The evening before filming starts, Mary and Francis are invited for a double date with Kenna and Bash after Kenna managed to hire out a bowling alley. It's interesting, Mary thinks as she warily glances over an excited Kenna as they put their bowling shoes on.
Kenna knows she's terrible at bowling. Mary's never even scored a strike or hit more than four pins. It is mostly, misses of pins and near hits and her friends tended to laugh at her expense.
"I hate you," she says lightly to Kenna who grins back. "Francis will now find out how terrible I am at bowling!"
"I'm sure he's just as inexperienced," Kenna replies as they look over at the brothers setting their names up on the podium. "Although Bash said they frequented the alley back in France as kids. Let's hope he's rusty."
Mary scoffs but a smile plays on her lips when she finished tying the laces of the last shoe before testing them out and going to choose a ball. She selects the turquoise one, admiring the colour as Francis goes straight for the red ball.
"Bowl much?" He asks, a hand settling on her hip.
Mary shakes her head. "Not that much. Kenna loves bowling so I'm forced to tag along."
"I hate it," Francis whispers conspiratorially, looking over his shoulder briefly. "Bash always showed us up. He's so competitive, it was impossible to beat him at anything."
Mary laughs, tutting. "Kenna's so competitive too. They're perfect for each other."
"Lord save us all," Francis jests as Kenna calls them over.
After a quick game of 'rock, paper, scissors', Francis is chosen to go first and he pulls a face which sets Mary off laughing as she pushes him to the edge of the lane. He throws a decent bowl, getting a spare at the end.
"Not so bad," Mary chides him.
"Maybe I'm not that rusty as I thought," Francis muses as Kenna goes after him, getting an elegant strike. "Oh."
Kenna shrugs coyly, heading towards them as Bash goes to take his turn. "I don't like wasting time," she says with a cheeky grin. "Get better than that, sweetheart."
"Trash talk already, Kenna?" Bash asks with a chuckle before having his turn and getting a strike as well. "Looks like we're drawing now."
"Damn it," Kenna mutters before she whispers something into his ear, making him smirk.
"Oh, please don't tell us you're using sex under the guise of a bet," Francis mutters as Mary prepares to take her turn.
Bash turns to his brother. "What is said between fiancé and fiancée is none of your concern," he says with a grin before turning to Kenna. "But nice try, sweetheart. I'm not losing to you just for sex."
"Damn it!" Kenna says, going to take a seat at the podium. "You'll regret it this night."
"Oh, shut up!" Francis cries out, covering his ears as Mary giggles.
She struggles to find a good position and soon, she feels Francis's hands on her hips, helping her get into a decent form.
"Can you, maybe, help me bowl?" She asks, batting her eyelashes at him.
Francis chuckles, kissing the side of her temple before resting his hand over her three fingers. "Let it glide, Mary. Let it glide..."
They swing and the bowl heads down the middle before knocking all but one pins down.
"I did it!" Mary says, jumping up. "Oh, my God. I did it!"
"Well, you still have one pin left-"
"Shut up, Bash, she did it," Kenna says, laughing as she hits his shoulder lightly. "That's honestly the best thing I've ever seen. She always misses and gets the lowest score possible."
Bash raises his brows in surprise. "Hey, you cheated! Francis, no helping Mary!"
"Oh, stop crying, Bash," Mary coos. "Scared I've now got a good running chance?"
"You won't have a chance if Francis doesn't initiate your every move," Bash replies.
Mary rolls her eyes as Francis steps back with his hands raised. She positions herself as to how Francis did earlier and then when she's ready, she lets the ball swing a few times before letting go and holding her breath.
Spare!
"I did it!"
"Well done, Mary!" Francis says, lifting her up and twirling her around. "That's my girl!"
Mary hugs him tightly before he lets her down and goes to retrieve his bowling ball. She watches as he bowls, then Kenna, then Bash and it's finally her turn again and she's excited to actually do it.
She keeps her breath even as she swings the ball and lets it glide. She closes her eyes with her hands before she hears an excited scream and she's lifted into the air.
"Did I lose?"
"Mary, you got your first strike!" Kenna tells her.
"I'm so proud of you!" Francis says into her ear. "I'll reward you this night."
"Okay, no sex talk on both sides," Bash says, rolling his eyes playfully. "Well done, Mary. Seems like you may be a strong adversary after all... But you're still the last place."
Mary playfully rolls her eyes but she's closer to everyone's scores than she's ever been. Normally she gets the mid-one hundreds and everyone is at three or five hundred. It's a win for her even if she loses.
"Drink break!" Kenna calls out, bringing out a bottle of Ciroc. "Let's make this a little more interesting shall we?"
"I'll go get the cups," Mary says, heading to the food canteen.
After getting the cups, she finds Louis and Lorna at a table, giggling to each other.
"Mary!" Lorna says, spotting her just before she heads out.
Mary curses under her breath, turning to give them a wide smile. "Oh, my God! I didn't see you guys there! How are you?"
"Really good," Louis says, turning to Lorna happily. "We're-"
"Don't!" Lorna cries out, grinning.
"Are you sure? She won't tell anyone," Louis says. "And she's my co-star."
Lorna sighs wistfully. "Go on then. Tell her!" She holds his hand tightly, beaming happily.
Louis looks at his girlfriend happily before turning to Mary and saying, "We're going to be parents."
"Oh! Congratulations!" Mary cries out, heading to them to give Lorna a tight hug. "Oh, how far along are you?"
"About twenty-four weeks. We'd been arguing over knowing the gender but we then naturally got frustrated and wanted to get a start on the nursery so..." Lorna shows Mary the scan. "It's a girl."
Mary beams, looking at the scan. "She's beautiful. I'm happy for you both."
"Are you and Francis thinking about kids?" Louis asks kindly.
Mary blushes. "We're too soon to talk about that," she says lightly. "But we wouldn't be opposed. We are just really happy to be with each other for now."
"Cherish it!" Louis tells her. "We better let you go. We're going to bowl for a little while when it's still quiet then go home and finally imagine what our baby's nursery is going to be like."
"Good luck," Mary says warmly. "Enjoy yourselves."
"Bye, Mary," Lorna says.
"Bye, guys," Mary replies, leaving back to the others.
"You took a while," Bash states, grabbing the cups from her for Kenna to start filling up.
Mary grins. "Bumped into Louis Bourbon."
Francis turns to her, his smile leaving his face. "Oh?"
She smirks now. Jealous, are we? "And Lorna. They are... Okay, you have to keep this to yourselves, like no press or anything."
"We're celebrities, duh," Kenna says, handing Mary a full cup.
Mary chuckles. "They're twenty-four weeks into their pregnancy," Mary says quietly for just their ears.
"Oh!" Francis cries out, a blush creeping onto his cheeks. "I'm glad for them!"
"Yeah, they're going to bowl in celebration before going home to fix up the baby's nursery," Mary continues. "It's a girl. Don't tell anyone!"
Francis pulls her into his side, raising his cup. "To Louis and Lorna on their baby."
"To Louis and Lorna!" Everyone says.
...
"Mmh," Mary moans as Francis kisses at her neck, pushing her into their bedroom.
He trails his fingers down her black, lacy vest and he grins against her skin. "You had this on underneath all along?"
"Just be glad Kenna didn't start calling for strip bowl," Mary tells him. "Otherwise Bash could have seen this."
Francis laughs loudly, pressing her down onto the bed as her leg hooks around his hip. "No one will see this but me," he growls against her skin, making her shiver.
"I'm glad," she replies, pulling his lips to hers and kissing them hungrily. "Thank you for everything."
"Like what?" He asks, chuckling.
"Being there," she states. "And helping me get third place in bowling after you hurt your wrist... Huh, it doesn't seem so hurt now." She pulls his hand from her hip to rest on her upper chest.
Francis blushes. "Okay, I told a tiny lie," he says. "But it was hurting from all the rounds we did!"
Mary laughs, kissing him lovingly. "You're sweet. Thank you."
"You're very welcome," he says before she flips them over, her hands trailing his body before she finally undoes his belt as he undoes the buttons of his shirt.
"I had fun," she tells him. "We should agree to more double dates."
"Less alcohol, my liver might pay for it," Francis jests, accepting a chaste kiss as Mary shuffles off to remove her jeans. "Hurry up, my fingers miss you."
"Keep missing me then," she replies, leaping away from his touch and heading to the door, her eyes on his.
Francis pouts. "Where are you going?"
"I'm thirsty," she drawls, opening the door blindly.
"Mary... I am too, although not for water," Francis replies as he's about to leave the bed but she shakes her head at him.
"Stay... Right... There," she whispers. "I'll be right back."
She heads downstairs to the kitchen, opening up the dog door before heading out and making sure the deck fence is up so Aspen doesn't run off where she can't return back into the house. She chuckles when Aspen hurries to her training toilet and relieves herself before Mary heads inside to grab her fruit-infused bottle of water from the fridge.
She's a bit nervous to return back to work tomorrow, having got used to being with Francis and friends all day long and helping Francis with his independent music career. He's doing really well, his fans supportive of his decision to leave his label, even showing relief that he is now free to release the music he wants.
She's proud of him and he's been really great to her lately.
Butterflies flutter around in her stomach and she bites her lip when she looks at her bare ring finger.
During a moment away from the brothers, Mary asked Kenna what it was to be engaged. She feels like Francis is the one and she wouldn't mind if they took the next step, quicker than others might think. But they're Francis and Mary and they are really happy.
Kenna says it's like floating on cloud 9, you see your partner in a brighter light and you're excited at the prospect of being together for life.
"You're taking too long."
Mary grins, feeling Francis's arms wrap around her waist. "Just thinking," she mumbles.
"Can you think later on because you're just... ravishing," he says against her skin.
Mary turns, placing her bottle on the counter before kissing him, wrapping her arms around his neck. "I love you."
"I love you too."
She grins. I'll definitely marry you one day...