I’ve been reading too many imagines on @theartofimagining13 and some from my own silly brain… Luke is the best at his job, and the worst at making us happy hahaha... here we go Chapter Twenty-Six!
chapter one | chapter two | chapter three | chapter four | chapter five | chapter six | chapter seven | chapter eight | chapter nine | chapter ten | chapter eleven | chapter twelve | chapter thirteen | chapter fourteen | chapter fifteen | chapter sixteen | chapter seventeen | chapter eighteen | chapter nineteen | chapter twenty | chapter twenty-one |chapter twenty-two | twenty-three | chapter twenty-four | chapter twenty-five
Chapter Twenty-Six - Stratagem
You were getting a headache. One of those, ‘Can we just call it a day and I'll disappear from reality for a few hours.’, kind of headaches. There was a plan of action. A good, solid plan to make everyone look, if not good, at least not like a troupe of hooligans and whores, but it involved someone getting in contact with Sebastian and his “people”. This felt like a messy divorce and you hadn’t even had the fun of a wedding. That was the so-called easy part.
The real crux of this plan was you lying low. It was fine, you were more than happy to remain private. The part that stung was that Luke was currently recommending Tom go home to London and, for now, give the appearance of distance from this, ‘Whole affair.’ until the heat on you and Sebastian died down.
You were completely against this idea and wanted Luke to leave now. Just leave and let you curl into your safe place and ignore the outside world.
Tom held your hand, trying to read your face as he addressed this new idea. “Is that really necessary? It's no secret that we live together. Can't we just,” he squeezed your hand, comforting you and looking for support. “play this all off for now as a best friend stepping up to defend their friend? We've weathered the rumors before, we can fall back into that old schtick for a while.”
Luke’s head dropped back against the back of the chair. He looked like he was catching your headache. “We are, but that means you need to really make it look like you are just friends. It’s going to be hard enough to convince his people that it will look better if we gloss over the whole break up being your fault, we need to make him look like it was just as much his idea, whatever way that is… exhaustion… the mutual realization that it was all too fast… I doubt that when I talk to his representation that they are going to agree to anything less than that. The goal here is to make everyone look like they made some questionable choices, but are reticent and not to make him the aggressor.”
“He was,” Tom mutters.
“Truth or no, we don't want to put them on the defensive and honestly, it would reflect back onto the both of you, this being jealous lovers battling over a girl. It would mostly land on (y/n), sadly. They always focus on the woman's indiscretions.” He gave Tom a knowing look and you felt him tense. You weren't one to talk about each other’s past, but you knew what Luke was referring to. “I just don't think being so casually, publicly affectionate with each other is a smart move this time.”
Tom’s jaw flexes and he rolls his neck, “That was an entirely different situation.” You rub his arm a bit and try to gently reassure him.
“I've known you long enough to see that, Tom, but I'm talking about public perception. You know all too well what this is like from the other side. Being rash is not the best way to handle any of this. Trust me, this is the best way navigate this. Give it a month or so to calm down. Heads down, getting to work, it will blow over and no one ends up the villain.”
After a deep breath, you remember how to speak. “He's right.” You turn Tom's hand over in yours and study the lines, tracing them as you continues, “If we give the illusion of everything being normal. Platonic. We can eventually ease into the “we just realized it was something more” story for everyone and it won't make this look as bad as it actually is. I screwed all of this up and this is the penance.”
Tom shook his head, ready to say again that it was not your fault, but it really was, the more you thought about it. You couldn't keep hiding in Tom’s loving insistence that you were not in the wrong.
“It's a month.” You nod, “It’s not exile, it's just perceived distance. It sucks, but it will be fine.”
He rests his head against your and finally relents. “Okay.”
“Good, now that we have that settled. I may need you to contact Sebastian for me (y/n), we need him on your side.”
“Whatever makes this all settle with as little damage as possible.”
He nods, “That's what I like to hear.”
Tom’s flight was scheduled for two days later. You had two days to properly say your goodbyes before your month apart and had planned to make use of them. The two of you barely left your bed.
Luke had managed to work it all out so that you didn't have to have another face to face with Sebastian right away. It could wait until after Tom was gone.
As you said your goodbyes before he left for the airport, you felt the first real pangs of regret for going through with this plan.
He felt it too. “I don’t want to go.”
You cry softly against his chest, trying to not leave tear stains on his shirt, “It's just a month, we'll talk every day.”
You kiss, slowly, gently at first, feeling every bit of longing to hold on in the meeting of your lips, growing into a hungry need to stay and an ache to not part. When he finally pulls back, you have to take a full step back to keep from clinging to him as he hefts his bag over his shoulder. “I love you.”
“I love you.”
Once he was out the door you curl up on the couch, taking deep breaths to keep from falling apart.
When your phone went off at noon, you were hopeful, but it was not what you expected. In that moment your heart skipped and sank at the same time. Why would he call now? But it wasn’t him.
You take a deep breath and hope you can speak, “Hey, Lou.” You don’t sound yourself.
“I’m coming to New York.” Lou sounds off.
“It’s okay, You don’t have to come, It’ll be fine.”
There is a long pause and eventually you hear a sniffle. “(y/n), I left Max.”
chapter one | chapter two | chapter three | chapter four | chapter five | chapter six | chapter seven | chapter eight | chapter nine | chapter ten | chapter eleven | chapter twelve | chapter thirteen | chapter fourteen | chapter fifteen | chapter sixteen | chapter seventeen | chapter eighteen | chapter nineteen | chapter twenty | chapter twenty-one |chapter twenty-two | twenty-three | chapter twenty-four
Chapter Twenty-Five - Sleepless
After some evasive moves that took you out the back of Sarah’s, several blocks away and back again, before finally promising your apartment supervisor cookies to let you in the backdoor that was seldom used by workmen and never used by tenants, you were back in the relative safety of your apartment. You slumped on the couch exhausted while Tom continued to pace between the kitchen and living room, bringing you a bag of frozen berries for your face on one of his million trips.
“It's going to be okay.” You finally mutter, worried for the floorboards.
He settles in beside you, taking your hand. “I'm sorry.”
You pull him into your arms, feeling the tension in him, “You have nothing to be sorry about.” stroking his shoulders and wishing you had some answer that would make him stop looking like he had destroyed everything in one night. “You were protecting me. It was a little tense in there and you did what you had to do.”
He lightly brushed a finger over the bruise now on full blossom under your eye, “Yeah, I did a great job.”
You pull his hand away, leaning to kiss him softly. “This was an accident. You are not to blame for this.”
“I just wish it hadn't gotten to a point where something like that could even happen. I shouldn't have told you to go alone. If Frankie hadn’t-”
“If Frankie hadn’t called you, he would have been the one to intervene.” You inch closer, gently urging Tom to rest back, so exhausted and just needing to be in his arms. To feel at home. “Sebastian was, is, in a really bad place right now. That's on me. I just wish I knew how to help him. I didn't mean for it to be like this.”
His arms slip around you finally and you lean up to kiss his jaw. “I wish I would have just… been smarter. Lou told me. Lou has been telling me for a long time that you and I, what we have, is something more than just being good, best friends. But I didn't think you saw me that way until I saw how me being with someone else…”
He laughs finally, starting to relax a bit, “She was a bug in my ear about it too. Honestly, since we all were at the Globes. I got her number and we would talk about basically everything and when I would mention you she would just say,” He lets out a sigh that was so perfectly Lou’s sigh you had to laugh, “Christ, Hiddleston will you just realize you love her already and get it over with, but… it never really seemed the right time.”
You look up at him, resting your chin on his chest, just staring into his eyes. “Tom?”
“Hmm.” He brushes the hair back from your face and traced gentle circles on your back.
“This is going to all work out, right?”
He pressed his lips to yours, the worry evident in his every touch. “It’s going to be a rough go but if you will stay with me, we'll get through.”
You fell asleep on the couch, curled up against Tom’s chest, too worn to move to bed. He must have known you were out for the night because when you woke early the next morning, you were wrapped in a blanket and had one of your pillows tucked under your head. You could hear him moving around the apartment, trying to be quiet. You stretched out a kink in your hip from sleeping curled up on the couch and slowly sat up. “Tom?”
He was still in last night's clothes, dark circles under his eyes and just a bit of scruff starting to pepper his face. “Good Morning, my Darling. I couldn't bring myself to make you move, did you sleep alright?”
You stretched again, running a hand over your face with a slight wince. Having a shiner was not so fun. “I'm fine. Did you sleep at all?”
He ducked into the kitchen and brought out you a cup of coffee. “Luke called after you nodded off. He's coming over around nine.”
You keep a hold of his hand after you take and set down your coffee. “You didn’t answer me. Did you sleep at all? You look like hell.”
He laughed weakly, “I love you too. I slept in the chair for a little while.”
“So no, not really? What time is it?”
“Six thirty.”
You pull yourself to your feet with a groan and wrap your arms around his waist. “Then we have time for you to get some actual sleep before Luke gets here.”
He envelopes you in his arms, his head on in the crook of your neck. “Come with me?”
Neither of you got more rest.
You hadn’t expected this to be the first time you and Tom made love, it just happened, like some natural extension of holding one another.
As you took a shower now, knowing Luke would be here soon, you couldn't stop thinking about the softness of it all. How his hands never seemed to still yet never rushed. It was such a contrast to how it had been.
Where Sebastian had been rough and brash, nails and teeth, fingerprint bruises that you could glide your fingers over the next day and flash to the feel of his mouth and hands lighting your skin ablaze, Tom was soft and slow, savoring every curve and angle, mapping every inch of your body like he longed to paint you from memory. You felt cherished.
When you finally headed back into the living room, you could hear Luke speaking with an oddly calm tension. “It wasn't even twenty-four hours. All you had to do was lie low until I could set something up and let the press know about the broken engagement and then no one would have looked twice when you too seemed to get closer. Now we have to sort out a fist fight and” he stopped when he saw your face. “Lord! What happened to your face?”
#Happytenmonths Thank u to be with me in this journey, thank u to love me just like i always wanted and thank u 4 make me smile and be happy, most happy then ever after... I love u so very much my baby love! #TeamFrankie&Primy #loveu #10months #together #10.0 #lovewins #loveislove 🦄🐼♥️🦄🧜🏻♂️👼🏻🤴🏻🌈💯 (en Pabellón de Arteaga) https://www.instagram.com/p/ByX0QPth21r/?igshid=hjho62b32l0p
