The Artist [h.s.]

three

"You never told me what this one means." Jacob traced the outline of her I promise tattoo lightly with his fingertips.

Carter made up a story to spare his feelings from the truth, "I got it for my grandmother, those were the last words she ever said to me."

She felt terrible lying to him like that, but, if he knew that Harry had done it and what it had actual stood for, he would probably leave her.

After her little moment with Harry behind the shop, she thought a lot about her current relationship. It wasn't fair of her to compare Jacob to Harry and she realized that now.

She also realized that she did love Jacob. She didn't love him as strongly as she had loved Harry, she didn't think that she would ever love anybody else that way, but she did love him.

He wasn't Harry, but he was Jacob and he was special too.

Jacob wore a soft smile as he pulled his hand away, "That's beautiful, but then again, so are the rest of your tattoos and so are you."

He kissed her cheek and she smiled and cuddled closer to him on the couch. She still hadn't told him about Harry being in the area and upsetting her, but she wasn't exactly sure if she wanted to.

He didn't deserve someone like her, someone who would break his heart one way or the other, but she didn't want to let him go either.

Carter wanted Harry more than she wanted anything, but she needed to be safe in a relationship and someone as eccentric and as passionate as Harry couldn't give her that.

She'd left him for a reason, even if she hated herself for it.

Jacob was tuning into the soft sounds emitting from the TV when she turned in his arms to smile up at him, "Do you know that I love you?"

The smile that resulted from those words was the biggest and the brightest that she'd seen on him since they first started dating.

This time, he knew that she meant it.

"Only if you know that I love you more."

. . .

She'd been avoiding him for weeks. He sat outside the shop and waited for her to come out, sometimes for her to go in, but she knew and probably went out either the side door or the back door.

Harry was frustrated with himself because it seemed like he had managed to push her even further away. Who could blame him though?

If it was the other way around, she would have told him to leave his lover too.

He understood what she meant about him being a wild card, it was true, but that didn't mean that it was bad or that he would hurt her because of it.

Hell, if anyone was the true wild card here, it was Carter, she'd proved as much when she left him and when she told him that she loved him, but she wasn't going to leave her lover.

Today, Harry decided to park around the corner and wait for her by the back door. If she was going to avoid him, he was going to go straight to the source, no games.

Snow clung to his hair and his clothes, his hands were fucking freezing and his lips were trembling, but he would wait for however long it took, even if he got frostbite in the process.

Nearly an hour passed before he saw the lights switch off. Carter was probably going to hit him again, but he wasn't going to let her walk out of his life so easily.

She wasn't paying attention as she pulled her coat around her as tight as she could manage and locked the back door.

Not wanting to scare her, Harry waited to say something until she turned around and saw him rocking on his heels to keep a little bit warmer.