Happily Ever After?? (Third in the Through The Dark And Free series)

Chapter 27

Harry glanced at the clock again on the night stand. He had come up to bed awhile ago. His mum and Gemma had left and gone back to his mum's house which was only a short drive, and he figured he'd give Julie some time with her friends. Gregory had gone to bed before he had, so he figured he'd leave Julie with Jaime and Marcus for awhile. Let her enjoy some time with her friends alone. It was now almost 2 am though, and he was wondering how much longer she'd be. He was hoping they could talk before they went to sleep. Niall, Amanda, and Julie's parents were flying into Manchester early tomorrow afternoon, well, this afternoon now that it was 2 am, and he wanted things to be clear between them by the time everyone arrived. Since Niall and Amanda were set to land only 45 minutes prior to Julie's parents, they were going to drive to the house together so Harry didn't have to go pick them up. But still he wanted this holiday to go well, and people would notice the tension between them right now. He was just contemplating going and seeing if she would come talk to him when he heard the door open. "Hey, you guys must've had a lot to talk about."

"Yeah, sorry, lost track of time I guess." Julie apologized walking over to the dresser to grab something to sleep in.

"No need to apologize. I brought them here so you could spend time with them." Harry closed his journal and set it aside.

"Right, of course you did." Julie paused for a second and then turned to go towards the bathroom to change.

"Julie, we need to talk." Harry watched her walk towards the bathroom. She never went to the bathroom just to change anymore. There really was no need to. Things were definitely wrong, and they needed to fix them.

"I know. But I don't think now is the time." Julie stopped and turned to look at him. "After everyone leaves, I guess."

"So, we're just going to pretend everything's ok until everyone leaves? Julie, everyone can tell things aren't ok." Harry looked at her. "Please."

"Things are, just, difficult. But I'm not sure 2 am the day my parents are arriving for Thanksgiving is the best time to get into everything." She shook her head. "You knew things were off before you invited everyone here, Harry. If you thought they needed to be dealt with before the holiday, maybe you should have thought of that first, before you changed plans all on your own." She shrugged her shoulders and went into the bathroom.

Harry sighed and went and looked out of the big picture window over the lake. He thought bringing her friends here would relax her a little more, make things less tense, show her things weren't changing completely, but things seemed more tense than they were before. Even after her talk with Marcus at the lake. Harry chuckled sarcastically to himself. Marcus probably had used that time to try and turn his wife against him. He ran his hands through his hair and pulled on the ends a little. When he heard the bathroom door open, he turned and looked at Julie as she walked out. "I thought having your friends here would make you relax a little. Help calm your worries."

Julie looked up from putting her clothes in the laundry. "Did you ask? Did you ask if I wanted to have everyone here? Did you ask if I'd like to have Thanksgiving dinner here at the house? Did you ask if I wanted to have a huge Thanksgiving dinner at all?"

Harry turned fully towards Julie and crossed his arms over his chest. "You love Thanksgiving. The meal, the friends, and family. The tradition."

Julie shook her head. "I do. But did you ask? Ever? The first Thanksgiving we were together? Or the next we were together, when you put your mom up to asking me to help her make the meal." She raised her eyebrows when Harry just looked at her. "Yeah, I know you asked her to. Or this one? Have you ever asked?" When Harry didn't say anything, Julie just took a deep breath. "Yeah, that's what I thought." She walked over to her side of the bed and pulled down the covers. "I just want to go to bed."