The Former Love Of My Life (Sequel to Undercover Love )

Chapter 25

Julia's POV

"Um...I'm just gonna wait for you guys here" I said when Doug pulled up to Mrs. Hanson's house.

"I think we might be a while" Tom turned to look at me from the passenger seat. "You better come with us."

"You do realize it's been some time since Mrs. Hanson last saw her little Tommy right ?" Doug added and Tom glared at him at the 'little Tommy' comment. "There's no way she'll just throw him his car keys and let him go without making him sit down for a three hour-talk first."

"It's okay, I'll just wait. I don't mind" I assured them, shaking my head in dismissal and putting on a small smile.

"Is something wrong ?" Tom asked me, sounding almost concerned.

"No, it's just..." I trailed off, but ultimately decided to be honest. "I don't feel comfortable."

"Why ?" Tom's brow furrowed in confusion, and I rolled my eyes at how genuinely clueless he looked.

I would have imagined that the reason was quite obvious and that he would have been able to figure out on his own that his mom might not want to welcome into her home a girl who had hurt and ditched her son like a garbage bag, but apparently he needed me to draw him a picture.

"Well...given our history together...I somehow doubt I'm still in her good books" I very reluctantly muttered under my breath while looking away almost in shame.

"Oh..." he nodded in understanding. "But don't worry about that, she doesn't hold a grudge against you or anything. She won't treat you any differently than she used to, I promise."

His tone was reassuring, and I didn't want to be rude so I took a few minutes to actually think about it. From the corner of my eye, I noticed Doug was now fidgeting miserably in his seat, clearly uncomfortable. He looked like he wanted to disappear and I felt bad for him. Poor guy had nothing to do with all this and probably didn't want to hear us go over the details of our breakup or anything like that. It was just plain awkward.

"Alright..." I took an encouraging breath, figuring his mom wasn't going to bite my head off anyway. "Let's do it."

♡♡♡

"Tommy !" Mrs. Hanson happily exclaimed as soon as she opened the door, throwing herself at her son almost immediately to pull him in a tight hug.

"Hi mom" Tom managed to say just before his mom grabbed his face and squished his cheeks together.

Doug and I shared an amused look and I had to stiffle a giggle. They made quite the cute scene.

It took her a few minutes to get over the fact that her son was back but once she did and finally noticed us, we were both warmly greeted as well, and I was relieved to see that she indeed didn't seem to be bearing any ill will towards me.

"Julia ?" she called hesitantly, sounding more surprised than anything.

She sent a quick smirk Tom's way shortly after, which seemed to make him slightly uneasy. My eyebrows scrunched together in confusion, but I rapidly shrugged it off.

We were taken to the living room, where I sat on the couch next to Tom while Doug took a seat next to his mom on the other couch across from us. We spent the next couple hours around some coffee and cookies, talking about anything and everything. Nothing was out of the ordinary really, except maybe the fact that Mrs. Hanson appeared to be smiling at me, like, all the time. Though after a while it was beginning to border on awkward, I would have paid it no mind if it hadn't been for her next comment to her son.

"When were you planning to tell me ?" she questioned, a knowing look and a huge grin on her face.

I was baffled and didn't have a clue what she was talking about, until I noticed the way she was eyeing my engagement ring.

My eyes almost popped out of their socket as realization suddenly hit me.

She couldn't possibly think that me and Tom...

The idea sounded so ridiculous, even in my head, but then I felt Tom's gaze land on my ringed finger and I knew that it was most likely exactly what she had in mind.

"Uh..." he started scratching his cheek with his index finger nervously. "The ring's not from me Mom."

"Oh..." was all she said as her face fell.

There was a long, heavy silence that followed. I wanted to dig a hole and hide forever. The conversation eventually resumed as normal and another topic was brought up, but the feeling of mortification stuck with me for the rest of the afternoon.

♡♡♡

"I'm uh...sorry about my mom" Tom told me in a quiet voice as we walked side by side to the garage door on the side of the house, where his trademark Mustang was stored, patiently waiting for his return. "I don't know why she assumed that-..."

"It's okay" I was fast to respond, taking pity on how he was struggling to find the right words. "She couldn't know. Besides, it wouldn't be that surprising if we got back together- I mean, technically-"

"It wouldn't be ?" he asked, and for a milisecond I could have sworn I heard a tiny bit of hope in his voice and it made my heart tremble.

My eyes met his and something happened at that moment, I could feel it down to my soul, and whatever it was, it made us both halt in our steps. The moment was soon interrupted quite rudely by Penhall though.

"Who you riding with Lia ? Me or Tom ?"

I was actually thinking about it, when Tom opened the garage to reveal his beautiful, iconic car. It was still identical to the last time I'd seen it, and I found myself staring at it in awe. I'd always felt particularly attached to this car for some reason, almost emotionally so. Maybe it was because of all the memories I had in it, maybe simply because it belonged to someone I used to be crazy in love with, anyway it was really good to see it again. It made me feel like we were back to ten years ago.

"Sorry Dougie but I've really missed this beauty" I pointed to the blue Mustang in front of me, giving Doug an apologetic smile.

"Alright, no problem" he waved it off. "I'll see you guys at my place."

♡♡♡

"Where does he live now by the way ?" I curiously inquired as Tom drove, following behind Doug's yellow truck.

"Oh he didn't move. He's still in the same apartment" he informed me and I gave a slight head nod.

"That's nice. I liked this apartment" I stated, smiling nostalgically as I looked out the window, remembering all the good times we'd had there.

A comforting sense of familiarity came over me when we finally pulled up in front of Penhall's building. I let Tom park the car and then raced inside, impatient to see if the place was still anything like I remembered it, which it was.

Time to start making dinner came and I offered Doug to help him with the chicken he was planning to cook, however he politely declined, assuring me he could handle it. I quickly regretted trusting him though, because the thing came out of the oven burnt beyond recognition, black as charcoal. Well, actually it was even more black than that.

Since we didn't have anything else to eat, we all agreed to go out and grab something. That's how we ended up having burgers at Rocket Dog. Not that I'd ever been a big fan of that place, for some reason I'd never really trusted the food, but it was another one of those familiar things that brought back memories and made me feel at home. it was crazy how I seemed to be getting ridiculously happy over the tiniest, most random things today, but I couldn't help it. Guess that's what happens when you've been away from home for too long.

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Hello everyone and welcome back 💖. I'm posting this now cuz the trial stars in about half an hour and each time my brain is so fried by the time it finally ends for the day that I highly doubt I'll have it in me to post it afterwards, especially considering that it needed to be edited first. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I particularly had fun writing the part at Mrs. Hanson's house for some reason