Saturday mornings were usually spent sleeping in for Maya, especially after a stressful few weeks of painting and meeting a deadline.

Maya woke up at 7am on the dot to feed Olive her breakfast. When she opened her eyes she saw a body on hers, a half naked body on hers. Her head was pounding and pounding as she tried to pull herself out from under the guy's body. Figuring out that she wouldn't be able to get up unless he moved, she slumps back into her place. The body rolls over and pulls her with him, right into his chest. Maya took a deep breath and could smell cinnamon lingering on the man. Just from his scent, she knew it was Lucas.

It took her a second, but she realized what had happened last night.

After Lucas kissed her at the bar, Maya was eager for them to get back to her place. They rushed over and went straight for her bedroom. After many heated kisses and clothes being thrown around the room, Lucas had to stop. Maya had been drinking a lot that night, and she wasn't fully in her right mind. That was something Lucas didn't want to take advantage of. Of course he wanted to be with Maya, and she wanted to be with him. But this was something he'd rather do while she was sober. Lucas had tried leaving, but Maya wouldn't let him, she didn't want him to go; she liked his company. So he told her he'd sleep on her couch, but she asked if he'd sleep with her. So that's what they did, they fell asleep next to each other, half naked.

She was comfy. She didn't want to get up from this position. She gave in and fell into him, slowly drifting back to sleep.

Not even twenty minutes later, Olive jumps onto the bed and craws on top the two. Maya is the first one to get up. Olive notices and walks over to her face and starts rubbing herself against Maya, purring right in her ear. She got comfy and decided to lay on top the two, placing her butt right on Lucas' face.

With the feeling of fur on his face, Lucas woke up. Olive's butt was right on his chin, just covering his mouth.

He lifted his arm and held Olive up while he moved over before placing her onto the pillow. Olive cried a soft meow and Maya got up to see her. She propped herself up on one elbow and scratched Olive for a bit.

"Good morning." Lucas said.

"Morning." Maya smiled.

They were both still very sleepy and in no mood to get up. So they just lay there, scratching Olive and talking about the night before.

A few minutes passed and Maya heard the front door of her apartment opening.

"Maya?"

The voice echoed through the apartment.

"Oh shit." she jumped out of bed and grabbed the closest shirt she could find, which was Lucas' dress shirt.

She ran out of her room and was met with Riley standing in the kitchen.

"Hey Riles." she smiled.

"Did you just wake up? I thought you'd be awake and ready by now." she pouted.

Maya and Riley were supposed to go wedding dress shopping today, and Maya almost forgot.

"I'm so sorry honey, I forgot to set my alarm when I got home and my hangover made me sleep in."

"Why'd you leave so early last night?" she asked.

Maya was hesitant to answer, mainly because she didn't know how to answer. She didn't want to tell Riley that she ran home with Lucas because Riley would jump right to the conclusion that they had slept together, when they didn't, and wouldn't believe her when she told the truth.

"Doesn't matter anymore, we're gonna be late. Please go get ready!" Riley pushed Maya toward her room. Olive came running out as she opened the door and jumped on the windowsill where Maya usually feeds her. She sat patiently and waited as Riley got her kibble out.

Maya ran back into her room and saw Lucas putting his pants on.

"Hey, you can't leave yet, Riley is out there and I don't want her to know you spent the night." she whispered to him.

"Why?"

"Because when she finds out that you spent the night, I'll never hear the end of it. I'd rather not deal with that while I have a hangover."

"Okay fine, I'll wait until you leave, then I'll leave after you." Maya agreed with him.

She rushed over to her closet and threw off his shirt, tossing it back to him. She took a peak at Lucas who had his back facing hers. She slipped into clean underwear as quickly as possible so he doesn't turn and see her. She threw on high waisted white jeans and a black cropped sweater. She threw on black heeled boots before running into her bathroom to wash up. As she applied moisturizer to her face, Lucas joined her in the bathroom still without his shirt on.

He wrapped his arms around her tiny frame, resting his chin on her shoulder.

"So, I was thinking." he turned his head to look at her, "Would you like to go on a date with me this Friday?"

Maya froze.

He actually asked her out.

Wow.

She smiled, "Sure."

He gave her a peck on her cheek and left her to finish getting ready.

She finished brushing her hair out and waved bye to Lucas as she left her room.

She met up with Riley bye the front door. She grabbed her bag and a coat before saying bye to Olive and walking out the door.

"Bye Lucas!" Riley shouted before following Maya out the front door, leaving Maya frozen in her tracks.


"I still don't understand how you knew!" Maya said as the two got off the subway.

"Maya, you were wearing his shirt. How could I not know?" Riley smiled.

Riley grabbed Maya by the arm and walked side by side until they made it to the dress shop.

Riley had been waiting for this day her whole life. She had always dreamed of trying on wedding dresses and today would finally be the day.

"Welcome girls! My name is Sydney and I'll be your consultant for today. You must be Riley. Is anyone else joining you today?" the lady said upon entering the store.

"Yes, and this is my best friend Maya. My mom will join us too, she should be here in a few minutes." Riley said.

"Perfect, well feel free to take a look around. I'll be at the front desk when you're ready to start trying on dresses!" she smiled and walked over to her desk.

Riley had always wanted to wear a huge ballgown for her wedding dress, but when she walked past a few mermaid style dresses she amazed by how beautiful they were. She had grabbed two mermaid style dresses and handed them over to Maya then continued to look through her ballgowns.

"Okay, but we didn't sleep together Riley, he just slept next to me." Maya continued, not letting Riley jump to conclusions about what happened last night.

"Okay. I believe you." Riley said before pulling out a big ballgown. She handed it to Maya and kept looking.

"You believe me?" Maya paused, "No nagging me about having a guy sleep in bed with me half naked?"

Riley snapped her head toward Maya, "You never said you guys were half naked! Now I need the whole story!"

Dammit. Maya knew she shouldn't have pushed, but she just couldn't believe that Riley was just going to let her off the hook like that. Normally Riley always wants to hear about the guys in Maya's life, especially the hunky vet.

"We were heading in the direction of sleeping together. But he stopped. I was really drunk and he said he didn't want to take advantage of me in that state. So we just slept." Maya said in a hushed tone, not wanting Sydney to hear at the front desk.

"Aw he's a gentleman!" Riley smiled and left the matter at that.

Riley had pulled two more ballgowns before Topanga came into the store. She rushed over and hugged Riley then took some dresses from Maya before giving her a hug.

"Now that we're all here, let's get to trying the dresses on!" Sydney said after meeting Topanga.

Sydney took the dresses from Maya and Topanga and showed Riley where the dressing room was. Maya and Topanga took a seat on the couch and waited patiently for Riley to come out in her first dress. They took the time to catch up a bit. Topanga had asked Maya about Josh going to rehab, but didn't push if she was too uncomfortable to talk about it.

Truth is, Maya didn't really talk about Josh going to rehab with anyone, not even Riley. She had gone out that night and got really drunk to try and forget about her last encounter with Josh. But getting drunk only made her emotional and she spilled her feelings out to an equally drunk Zay. Other than that, she hasn't said a word about it. So it was nice to talk to Topanga about it. Maya had expressed how she was hurt that it took him this long to get his life together and she questioned why he couldn't do that while they were still together. Topanga didn't have all the answers, so she did what she knew would make Maya feel better, hold her and tell her it wasn't her fault.

Riley came out in her first dress, a stunning mermaid styled Val Stefani dress. It was strapless and completely beaded until you got to the skirt, which was a long and beautifully layered train. Riley looked beautiful in it, she'd look beautiful in anything really. Seeing Riley in a wedding dress made both Maya and Topanga tear up a bit. She twirled in the dress and opted to stick with a ballgown since she felt confined in the mermaid dress. So she turned and ran right back into the dressing room to throw out the mermaid dresses that she chose.

The next dress she came out in was a huge Pnina Tornai ball gown. The top was made of lace with a deep v-neckline. The skirt was a mixture of tulle and lace beautifully combined. The dress was absolutely beautiful and Riley looked amazing in it. But the dress itself was so big and the train was so long, Riley seemed to be lost in the dress. So she said no to the dress and went right back to the dressing room.

Riley tried on what felt like a hundred dresses before narrowing them down to three dresses designed by Hayley Paige.

The first one was a ball gown, not huge, but big enough to satisfy Riley. It had a spaghetti strap bodice with a deep sweetheart neckline and a cascading banded tulle skirt.

The second dress was an ivory lace and tulle ball gown. It had a deep curved v-neckline and an open back; the bottom was a cascading tiered skirt.

The third dress, and most likely the dress Riley will pick, was a tulle ball gown with a marzipan floral accent. It had a draped taffeta bodice with a curved v-neckline being held by spaghetti straps. The skirt detail was hand painted flowers along the edges and a cascading tiered skirt. It was the simple white ball gown with a touch of color all along the skirt, something Riley loved so much.

She fell in love with all three dresses and couldn't make a decision that day, although she knew in her heart that the third dress would be the one, she just couldn't commit today. So she asked Sydney to hold the three dresses for her and that she'll get back to her on her choice.

The three left the shop and Topanga said her goodbyes since she needed to get back to work. Maya was starving and Riley had the rest of the day free, so the two went out for lunch.

After the girls ordered, Riley was oddly silent and Maya knew something was bothering her.

"What's wrong honey?" Maya asked, pouting at Riley.

"Why do you think Farkle won't photograph my wedding?" she blurted out.

It caught Maya off guard. She thought they were past this issue and Riley was okay with the photographer that they had booked instead of Farkle.

"Well he has to work out of state a-" Riley cut her off.

"You've already told me that. But I don't think that's the reason. He didn't even look at me at your art exhibit last night. He didn't even say hi to me. What's up with that?"

Just as Riley asked, the waitress came by with their food.

"Why are you suddenly so bothered by it?" Maya asked before eating a fork full of pasta.

"We're best friends, the three of us, and it's never been so weird for us." Riley paused. Maya could tell that wasn't it, something else was bothering her.

"What happened Riley?"

Riley was quiet for a minute. She had been keeping this secret from Maya for years now, not sure of how Maya would take it. Heck, she wasn't sure how anyone would take it.

She took a deep breath, "Farkle and I slept together."

Maya dropped her fork on her plate making a loud noise through the restaurant. "You what?!" she was shocked.

"Shhhhhh!" Riley covered Maya's mouth.

"When did this happen?" Maya removed Riley's hand from her mouth.

"It was a while ago. It was the summer after our freshman year of college."

"Wait he was your first? You told me you lost your virginity to Adam Whitt junior year of college." Maya stopped her, obviously hurt that Riley had lied to her.

"I lied. I didn't want anyone to know Farkle and I hooked up." she sighed.

"Why not? That's not something you should be embarrassed about. You had your first time with someone that was special to you. He's your best friend. What's a better experience than that?" Maya rubbed Riley's arm.

"That's the problem though! We were best friends! I thought after we had done it, we'd go back to how we were. But it hasn't been the same since. Sure it looked like everything was fine from the outside, but we barely talked. We actually didn't talk unless you were there with us. Things became so weird between us. I'm so sure that's why he doesn't want to photograph my wedding." Riley was hurt. Maya was hurt too. Her best friend had kept such a huge secret from her. But she knew where Riley was coming from.

"I guess that's something you should talk to Farkle about. Get all your feelings out now or it's only going to get worse from here." Maya said.

Riley nodded. She knew Maya was right. The longer she kept her feelings in about it, the worse she felt. She just wanted things to be like they used to, before all of this happened.

When the girls finished lunch, they caught a subway back to their apartment and walked together until they had to part ways.

As Maya passed the parking lot of her building, she noticed Lucas' truck gone, so she knew he was no longer in her apartment.

She grabbed her mail out of her mail slot before walking up to her apartment. She turned the key and opened the door to Olive sitting on top of kitchen table, patiently waiting for Maya to come give her some love. Maya tossed her things on the table and walked over to hug Olive.

After many chin scratches and a few treats, Olive was satisfied and jumped off the table to sleep on her windowsill. Maya had grabbed her mail and quickly looked through what she had.

Bill.

Bill.

Credit card advertisement.

Letter from Josh.

Building reminder for bulky pick up trash day.

Bill.

Wait.

Maya threw the letters onto the table until she found the one she had seen.

A letter from Josh.

It didn't have his name on it, but she recognized the handwriting and knew immediately that it was from him.

She was at a loss of words. She wasn't sure she wanted to open it.

He had told her that he was no longer going to bother her anymore since he'd be in rehab. So why was he sending her a letter.

She dropped it on the counter and walked away.

She plopped onto the couch and turned the tv on to keep her mind off of the letter. She had flipped through many channels before landing on Fixer Upper on HGTV. She threw the remote onto the table and watched the show for a few minutes before getting fussy.

Now she really wanted to know what was in that letter.

She jumped off the couch and ran to the kitchen to grab the letter.

She ripped open the envelope and out fell a piece of folder paper. She unfolded it and was met with a long written letter.

"Dear Maya,

Part of my rehab is a support group for alcoholics. Just like on tv, we sit in a circle and talk about our past and our feelings. There's a guy in the group that has made the same mistakes that I made. He was abusive and he hurt the people closest to him. I've shared a total of three times. All of the times I shared, it was about how awful I felt hurting you.

The support leader thought it would be a good idea for us to express our feelings in a letter to the person of our choice. I chose you.

Maya, you need to know I never meant to hurt you. All those horrible things I've done to you in the past, they were the dumbest things I've ever done. I can't believe I let myself get so addicted to alcohol. I let it take over my life and I hurt you.

That wasn't how I pictured our relationship. I pictured us being together for a long time, happy and in love. You were the one Maya. I loved you so damn much. I'll never forgive myself for messing that up.

I know that no amount of apologies will make up for the years of abuse that I put you through. I just need you to know that I'm changing, and I'll never let myself get like that again. You were the best thing to ever happen in my life and I ruined it. I ruined our someday and I'm deeply sorry for doing that.

I hope that you've moved on and found happiness, even if it's not with me. I know that especially with our history, you'll never take me back; so whoever you're with, I hope he makes you happy. Because I do want you to be happy Maya.

I just hope that one day you can forgive me for all that I've put you through.

Sincerely,

Josh Matthews"


So you guys should know, I watch a lot of Say Yes To The Dress, so I used designers from the show and I had fun doing some wedding dress research for this chapter lol

Thank you guys again for the reviews and the support of this story.

I also started another story called Raised On It. I was listening to Sam Hunt and was inspired to write a country story lol

Anyway, thanks again ❤︎