The Timeline [h.s.]

67.

May 31st, 2018:

"No, truly, you looked like that thing they use to cover chickens when they're making them in the oven. What do you call it?"

"Aluminum foil?!"

"That's the one!"

Claire let herself fall back on her bed, letting out a "mmph" when her aching back hit the soft comforter thrown on top of the mattress. Spending the whole day standing had started taking its toll on her lower back and the soles of her feet. It was coming to an end the following day, but despite the fact that she felt like she would never stop hurting physically, she was sad that the shooting was about to end.

That day, the second to last day of shooting, she had been on set way past her staying time, simply because she hadn't wanted to leave. She was supposed to leave at 7PM, like any other night, unless she had an early day or a night shoot, but instead she had stayed to hang out with the other actors and the members of the crew until 9PM, getting home at 10PM.

She hadn't managed to catch Theodore while he was still up - his bedtime varied between 8 and 8:30PM, but she had still gone inside of his room to kiss him goodnight, knowing that he wouldn't have been disturbed by her appearance. Her baby slept like the dead, after all.

Harry's call had been a surprise.

Well, not really, as the two of them had kept in close contact since he had left for his US leg of the tour, the morning after his impromptu visit at Claire's house - despite the way Toby had managed to make her feel when Harry had shown up.

The time difference - Harry being either 8 or 6 hours behind - meant that they couldn't exactly speak much, but it was fine by Claire. Their conversations had evolved from the neverending stretched one they used to have when they were teenagers, long into their more recent years - before everything else had gone down - to more spaced out, focused conversations.

They didn't need to say 'Hello' or 'Goodbye' when starting to talk, they would simply strike up a conversation and go from there. Then, one of them would disappear - either asleep or busy with their job - and reappear at a later time. At one point the conversation would end naturally, as all conversations do. And then, say a couple of hours later - or a day later, depending on time zones and aligning schedules - one of them would reappear and say something that would strike up a conversation and they would go on with their new pattern.

It felt very natural to Claire, she had grown to value their newfound closeness very dear to her. There was something different in the way they talked to each other, she knew that (and she knew that Harry knew that as well). It was like, after everything they had been through, they had found a new equilibrium between the two of them: there were some lines they didn't cross, not even in jest, and that was fine by Claire. Lines could get blurry very fast, and since she was already walking a tightrope with Toby, the last thing she needed was adding fuel to a fire that was growing bigger by the second. And she knew that Toby was watching her even more closely than he ever had.

The whole thing made her feel guilty about something she wasn't doing. Dirty for just having a friendship with a person she cared about a lot. She hated how she had to change in front of Toby. How she had to second guess everything she said, how she couldn't even mention anything regarding Harry, because she knew that it would set him off.

Not even the fact that Claire had been to Harry's show - twice, although Toby only knew about the one - and she had gone back home unscathed had been enough to calm him down and shut him up. Nothing had happened, and he still seemed to have a problem with it. Whenever Claire had asked him to explain to her why he reacted the way he did, Toby would simply shrug it off and mutter that she wouldn't have understood. So make me! Claire felt like screaming at him.