i love you, nora jane [h.s.]

10.

"The phrase sticks to my tongue like glue and I wish you could hear it over and over again until you believe it to be true: I'm sorry." -Harry's journal.

.....

For a portion of the morning I stared into the piercing eyes which were printed on Nora Jane's copy of The Great Gatsby. I flipped through the pages, noticing every pen marking she had scribbled by certain quotes she admired.

I imagined a younger Nora Jane, curious and just as lovely, resting her head upon her dying mother's chest. There she would read to her mother their favorite book.

Alastair had given her mother it. Perhaps he thought himself as Gatsby and his wife as Daisy.  And then, for a moment, I pictured myself as Gatsby and Nora Jane as Daisy. She was just as curious as Daisy. I was as foolish as him.

"Good morning, lover."

My hands forced the book shut with a sound and I turned towards the woman lying naked in my bed.

"I don't remember what happened last night, but the morning hour is late and you need to go," I hastily ordered. She scoffed, wrapping her torso with the sheets.

"You've got a girlfriend, then?"

"No," I said, picking her scattered clothes from the floor. I tossed them to her, walking into the kitchen. "I don't have anyone."

I heard her bare feet step quickly behind me, following me to the kitchen table. "That must be lonely. Doesn't it bother you?"

I laughed shortly, checking the clock that hung above the counter. Nora Jane would be opening the shop, preparing a tray of pastries by now. "Does what bother me? The silence? Knowing there's no one out there thinking about me?"

The stranger's eyes widened. I searched in them for something besides shock, but I found myself disappointed that they didn't hold what Nora Jane's eyes did.

"No." The word came out as a defeated whisper and I suprised myself. I stared blankly at the floor and forgot someone else was standing beside me.

The woman, clad in nothing but my bed sheet, excused herself from my presence. She quietly padded to the bathroom to change and suddenly I missed her company.

I waited for her to finish dressing. She wasn't much to look at, but somehow I appreciated her for trying.

"I hope you get better," she said before closing the door behind her. I nodded her off, but she was already gone. I figured I should be, too.

.....

The Greene's shop was busier than normal, which meant Nora Jane and her sister were hard at work. Nora Jane's back was to me when I walked in and she greeted me with a rushed "Good morning" as she poured steaming coffee into a mug.

"Good morning, lovely," I said. She turned around, caught off guard. She sighed and spun back around, nearly knocking the mug to the floor. "Not happy to see me? I am certainly awfully glad to see you."

Her body froze for a moment, until Anneliese barked an order in her ear. She gave the mug to a bearded man and wished him well. "So you've been reading Gatsby."

"I had to, after some girl forced it upon me," I smiled when she lightly laughed.

"This girl sounds very forceful. How could you, Harry Styles, handle someone bossing you around?" Nora Jane leaned against the counter to close the space between us.