AUTHOR'S NOTE: I know this is short, but I really hadn't planned on updating anymore tonight. But, I have a small policy that I often ignore that if people put a review up before I'm done posting the next chapter, I'll do another one. Kind of like one of those 'buy-one-get-one-free' deals at your neighborhood gas station with the decade-old beef jerky that no one ever seems to buy. Off topic...anyway, it's short, but here it is.

The ending will knock your socks off, especially for you, GlassBroomstick.

Mistaken Liaisons

Chapter Ten: Alcoholic Monsoons and Hold the Phone...

Ginny stirred her drink. Draco had been all for coming down to the pub, but he hadn't said a word since ordering his drink. Ginny stared off over his shoulder. A young witch and wizard in the corner opposite them were snuggled close enough to have obliterated any molecules of air between them. Ginny wondered vaguely if they were squished into the same seat before turning back to where she and Draco were sitting stiffly across from each other.

Back in the apartment it had been fine…like another one-nighter. Ginny was used to those. But then he'd stopped it. And Ginny was hit with the reality of it; she was married to Draco Malfoy. This wasn't just some guy she could sleep with and move on; this was it, there was no 'after' Draco. Draco was going to be the rest of her life.

And she knew that she couldn't live with that. Reputation aside, she couldn't go through with this. While she might begin to love Draco eventually and even possibly be reciprocated with the whole mutual love thing, they just weren't meant to be together. Something was telling her that. She didn't know what, but she knew it was better to put a stop to it all before things got out of hand.

Now if only he'd make eye contact with her.

"Are you going to talk or not?" she finally asked, setting her spoon down with a clank and noting for the first time that her drink wasn't one that needed to be stirred, let alone subjected to the small typhoon she'd put it through.

Draco glanced up at her. "What do you want to talk about?" he asked curiously. Ginny sighed. "This marriage." She said shortly. Draco shrugged. "What is there to talk about? We're married, that's all."

Ginny frowned, taking a gulp and proceeding to wipe her mouth. "I just…I don't know. Marriage is a big thing. I never really wanted marriage." Draco snorted. "Neither did I, but I'm not complaining." He flushed, drowning out the realization of what he'd just said with another sip of his drink.

Ginny sighed. "I can't do this, Draco." She said softly, unsure of his reaction. Draco didn't even look up from his drink. "Didn't think so. How could anyone ever be willingly married to a Malfoy, right?" he settled back into a comfortable sneer. Anger shot through Ginny as she watched the personality progress he'd made flush down the loo like the Weasley's Wizard-Weed Blaise had nearly caught her smoking in the bathroom once.

That had been an interesting experience.

"Draco, look. You can't think this is about you, alright?" she said, trying not to sound pissy, even though she really, really was. Draco snorted. "Of course not. You're just not a marriage kind of girl, right? Every other woman in the world might want to be married to a young, handsome man who loves her, but that's not you, is that what you're trying to say? Because if it is, just shut up, yeah?" he snapped, barely containing his voice to a dull roar.

Ginny had faltered at the 'young, handsome man who loves her' part, but she rose up heatedly as he slumped back in his chair. "Maybe you're right, maybe I do want marriage!" she shouted and triumph and pain mingled in the glare he shot her. The other pub patrons were staring at her as if she'd cracked. Perhaps she had.

"The point is, Draco" she hissed "that I don't know what I want. I don't know if I'll ever be ready for marriage. But I do know that I can't live like this. I don't doubt I could learn to love you and maybe possibly you could love me. Oh, yes, you are capable of love, you bastard, if you'd just stop feeling sorry for yourself and being so bloody angry with the whole world. But it won't work. Passion and lust can't hold a marriage together and though I'm sure I'd come to care for you, we wouldn't be happy. Not forever. And marriage for me would have to be forever. So I'm sorry, alright? I'm sorry I can't make up my mind. I'm sorry if I've bruised your frail ego and I'm sorry that I just can't be married to you forever!" she slumped back in her chair, breathing somewhat erratically.

Draco stared at her for a long time, his face unreadable. When he finally did speak, it was carefully contained in a voice that was sure to not give away whatever it was he was feeling. And as he spoke Ginny knew that however much she had hurt them both, she had made the right decision. He wasn't an emotional person and she was too much of one. They would have learned to hate each other before they would learn to love each other.

"You think I'm capable of love?" he questioned her. Ginny sighed, feeling exhausted from her tirade that had scared away most of the customers in the dim-lit pub. "I know you are. You're going to find someone out there who's perfect for you and you're going to understand what real love is. But I'm not that person. And I don't want to drag you into a marriage that will only damage the both of us. We both have our whole lives ahead of us. Let's make the best of it as we see fit; I'm inclined to try for a divorce. The rest is up to you." She said wearily.

Draco stared down at his hands. "I'm game." He stated.

Ginny blinked.

And Draco smirked.

Things were going to be fine.

………………..

"That's it! Get the fuck out of my bar!"

Draco pulled Ginny back from the doorway just as a portly wizard was hurled through it, landing a few feet out into the street. Rythmi stood in the doorway, a full-length gypsy skirt stained with what looked like a glass of one of her more deadly concoctions. Draco glared at the witch who had gotten him into this whole mess.

As the wizard toddled off somewhat drunkenly, Ginny stepped forward, muttering a Cleaning Spell. Rythmi glanced down as the stain vanished. She turned a cheeky face up to Ginny as the two embraced warmly. "Thanks, GingerAle. Bastard was coming on to me all night." She said as she let Ginny go, jerking her head in the direction the drunk had wandered off in.

The three of them disappeared into the bar, which was full and noisy. They sat down at a round table in a secluded corner. "So, what's the emergency you owled me about?" she asked, retying a polka-dot scarf around her neck. Ginny sighed, twisting the silver wedding ring off her finger and placing it in the middle of the table. Rythmi glanced at it. "That's one of those wedding rings from the night you came down here, isn't it?" she asked.

Ginny nodded. "Rythmi…I need you to tell me everything about that night. We can't remember what happened and we need to know, especially the person who married us." Rythmi blinked. "Married you?" she asked. Ginny sighed. "Rythmi…Draco and I were married that night."

Rythmi's eyes bored a hole into Ginny's head as she stared uncomprehendingly at her and then at Draco and then at the ring on the table and then at the ring on Draco's finger and then back at Ginny and around a few more dozen times until a hand went to her mouth…and she burst out laughing.

"No, you weren't!"