"Invite Me" or "Join Me"
Past
“And if you don’t pull yourself together, Bran, it’s over! You can pack your bags and fuck right off, because I don’t care! I don’t care what you have to say, who you are in my life, or what we lived through. I don’t care. If you don’t pull yourself together, it’s over!” And with that, Alice turned around on her heels, grabbed the skirt of her wedding dress and stomped out of the hall.
Bran watched after her until she was gone, then slumped down on a bar stool and grabbed herself a drink.
She’d just poured out some wine, when footsteps sounded from behind her. She looked up and stifled a groan.
“Oh, sorry.” Frank Longbottom. There he was. The man who stole her best friend’s last name. “I was just looking for-,”
“She went to the garden.”
“Oh. Okay. Well then.” Frank nodded. “She promised to keep me a sip from the good wine we imported from Spain but I guess I’m too late now.” And he smiled, nodding towards the wine glass in Bran’s hand.
Bran didn’t smile back. Just stared at him, unimpressed, and waited for him to leave again
Frank caught that -- after all, this was how she’d been treating him all weekend -- and obliged. Turned. Then paused. Glanced back at her. “I’m ... sorry, if I ever offended you, Miss Branwen. It wasn’t my intention.”
“Oh, fuck. Don’t.” She sounded disgusted. “Just fuck off and go to Alice already.”
Frank frowned however and stood firm. “I never meant to get in between you two. I assure you I haven’t. Alice, she-, she made you a bridesmaid for a reason. It was never really a choice who she’d choose, you or me, because she might be married to me, but that doesn’t negate your friendship. She will continue to be your friend, and I will not get in the way of that, I don’t have the slightest intention...” But Bran’s even darker look now made him stop. Clear his throat once more. “Anyway. Thank you for coming today anyway. I’m sure it meant a lot to her.”
He turned to leave.
But this time it was Bran who stopped him. “Longbottom.”
“Hm?”
She sighed, clicked her tongue, and put the last bottle of Spanish wine on the table. “There’s at least two more glasses in there. Join me?”
Frank hesitated. Blinked. Then smiled. “I’d love to.”











