Jane had never been mad at him before. Well, maybe that wasn’t completely true. They had been best friends for their whole lives it felt like, and Piers had been in trouble before for doing stupid things. Still, it wasn’t like this. They were married now, and married fights were different than friend fights. There were more feelings involved, Piers thought. He loved her and knew she loved him, but she wasn’t just angry that he was hanging out with a friend. She thought he was cheating. Or, at least, she thought that he wanted to be cheating. That wasn’t really a fair statement. If Piers wanted to cheat with Maddie, it would probably be easy enough for him.
Even though Maddie was smart enough to know better than to get with a married man, Piers thought, there was definitely some undeniable chemistry there. Piers had some regret that he never dated her in school, and he was pretty sure that feeling was mutual. He should have done. He should have seen it back then, but first she was dating some other guys, then she dated the man she ended up marrying. Even if Maddie and her husband hadn’t worked, he wouldn’t have wanted to get between them.
Thinking about this, and dwelling a bit much, Piers left the house to sulk. He typically would have gone to his cousin Theoren for comfort. Theoren and Piers were best friends too, almost brothers. They were very close in age, their mothers were close as sisters, and Piers had spent a lot of time at Aunt Larissa and Uncle Oliver’s home in Godric’s Hollow. This said, not only would Theoren be mad at Piers for “messing up†with Jane (as Theoren was rather sweet on her), Piers had noticed his favorite cousin had been a little missing in action lately. Perhaps he was working, again, or off with different friends. Piers didn’t want to bother him.
Piers had little family left, and few friends outside of his wife. He had become a recluse since the bite, at least, and probably for some time before that. After his mother’s death, some of the light had fallen out of Piers’ eyes. She was important to him, and he had mourned her death hard. He vaguely remembered wake and bakes daily, drinking until all hours of the morning, and throwing up most nights before bed. He needed something to numb the pain of her being gone, and he had done what he thought was the best self-comfort. Until Meghan, at least. She had been his only serious girlfriend before Jane, but she had been a serious girlfriend. She had met the family. She lived with him. Davina liked her. Unfortunately, Piers didn’t quite feel as strongly for her as he hoped he would. As soon as Jane and Darren broke up, Piers and Meghan followed closely behind, as Meghan realized that Piers was pining over a girl that wasn’t her.
He felt guilty about that, too. Had he always had a cheating heart? Was it him? Some affliction? He didn’t want to date Maddie. They were just friends. He thought she was pretty and smart and sweet and a little sexy, but that was mostly reserved for the idea that he would have liked to be a notch on her past bedpost, not that he wanted to be with her now. He would never cheat on Jane, he reminded himself. He doubted there would ever be another girl for him if they broke up, either. Jane would move on. Men clawed ground to get their hands even close to her. Piers was lucky, here, and he felt sick at the idea that he could lose her over a pint with a friend. Sick, but a little angry too.
Feeling such mixed emotions, Piers knew that he needed a friend to sort him out. He found himself outside of Anto’s flat even though he had not consciously walked there. Realizing he hadn’t owled ahead, he hoped Anto would be free to chat anyway. There was a pub not too fat down the road, and he was not nearly drunk enough to have the conversation with Anto he really needed to have.
He knocked on the door in quick succession, firm but not too loud.
