Table For Two

57 - Ali

How I did not just get up and send that bitch back through the fucking doors of The Ivy on her ass and the unseasoned, overcooked chicken breast she called Alex along with her I will never know. I have never actually seen someone manage to boil their own blood in their veins but I swear by every deity ever worshipped if I ever come across Harvey's sister again, it will be on sight and she will not survive. How fucking dare she? Not only the way she talked like she was monologuing on the fucking West End stage under a goddamn spotlight but the way she just... cut Harvey down in any way she could with every syllable she uttered. I'm honestly so mad that I think Athena can sense it as she is still upstairs with Harvey while I smoke. As much as I really did not want to leave him up there alone, he had fallen asleep for a bit and it felt safe for me to try and process. But really the one person whose input I really want right now is mum and she is still at work so that will have to wait. Instead, I smoke and I write. Just some way to try and push the poison out of my veins because I cannot afford to be running this hot and messy.

When I get back up to my room, Harvey is curled up with a very contented Athena so I leave them be, grab my laptop and head downstairs. My pile of books is still on the coffee table from where I had been perched doing essays and editing for the last few weeks and I still had one to finish for my Prose module. It didn't take much to go tearing through the last thousand words I needed to complete it and... it actually isn't total bullshit for once which is an achievement all on its own. Once it is edited a bit and actually gets formatted properly, I submit the electronic copy and close my laptop so I can put a movie on to try and cool me down further. I swipe through a few options before settling on the Pride movie. It never fails to drag me out of whatever slump I'm in.

It does help... a little bit. I'm not quite as murderous as I was but I'm still seething angry at her. Like, who actually has the audacity to act like that and think that it is acceptable in any way, shape or form? It felt so good just getting under her skin the little bit that I did and honestly, if I didn't know that Harvey would be essentially tortured for it, I would have gone all in and dragged her for absolute filth. While I'm sitting and stewing in my thoughts, I hear Athena and Harvey pad down from upstairs. He's gotten changed into a hoodie of his I totally have not stolen and a pair of lounge pants he keeps here to use and save on lugging a bag back and forth across Bath. I budge up and pat the corner of the sofa. He wordlessly comes and collapses down next to me, with Athena clambering up to rest her head in his lap.

"Hey. How are you feeling?" I ask tentatively, reaching out to take his hand in mine as he lets out a long-suffering sigh.

"I don't know why I never seem able to stand up to her. Every time I think I'll be able to and I just sit there like I'm nothing."

"You know you're not though, right?"

"Logically, yes... but she has spent so long making me feel the size and significance of a dust mite that I just can't find whatever it is that you have in spades that makes it so easy for you to fire back at people who piss you off."

"Harvey, you really do not want to end up being more like me. For one thing, I love you for who you are. Which is pretty much the opposite of me. And for another, it is way easier for me to fire back at your shit-stain of a sister because I haven't had to deal with her bullshit for years and years. But I promise you that everything she has made you believe about yourself is wrong, okay?"

He gives a glimmer of a half smile with that little laugh which is like he's blowing air out of his nose. One of the first things he does that I fell in love with. I just wrap my arms around him and hold him, kissing his forehead.

"If I have to remind you every morning, noon and night how amazing you are and how much I love you and all the reasons why then I will. Because you are all that and then some, okay?"

"I love you too, Ali"

"Come here and get a proper cuddle" I say as I pull him to me properly and yank a couple of the throws over us and Athena so we are all now just a cosy little pile of cuteness. I put the first random Netflix show that is recommended to me on and let it play out to itself because neither of us are really paying attention to it.

Harvey definitely falls back asleep at one point and I just stay there playing with his hair and nuzzling into him. Mum comes back home and gives us a questioning look but I just shake my head sternly and she leaves it alone to go shower and change. Harvey stirs and mutters something about an asterisk in his sleep and I just cuddle him closer to me while thinking of any way I can possibly get him to see just how fucking special he is to me. Even though I know he knows, I just feel like I need to really make it obvious now. Mum comes back down and Harvey rouses long enough to announce he is going to bed so I let him. Athena plods alongside him and a little bit of joy sparks in my chest seeing her treat him with the same love and attention she has always given me. Like he's family now.

The moment I hear the bedroom door shut, I turn to mum and she already has our matching pair of mugs filled with tea and primed for a bitching session. I just sigh before speaking.

"I am going to skin that unholy she-demon more commonly known as Harvey's sister alive."

"Okay... you may need to fill in some of the blanks, darling. I don't remember Harvey ever really talking about his family before."

"He doesn't. It took him ages to open up to me about them and after an impromptu encounter with the aberrant union of Maggie Thatcher and Paris Hilton, I can see why."

"Ali. What happened?" her voice took on an edge of sternness and concern that she rarely had. At least not since the last time a school threatened to expel me for fighting. I take a long drink to calm myself before speaking again.

"So. Harvey's family are not friendly to queer people. At all it seems. I'm not gonna go into what he's told me about what his sister has done before now but she seems like the golden child and got away with bullying and belittling Harvey every day for years. And she just happened to show up at the restaurant while we were waiting for the check and just had to interject and take the opportunity to punch down on him even more. Every little thing she could fit into a sentence to make him feel worthless, she did. It was horrible, mum."

"Please tell me you didn't do anything that Harvey is going to catch any grief for."

"Well I wasn't exactly nice to her but honestly, I think no matter how I responded she would save it as ammunition to fire at Harvey at some point. She is that level of heinous bitch."

Mum sighs while just fixing me with a levelled gaze. It's irritating. I know she does it to make me think about my decisions and if there was a better option than the way I handled a situation. But not this time. This time, I know I was right in what I did. I was quick and I got Harvey out of there. So I hold that gaze instead of looking away. She smiles and hugs me.

"For what it's worth, love, I think you did the right thing."

I breathe a sigh of relief and hug her back. Once she heads out to work I finish my tea and wash both our mugs up before creeping back up the stairs to cuddle with Harvey. He's still not at one hundred percent and likely won't be for a day or two. I've seen him like this a couple times now. He does rebound but it just takes a bit of time. And all I can do is just be there for him like this - cuddled up against him and making sure he feels loved. Which sucks because honestly I would prefer to take gladys and mow down his sister and her overdrawn eyebrows and her gucci bag and then drive away laughing... okay, maybe that's a little too far even for me but I want to tear her off whatever pedestal she thinks she deserves to be on top of. I hate her with the white hot heat of a thousand suns and that's off the back of one interaction. Harvey's had to deal with her bullshit for years. I cuddle into him a little tighter as if trying to wring the bad taste his sister had left behind out of us both.

"Ali... you're crushing my chest" Harvey manages to squeak out and I release him from my vise-like grip, slipping my arm around his stomach with a much lighter touch instead.

"Sorry. How are you feeling?"

"Like shit" he sighs, defeated.

"Anything I can do to help right now?"

"Just... be here. And maybe kiss me?"

"Now that I can do" I say with a smile.

I can't do much to help but if this is what he needs right now... then I'll do whatever he asks.