A/N: thanks again for your support, guys! I know you've been awaiting M&M's post-argument meeting, so here it is…

"Why don't you stay for dinner, Matthew? Greta's made her delicious roast pork dish, and it's always so filling that it takes us days to finish! So there'll be plenty to go around." Robert chuckled good-naturedly. "And in any case, it's been a while since Sybil and Edith have seen you."

Matthew smiled back nervously. Robert had called him on Friday, asking if he could possibly pop over on Saturday afternoon to briefly go through would need to be done if Robert wanted to lease his Green Park property. Finding himself unable to come up with a good excuse to say no (perhaps spending time with Mary hadn't helped him become a smooth talker), he reluctantly agreed. Some higher being had graciously sent Mary off to the spa with her sisters, though, so Matthew had been able to speak with Robert without having to constantly worry about her walking in. if he stayed for dinner, however, he would definitely have to see her.

It had been a week since their kiss, but he was still none-the-wiser about his feelings for Mary. His relationship with Lavinia was fine, although by the time she returned to South London, after clearing up at school and taking two tubes down, she only spared an hour or so for Matthew in the evenings, as she usually wanted to stay in at her flat to prepare her lessons for the next day. Realising he didn't have time to stand and ponder the pros and cons of each potential answer to Robert's offer, Matthew accepted. Maybe it would be a good setting in which to see Mary, he thought. He still felt awful about what he said to her on Sunday afternoon, and wanted to apologise. Moreover, if they saw each other in the context of a family dinner, he might be able to apologise quickly and avoid any further conversation about the kiss.

"Brilliant." Robert beamed. "Mary said the girls will be back by 6pm, so we can eat in about half an hour. That reminds me, have you spoken to Mary recently? She went out somewhere on Sunday and since she came back she's been a bit all over the place. Do you have any idea what's going on?"

Matthew swallowed uneasily. He had quite a good idea what the problem was, but there was no way on Earth he was going to tell Mary's father about it. "No, I haven't spoken to her since Saturday." Matthew replied. That was mostly true, he thought. We didn't so much 'speak' to each other on Sunday as 'hiss' at each other.

"Oh, well, I suppose young women go through these phases sometimes. But if you get the chance to speak at dinner, do try and ask her if everything's alright, will you? I'm sure she'd be willing to speak to you about whatever it is." Robert smiled, patting Matthew on the back genially, not realising that his last comment made Matthew feel a bit sick. She had been willing to speak to me about it, but I insulted her and drove her away. He needed to apologise to her as soon as he could.

Matthew sat at the dining table with Robert and Cora, listening to Robert proudly talk about Edith's new job as an engineer with Rolls Royce. He noticed Cora was quieter than usual, and she seemed to be watching him quite intently, for some reason. Was it a mother's intuition? Could she somehow tell that he'd wronged her daughter? He tensed even more as he saw the dining room door open. This was it. He felt like he'd been waiting for this moment his entire life. Sybil walked through the door, with Edith closely behind.

"Matthew!" Sybil exclaimed, bounding towards him and enveloping him in a tight hug before he could even stand up to meet her. He greeted both sisters with hugs as he heard Robert explain to them why Matthew was here.

"Where's Mary?" Cora asked the girls. Matthew was glad she did. He couldn't tell if he wanted Mary to be otherwise engaged or not- now that their meeting was imminent, he felt very nervous. God, was he certain of any of his emotions anymore? He looked at Sybil and Edith as they took their seats, eager to hear their response.

"She should be just-" Edith began, but stopped mid-sentence. Matthew quickly looked around for a clue as to why, and froze when he saw Mary standing in the open doorway, looking directly at him. She had an expression on her face which was probably very similar to the one he wore when he found her at his flat on Sunday, Matthew supposed. In short, she was not pleased to see him.

"Oh Mary, there you are! Come and sit down, darling, we're all very hungry." Robert said, completely oblivious to the tension between his daughter and his legal adviser as he started greedily eyeing up the dishes on the table.

Matthew watched Mary silently walk to her seat, diagonally across from him. He tried to catch her eye again, to offer a smile, but she seemed determined not to look at him.

Dinner passed without much consequence. Nobody really noticed the distinct lack of communication between Mary and Matthew- they were sitting quite far apart from each other, and they all knew Mary had been in a strange mood recently, so her not speaking to someone wasn't anything out of the ordinary. Cora, however, did make it a point to glance between the two of them from time to time, to see if there was anything suspicious going on. Deep down she believed there probably was no secret romance between the two of them, but after Mary's curious questions a few days ago, she wanted to make sure.

Mary could feel Matthew's eyes on her periodically throughout dinner. It became unbearable. She finally looked up at him to see what he wanted. He smiled shyly, his eyes twinkling at her. She'd forgotten how blue they were- she hadn't properly looked at them since last week- when she was in his arms, as he'd leaned in, slowly licking his lips…

She saw Matthew then turn to her father and say something which clearly interested the older man. She had a feeling it had something to do with her.

Once the plates were cleared, Robert announced that there was a phonecall he needed to make, and everybody took this as their cue to leave. Mary immediately rose from her chair and headed towards the door. She cursed herself for not being hasty enough, however, when Robert called after her.

"Matthew mentioned to me earlier that there's an opening in his office for a paralegal-type role. Apparently a law degree isn't essential for the work they want done, so he wanted to speak to you about it." Seeing Mary's unimpressed expression, but not knowing the reason behind it, he added, "I think it sounds like a good opportunity for you, even if it's a temporary job. I suggest you stay behind and hear what he has to say." Robert said kindly, but leaving no room for discussion.

Mary surveyed the room; Edith and Sybil had left promptly after saying their goodbyes to Matthew (Sybil was no doubt running upstairs to make one of her mysterious phonecalls), as had Robert. Cora hesitated before leaving, but was called away by the housekeeper who was having problems with the dishwasher. Finally, she turned to Matthew, her arms crossed, her expression stony.

Matthew let out a shaky breath. Mary clearly wasn't going to make this easy for him.

"There actually isn't a job to tell you about…I made that up because I wanted to talk to you." Matthew began, slowly.

"Of course you made it up." Mary snapped. "You've become quite the master of insincerity, haven't you?" Her rhetorical question was delivered with a thick, icy coating.

Matthew looked down at the table. He felt ashamed of himself. Aside from anything else, Mary had become one of his closest friends, and he'd hurt her. He nodded twice, as if agreeing with her statement. "I deserved that." He said quietly.

He didn't see, but Mary's expression softened at that. It was obvious from his demeanour that he was contrite. Nevertheless, Mary wanted him to know just how much he'd upset her.

"What are you doing here, Matthew? I always thought of you as being quite a 'simple fellow', as my Dad puts it, but I'm really finding it difficult to understand you. You came over to stay last week, flirted with me, teased me, kissed me…" Mary paused as she tried to push back the feelings of desire which always surfaced whenever she thought about that kiss. "You left without saying anything about it- I know I didn't say anything either, but I tried to the next day, only for you to brush me off."

Matthew was considering interrupting her at this point, but he decided against it. Mary was like a steam-train, and he didn't feel like jumping onto the tracks and getting run over (although he felt like he was getting run over anyway).

"But evidently you weren't content with just giving me the cold-shoulder," Mary stormed ahead, her voice growing steadily fiercer, "so you thought you'd belittle me and make me feel like shit just because I had played a part in what happened. You spoke to me and looked at me like I was some kind of slut who wasn't even worthy of your time, like a toxin that you had to shield yourself from. Well, it wasn't all me, Matthew. I'm not going to let you pretend that you were completely innocent in all of this and make me the bad guy." She'd run out of breath. Stopping to collect herself, she realised she was shaking- from anger as well as from the relief of venting after almost a week of keeping these feelings bottled up.

Matthew hadn't blinked for the duration of Mary's rant. He knew he'd insulted her, but he certainly hadn't realised just how harsh he'd been. Shaking his head sorrowfully, he took a small step towards her.

"God, Mary. I'm so, so sorry. I honestly didn't intend to hurt your feelings. All I was thinking about on Sunday was how I didn't want to deal with what had happened. I was confused, and I thought I was being strong by ploughing ahead with my life and going to see Lavinia and pretending everything was fine. I can see now that I was, in fact, being a massive coward. So maybe it's a good thing nobody did break in on Saturday night." He smiled at her, but quickly realised his joke had fallen flat. Maybe it was too soon for jokes. "But, anyway…you did the right thing by coming to see me and I'm quite frankly embarrassed by how I reacted. I'm sorry for ignoring you, and I'm so sorry for the things I said. I want you to know that I absolutely don't see you as a 'toxin' or a…slut." He finished quietly, hating that she'd used that word in relation to herself. "I'm full of respect for you. You're one of my best friends and I really hope I haven't done anything to damage that. It's been eating me up inside all week, but I never found the right way to apologise to you. Hopefully I haven't left it too late." His eyes were questioning- could she forgive him?

Mary's heart swelled as he spoke. It wasn't that his words were romantic, but she could tell from his tone and from the way he was looking at her that he meant every word he said, and that he truly did value their relationship…whatever their relationship was. This thought reminded Mary that the apology was only half of what they needed to discuss.

"No, I don't think you have." Mary responded softly. She playfully checked her watch and added, "But if you'd left it till 8.30 then it definitely would have been too late."

Matthew laughed as he filled with relief. He'd been worried that their friendship had been irreparably damaged; they'd bickered plenty of times before, of course, but that had been their first serious dispute, where feelings had been hurt. He was about to retort when he saw her shift awkwardly on her feet.

"So," Mary began, "I think we've settled what happened on Sunday. But about Saturday night…" she trailed off, feeling herself blush at the mention of it.

"Oh, right…" Matthew was equally uneasy about the impending conversation. He wracked his mind for something to say, but could think of nothing. The two newly-reconciled friends avoided eye contact, Matthew's shifty eyes working in overdrive and Mary wringing her hands together nervously.

Mary could feel the tension mounting. Before it became intolerable, Mary decided to break it. "I'm guessing that since you…" She started, then stopped to consider how best to phrase what she wanted to say. There is no easy way to say this. "You went back to Lavinia. You've stayed with her. So, I'm guessing that you want to move past it?" It had pained Mary to see Matthew by Lavinia's side, having her over at his flat, the day after they kissed. She didn't know what exactly she'd been hoping for, but she'd presumed that Matthew had some feelings for her. Seeing him with Lavinia made her doubt that.

"I thought that might be best..." Matthew said uncertainly, trying to read Mary's expression. Was she happy that he'd stayed with Lavinia? Maybe she saw the kiss as an impulsive mistake and was relieved that he hadn't pursued it. Nevertheless, he didn't want to say he was going to stay with Lavinia indefinitely, in case that prevented Mary from admitting her feelings to him. He knew how proud Mary was- she'd never tell him that she felt anything for him if he'd already made it clear there was no possibility of them being together. "But, what do you think?" He continued watching her closely, searching for any signs of her emotions.

Mary could almost physically feel the gaze from his beautiful eyes on her, and it was making her feel rather gelatinous inside. She tore her eyes away from his attractive face in the hope that she'd be able to formulate a coherent response to his question.

"I…" She didn't like that he'd put the ball in her court. How could she admit how she felt about him now, after he'd openly said that staying with Lavinia would be best for him? After her mother told her that she and her father would disapprove if Mary was with Matthew? "I agree. It's probably best to put it behind us." She said, unknowingly echoing Tom's advice. "I think we probably both had a momentary lapse in judgment." She smiled at him, hoping that saying those words aloud would make them true.

"That's probably what it was." Matthew smiled back, but thought he detected a lack of conviction behind her words.

A/N: hmm. So does Matthew secretly think that Mary fancies him? Was his apology adequate? Was Mary a bit silly for not revealing her true feelings?