PATIENT LOVE

Chapter twenty-one

"Hey, Maddie," he smiles.

He just never knows when to let go. I hate his random visits.

"Good night, Roman," I say as I pull out my keys to unlock the door, being as blunt as I can be for him to leave. But he doesn't leave, he stands there and glares but it's not at me and I don't understand why until I turn around.

"Why the fuck is he here?" Roman spits at the sight of Harry.

Harry's here. Great. I'm now in between them both.

"I could ask the same about you. I came here to talk to Madelyn," Harry says calmly which surprises me. But then I see his jaw clenching and his fist balled up. Definitely not calm.

"So did I," Roman says. "I just want to talk; I have to get things off my chest." He says and gently holds onto my arm.

I snap my eyes over to Harry and his calm mask has been removed. "Get your fucking hands off her," he snaps.

I watch in fear as Harry comes in front of Roman's face. "What are you going to do about it tough guy?" Roman pushes Harry and some dark emotion flashes behind Harry's eyes and he swings his right fist, connecting with Roman's jaw.

I shriek in horror at the sound of impact and my hands fly to my mouth. Harry's fist connects with Roman's nose with the second swing while Roman manages to get a few good hits in as well.

"Stop! Harry, stop!" I say, trying to pull at Harry's t-shirt but he doesn't ease up, it's like he can't even comprehend what's going on right now.

One of the neighbors down the hall comes out at hearing the commotion and he breaks up the fight easily being that he's way bigger than the both of them.

"Easy, I don't want to have to call the authorities," the older man I know as John says to both Harry and Roman. Both of them are panting hard and shooting bullets at one another. I'm grateful for John's interaction because I don't think I would have been able to separate the two.

"You guys good?" he says and each of them nods. Roman wipes blood from his nose and Harry runs his blood stained knuckles through his hair, wincing at the pain a little.

Hesitantly, John let's go of Harry's shirt and when none of them lunge for each other he sees that as a sign that it's over. With a shake of his head he walks back over to his door.

"Thank you, John," I say softly, embarrassed.

"Don't let this happen again." He simply says.

I walk over to Harry to examine his face and a small smile pulls at his lips. Taking the closer look I see that he isn't really bleeding that much, just a few bruises from the hits Roman got at his face and some cuts on his knuckles.

I cup his face gently, "Are you okay?" I say, close to tears from the fear of the fight and of him getting hurt or taking things too far.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He says, holding onto my wrist to keep the warmth of my hand on his cheek and then closing his eyes.

"Good. Now go home, Harry," I say each word sternly.

The small smile that was creeping up has now faded and he looks at me in disbelief as I remove my hands from his face. "Harry, just go home."

He's still rigid in his spot, reluctant to leave. "I'm not leaving." He says stubbornly. The more I see him standing there the angrier I get remembering everything.

"Harry, just go! You've done enough."

This snaps him out of his trance because he backs away from me like the force from my words has knocked him over. He looks like he doesn't know me and he looks close to his breaking point.