Carolina - H.S.

Surprise (13)

"I'm sorry."

When Harry and I woke up this morning there was an obvious tension between the two of us which we more or less tried to ignore for the entirety of the time we had spent together. Breakfast was made and eaten in complete and utter silence, neither of us had mustered the courage to speak up about the many unsaid things floating in the air around us.

It was a dispute just waiting to implode.

However, we were thankfully able to keep it together until we both finished our meals.

And now here we are. I'm standing in the kitchen, peering up at Harry as he spoke the first words this morning that for some reason shocked me to my core.

Why on earth is he apologizing right now?

"Harry, what are you apologizing for?" He couldn't possibly think that anything that happened last night was his fault. Could he?

I was the one who initiated the kiss. I was the one who accused him of being unhappy. I was the one who freaked out because I thought Jaz was in contact with Maddie without even talking to her about it first. Everything that happened yesterday was on me.

Before he can answer my question, I pipe up again. "If anyone should be apologizing right now it's me. I should never have kissed you last night, and I really shouldn't have pried into your personal life. It's none of my business and I was out of line. The way you reacted was completely reasonable."

I never meant to offend him, but I should have known that I was overstepping. We barely know each other and the night we met he seemed just as confused about his happiness as he does now. I would never expect him to open up about something like that with me, especially because I haven't done the same with him.

Harry is looking at me like I've got a screw loose. Like my apology was entirely unnecessary. "I kissed you back, Hails. In regards to what you said - it surprised me that you could see through me so well, but I overreacted way too much, and I never should have gotten so irritated when all you did was make an observation. I know you had no harmful intentions." His brows remain furrowed the entire time he's speaking, in confusion or thought, I'm not sure.

I appreciate his understanding, but I was still out of line. Either way, I choose not to argue with him rather than continue this discussion into conflict. "Okay, fine. We're both arrogant assholes." My lips curl into a soft and playful smirk, speaking the same words he spoke the first night we met as I make an attempt at lightening the mood.

His eyes light up before me, the notion of my recollection of that night so long ago fueling his elation. It's quite odd, but he seems genuinely shocked I recall the night in the slightest. Did he not realize how much it meant to me?

I've only had a handful of one-night stands in my life and that one with him was by far one of the most pleasurable. We had only just met yet we knew how to make the experience enjoyable for the two of us. Harry has been one of the only people who could do that for me, and I could tell he enjoyed it just as much as I had.

"You remember?" Wide-eyed and slack-jawed, Harry gawks at me in complete and utter shock.

My brows scrunch up, confused. "Of course I do. How could I forget?" It was one of the best nights of my life, I felt free. And even just to chat with, Harry was amazing company.

His stance shifts slightly, the recognition of what the revelation means being made clear to him now. No longer surprised, his lips turn up as a shit-eating grin engulfs his sculpted features, dimples carving into his cheeks and settling there.

However, rather than gloating like I had expected him to, he rushes past me in a sprint, gliding through the living room and making his way to the hallway housing the first-floor bedrooms and one single bathroom. I haven't had the chance to see the top floor of this giant house yet, but I expect it's just as mesmerizing as the rest of it.