The Shop

Chapter 16

Oh shit. I keep repeating that in my mind on a loop. 

Tara walks closer to us on the sidewalk and Jasmine just stands in place, face covered in confusion. Rubert closes the door knowing shit is about to go down. Tara is now a few steps in front of us and looks at me, then Jasmine, then does a double-take and gawks at Jasmine. 

I know Tara, fucking gorgeous. 

"Um Harry, mind introducing us?" Tara asks with the fakest smile ever. 

"Right..uh, Tara this is my good friend Jasmine, Jasmine this is my erm, my girlfriend Tara." I gesture between them and hold the most awkward position in history.

"It's great to finally meet you!" Jasmine squeals and as Tara extends her hand for a shake, Jasmine ignores the whole gesture and pull her in for a bear hug. 

"Wow! Uh, well then. It's nice to meet you too, I guess." Tara says almost sarcastically as Jasmine puts her on the ground from the hug. Tara brushes off her coat and I must refrain from dropping my mouth open. I'm appalled by this side of Tara.

"I can't say it's great to meet you because Harry has never really mentioned you..." Tara's mouth makes a straight line and I can't even turn my face towards Jasmine right now, I know she will be furious. Way to go Tara!

"Really Harry?" Jasmine questions and gives me a grumpy face.

Well, I can sort of justify my actions. I mean I've only known Jasmine for a few days now. We have met up maybe three or four times, and have gotten to know each other over texting, but when I think of it in my head and then look at Jasmine's expression now, I'm guessing she won't be appreciative of my response.

"What were your guy's plans?" Tara broke the silence. 

"We just had a coffee, then Jasmine walked me home." To back up my claim, Jasmine viciously nodded her head with a scared smile. I guess she senses tension too.

"Did you at least get dessert?" Tara asked dryly, not believing our statement.

"Yeah, it's in the house." No one knows what to do at this point.

"It was great to meet you Tara! But I have to get going. You know...School." With a quick smile and wave to me Jasmine excuses herself from the conversation. 

"Nice to meet you too.....Jasmine!" She forgot her name...

Jasmine strides down the street and makes a left, I assume to the trains.

Without a single word, Tara lets herself into the apartment, leaving me on the street to dwell on my life decisions. Being an inflated asshole, I come to the conclusion that I've done nothing wrong and follow her. I make a break to the elevator once I'm inside and catch the doors as they're about to shut. Tara tried to close the doors on purpose, but do I really blame her? The floor is selected and there is a deafening silence as we ride up. Thoughts scramble in my mind on what to say to her. I did nothing wrong, yet do I go with the apology? Or start with stating the facts and explain the whole situation to her. Or just try blowing it off as if it's not a big deal. Bingo. The doors finally open and free us. Tara pauses before stepping out as if waiting for me to say something. My reaction is delayed, so she huffs and storms out. 

"Tara." I plea

"What Harry?" She snaps and quickly turns around. Her words are laced with venom but her eyes are filled with desperation. 

I'm not good with confrontations so I take a dick move and ask,

"What's for dinner?"

All the hope for me that she held in her eyes vanished and she mumbled something before disappearing down the hall towards our door.

When I walked into the kitchen, it smelled like bleach, lemons and ham. The first thing in sight is Mary setting the dining room table like Cinderella. I'm not minding the role. 

"Hey guys!" Mary beams as she makes her way into the kitchen to check on the ham. 

"Hi.." Tara quietly mumbles as she sets some grocery bags on the counter. I didn't even notice she was holding them. The house is cleaner than normal and I almost slip because the floor was just cleaned. The girls start discussing dinner plans and I make my way to the bedroom. 

"Harry." My name is called and I stop in my tracks and turn my head halfway to meet the speaker.

"Shower and look nice." Tara commands. I don't answer and instead oblige. I figure I've been enough of an ass to just listen for once. After a quick shower I put on a black t-shirt, black jeans and for once, wear socks. Which are of course, black as well. I stride into the kitchen and Mary catches glimpse of me. She then crosses me as if in a relay race and rushes into the shower. I peek in the Kitchen at Tara adding last minute touches to dinner. I lean over the counter and droplets of water from my hair land into the salad. 

"Fuck, I'm sorry Tara." That honestly was a mistake. She closes her eyes and brings her hand to her forehead as if contemplating why she is dating me in the first place. 

"It's fine Harry." She breathes. I can tell she's pissed. 

"But speaking of that hair, you need to do something with it." The fuck?

"What?" I mumble while flicking away dried skin from my thumb. 

"Your hair is an absolute mess!" I look up at the curls spilling over my forehead. Sure, I haven't had a haircut in a while but it's not that bad. 

"I'll have to comb it." Tara states while throwing out the contaminated salad. 

"Yeah, like thats happening." I respond sarcastically. 

"It is if you want to avoid the fact that you've been sneaking around with some random girl and didn't even try to explain it to me." Shit. I walk to the bedroom without a word. 

I sit on the edge of our bed and wait for Tara, while feeling defeated. Tara walks in and heads to her dresser. She sifts through a little bag that is filled with make up and shit and pulls out a comb. She slowly walks over to me and pulls out little blond hairs that are stuck in the bristles. 

"Since you don't want to talk about it, I say we just embrace it." Tara says while not looking at me. I don't even know what the fuck she is talking about. Clearly sensing that I'm not catching on, Tara speaks again.

"Let me rephrase, how about you text your friend Jocelyn and give her some plans for tonight?" By Jocelyn, she means Jasmine. And by give her plans, this girl wants me to invite her to dinner. I have no time to respond because Tara slashes the comb through one of my knots causing me to involuntarily curse.