𝐬𝐮𝐞 𝐦𝐞 - 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐲 𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐡

06

The dinner at Olivia's parents' house had been nothing short of a success. Kissing Matty was not written in the script and she had never imagined having to do it when she asked him to dinner. Maybe she had been naive since all couples, real and fake, do eventually kiss but even so, she couldn't deny how good it had been. The kiss was gentle, loving and slow. The kiss was everything that Jordan wasn't.

The rest of the evening had been spent with some light chatter about various topics, stemming from their occupations to which alcoholic beverage got them drunk the quickest. As Matty and Olivia had been sitting next to each other, every so often they would steal a glance at each other, daring to get caught, or their hands would brush against each others, their skin burning as a result.

However, as soon as they had left the Hale household and slid into the car, the atmosphere went from light and easy to heavy and awkward. Any chemistry that they had at dinner had vanished the moment that they had stepped out of the door. The two struggled to look at each other without their cheeks heating up and being automatically reminded of what they had to endure to please Olivia's parents.

Matty was dropped off home and he made sure to reassure his fake girlfriend that kissing her hadn't been a problem. In fact, for him, it had been a pleasure but he wasn't going to tell her that. He put all of her worries to ease and that was exactly why she found it so strange that despite her texts, she hadn't heard from him in days.

Olivia could count on one hand just how many times they had met up and held a conversation longer than a few minutes but that didn't mean that she didn't miss his company. The brunette girl still watched him playing for her local club on the TV and her dad and brother had been to a few away days but still, she couldn't get a text back.

"Maybe it's for the best. Maybe having a fake relationship won't do any of us any good," Olivia started to ramble to her best friend as they sat down in a quaint cafe in the middle of town. They had hoped to have a coffee date in order to forget everything that was currently going on in their lives and relax but Olivia had other ideas. Apparently, she didn't know what the wordsforget and relax meant because as she was sitting in one of the antique armchairs, sipping on her oatmilk latte, she was stressing about Matty Cash.

"He is a professional footballer after all. I'm sure he'd rather have a real relationship with a model. I mean, look at Jack Grealish and Sasha Atwood." She spoke through mouthfuls of her salmon and cream cheese bagel.

Ava didn't want to be a bad friend. The blonde knew that her friend had been going through a lot since she had ended things with Jordan but they were supposed to be having a drama free afternoon and discussing Olivia's fake relationship wasn't what Ava had in mind when she agreed to their outing.

"If you keep thinking about it, you're going to drive yourself crazy. Besides, today was supposed to be about forgetting about all of the shit that we have going on." Ava advised her friend, poking around her ceaser salad that had looked appetising at the time but once she had opened it, she could sense that the green leaves were no longer crisp but rather wilted and resembled green slime.

"You're right. I'm sorry," Olivia sighed, knowing that she had dampened the mood of their girls brunch but there was still hope of a revival.

"Did you hear that Lily Collins got engaged?" Olivia questioned and that was enough to move the two girls away from the topic of their problems and onto the lives of celebrities and the gossip that surrounded them.

The two girls shared many celebrity gossip stories and had at least two coffees each. The two of them bought coffee from the same coffee shop at least once a day. They were probably the reason why the cafe was still open.

The cafe was quiet and it had been for the several hours that they had been there. The small bell above the wooden door echoed throughout the shop and alerted the only two customers that someone else would be joining them for afternoon tea. Looking up from her latest mug of decaf coffee, Olivia's eyes met the ones that belonged to Matty Cash.

"Shit!" Olivia whispered and looked down at the table in front of her, somehow thinking that if she ignored his existence like he had done to her, he wouldn't approach her. But that would be wishful thinking on Olivia's part.

It wasn't long before the brunette girl could hear footsteps approaching and the smell the scent of the aftershave that she had grown to be intoxicated by. She shut her eyes, knowing what was coming but hoping that it wasn't. 

"Olivia, hi," Matty breathed out, shocked to see his fake girlfriend at the quietest coffee shop in town. It was one of the few places that he could go and still feel relatively normal. Although not the most famous person, he still felt as though people recognised him and would stare at him, even if he was out with his family. At this coffee shop, he didn't have to worry about anyone ogling him or taking pictures without his permission as he tried to get his errands done for the day.

"Can we talk?" He asked, nerves suddenly making him feel nauseated. He could see how reluctant Olivia was to look at him, her eyes now open but her hair covered her face and she refused to look up from the mug that was held between her hands.

Ava stood up from the chair across from her and excused herself to get started on the food shopping that the two of them needed to do in order to ensure that they had enough for the next week or so.

"I want to apologise for not texting you or anything-" He started but didn't get to finish before Olivia had decided to cut in.

"Matty, you ghosted me. The only reason that I knew you were still alive was because I saw you playing on TV. You told me that everything was okay-" This time it was Olivia's turn to be cut off.

"They were. At least, I thought they were. I just got really in my head about it and freaked myself out a bit. I had a lot of games coming up thick and fast and I needed to not think about things, I'm sorry. I should have texted you." Matty clearly had his reasons and although Olivia didn't feel much better now that she knew why he had ghosted her, if she had been in his shoes, she probably would have done the same thing.

"It's fine. I accept your apology. I just didn't have you down as the ghosting type." She tried to make a light-hearted joke but neither one of them were in the mood to laugh. Olivia knew the ghosting type with thanks to her unfortunate dating history and Matty did not seem like the type. She could only hope that it was a one off.

"How about I get my coffee to go. I'll buy your drink and then I can drop you off at home since Ava is no longer here." He offered and Olivia could sense how he was already desperately trying to make up for his past mistake. 

"Sounds like a plan." She stood up from the antique armchair that had accommodated her so well and put her arm through Matty's, linking them together with a content smile on her face.

She found it weird how after only knowing him for a short while, he had impacted her life in such a positive way. Olivia Hale was glad to have Matty Cash back in her life. Everything was back in order and back to how it should be.

Written: 7th January 2021
Edited: 28th November 2021 & 16th January 2022
Published: 28th November 2021
Word Count: 1353

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*
a/n: long time no see! I'm back and determined to make this year better than last. As you all know, I wasn't the best at keeping up with updates and writing last year but I'm keeping on top of things and keeping better care of myself so here you have a brand new chapter!

In light of keeping better care of myself, I have engaged better in my lectures, finished all of my TDTs before the night before and confronted toxic 'friends' and got back in touch with my real ones and let me tell you, I am so incredibly happy right now so it's all worth it.

What are your hopes for 2022?
- on a personal level, to be more organised and better prepared as well as making sure that I have time to do the things that I love.

Enjoy and stay safe!

Lots of love, e x