews restaurant."

"To see Mike?" I nodded my head. "Good luck, you might need it." She hugged me tightly before allowing me to walk to my car.

As I got closer to the restaurant, I felt my heartbeat begin to accelerate, accompanied by my palms beginning to get damp.

You can do this Victoria, I told myself as I locked my car.

You can do this.

As soon as I entered, I saw him sitting in the back. I slowly walked over to him and took a seat across from him.

"Long time no see," he said, a small smile appearing on his lips. I nodded my head as I felt a small smile of my own.

"Yeah."

"Are you hungry?" he asked, passing me one of the menus before him. I murmured a soft thank you.

"Kinda." I wasn't sure if I was hungry because my nervousness was overpowering. Hearing him chuckle, I looked up from my menu.

"Why do you look so scared Victoria? It's just food."

"I know you didn't invite me here just for lunch Mike. So whatever it is please just get down to the bottom of it."

He sighed as he looked away, only to return looking directly into my eyes a few moments later.

"I wanted to know if you've made up your mind. About how you feel."

Although I knew that was his reason for inviting me, I still couldn't help but to feel surprised. I sighed and put down my menu.

"I have," I said. His eyes widened as he swallowed.

"And?" he urged. I sighed again, preparing myself for his reaction.

"I have feelings for you Mike."

He looked at me, shock painted over his face. It was as if although he had waited for this moment, he didn't realise how he'd feel when it actually happened.

"You do?" he asked incredulously. I nodded my head. A large smile formed on his face.

"That's great. You don't know how long I've waited for you to be mine Tori."

As soon as I heard his words, I felt my lips turn into a small frown.

"I'm not yours Mike and I never will be."

His face immediately fell.

"What do you mean?" he asked, the same amount of surprise coating his words.

"I can't be in a relationship with you the way you want. I only wanted to get married once- I'm not saying that if we were together, we'd get married. It's just that I only imagined getting married once and I was hoping that Alex would be my one and only. But he's already decided to end our relationship and I don't want to start a new one. I really don't want to experience this again. I'm so─"

"Victoria I won't let that happen to you. I love you, why can't you just see that?" he pleaded, leaning towards the table and reaching out his hand towards mine where it lay on the table. But I pulled away.

"I'm sorry Mike but it just won't happen. Besides if your mom didn't want me to be with Alex, what makes you think that she'll like us together?" I asked him.

He sat up straight and looked away from me, a longing expression on his face.

"If she didn't want that, she wouldn't have asked me to break the two of you apart." I could see that he wasn't understanding me. But what else did I expect, it was his mother we were talking about after all. I would find it difficult to think anything differently about my own mom if I were in his shoes.

"You don't think that she could've just used your feelings for me to her advantage?" I asked him.

"She wouldn't do that. Now I get that she doesn't always think about others but I'm her son. She wouldn't do that to me," he said, looking at me seriously. I sighed and ran a hand through my hair in frustration.

"Look I'm sorry Mike. We can't be together no matter what you think."

I stood up to leave but when I bumped into someone, I stopped and sat back down, looking up into familiar brown eyes.

"Alex," I whispered.

His face was blank and I couldn't decipher his thoughts. He didn't say anything as he looked from me to his brother before he placed a small stack of papers in front of me.

"You need to sign these."

Reluctantly, I picked up the first paper and looked at the top. The word divorce jumped out at me; he had just handed me divorce papers. I felt anger and frustration bubble up inside me as I calmly placed it back to the pile and looked at him. I couldn't believe how quickly he was going through with this.

"I'm not signing them."