"See you tomorrow, hope you have fun!" Mary kissed her parents goodbye, closed the door behind them and turned to look at her chaperone. Matthew gave her a cheeky smile in return.
The notion that she even needed a chaperone was ridiculous. She was in her mid-twenties! But, her parents were spending the night away in Plymouth, and with Edith staying over with friends and Sybil not yet home from university, Robert and Cora had been reluctant to leave their precious eldest daughter alone in the big house. There had been a break-in two weeks ago in one of the neighbouring townhouses, and they didn't want to risk it. So, naturally, they called upon their darling Matthew to spend the night with Mary (in entirely separate rooms, of course). Matthew had been employed by Robert about six months earlier, to dispense some legal advice in relation to the family's properties and taxes. His retainer had technically ended, but Robert and Cora had taken to the young man so well that they remained in touch, which Matthew was perfectly happy with. It was always good to have such wealthy, legally-ignorant contacts. Furthermore, it didn't hurt that their eldest daughter was an absolute bombshell and had struck up an unlikely friendship with him.
When they'd first met, Mary treated Matthew like she'd treated most young men- with disdain. This confused Matthew at first, not knowing what he'd done to tread on her toes and upset her so much, but he later understood that, after a lifetime of being relentlessly pursued by boys who only wanted her money and looks, it made sense for her to have her guard up. So he'd tried his best to keep out of her way and only speak to her when spoken to. Counter-intuitively, this caught Mary's attention. No other young male (or old male, for that matter) had shown that level of disinterest towards her. Then one night, at a dinner party which Robert hosted for his business contacts, a tipsy Mary plopped down on the sofa in the corner of the room next to a tipsy Matthew, and their friendship was born. Since then, they'd only gotten closer- something which didn't escape the notice of Robert and Cora. They never suspected anything romantic, though; Matthew was in a long-term relationship with Lavinia, and Mary had more than enough suitors to keep her occupied. They were just happy to see Mary gain a level-headed, older-brother-type influence in her life.
"What are you smiling at?" Mary asked. "Are you looking forward to combating the inevitable rogue who's going to crowbar his way into the house while we sleep?" Sarcasm dripped from her voice. Not only was she annoyed that her parents were being so over-protective, Mary thought it was a little bit ridiculous that her parents had chosen Matthew to stay in the house with her, of all people. She wasn't sure he'd ever been in a proper fight in his entire life; the closest thing was probably his brief spell of army-training at Sandhurst, but even that was about six years ago.
"I just think it's hilarious that you still need a chaperone. Have you got anything to do tonight?" Matthew asked, sensing it was probably best not to mock Mary too much. He knew she hated that she was always so sheltered, almost controlled. He felt bad for her. She was such a strong-willed girl but her behaviour was constantly being corrected or stifled. It made him glad that he wasn't born into a family of such high-standing and reputation.
"No, not really. I just need to send off a couple of job applications, otherwise Mum will keep nagging me about it tomorrow. What a way for a young girl to spend her Saturday night. What about you? Oh, I forgot to say, you can invite Lavinia over for dinner if you want. I remember you said earlier that you hadn't seen her for a while."
Matthew hesitated to respond. "Oh, thanks, but, erm…it's fine. I'll just give her a ring a bit later."He mumbled.
Mary put her hands on her hips, tilting her head and eyeing Matthew curiously. "For a lawyer, you're really not good at keeping a poker face, you know."
"I'm a solicitor, not a barrister. We do more paperwork than speaking." Matthew tried to steer the conversation in another direction.
"Whatever. So what's going on with you and Lavinia?" Frustratingly for Matthew, Mary always saw right through his tactics. He frequently tried to persuade her to do a law conversion course and become a barrister. He could just imagine her in cross-examination; those poor defendants wouldn't know what hit them.
"Nothing's going on, as such. It's just that I haven't told her I'm staying here tonight." Matthew replied sheepishly.
"Oh," Mary was surprised. It wasn't like Matthew to lie or hide things from anyone, let alone his girlfriend. "Why not? Would she be angry?"
"No…well, probably not angry, but it's just a bit awkward to explain to your girlfriend that you're spending the night with another girl."
"You're not 'spending the night with me', you fool. Your room is about half a mile away from mine! There's no reason to feel awkward about it. Why would you feel awkward?" Mary asked. If Mary was honest with herself, she was extremely curious about why Matthew felt the need to hide the situation from Lavinia; surely, if Matthew saw tonight as nothing but a favour to a former employer and friend, he'd have no reason to turn it into some kind of clandestine rendez-vous. If Mary was really honest with herself, she almost hoped that Matthew did see tonight as more than just a favour to her father. She hoped that he actually wanted to spend time with her, alone. Over the last few months, they'd become so close. So connected. Mary was sure she'd never felt so comfortable around another person, especially a man.
For most of their friendship, Mary usually only saw Matthew when he was with her father, discussing legal matters, or when he was with Lavinia, at his flat for drinks or small dinner parties. This, she thinks, probably made her subconscious mind prevent herself from developing any attraction for him, by thinking of him as an associate of her father's, or as someone who was already attached. But recently, they've started spending time alone together. Going to the cinema (not without first incessantly mocking each other's choice of film), concerts (he'd tried to convince her that she did in fact like folk music), or just hanging out and watching TV (Matthew always insisted that he was too intellectual for all the trashy reality TV that Mary forced upon him, although Mary could tell that he harboured a secret fascination with Spencer and Heidi from The Hills). Mary had noticed a direct correlation between the amount of time she spent alone with Matthew and the number of romantic thoughts she had about him. Each time he spoke about his dates with Lavinia, or she visited his flat right after Lavinia had left and noticed his crumpled sheets, she felt an ever-increasing pang of jealousy. She found herself wondering what it felt like to sit on his lap, how he kissed…whether he was good in bed. God knows why I'm trying to convince him to invite her over tonight, when I could have him all to myself. She then reminded herself that she's the queen of hiding her feelings, particularly romantic ones, and she's merely working on auto-pilot.
"I don't know!" Matthew's eventual reply knocked her out of her pensiveness. "I suppose I'm just an idiot, as you're forever telling me." He hoped his feeble joke would suffice as an answer to her question. "Besides, I have a bit of work to do myself…and then I have a favour to ask you." Matthew gave her his cutest smile.
"A favour?" Mary asked sceptically. She didn't like the way he was smiling at her. Well, she did, it was adorable, but she knew that it signified a great sacrifice on her part.
"Yes. And considering I'm spending so much time and energy protecting you right now, you have to agree to it. It would be terribly rude not to."
"Hmm. We'll see about that. OK, seeing as we both have work to be done, shall we each get that out of the way now? Then we can order some food and you can try and persuade me to agree to whatever your mysterious request is."
"Sounds good. Except for the fact that we won't be ordering in- I'm going to cook dinner and you are going to help me, Miss Crawley. The second thing wrong with what you just said is that you are definitely going to agree to my request. So, overall, you only made two mistakes in your little speech there. That's a big improvement on when I first met you." Matthew teased, summoning his most patronising voice. He could see her getting riled up as he spoke, and he loved it. He always thought she was at her most beautiful when she was annoyed at him. But then she'd smile, or laugh, or frown slightly in concentration while painting her nails, and he'd change his mind. Of course, he'd immediately banish these thoughts from his mind as soon as they entered it. It was inappropriate to think of another woman in that way. You only have eyes for Lavinia, he'd remind himself.
"I'll deal with your deluded ideas when the time comes. I have no time to disprove them now- my job applications await." Mary put on her haughtiest-sounding voice, turned her back to him and walked out of the room to go upstairs. Once she'd disappeared from his sight, Matthew realised that he'd been appreciating the view a little too much. She was wearing a black bandeau jumpsuit (not that Matthew had any idea that that was what it was called) which fit her figure perfectly. Matthew chastised himself for admiring another woman's body in that way. But, the little devil on Matthew's shoulder said, surely all men, even the married ones, admire other versions of the female form? It's only natural! I'm sure Lavinia admires other men all the time. It's human nature!
Matthew shook his head clear of all these conflicting, confusing thoughts, and settled down on the plush sofa with his laptop and paperwork. As much as he knew he needed to concentrate, he couldn't help but wonder what else was going to happen that night.