Burgundy || HS

treize

Jane wasn’t sure if she should be upset or happy. Mrs. Johnson was gone, but Harry stayed with her a lot more. He wanted to make sure that she was okay, because his sole priority for a while was to ensure that everything would be okay between the two before she found out about his new writings. To keep her mind off of Mrs. Johnson, Jane took a week off of work, and it seemed no one minded because Jane hadn’t taken time off in the three years she’d worked at the library besides the day she found out Mrs. Johnson was sick.

While she began to need Harry around for the time being, Jane found that whenever she was alone, she thought of Mrs. Johnson and how she wished that she didn’t have to. Her mind hated her and reminded her of how Mrs. Johnson had promised to leave Jane something in her will one evening. Jane had visited while Madison was there, taking care of her mother, but she was excused when Jane showed up. Mrs. Johnson was slightly pale, the pneumonia causing her loss of appetite and whatever she did eat to be thrown up.

“C’mere,” she’d instructed, and Jane did as she asked by sitting in the chair next to her bed. “Now, I have to, of course, leave my kids and whoever the hell else something in my will when I die and—don’t do that, don’t flinch. I’m going to die, Jane, please get used to it. Yes?” Jane nodded. “Anyway, I want to leave you something. You’re like another one of my kids. Thank God I didn’t have to push you out or raise you because, girl, sometimes you’re a handfull.” Jane smiled. “Now, it won’t be much, but it’ll be something for when you need it. It’s a gift, accept it.”

“Okay.” That was another lie Mrs. Johnson had told Jane. It was much, too much. She’d left her luxurious apartment to Jane, revealing in a note that she’d bought it when she first met Jane. Bryson had come to Jane’s apartment to deliver the note that no one else was to read after going to read the will.

Jane,

You’re a beautiful, talented, smart young lady. I love you. You make me proud everyday. I’m currently writing this while forcing Madison to make sure that my car is locked, I wanted to write this alone, in the solitude of my own bed and room. It smells like shit in here, but the only thing I’ve done in this room is throw up. Anyway, I bought this place a year after I met you and became intrigued in such a bright young lady, that being you. You are everything I didn’t get to be; free yet ready for anything that should come. I was only ready, I didn’t get to be free.

That morning at the library on March 4th, when you told me of the window in your kitchen that you look out of at the people of New York, I knew in that moment that you would be the one person that could inspire me to be better. Granted, I’m still a bitch of an old lady, but at least I could try, right? The apartment is high in the sky, because I know you complained that your apartment wasn’t high enough for you to see enough people, and it has as many windows as I could get in the building without more people up my ass, so you could have more than one to look out of. It’s paid off, all you have to do is keep your shit together and pay your taxes and regular bills. That is my gift to you, Jane, because you gave me hope after years of my husband being gone.

Now, before I end this and Madison comes back an angry mess, I want to talk about Harry. That man is the dumbest smart man I know. He doesn’t understand you fully yet as I do, Jane. He will make mistakes, he will hurt your feelings, but you must forgive him. Unless he does something unforgivable, then I will kick his ass from my grave. Otherwise, please, please, Jane, forgive him. I know you have learned that you don’t need a man to complete your life, and you don’t, but you shouldn’t stay single because of what you’ve learned.

You deserve to be happy, my sweet. He will fuck up majorly, I already know it, but please do not hold a grudge. It will only make you angrier. This man is the best thing that has ever happened to you since moving to New York and starting school. Please, for my sake and your own, please don’t let this man break you, but don’t let him go. He is here to make you happy, not hurt you. Above all, do not show him this note.

I love you,

Emilee

Jane wanted to cry, but a knock at her door caused the tears to hold back and she ran to her bedroom to hide the note under a shoebox in her closet. Running to the door, she opened it to Harry. He smiled at her and picked up a large basket next to him, kissing her forehead, and walked past her. Jane smiled and stared at him oddly. “Harry, what is this?” She closed and locked and door, leaning against it.

“Well, my beautiful Jane, it is all of your favorite things,” he walked over and picked her up by the waist, setting her down on the ground near the basket. Harry sat on the floor and Jane sat across from him. “We’ve got Burgundy wine, a box of various Chinese foods—no touchy,” Harry scolded and slapped Jane’s hand away.

“Seriously?”

“No touchy!” Harry held in a smile while Jane crossed her arms over her chest. “Anyway, before I was rudely interrupted, we have those things and another shitty copy of Die With Me, and your favorite flowers.”

Jane sat up, “Can’t wait to see what this is. Did you get me a white rose?”

“No, I did not get you cocaine or a white rose. But I’ll keep it in mind,” Jane slapped his knee. “I got you orchids.” Harry pulled the flowers out of the basket and handed them to her. She smiled and smelled them, then reached over to kiss Harry’s cheek. “I saw you smelling them at the funeral and I know that you were in charge of choosing Emilee’s favorites, so yeah.”

“I guess she can do things for our relationship even when she’s not around,” Jane’s joke wasn’t followed by cries, but instead by small laughs. They didn’t feel uncomfortable talking about Emilee. It was Harry that was afraid to bring her up in fear of Jane crying again. He’d held Jane while crying twice and it pained him to see her so upset. “Harry,” she called while he was in the kitchen, placing their food on plates, and she sat on the couch, channel surfing.

“Yeah?”

“I think I wanna quit the library.” Her knees were hugged up to her chest, head resting on her knees. Harry questioned her, “I just feel like it won’t be the same without Emilee and, I don’t know, I’d be lonely without her constant shit talking.” Harry walked over to her and handed her a plate. “You get it?”

“No, I really don’t. Do you remember why you got the job in the first place?” Jane shook her head. “I do, you told me that night we had drinks, the night before you wouldn’t talk to me and we talked about Gatsby. You told me it was because you were new to the state, but you weren’t new to literature. That reading and writing is the same everywhere, no matter the language or interpretation. You’re a prime example. You’ve read Eleanor & Park in French and English and still have separate thoughts on it. Anyway, you for sure know that Mrs. Johnson would cuss up a storm if she found out you were quitting because of her.”

Jane went back to biting the inside of her cheek and avoided continuing the conversation, placing her lips on Harry’s cheek. “Yeah.” Harry swallowed and went back to the front door where he’d dropped an overnight bag and his laptop case. He needed to work on his book, but it was going to be a close call to work on it with Jane around. He did it anyway. He made sure to sit on the opposite side of the couch and watched her every movement when she would get up to go somewhere. “Don’t you think you look at digital words way too much?”

“Is Jane Bradley seriously telling me to stop reading? This is a groundbreaking discovery. We need to get you to a hospital,” Harry joked.

She came up behind him and closed the laptop, he thanking the God he didn’t worship that she didn’t read the screen first. “You’ve corrupted me.” She kissed his lips that were upside down until he pulled her down on the couch with him. They kissed like it was their last. And, at this rate of Harry’s book, it could’ve been.

---

super short.. might double update... sorry. i love u, love me back :/