Murphy's Law ✔️

Chapter Seventeen.

Murphy pretended to sleep.

Slouched against the passenger door of Harry's car, she kept her eyes closed and her breathing pattern steady and deep as Harry hummed quietly along to the tune of some Hozier song. His hand had fell onto her thigh some thirty minutes ago, and his thumb continued to rub soothing circles across the skin of her leg.

Harry was well aware of her nerves- but she didn't think that he could ever comprehend her feelings towards the situation she agreed to. She'd never even been in a real relationship- and so she'd never imagined herself en route to the sleepy town of Holmes Chapel with her thirty-year-old boyfriend, about to meet his Mum and sister.

Murphy had never even spoken to the woman on the phone- for fuck's sake, she'd never even had a mother of her own- how was she supposed to feel?

Of course, she'd agreed the moment Harry suggested it. She couldn't imagine anything more lovely than meeting the woman who raised him to be the man who sat beside her, but as soon as she'd clambered into the car with a duffel bag that morning, her stomach churned at the thought of actually meeting his Mum.

She'd heard plenty of stories of the selfless, down-to-earth Anne Cox- a single mother of two, a kindergarten teacher, a cat lover- and Murphy had already fallen in love with her from afar. Harry assured Murphy from the bottom of his heart that his mother only had positive feelings towards her, but she couldn't help but feel like, perhaps, she may just be a disappointment in his mother's eyes.

I mean, really- what mother raises their son into a strong, well-off man, and is still happy when he brings home an ex-stripper- much less an ex-junkie. Murphy had never been one to fall into self-deprecation, but then again, she'd never been in the company of people she wanted to impress.

Harry glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, raised and eyebrow and cleared his throat. "You're not fooling me, love. I know you're awake."

A sigh came from her nose as she opened her eyes and turned her head, looking at his profile. She gnawed at her bottom lip and glanced down, gently taking his hand from her thigh and holding it tightly. "I'm just nervous."

"I know," he answered, returning a squeeze to her hand, "and I understand. But I'm telling you, Murph, she's going to adore you."

"Have you told her everything? You know, how we... met?"

"Of course," he answered simply, a frown on his face, "I tell my mum everything."

"And she still likes me?"

"If anything," the corners of his lips tilted up in a smile, "it's made her like you even more. She thinks you're strong."

"Strong?"

"Yeah, Murph," his eyebrows pulled together as he stole a quick glance at her, "you don't think you're strong after everything you've been through?"

Her eyebrows pulled together too, and suddenly, the conversation dwindled. Pulled into her thoughts, Murphy, for the first time, was thinking about who she was.

It dawned on her then that she'd never let her mind wander in that direction. As someone who had been forced to allow the people around her decide who she was, where she was going, or what she was doing, Murphy frowned when she tried to wonder about who she really was.

Harry had said that she was strong- but what about her was strong? She didn't get out on her own- he had helped her with that, and on top of that, she'd moved in with him immediately after leaving- so it wasn't as if she built her life up from the ground without some help. A sigh escaped her lips as her eyes drifted shut.