PATIENT LOVE

Chapter thirty-one

The light hits the ring on my finger, enhancing the green color of it as I stare at it. "I love it so much, Harry."

"Great because that would have been awkward." He jokes as he drives the long way back to my job.

The soft sound of Sweet Child of Mine in the car encases my mind as so many things of my relationship with Harry resurface. So much has happened, things I would have never guessed from the day he walked into my shop, or even from speaking to him briefly on my birthday years ago.

Although we're in a good place, I can't help but be curious and wonder about Jess. I do in a sense feel like I'm a bad person but I also feel that Harry and I were inevitable. He hasn't wanted to bring up the talk at all and that's okay but for some reason I just feel like it all ended too easily.

"What's on your mind, love?" he catches me off guard, resting his large hand on my thigh. Love.

I'm hesitant to speak because I feel that at the mention of Jess I will ruin this comforting moment we're in now.

"Nothing," I dismiss, trying to soften it with a smile.

"You can tell me, Maddie," his eyes find mine for a second before turning back to the road.

"I don't want you to get mad."

His hand squeezes my thigh a little. "What is it?"

"Jess," I sigh.

"What about Jess, Madelyn?" his eyes skirt around.

"You haven't talked about everything that happened." I try to say it in a way that doesn't seem accusatory.

"What do you want to know?"

"How did she take it?" I glance over at him. His eyes are jittery, he suddenly looks stressed and I regret asking.

"She was upset of course but we talked... she knows everything and all ties with her are cut off. I even started packing my shit, so I'll be out by the end of the week the latest." He reassures me, squeezing my thigh while avoiding my eyes.

I sigh in relief of knowing that things seem to have ended smoothly and that she didn't become some scary stalker ex that's going to show up at my apartment and murder me.

"Now will you stop stressing over this? I can see the thoughts rattling in your head," he chuckles and I can't help but smile at him.

"You're right," I place my hand down on his, playing with each of his fingers and rings as I trace his cross tattoo. I catch the smile on his face when I bring his hand to my lips.

While at the stop light he turns to me. "You're going to make me turn this car around," he whines playfully.

"And do what?" I bite my lip and his eyes widen. I guess we weren't thinking the same thing.

"What do you have in mind?"

"I was thinking we have a nice bath, maybe a glass of wine or two and see what happens from there." My hand lowers on his body as I smirk at him, with every breath of my words the space between our lips increasingly vanish.

His eyes look glossy as the idea registers and the want intensifies.

"That can be arranged," he whispers, hand crawling up my thigh right before a blaring car horn shakes us apart.

"Fucking hell," he curses under his breath as he turns back to the wheel, my laughter filling the car. He playful glares at my continuous laughter. When he pulls into the parking lot his ears and cheeks are a pink color. Looking down at where his hands rest I can see what he's trying to conceal from me.