CASUAL • Harry Lewis/w2s

seven

I'm right now on a week-long vacation so there are only gonna be two parts published this week. This part and part eight (:

Harry continued to drink heavily. He had a couple more of Ethan's drinks before dinner, then switched to wine as we were seated for dinner. We sat next to each other because he was the last person at the table and the only open seat was next to mine.

After our very little argument, we both silently agreed to just ignore each other the rest of the night, though I found him looking at me frequently. You'd think having sex would make us fall in love or make us closer but it clearly had the opposite effect.

All the food was lovely, but I was especially loving the dauphinoise potatoes Simon had made.

"Those dauphinoise potatoes are just as good as the ones my mom used to make, Simon," I said as I helped clear the table.

I heard Harry scoff loudly behind me. I turned to look at him. "You have something to say?"

He took a long sip of his red wine before answering. "I have nothing to say, but complementing those potatoes like some kind of expert was quite funny."

He was slurring slightly, so I knew he was either drunk or heading in that direction.

I looked over at Simon. "Sorry if it came across to you like so, hopefully, only Harry heard it like that."

Simon cleared his throat and picked a dish from the table. "All good, Mais."

I noticed him leaning towards Harry, but I couldn't hear what he was saying.

We all went to the living room after. I volunteered to do the dishes in order to avoid Harry. I sat down beside Talia. Talia was probably one of my closest girlfriends. I introduced her and Simon, so I've known her for a long time and love her to death. I'd do anything for her. Which is why I feel guilty for not telling her about that night yet.

"What is the deal between you and Harry right now?" Talia whispered to me after we had been talking for a while.

I shrugged my shoulders looking away from her. "I don't know, to be honest."

"Maisie, you do know, you just not telling me," she replied. "You argued tonight, Faith told me you almost tried to cancel when it was changed to Harry's flat and Simon has been telling me you two haven't had a single conversation at a sidemen shoot besides arguments in 2 weeks."

"Things are just weird at the moment, but I'm figuring it out," I said, hoping that would end the conversation.

"Whatever it is, you two need to talk to each other because Simon says it has only gotten worse since last week," She stated.

I knew I needed to talk to him, but I couldn't get myself to talk about it. Can't even talk about it with Talia. How on earth would I ever talk to him about it?

Simon was also correct; it has only gotten worse. The first week after, we simply ignored each other. We began arguing in the second week because I was not acting like nothing. By the third week, people had begun to notice.

Talia dropped the topic right after. A while of talking later, I got up to go get a drink from the kitchen.

I had just gotten a glass of water when Harry came walking into the kitchen. "Can we talk real quick?" He said with what sounded like forced politeness.

I didn't want to have another tense interaction with Harry, especially if he was drunk. Maybe if I'd had a few drinks, I'd feel differently, but as things were, I wanted to be away from him. I decided it was time for me to go home.