Old, New, Borrowed, Blue

Part 38: In Which an Expert is Approached

"Mattie, we need to get to Big Mike's house right now!"

And that wasn't the greeting that Mattie expected to receive when Gill threw open the passenger-side door of her truck. Not that she was entirely sure what she had been expecting. Tears, or maybe the quiet depression that had worried her so much yesterday.

She hadn't imagined that Gill would be acting anything like her normal self after last night's conversation. Not after she'd spent most of the evening sobbing, blaming herself, and pleading with Mattie to tell her what she'd done wrong.

Honestly, when Mattie got the text this morning that said she wanted to be picked up after her dress fitting, she'd assumed the worst. After all, she knew that Francis would be at the fitting, and he was the person that Gill's current emotional crisis was currently revolving around.

Apparently she needn't have worried, though. At least, that was how it first appeared…

Gill threw her feet up onto the dashboard, like she always did when she was riding in the truck. She looked tired, though. There were dark circles under her eyes, her hair was messier than usual, and she was wearing an uncharacteristically drab outfit.

Mattie decided to respond to her with a simple, "Hi, how did the fitting go?"

Gill turned her head just long enough to send her a look that plainly stated that she wanted Mattie to start driving and not ask questions, but she did answer the question. "Fine. I look awesome and super-hot in my dress. But that isn't important. What's important is that Lovi told me something and now we need to see Big Mike so she can help us, so we should go."

Mattie could take the hint. She could tell that her girlfriend was definitely on edge right now. She kept glancing out the window—toward the store as if watching for someone—and she was tapping her fingers against her leg in a nervous rhythm. Mattie turned her key in the ignition and then pulled forward out of the parking spot. Gill's shoulders immediately relaxed in response.

Well, something big had obviously happened. She wasn't entirely sure what Lovina may have said that would cause Gill to act like this, but she would assume that it somehow involved Antonio and probably also Francis.

Which was frustrating. Mattie was doing her best to keep her irritation from overwhelming her, but it was honestly getting rather difficult. She knew that people always assumed that she didn't have a temper because she was so soft-spoken, but they were wrong. It took a lot to make her angry, but when she reached that point, she tended to blow up at whoever happened to be unlucky enough to piss her off.

She'd exploded at Arthur yesterday. Right now, she wanted to just go and shout at Gill's friends. She understood that Francis and Antonio and Lovina and everybody were dealing with a lot, but she hated seeing Gill so upset and on-edge.

She wasn't going to say anything though. Instead, she allowed silence to settle over the car. Gill was staring out the window, still tapping her fingers against her leg, obviously deep in thought. Mattie just concentrated on driving and following the well-known path back into town and toward the older woman's house.

Time passed like that. Gill was the one to finally break the silence, her voice soft when she said, "Mattie?"

"Yeah?"

There was a long pause. Then she continued, "Do you—do you think I'm a bad friend?"

That question caused Mattie's grip around the wheel to tighten and that intense urge to just snap increased. But she had to keep her anger under control and her breathing relaxed. She couldn't lose her head, because the only person here right now was Gill and she absolutely wasn't going to release her annoyance around her girlfriend. She wasn't mad at Gill; she was irritated with her friends because how dare they upset her enough to make her ask a question like that?

She responded with, "Of course not, Gilly."

"I just…" She hesitated. And it was so uncomfortably heart-wrenching for Mattie to hear her girlfriend sounding so unsure of herself. "I… I don't know what to do. I just want Franny to trust me. I know he's unhappy and I thought I could make him feel better, but I didn't and now I want to help him, but what if I ruin things more? He won't tell me things. Arthur knows like everything about him. Way more than I do and even Lovi knew…"

"What did Lovi say?" Maybe it'd be better not to pry, but maybe if she knew what was wrong, she could help.

Gill didn't respond for a long while. Mattie continued driving toward Big Mike's house, feeling like maybe the older woman would be able to help if no one else could. Gill looked up to her, after all, and thought of her as a grandmother.

She finally answered, though, with a statement that Mattie definitely hadn't expected. "She said that Franny's in love with Antonio."

And for a moment, Mattie thought she heard wrong. Because what?

She really had no idea what to say to that. She actually took her eyes off the road for a second just so she could stare incredulously at her girlfriend, but then she remembered that she was driving right now and hurriedly returned her attention to the street.

She was still too shocked to really focus, though.

"Antonio?"

"Yeah, I know." Gill actually sounded slightly bitter. "He never said anything! But it makes sense, 'cause Franny's always really liked cuddling with Tonio and he always wanted to sit next to him when we were little. But it's so unawesome! Because Antonio's always liked Lovi. Even when we were kids, everybody knew that they were going to end up dating at some point. I don't think he ever even noticed anybody else. He's pretty much just Lovi-sexual, I think."

Gill's words honestly just sounded like rambling to Mattie, because she still felt like she'd heard something wrong. Antonio? She supposed it made sense in theory, since the two boys were close friends and Antonio was attractive for a guy. Plus, he was really nice and sweet and everything. Mattie had always liked Antonio, although she didn't feel like they had a ton in common.

The problem was that Mattie had been surethat Francis liked Leon.

Like, she'd been so sure that she'd even told Ally that Francis liked Leon, during that conversation last night when she'd been freaking out about Arthur and Francis's non-existent relationship.

It wasn't like she knew Francis super well, but she'd thought that his interest was rather obvious. The two of them shared quite a few advanced placement classes during high school, as well as the occasional lunch periods and study halls, and they would occasionally chat together. Particularly after she started dating Gill. Francis had been excited to discover that she was taking advanced placement French classes and basically took it upon himself to be her conversational partner and tutor.

It'd been nice. She enjoyed talking to Francis. They had similar tastes in books and would often chat about literature, their classes, movies, cooking, and some other things. Including, more often than she was pretty sure Francis realized, Leon.

She'd honestly always thought it was rather adorable. They'd be in the middle of a discussion on recipes or their plans for the weekend and Francis would off-handedly mention his roommate. And he'd always have this fond, rather cute smile when he came up. And he could just go on and on with Leon this, Leon that. Leon thought this about whatever subject they were talking about.

Sometimes she'd help push the conversation along the Leon-path, because it was really sweet. Although Arthur—who was also in most of her and Francis's classes—would sometimes overhear them and flash her an exasperated look. Obviously not agreeing with her opinion, or at least pretending that he didn't agree.

"Is…" She wasn't sure if she should bring that up, though. "Is Lovina…sure?"

She could see Gill send her a puzzled look at the question, but she said, "I'm pretty sure she's sure. She wouldn't have said so otherwise, right?"

Eh, Mattie really didn't want to make any guesses at what Lovina would or wouldn't do. Really, out of all of Gill's friends, Lovina was the one who most intimidated her. "I guess not."

Gill didn't seem to notice her rather unsure response, as she continued. "We need to help him, though. If Franny's still in love with Antonio when he gets married, then he's going to be really really hurt and then… What if we can't be friends anymore? I don't… I don't…"

Her words broke off and Mattie hurriedly glanced to the side again. Gill immediately ducked her head, but she'd already seen the tears that were starting to stream down her cheeks.

Which just sent another spark of annoyance through her thoughts, but she really needed to ignore those thoughts and focus on what her girlfriend actually needed. She flicked her turn signal on and turned onto a side street, where she parked in front of a random house. Then she unbuckled her seat belt and scooted over to wrap her arms around Gill and pull her so she was resting against her shoulder. "Gilly, it's okay. I promise, everything's going to be okay."

It really frustrated her so much, because she hated to see her girlfriend hurting. She knew that a lot of people assumed that Gill was the type of person who wasn't affected by things. And yes, it was true that Gill was generally very optimistic, outgoing, and exuberant, but it wasn't like she never felt upset or worried or sad. When it happened, Mattie always felt this worry and wave of protectiveness wash over her. She wanted to make things better.

She wasn't sure how to do so, though, and that just made her feel more angry.

"I promise. I know Francis and Antonio both care about you a lot. They're not going to stop being friends with you over something like this." Because if they ever tried anything that stupid, she'd be demanding an explanation with hockey stick in hand.

She felt Gill nod slightly into her shoulder. Then she haltingly said, "I told Lovi… I said that we should help Franny fall in love with someone else. That'll help, right? Then he wouldn't feel so sad when Antonio gets married."

That… was probably much easier said than done. It wasn't like you could force someone to fall in love with someone else. Although if it was possible, she'd do everything she could to make it happen if it would help Gill feel better. "I don't know. It might be better if you three just talked together. It might be hard to find someone that Francis would like before the wedding, after all…" It wasn't like they had a lot of time.

But Gill unexpectedly moved out of her embrace, shaking her head almost violently. "I already know, though! I know who Franny would like!"

She blinked. "Who?"

And Gill responded with an excited, "Leon!"

…At this point, Mattie wasn't sure if she should even attempt to follow what was happening.

Gill continued, probably mistaking Mattie's confused and mildly-exasperated expression for disbelief. "It's perfect because Leon's basically Franny's perfect guy! He's really nice and smart and Francis thinks he's really hot and they already live together, so it's not like it'd be really hard to get them to home base or anything. I just don't know how and I don't want to mess things up anymore, so I want Big Mike and you to help and Lovi'll help too 'cause she doesn't want the wedding to be super awkward or awful either."

Which was pretty understandable.

Most understandable than whatever was currently going on, at least. So, Gill wanted to help Francis fall in love with Leon—the guy who Mattie thought he was already in love with—to get over his feelings for Antonio?

Mattie generally wasn't one for matchmaking schemes—unlike most people in this town, apparently—but that sounded like either the simplest plot ever or the most ridiculously difficult. Because she really couldn't believe that she'd been wrong. It was incredibly obvious that Francis was crushing on his roommate, although he may not be aware of it himself. Which either meant that Lovina was wrong about his interest in Antonio or it meant that things were more complicated that Mattie first assumed.

Either way, if this were any other situation, Mattie would have zero interest in getting involved in what seemed like a potential hornet's nest. The problem was, however, that she was rather crazily in love with the girl currently staring at her with beautiful, pleading ruby eyes. And she knew that Gill was miserable with things as they were.

She wasn't sure what the right answer was, though. It felt like it'd be a bad idea to get involved and try to force Francis's feelings, but if he was already in love with him… Then it'd really be more of a light push toward what really should be. She hesitated for a long moment before finally saying, "It maybe could work, but we should go talk to Big Mike to see what she thinks."

After all, she was an adult and probably was better equipped to deal with this situation and also, Gill was a million times more likely to listen to something that Big Mike recommended than something that Mattie said. That wasn't even taking into account that Leon was her grandson.

Gill seemed to like that recommendation, as she smiled warmly and then leaned across her seat and kissed her. It was soft and sweet; after a moment she moved back to kiss the tip of her nose before giggling and flopping back into her seat. "Love you, Mattie. You're the most awesome girlfriend ever."

Mattie immediately blushed and forcibly turned her attention back to the truck. "Love you too," she said while refusing to look her girlfriend in the eyes.

There was another giggle in response and then Gill reached over and turned the radio on. She began to flip through the stations as Mattie pulled away from the house and drove back onto the road that would lead them to Big Mike's house.

It didn't take long to arrive—just enough time for Gill to find a radio station that she approved of and begin singing along to the Top 40 Hits. The house was very familiar to Mattie at this point. It was… strangely normal-looking. That was really the only way to describe it. The paint job was a pastel yellow with green trim, the yard was neat and tidy. There really was no outside hint to the personality that resided inside.

There were two cars parked in the driveway when she pulled in. The bright red one belonged to Big Mike, but the other was unfamiliar. For a moment, she actually considered asking Gill whether they should come back when Big Mike didn't have a visitor. But then she realized that her girlfriend already had the passenger door open—she hadn't even fully stopped—and was outside before she could even begin to phrase the question. "Come on, Mattie!"

Ultimately, she supposed that it didn't really matter. She and Gill often visited Big Mike and found her with other guests. Occasionally it was an awkward situation, since they were often older ladies who would fuss over the two of them, but they were usually friendly enough. She followed Gill up onto the front porch and then hovered awkwardly behind her as she rang the doorbell and shifted impatiently between her feet.

The door was answered faster than she'd expected and by someone who she absolutely didn't recognize. By a man. Older, in his fifties perhaps, with greying hair and a neat moustache. He was wearing a suit, minus the jacket and was also holding a cookie. He stared at them for a moment, then took a bite from the cookie as if this were entirely expected.

"Hi, Mr. Chief!" And to Gill, it apparently was. She didn't even hesitate; she just leapt forward and wrapped her arms around his neck. He didn't even flinch, just nodded at Mattie over her girlfriend's shoulder while he chewed and then swallowed his bite of the cookie.

"Hello, Gillian," he said.

"Mr. Chief, you can help too!" She released him from her hug just so she could grab his hand. She then took a step back to grab Mattie's. "Come on! Come on! We've got to hurry! We don't have much time left!"

It probably said a lot about this town that 'Mr. Chief' didn't even blink at that statement. He slipped his hand rather easily out of Gill's grip, but chose to follow as she dragged Mattie inside the house, through the living room, and into the kitchen where they found Big Mike removing a tray of cookies from the oven.

She looked up their entrance and sent a warm smile. "Ah, Chickie, I thought I heard your voice. Come here and try a cookie. I experimented with a new recipe today."

That was enough to temporarily distract Gill from her quest. She released Mattie's hand and hurried to join the woman. "Awesome! What kind of cookies?"

"Nutella-stuffed peanut butter."

And that might just be enough to distract Mattie as well.

A/N: Cookies~ Although honestly, I'm not a huge fan of Nutella. It's okay, but I remember when I was in London everybody was obsessed with it and I felt a bit left out. xD Although peanut butter Nutella cookies do sound like they have the potential for delicious.

Anyway, anyway… So, mostly a chapter where we get Mattie up to speed and set up that Big Mike and Mr. Chief are potentially going to be involved in the plan to matchmake Fran-Fran and Leon! Huzzah! Also, we've established that Fran is the type of person to talk incessantly about their crush when they're crushing on them. Ah, little dork.

Man, I feel like this story moves at a snail's pace, but setting up all the pieces takes time. It's like a very complicated game of chess, except with more angst and communication issues. Hopefully, I'm not boring everybody, though… Pretty soon we'll get to have fun times with bachelor's parties. Just gotta get a few more pieces moved into place. xD

Anyway, so I just got back from seeing a friend in Colorado, which was very fun! A new semester is going to start soon and I'm trying to settle into a new, more consistent writing schedule. Today was a success at least! I just really want to actually get past the first chapter in my original novel and work past my writing-related neuroses… So, we shall see.

Anyway anyway, reviews are always lovely and very much appreciated!