A Fighting Chance (Tom Holland AU) [2]

Forty-One

As I sat in the limo freaking out, I heard the door open. "Would you like some company, Grace?" Steph looked at me softly, and I nodded. She climbed in and sat next to me, taking my hand as I held it out for her. "Wanna talk about it, or just process?"

"I need... to tell you..." I told her between deep breaths, and she nodded as she rubbed my hand.

"Whenever you're ready, love." After a moment or two of sitting and slowing my breathing, I looked at her.

"I know Derek. Things didn't go too well between the two of us." Steph nodded softly.

"Yeah, I figured that. Ali feels awful, by the way. She keeps saying she ruined your party by hiring him."

"She didn't ruin my party by hiring a stripper. Hell, she didn't ruin it by unknowingly hiring him. Things just happen." She nodded softly at that. "She and Beth are aware of the situation, but I know you're not."

"Tell me whatever you're comfortable with telling me." She gave me a gentle smile, and I nodded slowly.

"Derek's my ex."

"Really?" She raised an eyebrow, and I nodded.

"He was a senior and I was a freshman in high school. He was my first boyfriend, and I thought I was in love with him. When I told him that, he told me to prove it by sending him nudes."

"Oh, Grace..." I could tell Steph knew where I was going with this, and I nodded.

"Yeah. The next day the entire school had seen them. I ended things between us when I found out, but for the rest of the year, I freaked out whenever I saw him. Just like now, actually. It got so bad that my teachers would allow me to be late for the rest of the year if I had to change my route to class to avoid him or if I had to get somewhere private after seeing him. He completely violated me as a naive fifteen-year-old girl." I took a deep breath. "I never thought I'd see him again."

"I'm so sorry, sweetie. Do you need a hug?" I nodded softly, and she pulled me into her arms. "Would you like to go back to the hotel?"

I thought for a minute. While going to the hotel and splitting a few bottles of wine sounded like a great night, I shook my head. Knowing these three, they had way more plans after this and I'd hate to have to cancel all of those. Plus, a fun night would help me feel better about this. "No, we can go to the next place. Here." I pulled a twenty dollar bill from my bra. I knew they would end up hiring a stripper, so I put a tip in my bra ahead of time. "I can't go back in there, but go tell Ali and Beth that we can go to the next bar, and make sure Derek gets paid for tonight and give him that as a tip."

"Really? You still wanna pay him after what he did to you?"

"Yeah. Sure, he completely wrecked me and I don't know if I can ever forgive him, but I'm not a complete bitch." She nodded, hugging me again before going inside.

She, Beth, and Ali climbed into the limo soon after, and I pulled Ali into a tight hug. "I'm so sorry I ruined your bachelorette party, Gracie. I didn't know it'd be him."

"Ali, you didn't ruin anything. Like you just said, you didn't know." I held her tightly, and she took a deep breath. "Come on, let's go party."

As I walked through Heathrow's baggage claim, I noticed Tom standing with a wide smile and Annabelle's car seat next to him. I jumped into his arms, immediately wrapping my legs around him just like I used to. "I missed you, darling."

"I missed you too." I smiled, kissing his cheek as he set me down. "Come on, let's get home."

On the drive to the apartment, I looked at him. "How was your bachelor party?"

"It was fun. Harrison told the stripper they hired to be Flex." I chuckled at that, shaking my head. That was such a Harrison thing to do. "How was your bachelorette party?"

"It was a lot of fun, except for one bumpy patch. The stripper ended up being Derek."

"Fucking Derek, man." He shook his head, and I chuckled.

"You don't know who Derek is, do you?"

"Not a clue." He chuckled, and I smiled.

"That's okay, I don't think I said his name when I told you about him." He glanced at me as I took a deep breath. "You know how my nudes were leaked in high school?"

"Oh, darling..." He sighed, and I nodded.

"Yeah. But aside from that, it was a great night. Drunk Ali struck again at about 2:30 in the morning."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. She was dancing on the tables at the club, which everyone enjoyed, but without warning, she had collapsed in tears because she missed her girlfriend." Tom laughed at that, and I could see that his loud laughing had woken Annabelle up. I smiled back at her as I handed her the blanket toy that was her favorite.

"Wait, Zendaya didn't come?"

"No. She was going to, but then her agent scheduled a shoot for her and she couldn't get out of it." He nodded softly, and I took his hand as he rested it on the gear shift. "I love you, baby."

"I love you too, darling." He took my hand and kissed it as he drove. "We have the studio tomorrow."

"Time to dig the big skirt out again." I chuckled, and he nodded. The two of us had choreographed our first dance (because of course we did), and I had been practicing in a large fluffy skirt so I could get a feel for how my dress would act. That is the one thing Tom knows about my dress because he had told me that he wanted to be surprised on our wedding day. "But for today, I want to go home and nap."

"You and your whole not being able to sleep on flights deal." He chuckled, and I shrugged. "But okay. Snuggles and naptime it is."

:-) I have gotten so invested in this that I have picked her dress and a video to be their dance. You'll see it all in due time.

Let me know your thoughts!