The Night Before

19. Not A Second Time

Monica woke up and rubbed her eyes open. Laying next to her she saw the sleeping body of Ringo. She smiled, remembering what had happened the night before, somehow there was no regret. She felt a little bit of worry, because she knew this made her situation with him a lot more difficult, but she tried not to think about it, all she wanted was to enjoy this quiet moment that they had.

She kissed his sleeping lips gently to wake him. His beautiful blue eyes opened sleepily and he smiled, "Good morning, luv." He kissed her tenderly.

"That was some crazy night, huh?" She said quietly, with a slight chuckle. His eyes were bright and joyful as he replied, "If by crazy you mean incredible than yes." He kissed her sweetly again as if he just couldn't get enough of her lips.

She smiled slightly against his lips, "It was definitely incredible. I never would have thought this would happen."

"Me neither. But what now?" Ringo feared asking the question, but it couldn't go unanswered.

Monica's face saddened a bit, "Can we not worry about that now? Let's just enjoy our moment and figure that out later."

He was surprised by her answer. She was never one to act spontaneously, without thinking, but he didn't mind. He scooted closer to her and wrapped an arm around her back as she cuddled into his chest. With his other hand he intertwined his fingers with hers and they laid in peaceful silence for a while.

Monica closed her eyes enjoying the moment until she heard someone clear his throat across the room. Ringo let go of her quickly and she looked up to see George smiling down at them. "George!" She exclaimed, trying to quickly cover herself up with blankets.

"Good morning lovebirds, I'm guessing you two had a good night." Monica blushed a deep red at George's words and she sunk farther under the blankets. Ringo put a reassuring hand on her back and turned to George, "Sod off mate, this isn't your business." He said calmly but with confidence.

George nodded, "It shouldn't be my business, but you don't do a good job at hiding it, I sleep here too you know."

"George can you please leave so I can get dressed?" Monica asked with embarrassment.

He smiled, and walked away to the bathroom. Once he was gone she sighed and put a hand to her head, "What if he tells Paul?" Ringo rubbed her arm reassuringly, "He won't tell Paul."

Monica thought about what George telling Paul would mean and realized with sadness that she needed to do the mature thing, and stop whatever was going on with Ringo. She stood up and put her clothes on, Ringo did the same. They sat down side by side on the bed and Monica looked at him with remorse, not because of what had happened, but because of what she had to do. "You know we can't do this again." Ringo looked at the floor, "I know."

She felt terrible, "I'm sorry I let it get so far, I should never have led you on like that."

He gave her a sad smile and took her hand, "It's ok, I knew it was too good to be true from the moment it started, but it was fun while it lasted."

She frowned and looked away from him. "I just can't do this to Paul you know? It's wrong."

"I understand." He smiled and kissed her hand gently. "If you ever change your mind I'll be here."

Monica shook her head, "This isn't fair to you, how are you being so calm about this?"

"Because I want you to be happy, even if it's not with me, I know you and Paul have problems but I can tell that you love him, besides, he is one of my best friends, I don't want to hurt him any more than you do." His eyes were sad as he spoke but at the same time they were calm and confident.

She kissed him deeply and he kissed her back. She knew she shouldn't be kissing him anymore but she needed to taste his lips one more time. She pulled away, "Thank you, I'll miss this."

"Me too." Ringo studied Monica's face in silence for a moment. He could tell she was conflicted, and he didn't want her to be tortured by the choice so he continued to act like he was ok with her choosing Paul. "You should agree to let him move in with you."

Monica nodded, "Last night he said if I didn't want to move forward with the relationship then he didn't want to be with me anymore, I don't want to lose Paul, we do have some really good times."

Ringo looked at the floor and nodded, sadly. Monica looked at him with sympathy, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't be talking about this with you."

Just then George walked out of the bathroom with his eyes shut, "Is everyone decent?" He called out.

"Yes George." Monica said, rolling her eyes.

He opened his eyes and walked over to them. "So what is going on with you two?" He asked with a grin.

Monica glanced at Ringo who was still studying the floor, "Nothing." She replied slowly.

George raised his eyebrows, "Really? Me walking in last night to find the two of you sleeping naked in the same bed is nothing?"

"It was something, but we both agree it can't happen again, for the sake of Paul." She explained, wishing Ringo didn't look so disappointed.

Ringo caught her staring and looked up, giving her a quick forced smile. He turned to George, "You can't say anything to Paul, he'd kill us both."

"I won't tell a soul." He made a gesture of zipping his lips.

Monica stood up, "Thanks Geo, I should go." She looked at Ringo who nodded, "Bye Mon." She smiled and walked out the door. She walked down the hallway until she got to Paul's room. She opened the door and walked inside to find Paul sitting and talking with John. John gave Monica a suspicious look and Paul stood up locking eyes with her.

"Where have you been?" He asked with a tone half between worry and anger.

"I stayed with George and Ringo last night." She explained calmly.

Paul narrowed his eyes but he didn't question her further. He sat back down like the conversation was finished but Monica spoke again.

"I was mad at you." She began, "I didn't want to be here so I went over there." She didn't have trouble with the excuse this time because it was all true, she just left some parts out. "But I thought about what you said, and you're right. I don't want to lose this relationship, and I agree it's time to move forward." She paused, waiting for Paul to react.

He stood up and walked closer to her, "What made you change your mind?" He asked, he seemed like he was deciding between holding a grudge or giving in to her apology.

"I just realized that I don't want to lose what we have."

He smiled slightly, "That's something we can agree on." He stepped forward, giving her a quick peck on the lips.

He pulled away and looked at her for a moment like he had a feeling that something was off, but he ignored it and sat back down with John.

Monica sat down beside him and started to feel like things were getting back to normal. She had Paul back, and she had gotten closure from Ringo. The only problem was, no matter how hard she tried she couldn't stop thinking about him.

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I don't think I'm going to be finishing this story, I'm kind of in a rut right now and I've tried different ways to go from here and it's just not working.

I have a new story that is in the works right now and I'm really excited about it, I already have the end mostly planned out so I shouldn't have the same problem with that one as I did with The Night Before. Also, writing this one has taught me a lot about writing stories so the next one should be better as well.

It's going to be called Any Time At All, And I'm really excited to see how it goes, thanks for reading!