Written by PBMAXCA
He watched her walk across the crowded bar, a little surprised when she turned her attention to him. She'd been socializing with everyone else for the longest time, then she disappeared for a while, he figured to the restroom. It was then that she started towards him. He expected her to pay attention to the hundred or so people in the bar. They were her guests, a lot of them family. He expected to be low on her list of priorities, but she seemed to beeline for him. He hadn't been purposely avoiding her that night. Things just seemed to work out in his favor. The tide of people moved him farther and farther away from her as if the forces of nature were keeping them apart.
Despite his whole back and forth drama with Gabrielle back at the house earlier, he really hadn't meant to stay away so long. He'd planned to end their feud sooner, but as time went by it had gotten harder and harder to figure out what to say first. He'd dialed her phone so many times, but had hung up before she picked up. Starting that conversation was harder than anything else he'd ever had to do. He was very glad that Gabrielle had taken it upon herself to bury the proverbial hatchet and get them back in the same place at the same time.
The ceremony had been beautiful even though he didn't approve of the groom. Her dress had turned out to be really great. He'd seen a picture of it a long time ago, it was a remake of something she'd seen in a magazine when she had been teaching that year at Beauxbatons Academy and although it was a more traditional cut, it looked great on her.
When she finally reached him no words were needed. He wasn't sure if he'd known what to say if he could have gotten words out of his mouth before she flung her arms around him and hugged him tight. He didn't know if his mind was just over exaggerating the moment, but it seemed as if it was a desperate hug, a kind of hug that was saving her from a fate worse than death.
"Thank God you came."
The moment the words left her mouth his back almost did a jack-knife as all the muscles in his neck stiffened. Physically his body was pulling away from her before he could stop himself from doing it. If she had said anything else it would have been ok. Anything she could think of would have been better than bringing up the sore subject that stood between them. He'd promised himself that he was going to act like nothing happened between them, not only to keep the drama at bay during the ceremony and reception, but also because he knew that he needed to work past the block between them.
Hearing those words brought it all rushing back. He could feel the temperature of the air rise as he was momentarily drawn back in time to the argument they'd had all those months ago. He felt instantly as if he wanted to cry. He didn't want that conversation to be repeated. He'd finally gotten passed it and definitely didn't want to u-turn back to that place in his life.
He'd been harsh with her that night, something he was a little embarrassed about, but he couldn't help his strong feelings. He'd been concerned and was still concerned for her well being. He knew that Ritchie wouldn't harm her physically. He wasn't that type of goon. His was a mental kind of torture that had much more scarring than any physical injury.
"You ok?" she asked pulling back from him. She smoothed a hand down the small wrinkles in the front of her dress and watched him with nervous eyes.
Ok was the farthest from what he was. Even though his eyes hadn't left her face, he knew exactly where Ritchie had been the entire night. At the moment he was standing with his mother across the room, with his back to them. Before he'd been ten people down the bar from them and before that he'd been next to the DJ requesting a song.
Ron forced a smile and nodded, moving his eyes towards Gabrielle hoping to catch his eye and be rescued. Gabrielle saw him, even went as far as to raise a glass to him signaling that he was having a good time, but made no move to be his knight in shinning armor or princess on a white horse as the case may be.
"Ron?"
He wished that the air conditioner would turn on higher. He'd always hated that about bars. In the winter in Europe it was great, but this was a summer wedding and even though all the doors were pushed wide open to allow everyone the air, it seemed as if only the outside rim of people were feeling any of the breeze. "Sorry. Just a little overwhelmed. I haven't seen most of these people in--your cousin Zach decided to fill me in on the past two years."
She laughed and reached a hand out to touch his arm. He tried not to cringe at her touch, but he must have let onto his feelings. Her head tipped to the side as she tried to figure him out. "What's wrong?"
It wasn't going to be that easy. He wasn't about to spill his guts because he knew himself well enough to know things would end as ugly as they'd ended the night of the engagement party. He didn't want that. Not only for her, but for her parents sake he knew that he needed to get away from the conversation that she seemed to be pushing on him.
"Nothing." He blinked a few times trying not make eye contact. "I should go."
She sighed. "Ron."
"Really it's getting late." He looked over at the front window of the bar. He moved to kiss her cheek then backed away and moved towards Gabrielle.
"So that's how it's going to be?" She spoke to his back probably knowing that he wouldn't walk away without her understanding why he was going.
It wasn't the best way to keep the conversation going, but it worked. He turned around and faced her.
Ron took a deep breath, looked around at the crowd then stepped back towards her. He hugged her and put his lips near her ear. "You made your decision--" He moved to look in her eyes. "--and I need to leave." He nodded to make sure she understood. "Call me when you get back from the honeymoon."
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