Illicit Affairs

Chapter 16

Thursday 20th May 2021

She made her way from the kitchen back through to the living room, her presence silencing the argument between Addison and Ryan. She leaned against the doorway, her arms crossing over her chest.

"So, is everyone staying for dinner?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Meredith, can I talk to you? In the kitchen?" Addison asked, walking toward her.

"Erm, sure," she said, furrowing her brow as she turned, following Addison through into the kitchen. She opened up the fridge, looking to see what she could make for dinner, only to realise she hadn't stocked up her food in a while.

"Why is he here?" Addison asked, her hands crossed over her chest as she looked at Meredith.

"I haven't got a clue, Addison, I'm more shocked than you are, believe me," she said, closing the fridge and turning to her, "But maybe you can leave with him."

"And you're just going to go off to England and forget about me?" Addison challenged.

"Do you love him, Addison?" she asked, leaning against the counter, "I mean, you promised to marry him, so you must love him."

"Meredith, you can't leave," Addison said simply, her voice going quiet.

"I feel like we're having two different conversations here," Meredith said with a soft laugh as she set the coffee machine up and got four mugs out, anticipating Derek's arrival, "How does Ryan take his coffee?"

"Ryan will be leaving soon," Addison said, rolling her eyes at Meredith's avoidance of the subject of her leaving for England.

"Ryan would love a coffee," Meredith heard his voice from the doorway and turned to smile at him politely, "Just one sugar please, Meredith."

"Amazing," Meredith said, pouring out four cups of coffee, adding one sugar to Ryan's mug and passing it over to him.

"Why have you made four mugs?" Addison asked, taking a mug for herself.

"Apparently, people just keep showing up at my house today," she said as a knock sounded from the front door, "Please, make yourselves comfortable in the living room. I'll be right back."

She left them to it, hearing the murmurs toward each other, probably in relation to Addison saying that Ryan would be leaving soon, which she was pretty sure wasn't happening. She opened the door and sure enough, Derek was standing there.

"Please, join the party," she said with a roll of her eyes, standing to one side as he walked in.

"I want to talk about earlier," he said, reaching for her hand and holding it with a gentle grip.

"Now really isn't the best time, I just wanted to study and now there's some sort of drama happening in my living room," she pulled her hand back and closed the front door, "Why is he here?"

"About that, I figured out how he made it here, he spoke to Karev when he came looking for Addison and he said that Addison was coming here, I didn't even know Addison was here," he said with a furrow of his brow, "Why is Addison here?"

"Don't get jealous yet, she came here to talk, and that's exactly what we were doing when Ryan showed up," Meredith said to him, leading the way into the kitchen, "I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to do. Addison won't go because she keeps berating me about leaving for England, and Ryan doesn't seem to be leaving without Addison."

"You know you can just tell them to leave your house?" he asked with a raised eyebrow as she passed him a mug of coffee and took her own.

"I'm trying to be amicable," she murmured as she took a sip of her coffee, leading through into the living room and he followed her with a soft chuckle.