Chapter 26: MariBelle

I actually did get a brief opportunity to talk to Naimh. She didn’t want her family’s caller ID tracing a phone call to or from my house, but Belle had a solution. After I walked over, Belle called Naimh’s house from her bedroom, talked to Naimh’s dad for a minute, and then after she got Naimh on the line, handed the phone to me.

“Hey,” I began a little hesitantly. “How are you?”

“I’m fine,” my girlfriend replied rather neutrally. “Dad is standing right behind me. It’s like he doesn’t trust me or something.”

“Someday you’re gonna have to tell me exactly why they’re so overprotective of you.”

“I know, I know.” Her voice trailed off, and I could almost imagine her turning around to look back at her father. “Someday, but not today.”

Realizing we wouldn’t be able to have the kind of conversation I would have wanted, I said, “I won’t keep you long. I just wanted to say, ‘I love you’.”

Naimh giggled and replied, “Ditto.”

I felt my heart warm and smiled. “I also met up with Alice this morning and Mari is coming over soon. You’re still good with all this, right? Me having dates with Sam and Zofi tomorrow and everything?”

“Yes, of course,” Naimh replied with a sigh. “If there’s a silver lining to all this, at least the other girls will be happier.”

“You’re a good friend.”

“Thank you for that. I also know they’ll give me details later.” Her voice trailed off again, and a moment later she came back to the phone. “Anyways, much as I’d love to stay and chat, this is awkward enough already. I’ll see you on Monday, alright?”

“Sounds good. I love you!”

“I know,” she replied neutrally. “Thank you.”

She hung up first. I handed the cordless receiver back to Belle, and sighed.

“Feel better?” she asked.

“Yes and no. Reassured that she’s okay with all this, like Mari’s date, for sure. But sad that I can’t be with her right now.”

“You really love her, don’t you?” Belle’s voice was abnormally soft.

I frowned. “Is that not okay anymore?” I reached out to hold her and pulled her into a hug.

“No, no, of course it is.” She set her forehead against the middle of my chest and exhaled slowly. “I was the one pushing you to ask her out.”

“Regretting that decision?”

Belle shook her head and looked up at me, her pale green eyes warm and liquid. “No. Just ... maybe regretting I was too scared to take the risk she’s taking now. I mean, in my head I still think I made the right call. I get all the fun of being with you without worrying about all the emotional baggage of being your girlfriend. I can still look forward to spending the next two nights with you while Neevie’s grounded. But ... I do wonder...”

“Wonder if I’d feel the same way about you if we’d decided to take the plunge?”

“Something like that.”

I bent down and gave her a sweet kiss. She kissed me back rather hungrily, to the point that I scooped her up in my arms and lifted her light body up until she wrapped her legs around my waist. And we stayed there, unhurriedly making out for several minutes, until our mutual passion eased and we finally pulled apart.

Our foreheads pressed together while we both panted for breath. Holding her close, I murmured, “I’ll love you forever, my Annabelle. No matter what happens between me and Neevie, please don’t ever doubt that.”

She nodded slowly, mumbled back, “I love you too, Matty.” She started kissing me again.

Neither of us was in any hurry to stop.

It was just after 5pm when I rang the doorbell to Belle’s house. To my surprise, I found not one, but TWO beautiful young ladies all dolled up in cute dresses, full makeup, jewelry, and fancy hair. Mari was clad in a bold yellow dress that accentuated her tan skin and featured a plunging scoop neck that highlighted her lush body. From the sheer volume of cleavage on display, she had certainly come a long way from the days of wearing frumpy sweaters and baggy pants in order to hide her curves. Belle was looking very cute in a pastel yellow dress with a triangular top that narrowed at the neck, covering her breasts but exposing the full length of both shoulders.

“Well THIS is a pleasant surprise,” I remarked at the sight of them standing side-by-side. “Should I have made reservations for three?”

Mari beamed at me. “We’ll make it work. I’m not sweating the details tonight.”

I arched an eyebrow at Belle. “You could’ve warned me when I came over earlier.”

Belle looked at me nervously. “This wasn’t part of the script. Mari talked me into joining you two tonight. I told her I didn’t want to crash her date--”

“But my bestie looked like she needed some cheering up,” Mari finished, wrapping her arm around Belle’s waist and hugging the smaller girl to her side.

I chuckled at that, stepped forward, and gave Mari a quick kiss on the lips. “You’re such a good friend.”

She pumped a fist in the air, “Team Belle!”

I grinned and gave Belle a quick kiss as well, then stepped back and gestured out the door. “Shall we?”

Unlike my first date with Mari, nothing went wrong tonight. The van made it to and from the restaurant without a bad fuel pump leaving us stranded. The restaurant I’d picked had no problems seating us at a table for four instead of two. And I let my ego puff up as I walked around town with two beautiful young women wrapped around my arms. From the way both of them freely kissed me, rubbed my arms, and generally snuggled up to me, it was obvious to anyone that I was “with” two girls at the same time. And I resolved to myself to have this type of “double-date” more often, as opposed to the type where I went out with Zofi’s parents.

After dinner, the three of us bundled up in our coats and went ice skating at the temporary rink set up for the winter over by the civic center. Belle had always been a natural skater, while Mari was a lot more hesitant on the ice. I spent much of my time holding Mari’s hand for balance while Belle was able to spin around, skate backwards, and shout encouragement. Mari kept swearing she’d been able to skate just fine without help two years ago (while Belle drawled that even then she hadn’t been very good), and after forty-five minutes or so she was able to at least toddle along without support. In the end, nobody fell too much, everyone had a good time, and isn’t that really all you can ask of an ice skating outing?

We made a final stop for ice cream, splitting a big Neapolitan sundae together. Mari got most of the strawberry while Belle and I had to split the chocolate and vanilla because we both wanted chocolate. Apparently, Mari hadn’t allowed herself to indulge in such a sugary, calorie-laden treat since our LAST date. And with apologies, she told me that spoiling herself with something like the sundae was even better than sex. I didn’t argue with her.

The girls giggled a LOT while spoon-feeding me, getting the chocolate-sauce covered dessert into my mouth most of the time. Let’s just say I needed to go to the bathroom to wash my face when we were done, as a few dry napkins alone weren’t going to cut it.

“Now you know how WE feel!” Mari laughed.

“At least we didn’t get any in your hair,” Belle chided.

Finally, the three of us drove to my house, but rather than immediately strip off our clothes and jump into bed or anything, the girls decided they wanted to strip off our clothes and skinny-dip in the hot tub. Unfortunately, I hadn’t planned for such an eventuality, so while I headed outside to turn up the heat, the girls kept their dresses on and settled onto the big couch in the family room first.

Once I rejoined the girls on the couch, they promptly sandwiched me between them and took turns making out with me. Since this was nominally Mari’s date first, Belle was quick to direct me to her BFF and I wound up with a smoking hot Latina in my lap, crushing her big tits into my chin and cramming her tongue down my throat while I slid my hands beneath the hem of her bright yellow dress and confirmed that her panties were a thong. But just when I started to really get into grinding her pussy down against the erection tenting my pants, Mari grabbed my head and turned my face to Belle’s.

My horny little voyeur looked even more revved up after watching us than Mari had been actually dry-humping me. Belle’s irises burned with green fire as she seized my head in her hands and mashed her lips against mine. We kissed tonight with hurried frenzy equal to but opposite of the unhurried tenderness our afternoon kiss had been.

Back and forth the girls traded my face. I never had much say in the matter: one of them would grab my head away from her BFF or my current makeout partner would turn me away to service her bestie. And all the while, Mari never stopped humping me. But just when I thought my Angel might actually get herself off in my lap, she suddenly stepped down to the floor and composed herself.

“I almost forgot,” she muttered with a cute blush. “I got new lingerie to show you.”

First off was the yellow dress, though. All night the tightness of the front of that scoop-necked fabric had lifted her massive tits and squished them together. The instant Mari tugged down the zipper in the back, the sheer volume of her breasts visibly pushed the scoop neck down and out, almost revealing her nipples. She pulled the shoulder straps down her arms and let the upper half of the dress collapse around her waist, revealing a white lace bra with intricate flowery designs over transparent fabric that hinted at the bare skin beneath.

Before continuing, Mari stared at my crotch and intoned, “Belle, take his pants off. I wanna see how hard he is for me.”

The impish pixie sitting next to me was quick to leap to the task, kneeling in front of me, opening my belt buckle and unzipping my pants. I helped her by leaning against the backrest and lifting my butt off the couch cushion so she could drag my pants and boxer shorts with them down to my ankles. And I raised my feet so she could leave me completely naked below the waist.

“Oh, yeah,” Mari moaned, her expression rather orgasmic as she gazed rapturously at the thick column of throbbing dick reaching toward her like a flower reaches for the sun. “That’s the good stuff...”

I chuckled and started unbuttoning the collared shirt I’d worn for the date.

In the meantime, Mari turned around while digging her thumbs into the bunched-up dress material around her waist, making sure I’d have a good look at her juicy round booty. And while keeping her legs tight together atop her chunky black heels, she bent over at the waist and very slowly dragged the bright yellow fabric all the way down to the floor.

Indeed, she wore a thong, the thin white string in back disappearing completely between the voluminous hemispheres of her asscheeks. Twisting slightly to the side, she looked back at me upside down and grinned rather merrily, waggling her ass side-to-side until I finally slid forward off the couch, grabbed her hips, and started licking my way through her crack. I licked her moist pussy lips, shoved my tongue past the thong strap and darted it a little bit inside her. Shifting my left hand, I dragged the soaked white fabric aside and started giving her a rimjob, and Mari’s knees buckled at the unexpected sensation.

My angel collapsed down to the floor in an impromptu doggy-style position. My adrenaline surged as I launched myself after her, lay my dick into the cleft of her buttcheeks, and dragged my length backward through her furrow until I was able to point my tip downward at the entrance to her warm slice of heaven.

“Wait-wait-wait!” Belle called only AFTER I’d pushed two inches of cock into Mari’s pussy. “We were supposed to go in the hot tub!”

Mari and I both whimpered together.

“Can I just slide it all the way in once?” I practically begged.

“Uh-huh. Just one stroke?” Mari whined.

Belle rolled her eyes. “Yeah, uh-huh.”

Her voice was sarcastic, but I took her words at face value. Of course, I didn’t slide myself all the way in just once. I didn’t even slide it in just twice. I fucked the shit out of Mari from behind, banging her booty with my pelvis at a rapid-fire pace, and in less than three minutes her cunt clenched around my cock as she came.

“FFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCKKKKK!!!” she howled as the orgasm tore through her body.

Rather sheepishly, I looked back at Belle as I stopped thrusting, not that she looked angry or anything. From the way she dug her fingers into her panties beneath the hem of her dress, I rather thought she was pretty close to cumming herself. But when I pulled myself out of Mari’s still-spasming snatch, I sat back on my heels and finished unbuttoning my shirt the rest of the way.

At the same time, Belle started divesting herself of clothing, although lacking special new lingerie to show off on this impromptu double-date, she didn’t strip down in as fancy a manner as Mari’s tease. She quickly disposed of her dress, her strapless bra, and her panties. I got myself naked a little faster than her, since I’d had a head start. And while Belle finished herself off, I rolled Mari onto her back and paused to suckle at her big boobies a bit. I even stopped to bite them just a little, making her giggle and grin. And finally I dragged off her now completely saturated white thong.

Mari stared at my big dick waving right in front of her face. Belle seemed inclined to go out to the hot tub, but before either of us could say anything, Mari pitched onto her knees, grabbed my ass, and swallowed my dick all the way down to the root on the first try. With a throat full of meat, she stared straight up at me, moaning as she more or less tried to make out with the base of my cock. Her lips kept moving and the pressure was intense, and it was only after she’d been at full depth for a minute did she finally pull back, gasp for breath and gaze up at me, asking, “How do you want me to make you cum?”

Wordlessly, I grabbed Mari’s melons and wrapped them around my dick. She took over by holding her own tits together for me while I grabbed the back of her head and tilted it forward. And when I started thrusting my shaft through her warm tunnel of cleavage, she opened her mouth so that my entire cockhead pushed inside it at the end of each thrust.

“Holy shit, Matty. That’s soooo fucking hotttt,” Belle breathed, masturbating herself on the couch again. “Fuck her face. Fuck her tits. Fuck her and blast your creamy cum all over her big titties. Cover her fucking face with your tasty hot jizz. I wanna see it, Matty! I wanna scream my orgasm watching you hose down my best friend’s beautiful face! Fuck those big titties, Matty! Holy crap I’m gonna cum! Cum with me! Cum for me! Squirt her! Drown her in your fucking sperm! You two are soooo fucking HOTTTT! Cum, Matty, CUM!”

With Belle’s words egging me on, I was fucking Mari’s tits faster than I had thought possible. In hindsight, I risked giving the poor girl whiplash the way I held the back of her head and shoulders and physically masturbated myself with her body. We must have been a pretty violent sight, her hair flying everywhere while my banana-bent prick carved through her titflesh and popped into her mouth over and over again. But with Belle’s final urging for me to cum, I roared and started spraying my jizz all over Mari’s face and tits, just like she wanted.

“AAARRRRRGGGHHH!!!” I grunted.

“CUM, MATTY, CUM!” Belle howled. “CUUUUUUUUMMMM!!!”

She was cumming too. I could hear it in her voice. But I was a little focused on my Angel, finally pulling out of her cleavage and pumping my prick to make sure I covered every last inch of her face, neck, and upper chest that I could. I made a fucking Jackson Pollock painting on her, and when I finally had nothing left to give, I still leaned forward, stuck my cockhead against her forehead, and dragged it like a paintbrush through my own semen down the bridge of her nose, across her left cheek, and finally popped it into her mouth.

That’s when Belle abruptly tackled her bestie away from me. Mari squeaked in surprise and ended up sprawled across her back on the floor, gasping as the horny little pixie crawled all over her naked body, licking and slurping every drop of Matty’s cum she could find.

And then all of a sudden, they were making out.

No seriously, they were making out. One second, Belle was hungrily licking up globs of cum from Mari’s cheek while the busty Latina laughed about it. The next second, Belle was feeding her cum-covered tongue into Mari’s mouth, Mari started sucking on the sperm, and the next thing I knew, the two hot babes were just going AFTER each other.

I’d seen Belle and Mari kiss each other in the heat of the moment before. This was NOT the same. This was SOOOO much different.

Naked Belle climbed on top of naked Mari’s belly, crushing their tits together and dry humping her BFF’s thigh. Mari was the first to swing a leg out and scissor their crotches together. It was a good thing Mari wasn’t that tall either, because the pair of them managed to instinctively start tribbing while their arms wrapped around one another, mouths kissing and pussies kissing and good freaking lord I never imagined in a million years that my little Annabelle and shy Mariangel would go full Sapphic glory.

Leftover traces of cum on Mari’s chest got smeared against Belle’s big boobies. Every now and again, Matty’s Little Cumslut would break her lips free just long enough to lick up a few more globs of jizz to share. The pair of them humped each other, writhing and groaning and whimpering and moaning until finally... finally... they each had a turn to climax under their best friend’s ministrations.

“Maaaarrrriiiiiiiii!” Belle squealed as she came first, whining in a weak voice full of disbelief at how good her best friend was making her feel.

Just one more thing at which Mari turned out to be a complete natural.

Mari went next a minute later, but not until Belle disengaged her legs, slid down to start sucking on one of Mari’s fat nipples, and fingerbanged her BFF with three little digits.

“Hey B, bite her nipples,” I encouraged.

Belle did so, and Mari’s voice was even MORE full of disbelief at what was happening, clutching her bestie’s head to her breast while whimpering, “Belle ... Belle ... You’re making me CCCUUUUUUUUMMMMM!!!”

And then they were done, both gasping for air, Belle’s head pillowed on her bestie’s bosom. Still panting, Belle pulled her fingers out of Mari’s pussy with a wet squelching sound and started tasting them experimentally. And then as if only now remembering they weren’t alone in the room, she popped her eyes open and stared over at me.

I fought the urge to start clapping and instead grinned and flashed her a thumbs up. My expression said, You really seemed to enjoy that!

She blushed, pecked Mari’s nipple, and glanced back at me with an expression that replied, I totally did!

“Holy crap, B,” Mari moaned after she caught her breath. “I never ... I can’t believe...”

“Sorry,” Belle muttered with a wince. “I don’t know what came over me.”

Shaking her head, Mari grabbed Belle’s and kept it still so she could give her bestie a quick kiss. “Don’t apologize. That was AMAZING. We are SO doing that again!”

Belle giggled. I chuckled. Mari set her head back down and sighed. “But first ... I need that soak in the hot tub.”

“My parents would FLIP if they ever found out I turned lesbian,” Mari muttered as the three of us relaxed in the hot tub while the bubble jets massaged our naked bodies. We sat side-by-side, Belle in the middle, none of us touching each other at the moment. Having gotten that first fuck out of our systems earlier, we could enjoy a little leisure and conversation without being all anxious to get an orgasm.

“You didn’t turn lesbian,” Belle argued. “Bisexual maybe, and even then I’m pretty sure you’re mostly straight. But with our particular group of friends, being bisexual seems to be a handy way to keep occupied since we only have the one dick.”

Mari giggled. “I still can’t believe we did that. I mean, I’ve let girls go down on me before, and when I close my eyes and try not to think too hard about whose face is in my crotch, it’s easy to get lost in the feelings. But this ... with you...”

“Believe me, I know the feeling of losing my head. When I see Matty’s cum go flying, something ... primal ... inside me just sorta ... takes OVER. I’m not me anymore. I’m...”

“Matty’s Little Cumslut?” I finished for her.

“You know it.” Belle cuddled up alongside me and kissed my cheek.

Mari was still lost in thought, staring off into space. “It’s different for me. It’s like ... when we’re with the whole group, I’m still on my guard a little bit, you know? Like, they’re my friends and I’m comfortable with them and all, but not like it is when it’s just the three of us. I trust both of you. I feel safe with both of you. And when I get to feeling that safe...”

Belle reached out and rubbed Mari’s leg under the water. “You feel like you can finally be free?”

“Yeah...” Mari nodded slowly, moving her mouth around as if tasting the word ‘free’ and seeing how well she liked it. “Free...”

“Free to unleash your closet bisexual nature?” I asked with a bit of a tease. “Or revealing your next evolution ... Mari 2.0?”

Mari frowned immediately and shook her head. “Not quite. I mean, sorta yes, but...”

Her voice trailed off, and Belle and I exchanged a look of agreement that we’d give her time to figure out her next words.

Eventually, she spoke, although her gaze was still somewhere in the middle distance. “I don’t think of it in terms of lesbian or bisexual. It wasn’t like I suddenly found myself free to be attracted to another girl. This wasn’t some grand discovery of my latent sexuality. I think it was more of an absence of sexuality, if that makes any sense. In that moment, I didn’t see Belle as ‘a girl’. She was just... Belle. And even the other times I’ve let a girl go down on me, like with Neevie or Zofi, they stopped being ‘other girls’ and instead were just ... Neevie and Zofi. I wanted to have sex with the person, not their gender. Does that make any sense? Or am I talking out of my head?” She suddenly brought her focus back to the real world and turned to look at both of us.

I smiled, and Belle rubbed Mari’s leg again. “I think you’re making perfect sense. For me, it’s like when Zofi first licked Matty’s cum off my face and started snowballing it to me. I didn’t think, ‘Ohmigawd, another girl is kissing me.’ All I could think was, ‘She’s shoving Matty’s cum into my mouth.’ The fact that she was a girl was ... incidental. So I get it.”

I tapped her leg, “I smell a ‘but’ coming on.”

Belle blushed. “But ... with that said, I do think I must’ve had some pretty strong latent lesbian sexuality in me. I mean, I’ve thought of girls as being beautiful before, especially with this circle of friends. But there’s definitely been a more recent evolution of me being sexually attracted to girls lately. Even you, Angel. I just didn’t want you to freak out.”

“Don’t worry about me freaking out. I trust you. And you’re pretty damn attractive yourself, if I allow myself the freedom to acknowledge that.”

“Thank you.” Belle blushed. “I just didn’t want you to think our relationship was going to radically change just because I think you’re super sexy now.”

“Me too. Call it the next evolution in our relationship. MariBelle 2.0,” Mari said brightly. The two besties turned and hugged each other then, a warm embrace of sisterly love without a trace of sexual heat, despite all that we’d said and done tonight. In the end, Mari left one arm wrapped around Belle’s shoulders as they snuggled together. And I sighed in contentment while slipping my butt forward so I could recline a little further and bring my shoulders down under the hot water.

The two girls also went quiet, cuddling together as they celebrated their bond. But after a while, the pleasant heat started getting to Mari as she apparently began to nod off.

“Hey, hey,” Belle chirped while slapping Mari’s shoulder. “No zonking out now. You gotta help me see if combined we can out-fuck his girlfriend tonight.”

I arched an eyebrow at that statement, but Belle’s smirk told me she was only joking.

I think.

Anyway, Mari got her marbles back and sat up, looking just a little bit groggy. To cool herself off and let the air wake her up a bit, she elevated herself out of the water and propped her elbows up on the deck the way Sam did so often. And just like when Sam did it, my Angel’s massive 36DD tits were put right on display for my viewing pleasure.

I grinned and also started to sit up, but before I could, a naked pixie swung a leg over my midsection and then wrapped both legs around my waist.

“Hey there, remember me?” she asked coyly.

“I could never forget you, Annabelle,” I stated with heartfelt sincerity.

She grinned. “Good answer.” And then she kissed me.

We made out slowly at first, just enjoying the tender touch of each other’s lips. I’d long ago lost track of how many times the sweet girl from next door had kissed me since I finally let go of that mental block that had always kept her at arm’s length. Nowadays, nothing felt more natural in the world than the feel of my Annabelle’s touch, and I stroked her naked body while she cuddled against my chest, crossed her legs behind my back, and started to rub her clit against the erection quite literally growing up between our two bellies.

Eventually I was rock hard, and Belle took full advantage to really grind herself against me while we continued to play tonsil hockey. But as much as I might’ve wanted to lift up her little body and sit her down on my throbbing hard dick, past experience told me entry would be impossible with her teeny twat and my fat dick within the lubrication-erasing water of the tub. Instead, I gripped her body and helped her rub her clit against my cock until she had a small climax. And after she squeaked and shuddered and finally went still, I cradled my Annabelle’s head to my shoulder and patted her back for a job well done.

Beside us, Mari shook her head slowly, gave us a funny look, and breathed, “You two are so unbelievably beautiful together. Tell me again why he’s dating Neevie and not you?”

“Mari...” Belle groaned. “We’ve talked about this.”

“Yeah ... we’ve talked. And talked. And talked. I keep saying you should do it and you keep giving me reasons why you won’t, except that none of your reasons are valid.”

Belle frowned. “They are too valid.”

“‘It’s our senior year and we might end up on opposite sides of the country in a few months,’” Mari parroted. “‘What if we don’t actually like dating each other, it ruins our friendship, and we end up hating each other.’ ‘I get to spend more time with him than any other high school girlfriend gets to with none of the hassle of actually dating him.’”

“Those are all VERY valid reasons.”

“But you’re IN LOVE with him. It’s so fucking obvious! You two are AMAZING together! Better than him and Neevie.”

I frowned. “What’s wrong with me and Neevie?”

“Nothing. You and Neevie are great together,” Mari replied affably. “Smoking hot couple ... Super fucking sexy together ... CLEARLY totally into each other. But ... that’s it.”

I blinked. “That’s what? What you described sounds perfect.”

Mari snorted. “You and BELLE are perfect. Think about it: How much time have you spent with Neevie just ... talking. The way the three of us are doing now, hmm?”

I screwed up my face. “That’s different. Belle and I have always had way more time together to spend on conversation. With Neevie – and especially her parents – we have to make the most of what little time we have.”

“To fuck each other’s brains out.”

I grinned. “Well ... yeah...”

Mari shook her head like I’d just proved her point or something. “If you don’t already get it, I can’t help you. Must be that pesky Y-chromosome. Humans are better off without ‘em.”

“Matty’s Y-chromosome gave him that gorgeous dick you’re so fond of,” Belle pointed out.

“True. You may have a point,” Mari giggled. “Speaking of points: I will clarify mine. Neevie’s a perfect girlfriend for you: I’ll give you that. But in the end, Belle’s the one you’re gonna marry.”

Belle and I both frowned. With a sigh, I arched an eyebrow and pumped my fist in the air. “You’re Team Belle all the way, aren’t you?”

“You know it.”

“You’re biased.”

Mari shrugged. “I get to be. Root for the home team and all. Isn’t that why you’re a 49ers fan?”

I waved her off dismissively.

“Matty and I will never get married,” Belle said quietly.

THAT certainly shut Mari up. The Latina’s large and luminous eyes got REALLY big, and her jaw dropped open. But her silence only lasted a few seconds. “You’ve never said THAT before.”

Belle sighed and shrugged. “I love Matty; that much is true. I’ll always love him. But I can’t possibly think about marrying him right now. If anything, I need to convince myself that we’ll NEVER get married, otherwise I’ll never be able to leave him.”