Stumbling Into Perfection...

Chapter 19

Waking up snuggled into Harry's side was all Jennifer hoped it would be. She wasn't sure when or how they'd made it to the bedroom, but she seemed to remember being carried sometime during the night even though she was too tired to wake up all the way. Something told her the strong arms around her were offering her nothing but safety so she hardly thought waking up was necessary.

Their legs were tangled together, causing a hilarious episode of having to not only disentangle themselves from the covers but from each other as well. Harry begged and pleaded for her to join him in the shower, even going so far as to pull out the "but we're saving the environment" argument. Jennifer had to admit, shower sex sounded amazing but after seeing some of the frantic texts from Holly she knew she needed a minute alone to handle things.

Harry's pout was deep and pronounced as he walked into the bathroom naked and alone. Jennifer promised herself she'd take care of him later tonight to make it up to him.

She scrolled through her texts which ranged from Holly ranting about Liam's propensity for rapidly changing the channels to wondering whether or not she'd always be alone to a well thought out plan for getting her CD released.

Jennifer made a note to suggest that Holly get checked out for schizophrenia the next time she saw her. The last text was what concerned her the most though.

Where are you? Why aren't you answering me? Are you ok?

Jennifer felt terrible. She was keeping her relationship from the one person who cared about it the most, other than Harry. She quickly pulled up her texts to respond.

Hey, sorry I fell asleep early last night. Where are you?

Jennifer didn't expect a response right away but the three dots appeared on her screen almost immediately.

I'm at the venue, sitting on my bus. Trying to figure out this show now that I can't sing any of my new songs. Where are you?

Jennifer bit her lip.

Ok, I'll be there in an hour. Don't go anywhere.

Thankfully Holly accepted that answer. Jennifer stood up on the bed before hopping down off of it and walking into the other room where she'd discarded her pants. She quickly pulled them on and looked around for her jacket.

Harry walked out with a towel around his hips,

"Oh good. I thought you left."

Jennifer searched for her jacket,

"I'm about to. You seen my jacket?"

Harry pulled his eyebrows together. He wasn't sure why she suddenly seemed so frantic,

"It's over there." He said pointing to her jacket on the front table, "Where are you going?"

"Holly...I need to talk to her. She's..." Jennifer ran her hands through her hair, "Ugh...this CD thing-" She stopped abruptly.

Harry walked towards her, putting his hands on her shoulders as he turned her to look at him,

"Ok, ok, ok...calm down. Tell me what's going on."

Jennifer sighed and let her hand drop from her hair,

"She's just on edge. This whole CD thing and them not allowing her to release it. She worked so hard and I feel like this is my fault and-"

"Your fault? How is this your fault?"

Jennifer shrugged,

"I dunno. She wouldn't have even recorded it if it wasn't for me thrusting her into a situation that none of you asked for." When Harry gave her a knowing look she rushed on, "That's not the point. The point is that for the first time since her career started I don't know what to do to help her. I feel helpless and she knows it because she's slowly going insane."