Ruin The Wedding (The Murphy Brothers #1)

𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐚𝐥

It's been two weeks since Fabian spent the day with Charlie and he hadn't seen her since. Not only because he had been abroad in a business trip for eight days but also because lately, he had been unsure of how to act around her.

It was because she had been on his mind more than he liked to admit. And not only Charlie but Aurora too. Each day he had an urge to call Charlie and ask how her daughter was doing and if she had eaten and slept enough, if she had grown up a lot during these couple of weeks or learned new words.

Although technically nothing happened at her apartment, Fabian still felt guilty because at least for a second, he had wished that something would happen with Charlie. That he could have kissed her once and felt how her lips tasted like even once without any consequences or guilt.

Since it wasn't possible, Fabian decided that it was better to keep some distance from her to get rid of these new, strange thoughts and feelings. Surely they would disappear if he didn't see or talk with her. Well, that hadn't happened yet but most certainly soon.

To help with that, Fabian had tried to make his relationship with Nora better by keeping more and more in touch with her, asking her out for dates more often without having her hint not so subtly that he should do it, and they have had sex more often than before. Almost every day.

Fabian would never admit that he had accidentally imagined Charlie under him, moaning his name and screaming in pleasure. In his imagination, there wasn't a baby bump or a screaming toddler demanding attention every second, though.

God, he was an asshole but what was he supposed to do? It's not like he could just break up with Nora even if he wanted to. It wasn't that simple. With this family it never was.

One thing that surprised him with all of this was the fact that he had also started to miss her and her company. More than once a day Fabian had almost called her at least to ask how they were doing but ended up putting the phone away each time.

Like a goddamn twelve years old, he had also wondered if she had missed him or even thought about him even a little bit during the past two weeks. Or had Charlie been completely unfazed by their lack of communication? He hadn't thought about Nora that way in a long time, if ever.

"There you go!" Putting the drink in front of him, Noelle sat next to him while looking behind trying to see if Diego was following her but their friend was still in the long queue, writing something on his phone. Probably his wife Anya who he had been whipped with since he was fourteen.

Although he wasn't much of a fan of bars or any places that were crowded - or that more than one person in - Fabian didn't mind being here. It was one of Noelle's favorite bars in Rhode Island and they only played music from the 2000's or older. The bar itself wasn't very big and it wasn't even that full tonight despite it being 10pm on a Saturday night.

"How much was it?" Fabian asked to make sure that he paid her back the right amount.

Rolling her eyes, Noelle shook her head. "Nah, it's a gift because otherwise you'd just buy plain boring beer. Now you can taste something new. Enjoy!"

"Let me pay you back!" Fabian frowned, not wanting her to spend money on him.

"No! If you want to do something for me, tell me about you and Charlie." Not to sound too cocky but he could throw a million dollars away without even blinking and she was a struggling theater actress and yet she paid for their drinks? He would have to find a way to put the money on her wallet.

Fabian groaned, cursing himself for not seeing this coming even after how persistent she had been about them hanging out together tonight. That woman loved all the drama but unfortunately, she was also very empathetic and could easily feel other's pain which wasn't exactly the best combination.