Sage

4

I was completely fucking exhausted walking around the outdoor outlets at the peak of the spring day.

My allergies were in full effect as I sneezed repeatedly, rubbing my nose with the back of my hand and sniffling before adjusting the dark sunglasses on my face. I walk closer to the stores, a coffee cup in my hand to push me through the day and a small Sephora bag in the other.

Jenny's birthday was tomorrow, meaning that Niall and I were out last minute shopping for her gifts. I would have gone along if Niall hadn't answered the phone sobbing when I asked if everything was in order for her surprise party at the shop. Apparently, Adrienne had returned to France a few days ago and was only here for a couple of weeks. So when Niall heard that I was going shopping, he immediately begged through broken sobs for me to let him tag along.

I wanted to tell him to fuck off, that I'd been having a shitty morning having woken up feeling like sleep forsaken me. It's been like this for  the last few days; pure exhaustion. I genuinely felt like the black sleeping beauty.

But I didn't, I told him, "Hurry your ass up, then," And he did.

So here we were, him walking annoying close as we made our way to the Jewelers store.

"Jesus, Ellie, you walk like your ass's on fire," Niall says over the chatter of the other shoppers.

"I feel like shit, and I'm trying to hurry this up. Maybe you walk too slow,"

"Be nice to me, I just lost my girlfriend," He says, and I roll my eyes as he finally catches up, having to jog a bit before being at my side, his wool sweater brushing against my arm. "And why're you feeling like shit? Missing your sugar daddy?"

I felt like shit because of both my allergies and the fatigue I've been feeling for the last few days. Not because of the self-absorbed British man I went home with. It had been three weeks since then, and neither Niall nor Jenny will let me live down the fact that he actually paid them to have sex with me.

I could only imagine their reactions if they found out how much he paid me for a five-minute tattoo.

"He paid the tab, that's different," I tried to explain, but they were having none of it. Luckily, their teasing soon dwindled down into the occasional, "Have you seen your sugar daddy?" over the short weeks.

And I thought about seeing Harry again, a lot. Mostly when I was alone in the darkness of my apartment with my vibrator in my right hand and my tit in my left. During those moments, I missed Harry up until my legs shook and my back arched from the couch at the thought of how his dick felt when it'd first slid into me.

But one, I had no interest in his outward and self-possessed personality. And two, I didn't have any way to contact him. So while I lived through my uneventful life, pretending the experience never happened, I secretly wondered if I'd ever see him again. And that annoyed me.

"Don't you got a girlfriend to cry about?" I snap, and Niall immediately throws his head back into a laugh, shoving his hands in his pocket as he leans his shoulder back to avoid bumping into someone.

"Ha-Ha. Very funny, I know you're trying to change the subject, and I'll allow it. Even if it's at my expense." He places a palm to his chest and I glance at him, a ghost of a smirk on my lips as I shake my head.

We finally reach the jeweler's store on our right, so we're stepping into the small building, immediately being met with a fan blowing directly above our heads. On the black carpet, there are multiple glass displays holding expensive pieces of jewelry, along with a flat-screen TV above that plays an Audrey Hepburn movie at a low volume, not drowning out the jazz above.