More Than Friends

Part 149 (Tessa)

All these paranoid thoughts of what Hardin was secretly doing all day start to run through my head. I barely hear when he gets home.

"Tess! I'm home," Hardin calls through the apartment.

I turn around and just stare at where he's standing for a moment.

"Earth to Tessa!" he jokes.

I watch as he walks into the living room and tosses his leather jacket over the chair.

"Tess? Are you okay?"

I'm finally able to speak. "N-no."

He quickly walks over to me and lifts my chin up, so I'm looking directly at him. "Tess, what's wrong?" he asks with concern.

"Why is all your work stuff sitting on your desk?"

"Because that's my work desk." He chuckles.

"No, I mean why didn't you bring it to work? Did you really go to work, Hardin?"

Hardin stares blankly at me for a moment before answering. "Of course I went to work. I didn't bring my work stuff because I was working on a different project. You do trust me, don't you, Tessa?"

"Yeah, yeah. Of course I do. I'm sorry, Hardin. I don't know what I was thinking."

"It's okay, Tess, as long as you trust me."

"How about some dinner? You must be starving."

"Sure, order anything you want. I'm just going to go change."

I watch as Hardin walks into the bedroom and closes the door behind him. Seconds later, I hear it lock. Why does he need to lock the door to change?

I try to push the paranoid thoughts from my head and decide to order us some Chinese takeout.

Hardin finally exits the bedroom wearing his black shirt and sweatpants. I still don't understand why he needed to lock the door.

"Um, the Chinese takeout will be here in thirty minutes," I say quietly.

"Sounds good." He smiles.

"So, how was work?"

"Fine," he quickly answers.

"What project are you working on?"

"Oh, it's really boring. Let's just talk about something else."

"Okay... Emma and Nate are coming to your birthday dinner next weekend."

"Oh, good. But remember, it's just dinner." He chuckles.

After an awkward silence, our dinner finally arrives and we eat mostly in silence. I know something is going on with Hardin. I just don't know what.

After dinner we watch a little television before finally heading to bed. I walk ahead of Hardin, still annoyed that he's keeping something from me, when he takes me by surprise.

"I'm sorry about today, baby. I really would have rather spent the day with you. I missed you," he says sincerely.

All my anger towards him melts away as he takes me in his arms. "I missed you, too," I say into his chest.

"Oh, really? How much?"

"This much," I say and then kiss him.

"Tess..." he moans and starts to move his hands under my shirt.

I reach for his shirt and gently lift it up his stomach when he suddenly pulls away from me. "What's wrong?" I ask, confused.

"Um, I'm actually really tired from work today. I think I should just get some sleep."

"Oh. Okay..." I watch as he quickly crawls into bed and pulls the covers over himself. "What about your shirt? I always sleep in it."

"I'm cold. Just grab one out of my dresser," he says coldly.

"You know what? Never mind. I'll just sleep in my own pyjamas," I say angrily. I quickly change and get into bed, making sure to face the wall. I feel humiliated and I can't bring myself to look at Hardin right now.

I lie awake, just staring at the wall, wondering what the hell is going on with Hardin. He was acting weird about work today and now he won't touch me or let me touch him? That's definitely not the man I know.

After tossing and turning in my sleep, I decide to finally go to the living room to try to read for a little while. I grab my book and get comfy on the couch. I'm able to take my mind off everything with Hardin for a few hours while I read, but then the paranoid thoughts begin to creep back in.

I stare angrily at Hardin's leather jacket, just draped over the chair. He couldn't even bother to hang it up. I guess he expected me to. "Jerk," I mumble to myself. I angrily march over to where the jacket is and snatch it off the chair, ready to hang it up myself, when I notice something fall from the pocket. I look down at my feet where a crumpled piece of paper lays. I bend down to retrieve it. I slowly uncrumple it to reveal a sticky note with a phone number and a bunch of different sized hearts drawn all over the paper.

I start to get that sick feeling in my stomach again. This could only be a woman's phone number. Who else would draw cute, romantic hearts all around it?

All I want to do in this moment is call that damn number and find out exactly who it belongs to and who Hardin's been sneaking around with behind my back. But I can't. It's the middle of the night. I'll have to wait until morning.

I quickly shove the sticky note with that skank's number on it into my pyjama pocket and curl up on the couch. There's no way in hell I'm sharing a bed with Hardin right now... At least not until I figure out what's going on.