Chapter Text
Mary was cross at her father. She had her own plans for the evening, far more pleasant than a business banquet. Robert Crawley, however, could not attend, so he passed the responsibility to his oldest daughter. Mary had to get ready at the last minute, put a fake smile on her face, and talk with these few old friends and business partners of her father she recognized.
Just as she thought her evening could not get any worse, she noticed Henry. Her ex looked at her at the same moment she looked at him. She quickly turned her head, ignoring his welcome nod. If she had to choose between her exes from hell, she preferred Kemal— he, at least, came back to Turkey after he graduated, and she didn't have to see him ever again. Henry, on the other hand... It was not the first time since their breakup they bumped into each other at a place that wasn't Henry's preferred environment. Which, of course, wasn't a coincidence. He still seemed to think that a talk would get her to come back to him. It started to be tiring, especially since some time passed since their parting. And he was the one who left her. She would prefer to eat broken glass than step into the same river twice.
She sighed, feeling the intensity of Henry's gaze on her. She scanned the crowd, looking for a familiar face that could save her. She sighed again when she found a familiar face. Matthew Crawley wasn't related to her family but became a legal representative of her father's company six months ago.
Mary guessed she could have liked Matthew if everyone around her didn't adore him so much. Maybe. She certainly liked their discussions, because he wasn't a jelly without a spine, and he actually listened to her and treated her with respect. However, the last one was hard to admit since she caught him listening to her employees' complaints about her being a vile cow before they were introduced. It was initially the main reason for her resentment and why she happily made his life miserable. Another thing that didn't work in his favour was how he charmed everyone around Mary. Although he didn't visit the company every day, he became a favourite of the women who worked there. Half of them would probably do anything for a date with him, and they couldn't understand why Mary didn't fall under his spell. He was so nice and handsome and charming, and she really shouldn't be so mean to him, because he never said a bad word about her! Indeed, he was kind and polite, which only annoyed her, because listening to gossip about someone you don't even know didn't count as nice person behaviour. She had to admit he was good-looking. With his thick blond hair and clear blue eyes, he looked like some fucking fairytale prince. He had something cute about his face, almost boyish. Not her type, but maybe in different circumstances he would catch her attention. If he truly hadn't said a bad word about her... Well, it could be said she appreciated that. Face to face he always treated her as equal, even if she made his life hard; and she had an experience with men who, with less reason than him, treated her a lot worse. Her father was in love with him as much as his female employees. Mary could not lie to herself; it made her jealous. Despite the fact that she had always wanted to take over the family business from her father, that she had completed the necessary studies, and flown in the necessary apprenticeships and traineeships, she felt that her father did not see her as his successor. She couldn't say he didn't love her or involve her in the business, but something was always gnawing at her, it wasn't the way either of them would have liked. Matthew's enthusiastic reception was painful as hell for Mary and certainly didn't make Matthew's life any easier. It wasn't just her father who liked Matthew, her mother did as well, and everything was made even worse by the fact that her parents didn't even try to hide the fact that they saw him as the perfect match for her.
She had no desire to spend time with Matthew, but even less desire to talk with Henry and even less desire to try and make an acquaintance with any other present at the banquet person. She still felt Henry's eyes focused on her and knew it was only a matter of time before he approached her. He might not have respected her saying it was over between them, but she knew he would respect another man. With a heavy sigh, she sipped from her glass and made her way to the other present Crawley. Matthew, who had just finished talking to someone, turned so that his gaze fell directly on her, and the smile disappeared from his face as he raised his eyebrows.
"I feel insulted by how quickly you stopped smiling at my sight," she announced, standing next to him.
"I just find it hard to believe that you have decided to honour me with your company," he replied without a moment of hesitation.
"There's someone here I like less than you, so I chose the lesser evil."
Matthew theatrically bowed his head and put his hand on his chest.
"Your Majesty is too kind. "
Mary rolled her eyes, but it wasn't out of genuine irritation. She had noticed that lately Matthew hadn't been as annoying as always, and she was rekindling that feeling in herself more often for the sake of principle. She didn't know what to think about that.
To talk about anything, they went through all the topics of typical small talk. After that, they began to complain about the party, as neither of them enjoyed spending time there. Mary couldn't contain her laughter after another remark from Matthew, which didn't deviate in bite from those thrown by her.
“Every day I have to hear how kind you are, and here you are! Somewhere deep down you have a bit of malice.”
"I can't help the impression I give," he replied with a slight shrug of shoulders.
With the corner of her eye, Mary noticed that Henry was still lurking about her. She refrained from a loud sigh.
"Any problem with the person you like less than me?"
She looked at him a little surprised and nodded.
"Is there anything I can do to help...?"
She was about to reply "no" when an idea popped into her head.
“Actually...”
She gestured at him to follow her. When they were on the terrace fenced off so that most people wouldn't see them, she leaned with her back against the wall.
"Kiss me."
"Excuse me?" From the tone of his voice, someone passing by might have thought she was offering him human trafficking.
"Henry won't listen if I tell him no and he's not put off by me having company, but if he sees that I'm interested in someone else...." she explained, hoping he would understand. And kiss her, because otherwise, she had just made a beautiful show out of herself.
When he only looked at her without saying a word, she focused her gaze on his lips and ran her finger over his jawline.
"Just one kiss. You can treat it as a favour."
She looked at him encouragingly, his eyes moved to her lips. Mary took this as permission and lifted her head to kiss him, at the same moment that he inclined his head toward her.
It was a really good kiss. Very good. When after a while they found a mutual rhythm, you could tell it was great. They moved slightly away from each other when they needed to get some air, but after a moment they greedily resumed the kiss. The main reason they were doing it at all quickly flew out of her mind. Mary hadn't suspected that Matthew could kiss like that. She began to wonder what else he could do.
The suggestion of moving it to her place left her lips before she had time to think it through properly. Not that with Matthew's hands wandering ever more boldly over her body and those delicious lips millimetres from her own, she was capable of rational thought. He nodded at the suggestion, kissing her once more.
***
"Mary!"
Hearing her name, she lifted her gaze from the documents she had been scrolling over on the road. Jane, her father's new secretary, wordlessly pointed at Matthew. He smiled at her.
"Apparently you want to talk to me?"
"I do. Come with me."
She resumed her march, making sure only once Matthew was following her.
She had planned to give the documents to her secretary to photocopy, but she wanted to speak to Matthew without witnesses so she could take advantage of the situation. Pretending to be engrossed in the papers, she used the moment to internally gather herself. She had thought about what to say a million times and still didn't know how to put it into words. She regretted that she was at work and couldn't take a sip of something stronger for courage.
The night with Matthew had been the best night of her life. No, she wasn't exaggerating, and no, it wasn't because it had actually been a while since she'd last had sex. It had been divine. Matthew made her forget the names of all the other men she had ever kissed, touched, or slept with.
There was, however, a small, tiny problem: that one night had awakened in her an appetite for much more. Lying in bed the previous night, she decided to use the easiest solution to the problem lying seemingly within reach: she would propose to Matthew that they sleep together, with no strings attached. She didn't sleep a wink for a long time, considering the possible consequences of pursuing the idea. What terrified her most was the possibility that someone and their co-workers would realize what was between them; however, she concluded that this could easily be avoided if their behaviour towards each other did not change.
After considering these options and concluding that they wouldn't create major problems, she was left with only one: Matthew would reject her, and she would humiliate herself. She had no doubt that he was having as much fun with her as she was with him, but that didn't mean he would fancy a replay. Plus, it seemed to her it wasn't his style. He might just not have wanted to. She didn't know how she would look him in the eyes and work with him if he kicked her in the ass, but she decided to give it a try. Mary knew from first—hand experience how incredibly hard it was to find a good sex partner, and she wasn't going to let an excellent one slip away from her just like that.
In silence, they made their way to the archives. Making sure they were alone, Mary put the documents down on the photocopier and turned to Matthew. He put his hands in his trouser pockets and raised his eyebrows questioningly.
"What did you want to talk about?"
She took a deep breath. She didn't know why this was stressing her out so much. She handled worse things than asking some guy to be her lover.
She threw out the direct question in one breath. As Matthew's eyes widened in surprise and his mouth felt like a fish pulled out of the water, Mary began to list the preconditions she had been thinking about to fill the silence with something. She finished her arguments, and Matthew still hadn't recovered from his shock. Part of her felt offended—the proposition might have surprised him, but was it really that unthinkable to him? Certainly not a few days ago!
"Are you going to say something?" she almost growled, feeling the resentment slowly turning into anger.
He shook his head.
"I just hadn't expected..."
"I'm glad to hear it. I should hate to be predictable."
"You don't even like me." He was clearly still recovering from the shock.
"You have been less annoying recently than these six months ago when we met."
"Thank you for that information. I would never have guessed it myself."
She didn't know if that was sarcasm, but she wasn't going to delve into that at this moment.
"Let's not change the subject." She came closer so that their chests were almost touching and their faces were separated by millimetres. She saw him swallow. She lowered her voice to a whisper. "I think you'll agree that that night was nice?"
"Nice" was an understatement.
"As nice as nice can be" he agreed immediately. For the first time since she got closer, he looked her in the eyes. "Do you really think this is a good idea?"
"I don't see what could be wrong with a bit of harmless fun."
It wasn't entirely true; she could think of a minimum of ten reasons why this was a terrible idea. He could probably have ten different reasons. However, she currently wanted Matthew in her bed, and she liked getting what she wanted.
They both nearly jumped at the sound of the door opening. Mary stepped back, walked over to the photocopier, and busied herself photocopying documents.
"Of course, you can think about it, but not for too long. I would like to know the answer today," she said in a normal voice.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Matthew nod. She began arranging the photocopied papers.
The person who had interrupted them left. Matthew stepped out from behind the bookcase that covered them and looked around. Mary watched his actions for a moment, then returned to her task. She had a copy of the documents ready and could return to her office, leaving Matthew free to think.
***
In the evening, sitting on the sofa in her empty flat, she asked herself what she had done. She hadn't heard from Matthew— and she knew he had her number from her father— meaning she had only made a fool of herself. And she saw Matthew regularly. They worked together, for crying out loud. She should have called Anna before she put this plan into action; her friend would surely have knocked it out of her head.
She rolled her eyes as she heard her business phone ringing. She decided to check who was calling and only answer if it could be something important. She raised an eyebrow, seeing Matthew's initials on the display. Had she written him off too soon?
"Hello?"
"Hey, it's Matthew... About what we were talking about earlier...."
Mary bit her lip to keep from laughing. He sounded like a teenager trying to brace himself to ask a girl to the school dance.
"Yes?"
"Okay, I've never done anything like that in my life...."
She decided not to share she didn't either.
"I'm not interested in your story," she said instead. However, she quickly added: "Unless you have an STD. You don't, do you?"
"Yyy, no. You?"
For a second, she was outraged that he had even asked, but still, she couldn't jump on him for asking important questions.
"No."
"Alright, good."
"You called about our conversation earlier today." She decided to remind him.
"Yes... Yes, I called... I'm not sure how one communicates such information...."
"I'll make it easier for you: yes or no?"
"Yes."
"Okay, good. Are you free now?"
"Yes, I am."
"Do you remember my address?"
"No."
"I'll send it, and you'll come over."
"Okay."
"Okay. I'm waiting."
She hung up and quickly sent him her address.
It had for sure been one of the most awkward conversations of her life. She only hoped that now the awkwardness wouldn't carry over into the bedroom because oh, how disappointing that would be!
Later, it turned out the awkwardness disappeared as if by magic as soon as they started kissing.
And Anna would certainly have advised Mary against the arrangement if Mary had consulted her about the idea. The poor thing nearly fainted when Mary told her about it.