the story from a girl

[Erin Park]

Erin
Erin hadn’t promised anyone that he would reach out to Felicity, but he knew he had to. He was kind of putting a damper on the friendship between her and Evan. The friendship between Fel and Roni seemed to be going strong but… he still felt guilty about the whole Evan thing. So… after the party, after seeing her for the first time in quite a while, he texted her to see if she would be interested in grabbing coffee on his lunch break the next day.

A part of him wanted to make things right, and the other part of him wanted to know if she and Evan had actually…

She didn’t respond right away - in fact, she didn’t respond until the next day. Erin replied with the coffee shop’s address and headed to work after kissing Willie goodbye. He had a few meetings and then desk work and when his watch vibrated to let him know it was time for lunch, he threw his jacket over his shoulders and left the building, wondering as he walked what it would have been like to not have a ministry job all these years.

Erin entered the coffee shop and ordered for himself and for Felicity, an order that she’d gotten before… a regular, if you will.

Felicity
The text had come as a bit of a surprise, and Felicity had felt pretty guilty that it hadn’t been her that reached out to him, first. Evan and Roni were both on her to make things right with him, and now that Roni knew the truth of things? Felicity felt even worse. She didn’t reply to the text right away, and had fallen asleep with her phone on her face before waking up the next morning to an obnoxious alarm and the text open on her phone. She replied quickly that she’d meet him, and then got ready for the day.

She had two dance classes that morning, and her nerves were definitely on edge. Her assistant had to ask her multiple times what was wrong, but Felicity had to keep shaking it off before asking her to take over the next class for her. Thankfully, she was able to slip out the back of the studio and take a few deep breaths before apparating to the alley near the coffee shop, entering to find that Erin was already there, and already had her order. ”Iced coffee with two pumps caramel and sugared whip…” she asked, but Erin echoed her words as she said them, and slid the cup over. She offered him a small smile - always so considerate. Way to make her feel worse, Erin.

Erin
He had gotten her order right. Good start, even though the look on her face read that she wanted to be anywhere but there. ”Thanks for coming,’ he said, and she nodded her head, mixing the coffee with her straw before taking a sip. ”I wanted to apologize for not reaching out to you soon-” but he didn’t get a chance to finish before Felicity was holding up a hand for him to stop. He did, of course. He always listened.

Felicity
”You don’t need to apologize. I do. I should have reached out to you first, because I don’t think we’re on the same page about what happened,” she pursed her lips as she looked down into the coffee, the ice cubes already starting to melt. After a pause and a heavy sigh, she looked back up at Erin. ”When Kermit left, I was really vulnerable and I clutched on to the first thing that looked at me… and that was the shittiest thing I could have done because it was you. I took advantage of the attention and love you were showing me because it made me feel better… but I didn’t reciprocate it.” Felicity shook the cup a little, shuffling the cubes around inside.

Erin
Erin just stared at her, blinking as she spoke. While a part of him had always wondered if that were the case, he didn’t want to believe it. But there they were, it was coming straight out of Felicity’s mouth. She was admitting that she had used him, and he felt… stupid. He should have known… he should have backed off. He should have been a friend to her in a time of need rather than her desperate plea to have all the love and attention she could get. He felt like he couldn’t really blame her, though - she’d just gone through a breakup and her fiance leaving her the night before their wedding… could he justify it? Could he be okay with it? Erin took a moment to take a sip of his own coffee to feel through his thoughts.

Felicity
”So I’m sorry, Erin. You didn’t deserve that. You didn’t deserve me ending things the way I did, or me blaming anything on you when it was literally all me,” she shook her head, pushing the cup of coffee toward the center of the table away from her. ”And I’m also sorry for sleeping with Evan before apologizing to you.” Felicity could feel a flush of pink cover her cheeks at the last admission, but she had to get it all out. If they didn’t clear the air, they couldn’t ever get back to a place of comfort.

Erin
Erin listened to her, but he didn’t look at her. It was quiet for a moment as they both sat there staring at their drinks. “And I’m also sorry for sleeping with Evan before apologizing to you.” Erin… trying to keep the conversation serious, couldn’t help the laugh that erupted from him at her admission. He didn’t care. He had no reason to be concerned about who she was spending her evenings with, even if it were Evan. While he was a little disappointed in Evan, he couldn’t really blame him, either. ”Well first of all, hit who you want. Second… I… think it’ll be some time before I can fully forgive you, so I’m going to apologize to you for that,” he admitted, lifting his coffee cup to his lips. ”But I do think you broke my heart enough that I’m not too concerned,” he tossed her a wink. ”You okay?” She looked up from her coffee and offered Erin a small smile, nodding her head. She was blushing and Erin shook his head.

”I think we’ve both done some growing up since then.”