🌹Every Rose Has Its Thorn🌹

Chapter Three ~ White Gerberas

After a long busy day at the shop Josie comes home mentally and physically exhausted. She wants nothing more than to take a long bath and crawl in bed with a book, but before she can she has some chores to do. Every Saturday evening and often when the kids are with their father on Sunday, Josie tries to make a head start for the coming week. Tonight she wants to make a big pot of soup, her special sauce for lasagne and a casserole and tomorrow she wants to clean the house. It will be good for her to do all these things, if she is busy, maybe her thoughts won't be with Harry.

Josie is making herself a ham sandwich for dinner while she goes over their encounter at the coffee shop. She assumed everything went well, she feels a connection and she thinks he feels the same but the last two days have made her doubt that.

"He probably doesn't want to date a woman with two children." Josie says to the red pepper that she is cutting into little pieces. She would understand if Harry don't want to date someone with kids but she hopes he has the decency to tell her this and not just disappear.

The day after Josie and Harry had coffee he had come to the shop and bought white gerberas and Josie tried to flirt with him.
"White gerberas are a sign of innocence but I don't think you're innocent at all." she had said with a wink.
"Want me to show you how innocent I am?" Harry had asked her. Josie just smiled at him with pink cheeks.

After Harry left the shop Katherine had watched him through the big front window and Harry immediately went to an old, sweet looking lady who was waiting for the bus to come. He talked to her for a couple of minutes and then gave her the flowers before he walked away.

By now both Josie and Katherine are so curious and they decide one of them would ask Harry about it the next day.

Josie doesn't admit it but she really is looking forward to Harry's visit. She doesn't leave the shop for lunch and she doesn't close up till fifteen minutes after closing time but there was no sign of Harry.
First she thought he maybe had a really busy day at work or he is sick but that never has stopped him before. That night Josie started to think it has something to do with her or the fact she has two children.
When Harry doesn't show up again today her feeling only gets stronger. She feels stupid for thinking Harry wouldn't make a problem out of Alex and Lou . When she finally tells herself to stop thinking about Harry, she realizes all her cooking chores are done and she starts to clean up the kitchen.

Harry is getting ready to go to his friends birthday party. He isn't really feeling up to it, he feels weak and tired but he got the present so he has to go.

Thursday night he went to an Italian restaurant with his sister, Gemma and her boyfriend. It was a great night, Harry and Gemma have a good bond and try to see each other at least once a week.

Harry and Gemma both ate penne with a spicy, creamy tomato sauce, it tasted really good however there was something incredibly wrong with it because after a couple of hours they both started to puke. Gemma's boyfriend who ate lasagne was fine, so they probably both have food poisoning. Harry had to cancel work on Friday and he wasn't able to go buy flowers, he felt guilty but hoped Josie would guess he was sick. Harry spent the whole day in the bathroom or in bed, he was exhausted.
On Saturday, after twelve hours of sleep, Harry was feeling a little better but he was still tired and a bit nauseous. In the morning he had tried to clean his apartment, after that he took a nap. He had planned to go to buy flowers and see Josie when he woke up but he slept so long, when he woke up the store was already closed.

"What is she going to think?" Harry wonders while he looks at his pale face in the mirror.
Harry decides he looks presentable enough in his black skinnies and red shirt, his long curls are dancing prettily around his shoulders.

After a long hot shower Josie settles under the covers of her bed in her cosy pink pj's. She puts the TV on and looks around for a nice movie, maybe something to make her laugh.
That will make me stop thinking about that gorgeous curly boy, she thinks. She looks around but there is nothing interesting on TV and when she finally finds a movie, it turns out the male head character reminds her of Harry. Josie groans as she shut the TV down,
"Stop thinking about him, Josie!" she tells herself but she knows she won't stop, she can't. She knows herself well enough to know she has to hear it from him that he isn't into her. Josie wishes she had his phone number so she could call and ask, then maybe she would know and be put out of her misery but she also knows she wouldn't dare to call Harry to ask.

At the party Harry isn't much fun either, he is watching his friends laughing and enjoying themselves. The only thing he can think of is Josie and the way she licks her lips, how much she uses her hands when she is talking and how her beautiful cleavage looked like in the black top she was wearing the last time Harry saw her but also how he disappointed her, two days in a row.

"Hi mate, what's wrong?" Harry's friend Joey plops down next to him on the couch.
"Sorry,I'm not much fun tonight. I'm not here with my thoughts." Harry says with an apologetic smile.

"Woohoo" Joey screams
"I know that face! There is a girl." Harry tries not to smile but he fails and a big dimply smile forms on his face.
"Yes there is this girl, her name is Josie," Harry starts and tells his mate everything about her.

"Fuck man kids" Joey whispers when Harry is done talking.
"And two of them." Harry rolls his eyes.
"Is that all you remember from what I said? The kids aren't the problem, I love kids. I'm worried what she is thinking right now because I didn't go to the shop for two days!" Harry points out to his friend who looks at Harry as if he has turned into an alien.
"Mate, you are so wrong! The kids are a big, big, big problem! They ruin everything!" Joey says shaking his head.
"Don't ever start a relationship with a women with kids, that's my advice! The kids are always brats who have their mother wrapped around their little finger, they lie and try to put you and your girl against each other, you will never get the first place in this woman's life, the kids will always go first and you will be caged, man. Woman like that are more domestic, they don't like to go out. Your freedom will be gone and your life will be over."Joey finishes, his voice is filled with poison. Harry looks at his friend dumbfounded.
"Why?" he stammers. "Why do you think it will be like that?" Harry asks.

"Remember Ashley?" Harry nodded his head, remembering the redhead who thought she was the queen of England.
"Remember she had a kid, he was a brat. We ended our relationship before it started and it was the kids fault." Harry thinks back at how in love Joey was at Ashley but just like his mother, Ashley's kid was a brat who thought the world was glued at his arse and everyone should be doing what he wants. Joey isn't the man who follows the orders of a five year old or his mother so the relationship was done very soon after Joey met Ashley's son.
"You think about it and do the smart thing." Joey says before he leaves the couch to get another beer.

Soon after that Harry leaves the party with the excuse he isn't feeling well, what technically he isn't a lie. Also his friends words are going through his head over and over again and Harry starts to worry. What if his friend is right and dating a woman with children will only end with heartbreak? What if Josie's kids are brats too and will try to separate me from her? When he gets home Harry doesn't know what to do any more, his thoughts are all over the place. He takes a shower to clear his mind before he goes to bed. Luckily he is still exhausted from the food poisoning and he falls asleep very quickly.