When you tell the world you're mine

Chapter 5: For now we say goodbye

The days working with Harry soon became a pattern. Carolina spent half of the day with books and dictionaries in hand, she put together all the material for meetings and places he visited, and by the end of the afternoon, when some people had already left, Harry always showed up and they talked about random things.

On the first day of this new routine that Harry showed up he just wanted company and since Edward had the afternoon off he decided to try and see if there were anyone at headquarters to chat with. When he opened the door he noticed that it was almost empty. Except for her. She was there, working and humming a song he didn't know. Harry just watched how she stretched every now and then, how she bit her lip and furrowed her brows when she came across something she wasn't familiar with and how she kept re-doing the bun her curls were styled into.

"Hey there, miss Carol." he said when it hit him that he was watching her for way too many time.
"Hey there, Your Royal Highness", he was about to complain about the addressing when he noticed that she was making fun of him.
"I'll pretend I didn't notice your sass, young lady."
"What do I owe your presence at my humble office?", she asked.
"Can we talk like grown ups, Carolina?", Harry threw a smal piece of paper at her.
"Well, I'm just in a good mood. And you're all grumpy. Must be your age...", she laughed at him.
"I am still pretty young, for your information."
"You sure?", she arched and eyebrow.
"Pretty much."

"Ok then... Is there anything I can do for you?"
He started to reorganize the things in her desk before answering.
"I just want to chat. I was bored and the timezone here doesn't allow me to chat with my mates."
"So you came to reorganize my things to kill time?"
She was looking at the mess he was doing and was struggling to not put everything it it's place in front of him.
"I reckon I did, yeah." he stopped when he was satisfied with the new settings and missed the annoyed face she made.
"What do you want to talk about?", she looked at him.
"I don't know."
"You're not helping. I'm not that good in small talk." Carol finished her tasks for the day and turned off her computer. But she didn't intend to leave. She'd be just there chatting with him.
"Do you like football?", he asked.
"I love football. I mean, I really do."

He actually saw the moment her green eyes lighted up when she started rambling about her team, the players, the coaches. How their supporters were one of the biggest number of all of brazilian's football teams. So he just listened for the most part and loved how her voice sounded. He enjoyed her accent and how she made less mistakes when she wasn't overthinking what to say. He was surprised to see that she actually understood football. They talked most about their teams. Hers, Corinthians. His, Arsenal. They lost track of time talking about players and coaches. The current championships and who had the best shot at winning.

–

On the second day Harry asked for Edward to let him know when everyone left. Somehow he knew Carol would be the last one to leave. And as soon as Edward left his bedroom, Harry changed into casual clothes and entered their headquarters. He asked to see some of the files she was working on and she delivered it to him. She was quieter and had dark circles under her eyes. He asked if something was wrong and she just said she didn't want to talk about it. They were quiet for a while and the silence in the room was deafening. He made some suggestions on the papers and she soon corrected them.

"So, since you're not that talkative today. What should be the topic of our conversation?" he was looking at her and she couldn't help but smile a bit because of his effort.
"That's more like you. You should always be smiling, Carol."
"I can't always be." she had a deep breath and when he was going to ask again what was the matter, she asked him about his trips. About the places he had met.

Harry couldn't tell her all the stories about his trips or what he did in most places because, well, she was kind of a stranger to him. So he shared only what he could and she was satisfied and almost didn't ask questions.