Try.

Chapter 27: I'm Empty, I Know

merry christmas ya filthy animals
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"Adrienne," Harry breathed, his grip tightening on my waist as he seemed to comprehend the situation.

"Hi, Harry," she said sweetly. "How've you been?"

"Fine." He answered, keeping his jaw tight. I could tell he was pissed that Alex would bring her to the event, but how was he supposed to know that she and Harry had a past? If my timeline is correct, Alex would've joined the Jaguars after Harry, which means he would've never known they were an item. Adrienne and Harry broke up near the start of his career.

"Do you two. . . know each other?" Alex asked, and Harry coughed awkwardly while Adrienne looked at her feet.

"Yeah," she answered. "Just a little."

"Well, hey, that's good," Alex grinned at her. "We can all sit together. Let's grab a table, babe, they're probably going to start soon."

He began to walk off with her, and I cringed as I watched his hand rest dangerously close to her rear end. Harry leaned close to me and said, "Stop making that face, babe."

I immediately straightened myself and looked at him. "Is he serious?" I asked. "How could he? Does he not know your history?"

He sighed and shook his head. "I don't know, if he does, I would've never said anything. Alex is the last person I would open up about my life to."

"I don't want to sit with them." I muttered, looking away from his gaze.

"Why? Because of him?"

"No," I said. "Because of her."

He pursed his lips and frowned. "You have no reason to dislike her, Viv. I certainly do."

"I don't like her because of how she treated you. That's enough of a reason." I stated, toying with the baseball card between my fingers.

He tried to hold back a smile but failed. Another red-haired young man in a suit approached us and smiled at Harry, saying, "Hey, man, don't you clean up nicely?"

They bro-hugged and Harry nodded. "Yeah, it happens occasionally. Don't get used to it."

"Hi," he said, facing me and extending his hand. "I don't believe we've met. I'm Tom, I'm the Jaguars catcher. Probably don't recognize my face since it's always behind a face mask."

I chuckled along with him as I shook his hand. "It's nice to meet you, I'm Vivian."

"Lovely name," he complimented. I noticed Harry's grip around my waist seemed to lighten and I took it as an indication that he felt comfortable around Tom. "You two don't have seats already, do you? We've got a fairly open table if you'd like to join us."

Harry was almost too quick to say yes. "That would be great."

He let go of my waist and grabbed my hand, leading me along as we followed Tom throughout the maze of tables until we arrived at his. A young woman was standing next to it as she spoke to a man I recognized as Ryan Hansen, and she was clad in a gorgeous pale, pink dress. Hair cascaded down her back in gorgeous caramel-brown waves and I wondered if she was either Tom's or Ryan's date.

Tom introduced us to her, and I discovered her name was Jade. They both insisted they were just friends and nothing more, but I could tell that they were just as much friends as Louis was straight.

Harry pulled my chair out for me, and I sat down as he sat next to me. His hand mindlessly went to my thigh, and I was starting to see how anxious he was being with all these people. I was starting to wonder if instead of him being so worried about being seen with me, he was actually more nervous just being around people in general. The more I got to know him, the more I noticed that he didn't go out to huge parties or hang out with a large group of people.