Take It Back - Bucky Barnes x OC

Chapter Twenty-three

Present time

New York City, New York

Rylie feels her stomach drop instantly and Bucky's nostrils flare up in anger. Her stomach is in tight knots and her heart is beating so fast she felt like she was going to pass out. Her head immediately snaps over to Ashlyn who's looking at her with an unreadable face. Rylie swallows nervously. Her palms were sweating and she wanted to run out of there.

This couldn't happen, not now.

Ashlyn says bye to Steve and then walks back to the table. She pulls out her chair slowly, agonizingly slow, and she sits down just as slow, her left arm on the table. She bites her lip as she takes her napkin off the table and then diligently places it over her lap. She smooths it down and then pulls herself back close to her plate.

She clears her throat and then looks at Bucky and then at Rylie.

Rylie was terrified and Bucky looked pissed. She was waiting for it - for the blow-up.

But it never came.

Instead, Ashlyn clears her throat and picks up her fork. Rylie watches her like a hawk; like waiting for an atomic bomb to go off.

"Okay, so who thinks I put too much salt in this?"

Rylie feels her left hand tighten next to her as only one thought crossed her mind:

Steve Rogers, what did you say.

It was an intense sadness in the pit of her heart.

Rylie hadn't felt the way she was currently feeling since the moment she saw her sister in her wedding dress the night after she slept with Bucky.

She was no longer the martyr she had tried convincing herself that she was. She feels the heavy air between the three of them and it's hot and tense. It's practically palpable.

She didn't know how much Steve had told Ashlyn, and the last time Riley spoke to Bucky, he had told her that no man would ever be capable of loving her.

Riley still feels his intense gaze on her as she manages to her best ability to pick up the fork off her plate. She aims for the little roasted potato bud, missing horribly and catching the edge of the plate.

It bothered her; that heavy gaze. She didn't know why he was looking at you.

Unless he and Ashlyn had spoken to Steve before Riley walked out and Bucky now knew the real reason Riley was here.

She didn't want to be on the end receiving on requited love again, not yet anyway.

She was terrified.

The next thirty minutes continue on quietly. Failing miserably, she tries to eat as much as she can with her appetite now gone, barely making a dent in the mashed potatoes.

Bucky is the exact opposite, he seems to be in his own little world as he tried to chow down as much as he could, eventually going in for seconds. Riley avoids his eye, and she avoids the gentle air that blows her way each time he walks past her.

It smells like vanilla.

Ashlyn shoots Riley occasional glances over her plate that she keeps feeling on the side of her face.

Riley hated this.

She didn't know exactly what it was that Steve told Ashlyn, and the anticipation of not knowing made her insides burn like a low fire.

She knew that she was sent here with the intention of finally telling Ashlyn and Bucky the truth. But the second she walked in through their door, she felt like she couldn't do it anymore.