Matthew Gray Gubler Short Stories - Christmas Edition

The Good in Goodbye

Cast:

Y/N = You (hi)

Matthew = as Matthew. Duh.

M/N = Male friend's name (or make one up)

W/N = A woman's name 

Sorry in advance. Please don't hurt me.

As the snow fell from the heavens above, Y/N walked arm in arm with her new husband, laughing over an inside joke they had had for some time now. With a winter wonderland all around them decorating the small parade of village shops like ornaments upon a Christmas tree, they trudged through the thick layers of snow. For the first time in a decade she had finally made it back home for Christmas. The reflections of thousands of tiny Christmas lights danced on the powder-white snow reminding her of her childhood and dreams of sugarplum fairies twirling around in her head. A small child ran in their direction, clearly not watching where he was going and the couple stepped aside to avoid a head-to-hip collision. He still managed to lightly graze Y/N's bag and she smiled down at him, assuring him that everything was okay.

He looked up at her with an apologetic gaze with his twinkly golden brown eyes. "Sowwy!"

Those eyes stopped her dead in her snow-covered tracks causing her husband to slip slightly on a hidden patch of black ice as her arm yanked him backwards. They reminded her so much of a love she had had to let go of nearly ten years prior. A love she had lost to someone else. She watched after the boy, no more than three years old, as he turned around and ran to his parents. Her eyes instantly caught sight of the man she assumed to be his father. Her breath hitched in her chest and in her throat, winded as she realised who it was. Matthew. There was no mistaking that familiar twinkle in the sea of golds and ambers that made up the colourings of his eyes. The child was definitely his. Another realisation took her back. He was stood right outside the restaurant they used to go to where their friend, M/N, had worked to support himself through college and would slip them complimentary drinks. He hadn't spotted her yet, of which she was glad, and her husband, who had momentarily left her side to peer in a frozen-over shop window, didn't appear to be any the wiser. The young boy tugged on the thick sleeve of his father's coat and he bent down to his height so that his son could whisper in his ear. Laughing, he picked the boy up from under his armpits and swung him over his shoulders so that he could sit upon them. Even after all this time she could still hear the ring in his laugh as though he were standing right next to her and not some fifty feet away. Despite the years that had passed, he was just as good-looking as she remembered. Time had been kind to him and her heart warmed at seeing him so happy to be surrounded by his family, a family she had once felt so connected to. It should've been bittersweet but as the family scene played out in front of her she knew that whilst it had been tough, she had made the right decision in leaving all those years ago. In fact, she almost felt elated.

It was then that the little boy, with his brilliant curls peeking out from under his hat, chose to point her out to his father. Matthew's attention found its way to her and she held her breath. Her face, slightly older than he remembered, took him back.

Matthew had returned home from a day of meetings to find Y/N waiting for him in one of the chairs on their dimly lit porch, several bags packed around her feet. She had been staring at the ground for so long that when she looked up to see him walking towards her she had to let her eyes readjust. She stood up as he stopped in front of her.

Confusion drew lines across his face. "Did I forget that you were going somewhere?" Sure, he had been distracted as of late but he thought he would have remembered if she was taking a trip.

She shook her head and wiped her eyes with her sleeve. They were red and puffy; the only sign that she had been crying.

"Are you OK?" He went to put his hands on her shoulders but she side-stepped him, bending down to pick up her bags instead. "Y/N, what's going on?"

"I think you know, Matt." She wasn't mad at him, just deeply upset. "You're clearly in two minds about whether we should be together so I'm making the decision for you."

He could only follow her towards her car as she made her way down the path.

"Wait... what?" He hadn't expected this. "I don't understand."

She sighed heavily, swinging her bags into the boot. "I'm letting you go so that you can go live the life that you were meant for." He was utterly dumbstruck.

She opened the door to her black Audi and got in, starting up the engine.

"Just trust me, Matthew. I know it may not seem like it but one day you will see that this is for the best and you'll thank me for it." That was the last thing she said to him before she shut the door and drove off, leaving him drowning in the depths of confusion.

Feeling a nudge at his side Matthew diverted his gaze to W/N, unable to pay attention to what she was saying as she pointed at something on her phone screen. He tried to find Y/N in the crowd again from where he stood and caught her with that tell-tale expression on her face that indicated that she at least recognised the woman he was with. It dawned on him that maybe she had had an inkling whilst they had been together that he had developed feelings for someone else and had been in a moral dilemma over doing the right thing and letting her go, or ignoring how he felt. He quickly shook his head, dismissing the thought. He hadn't even known himself until after she had left. She couldn't have.

But she had. She had broken it off with him not long after realising so. She had cried herself to sleep every night for months over knowing that she was losing him to someone who wouldn't even give him the time of day, until it had finally become too much. She had witnessed every longing glance he had given W/N from the second she had been introduced to him by his old manager and had known that it would only be a matter of time before she lost him completely. Even she couldn't deny how good they looked together and how Matthew's eyes lit up every time they found hers. Although he had once looked at her that way, his smile had never quite seemed to reach his eyes and Y/N couldn't shake the feeling that her world was going to come crashing down around her.

As they passed each other he gave her a genuine, ear-to-ear smile. That was a first. There were no hard feelings, at least on his part. Matthew mouthed a "thank you" at her to which she could only offer a small smile and shrug.

W/N noticed this and squeezed his hand, lines of curiosity etching across her forehead, "What was that?"

"That was the 'good' in goodbye."