-Present-
Francis used to do this thing when she'd take a shower. He'd sneak in and write little notes in the fog on the mirror. Just simple things, 'I love you,' 'The neighbors think your singing is atrocious but I love it so don't stop,' sometimes he'd write things like, 'Don't bother getting dressed ;).' She hardly ever heard him come in. She has no idea where the hell he got it from. Though she suspects he picked it up from his time in Paris because he didn't do it before then.
She loves it no matter where it came from. They make her laugh. She tries to do it to him, and sometimes she's successful, a lot of times he catches her.
There isn't a note today, there hasn't been one for several weeks now. She should be used to not seeing them, but she feels her shoulders slump a little when she steps out and sees the untouched fog on her mirror.
Mary just wipes the fog away so she can see and brushes her teeth, her hair, and goes about getting ready for the day. It's not over, it's not like they're done. Once they get to a point they aren't arguing all the damn time, he'll come back.
He always comes back. She doesn't deserve him.
She was hoping when her phone vibrates on the coffee table that it's Francis, but it's just Kenna. She sent a picture of herself in a bikini lying on a beach covered in sand.
Lola: "Kennaaaaa you're hotttt."
Kenna: "I know ;)"
Mary: "Meanwhile I'm about to go scrape ten feet of snow off my car."
Kenna: "Are you jealous?"
Mary: "Very."
Kenna: "Ask Your Francis to take you somewhere warm."
Mary: "He'd take me straight to the heater."
Lola: "He could take you to Paris."
Mary: "He lived there? He's seen everything already, why would he want to go back?"
Kenna: "Something about uninterrupted hours of sweaty sheet fun but ya know."
Mary: "Sweaty sheet fun?"
Greer: "I'm stealing that."
Kenna: "GREER"
Greer: "Hey."
Kenna: "I'M ON A BEACH"
Greer: "I see that."
Kenna: "Bash won't take a picture with me but he's here too."
Lola: "He took you on vacation with him and you still won't make it official?"
Kenna: "He took me on vacation with him because Mary's lovely husband is inhabiting his couch."
Greer: "Why would Bash take you on vacation with him if Francis is on his couch? That's a weird reason."
Greer: "Oh."
Greer: "OH"
Greer: "Aha sweaty sheet fun."
Kenna: "Greer, really? REALLY?"
Kenna: "And I'm the dense one."
Kenna: "Mary, darling you got quiet."
Mary: "I'm getting ready for work."
Mary: "I gotta go, have fun." She sets her phone down. She sighs, not sure she's ready to see Louis today. She wonders what he'll have to say to her, probably some harmless flirty joke that she doesn't care for. She grabs her keys and heads out the door.
-/-
"You look nice today." Is the first thing Louis says to her when she walks in, she sets her things down with a huff, she narrows her eyes at him but doesn't say anything. "What was that look?" He asks with a smirk, "Oh, did Francis ban compliments too? Sorry. Must have missed the memo."
"Louis."
"Hm?" He raises an eyebrow.
"Aren't you supposed to be working?"
"I am."
"Doesn't look like it." She says and then jumps at the sudden pop of a paint can opening. "Oh." His eyes don't leave hers as he lifts the can.
"Spoke too soon, hm?"
"Shut up." She says as she opens her laptop. She gets a few minutes of peace before she looks up and notices they're painting the walls the wrong color. "Stop!" She shouts as she stands and rounds the corner to Louis, who's giving her a confused look. "What color is this?"
"Ivory, like you said."
"No." She says, "I said pearl."
"Nooo...I'm pretty sure you said ivory."
"No." She says with a click of her teeth as she goes back to the table where her notes are, "We gave Catherine four color choices, she picked pearl. See?" She points at Catherine's neat handwriting, "Ivory isn't even an option, how did you-"
"Can I see that?" He asks, taking off his gloves and she hands it to him, he flips through her notes, reading carefully. "Huh, could have sworn you said ivory." He says looking around. Most of the walls are already painted, and it's going to take forever to repaint them.
"I know what I said and that wasn't it." She says carefully, "So fix it before Catherine finds out."
"Okay, but it'll take a few days, we gotta wait for this to dry first so it doesn't mix with the new paint. It might add another week or two." She scoffs, she can tell by his voice he didn't do this on accident. She grabs his arm and tugs him to another room, one with the door already on it so she can shut it for some privacy.
"Not sure Francis would appreciate you dragging me behind closed doors, Mary." He smirks and she folds her arms over her chest.
"Did you do this on purpose?" She asks calmly and he makes a face like he can't believe she just asked him that, but he knows why she would, he knows what he did. That night in her office, the reason Francis isn't speaking to her at the moment. One of the reasons, at least.
"Excuse me?"
"You did." She says and then she's pacing, "I can't…" She runs her hands through her hair, "I'm married, do you not understand that?"
"Mary-"
"You broke up with me." Her voice is rising now and she doesn't care if the other workers hear her, because she's mad and she's frustrated and she misses her husband. "You can't just come back and try to…"
"Try to what?"
"You know what."
"Mary, I know I overstepped my boundaries a couple weeks ago, but I didn't come back here to screw up your marriage, you have a kid why would I break up a family?" She doesn't say anything, "Did you explain to him what happened? Did you tell him it was my fault?"
"Yes."
"And he still left you."
"It was...It was a mutual agreement."
"What happened doesn't warrant a separation even after an explanation." He says, "So that tells me it was broken long before I showed up. You can't keep blaming me for your failing marriage."
"You can't keep flirting with me, Louis, and messing up on purpose because you want to spend more time with me, so please, get this done and leave me alone." She says softly.
"Fine." He says, "Fine. But for what it's worth, I regretted it the second you left." She knows how that feels. "I should have been more patient with you, Mary, I can't help but think maybe we'd be married with a kid by now." No, no, they wouldn't be because she would have ended it before it got too serious anyway, especially since all she could think about was Francis during the entire duration of their relationship.
"No." She says softly, "There's something you don't know."
"What?"
"It wouldn't have worked." She whispers, "Because right after you broke up with me I bought a plane ticket to Paris."
"Would you ha-"
"And I was already looking at them while we were dating so…" She shrugs and his face does a thing, she struck a chord with that. She wouldn't allow herself to love him and he knows it, even if she developed some kind of fondness for him that went beyond mild infatuation, it never would have developed into real love because she loves Francis and she always did. "I'm sorry." She says softly because that was...that wasn't necessary.
"No, I needed to hear it. I really meant nothing to you, didn't I?" He asks and before she can open her mouth to speak he slams her notes down on a table. "I hope you and Francis figure it out." He snaps as he leaves.
"Louis…" She says as she tries to stop him, "I didn't mean it like that." He's already gone, the door swinging shut where he once stood. That's one way to put an end to his flirtations, gonna make working with him extremely hostile but that's fine.
She sighs as she walks out, heads back to the table, Louis has already returned to his work and there are a few whispers, but she tries to ignore it and just go back to work.
Her phone vibrates and she grabs it without looking up.
Francis: "I'm visiting my mother during lunch. Do you want me to stop by?"
Francis: "Are you even here?"
Mary: "I'm still with Louis." She hits send before she can even realize what she did wrong and she kicks herself for it. That's not going to make him want to talk to her anytime soon.
Mary: "I'll be there by 2?"
Francis: "I gotta be back with Narcisse by 3. So that's fine."
Francis: "Do you want me to bring you anything?"
Mary: "Seafood salad from Leiths, please?"
Francis: "Okay."
-3 Years Ago-
She asked for a small wedding, that's what they thought they would get with the limited time they had. Catherine planned it, everything, down to the cake. Mary's surprised the woman let her pick her dress. Catherine doesn't plan small events, and Mary never realized just how big Francis' family actually was.
It's the most fun she's ever had though, even if it happened quickly and she had to sit down a lot.
She doesn't expect Kenna, Lola, and Greer to be in her apartment when they walk in though.
"Uh...hello?" Mary questions and then she looks around, "Did you guys…" Her voice trails off as she takes in her surroundings, there are candles everywhere, and rose petals on the floor and balloons clinging to the ceiling.
"Francis asked us to." Greer says as she releases a handful of rose petals on the couch, "Oh you weren't supposed to know that."
"There'd be more, but you came back too early," Lola smirks and Kenna shrugs.
"They're tired." She says with a wiggle of her eyebrows and then her friends are all shuffling out of her apartment.
"Thanks, guys," Francis says as he opens the door for them and they file out.
"Have fuuunn." Kenna sings as she closes the door and it doesn't take long for Mary to hear the soft click of the lock clicking in place and then Francis is spinning her around to face him.
"Hey." He says softly, "Are you crying?"
"I'm hormonal, shut up." She sniffles as she wipes her face. He laughs softly as he kisses her forehead, "Did you ever find out what happened to Henri?" She asks when he pulls her into his chest.
"Bash and Charles carried him home, he's fine." She laughs quietly as she wraps her arms around his neck, rising on her tiptoes to kiss him. "He'll just be really hungover tomorrow."
"He had fun."
"Yes, he did." He smiles.
"We got married today."
"We did." He says softly as he brushes her hair back, "Wanna go to bed?"
"I'm not tired." He gives her a look and she chews at her lip, "Oh. Okay, bed sounds...bed sounds great. Yeah."
"You're so cute." He smirks as he tugs her along, leads her to their bedroom and kisses her like he's never going to again
-/-.
Afterward when they're lying together and she toys with his wedding ring, twisting it around and around his finger and he watches her, the corner of his lips tilting up.
"You okay?" He asks softly and she nods.
"It just feels like a dream." She says softly, "Like I'll wake up and I'll be alone, you'll be back in Paris and the last few months never happened, like none of this was real." He shifts under her, looking down at her.
"Well, it is real." He says with a smirk and then he's leaning in until they're nose to nose and he's just a breath away, "I'm yours, you're mine. We're married, finally. I'll never leave you."
"Promise?"
"I promise." He whispers as he closes the gap between their lips and kisses her gently. She lets him, but before he can deepen it she turns her head.
"Remember in…" She takes a deep breath as he presses hot kisses down her jaw to her neck and she combs her fingers through his hair as his lips find her collarbone and then down, down, down he goes, "When you were in college."
"Mhm." She's not even sure if he's listening but she continues.
"I asked you if you had our whole lives planned out." She chews at her lip, "You said either we'd end in a bitter divorce or one of us would die."
"Ssshhh, it was a joke." He breathes against her ribs and she giggles softly, "No ones dying and divorce is debatable."
"Debatable?"
"If you keep talking, sweetie." He winks at her and she rolls her eyes, his lips reach her abdomen now and that's where he stops, his fingers finding the slight bump there. There isn't much, but that's where his hand always ended up before there was anything anyways. She'll never get rid of his hand on her stomach like this, he had to restrain himself enough today. She's a few days shy of twelve weeks now, barely showing at all. Give it another two weeks and people will probably be able to tell.
"I'll never leave you." Francis says softly, "Or our baby." He whispers, "Who we had to not talk about today and it nearly killed me."
"Do you think your extended family knew I was hiding a baby bump under my dress?"
"They might have suspected something when you almost threw up on Leeza's shoes."
"But I didn't." She says softly.
"No, you didn't." He hums, and then he wraps his arms around her back, presses a soft kiss to her bump and she thinks maybe he'll continue going down south with his ministrations but he doesn't. He just stays, resting his head against her and she smiles as she runs her fingers through his curls.
"You gonna sleep down there?" She asks softly. He nods, "Francis."
"Hm?" He turns his head to look at her.
"Come up here." She says softly and he does, he crawls back up her body and kisses her lips before lying down next to her, pulling the blankets around them tightly.
"Are you happy?" She asks, brushing his hair back and he smiles.
"Happier than any man has a right to be."
"Good." She says softly, "Glad to know you don't regret it."
"I don't, do you?"
"No."
"Good."
"I wish my mom was here." She says softly, suddenly, because it's true. She never really thought about it, she always knew her father wouldn't be here to watch her get married but she always assumed her mother would, but now they're both dead and it's still so weird. If she and Francis got married years ago, she would have been.
"I know, baby." He whispers with a kiss to the top of her head and she snuggles more into him.
"Do you wish your dad was?"
"And watch him flirt with the bridesmaids? Nah." He says with a smirk but she can tell that deep down, he does. "Yeah. It would have been nice to have him around for this. Flirting with the bridesmaids or not." She laughs softly.
-Present-
Louis kept giving her looks as she worked and she kept trying to ignore him, keeping her eyes on her screen and not on the clock. So when she looks up she sees it's nearly two thirty.
She was supposed to meet Francis at two.
"Shit." She breathes as she slams her computer shut and starts scrambling for her things while she digs out her phone. He doesn't answer as she heads for her car, Louis giving her a confused look as she runs out the door.
When she gets in her office, he is there, sitting on the little leather couch against the wall and she breathes a sigh of relief when she sees him.
"You're late." He says simply and she nods.
"Yeah, I know...I lost track of time." She says trying to catch her breath.
"Sit, before you lose a lung." He smirks and she does. "You lost track of time." She nods, "With Louis."
"Trying desperately to avoid him actually."
"Lovers spat?" He asks
"Francis."
"Sorry." He says softly, "Other than that, how was your day?"
"Uneventful."
"Hm." He nods, she can tell there's more, he wants to say something, something is bothering him. He looks...different than the last time she saw him. He has dark circles under his eyes and he's paler, thinner. She reaches for his hand but he pulls away. "I don't have a lot of time, Mary." He says as he stands, "I have to be back soon."
"I know."
"Um." He rubs his arms like he's cold and she rises, "Bash is in Malibu with Kenna right now, they should be back in a few days."
"Francis, are you okay?"
"I'm fine." He snaps and she feels her shoulders slump, that was uncalled for. He knows it was. He softens, "I'm sorry, that...I'm sorry."
"Are you okay?" She asks again, reaching for him and this time he doesn't pull away, he lets her fingers find his shoulders. "Francis?"
"I'm fine. I'm just...I haven't been sleeping very well. Bash's couch isn't very comfortable."
"Neither have I." She says softly.
"Yeah...well…" He sighs, "Anne's excited to see you." She smiles.
"She is?"
"You're her mother."
"Usually she...doesn't want anything to do with me."
"She loves you, Mary." He says softly. She steps closer to him, wrapping her arms around him, pressing her head to his chest and he's hesitant to return her embrace, but then he does and it's to warm.
"Come home." She whispers, pulling back and he shakes his head. "Why?" She asks softly as he pushes her off him.
"No, Mary."
"Why?"
"You know why." He says softly and then he's checking his watch, reaching for his coat, "Don't pretend that you don't."
"We can't fix it if we don't try…"
"Mary. I'm not ready." He says, "I'm still angry."
"And you think I'm not?"
"What do you have to be angry about?"
"You don't remember, do you? What you said to me?" She asks, "About the-"
"No, I don't and I don't have time to do this right now."
"Francis-"
"If you wanted to argue you should have cut your time with Louis a little shorter." He snaps as he tugs his coat on.
"Francis, wait please, I don't want to argue." She grabs his arm and he stops, turning away from the door. "Come home and we can talk about it, about everything. Please, I miss you. You're my husband…" He sighs, but he still shakes his head.
"I can't." He says softly. "Please stop asking me to."
"I-"
"Mary, you lied to me for months. Months. You didn't even have to, if you had come to me, I would have understood...but you didn't. That's not even mentioning Louis, if I ever see him I'll kill him." He's angrier than he was before, "I wasn't even going to bring this up but okay, if you want to talk let's talk, Mary." He says as he walks back in, the door slamming shut. "I may not remember what I said to you but I can guarantee it wasn't that I regret marrying you."
"I didn't say I regret it."
"No, you just said it was a mistake." He says coldly, "Our marriage, a mistake. Is Anne a mistake too?"
"Don't do that, of course not." She snaps, "Why would you even suggest that?"
"I don't know, Mary, you tell me." He says and she scoffs, running her fingers through her hair.
"Are you saying what I think you're saying?" She asks. He doesn't answer, "Are you saying I'm a terrible mother?" It's one of the things she was most afraid of with having Anne, that she would be just like her mom because her mom was terrible and horrible mother's breed horrible future mother's. He always told her she'd be great, that she wasn't like her mom, that she was so so different and she'd be amazing.
"No." He says and maybe that's not what he meant to say, maybe he wasn't saying she was an awful mother, "Mary, I wouldn't want another baby with you if I thought you weren't a good mother to the one we have."
"Then why did you-"
"Because I'm angry. Because when I look at you I see his lips on yours and that makes my blood boil in my skin."
"I didn't want him to-"
"I know, that's not the problem."
"Then-"
"You didn't tell me." Francis says and now he just looks hurt, "And you can't even give me a reason why you didn't tell me, you continued to see him."
"It's my job, I have to-"
"Stop." He says putting a hand up to stop her and she closes her mouth, "I love you. I love you so much, but we need time. Okay? We need time apart, so please stop asking me to come home."
"Okay." She says softly. He looks at his watch and sighs.
"I have to go now, I'll tell you later how Anne's open house went."
"Okay…"
"Let you know what day she starts." He runs a hand through his hair and then he's headed for the door, but he stops in front of her. Seems like he wants to kiss her, but he doesn't move to, so she does. She catches the corner of his mouth because he turns his head away the last minute and then he kisses her cheek.
"Bye, Francis." She says softly and then he's gone.
A/N: THEY'RE GONNA BE HAPPY IN A LITTLE BIT OKAY DON'T YELL AT ME