pairing: frank adler x fem!reader; andy barber x fem!reader
summary: frank doesn't realize he lost something good until it was too late, and andy isn't the kind of man to give you up.
word count: 3,496
warnings?: angst city™ bitch, frank's a teensy bit of a jerk but he technically means well, mostly focused on frank and reader but andy's there too, the ending's kind of bad but we're going to pretend it's not, not proofread
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Dating you was like a breath of fresh air. While a lot of single women without kids of their own like to say that they would love a man with a kid, the truth of the matter was, not all of them were ready for that man to put his kid first. A lot of them expect Frank to hold them higher than Mary, but he was not that kind of man. Yes, he had his boundaries, and yes, he did make sure to take care of himself and his needs. But making sure that Mary grew up in a happy home and was able to live a normal life came before everything, and everyone, else. Nothing ever got in the way of that. And, an unfortunate side effect of that was his love life took a back burner. He'd tried a few times over the years to date someone, but it never worked out.
So when he met you, he expected you to run the other way when you found out that Mary would always come first. But, surprisingly, you took it in stride. "I'd be fuckin' pissed, Frank, if you didn't put her first," you snarked when he had to cancel a date because Mary needed him and, in the aftermath, he told you that she would always his number one girl. "You're the only real family she's got. She needs you more than I will. I'm a big girl—I can handle you putting your niece first."
He fell for you even harder when you said that to him. He hadn't done anything serious relationship-wise ever since he started taking care of Mary. But now, he was wanting you to become part of his life for real. To maybe introduce you to Mary when the relationship was serious enough.
And he eventually did.
Mary loved you to pieces. You'd stay over on the weekends, and he'd often wake up to Mary being back early from Roberta's, baking cookies with you in the kitchen. You'd both be a mess, covered in flour, but dissolved into giggles, Mary looking happier than ever. And you'd both be pulling him over to decorate the cookies when they were out of the oven, acting like you were art critics as you both pretended to analyze whatever creation he came up with.
He never wanted it to end.
But, the longer you were together, the more he began to realize that he probably could never be all in with you. And the fact that he would always put Mary first suddenly weighed heavier than before. You deserved better. You deserved someone who put you first. Frank could never be that man. He swore he'd do things right by Mary. He...Fuck, he could just never be the kind of man that you deserved.
