Inevitable

Chapter 62

I was still trying to recover myself a few minutes later when Henry lifted me up and laid me down on the couch. He laid down on top of me with his head resting on my stomach. I reached up and ran my hand through his hair. I never knew love could be like this. I never knew I could love someone so much that it overwhelmed me.
He lifted his head and looked at me with a look of tenderness in his eyes.

"What's going on in that pretty head of yours? I can practically hear the wheels turning."

"I was thinking about how you need a haircut."

He leaned his head on one hand and the other started tracing shapes on my stomach. It tickled a little. I giggled at the sensation.

"I love when you laugh like that."

My stomach chose that moment to grumble. We both started laughing

"My baby needs to eat."

He sat up and grabbed my wrists to pull us both up off the couch. I grabbed my clothes to put back on while he pulled his shorts back on.

"I got you those cinnamon chip bagels you love. There's fruit too."

"You are spoiling me Henry." He walked over to me and cupped my face in his hands and made me look into his eyes.

"I like spoiling you. I like making you laugh. I like taking care of you. I never thought I would have this in my life. I never thought I really wanted it. Then you came into my life and you changed everything for me. And I'm not going to lose it again."

I pulled him to me to wrap my arms around his back. I rested my head on his chest to listen to his heartbeat. I felt him kiss the top of my head. His words filled me with so much love. No wonder he was a writer. He had a beautiful way of conveying his emotions.
      I released him from my embrace. He took my hand and led me to the kitchen. We made our breakfast with goofy grins on our faces. I loved doing mundane things like preparing a meal with Henry. It made it feel like we were a real couple again.
   Before he came into my life, I was always alone. It never bothered me because it's what I was used to. And then all of a sudden, I found Henry and I fell so fast. He became the center of my world. Just as suddenly, I lost him and I was alone again. Only this time I knew what I was missing. And it was the little things I missed the most. Like when he would put his hand on my thigh when he was driving. Or the sweet little texts he would send me before going to sleep. Or the way he always made sure I wasn't hungry or cold. I loved everything about being with him. I was on cloud nine now that we found our way back to each other.
     After breakfast, we hopped in the shower together. Neither one of us wanted to be away from the other. We had spent too much time apart already. After we got dressed, Henry decided he really did need a haircut and I was coming along since it was my idea. I didn't mind though. I didn't care what we did as long as we were together.
     Henry drove downtown and found a parking spot right out front of his barber shop. It was weird seeing the streets so empty. There were only a few students walking up and down the usually crowded streets. Summer session was going on but it was nothing like the fall and winter semesters. The whole place felt deserted. Henry wasn't kidding when he said it's a whole different vibe.
     He took my hand when I stepped up on the sidewalk and led me through the front door of what looked like a typical barber shop. He was greeted by an older man who clearly knew who Henry was. After they shook hands, he placed his hand on my lower back to push me forward to introduce me.

"Bob, this is my girlfriend Emily."

"So this is the Emily I keep hearing so much about. I'm glad to see you two back together. Now don't mess it up again Henry."

Wow, I wasn't expecting this stranger to know our whole history but I couldn't help but feel flattered that Henry talked about me to him. And from the sound of it, he talked about me a lot. I looked up at Henry who looked like he was embarrassed by Bob's words.
    I took a seat in the waiting area while Henry followed Bob to his work station. Again, a wave of happiness overcame me because I was doing normal everyday things with Henry. Would it always feel like this? I really hoped so. I must have been staring at Henry getting his haircut because he suddenly looked over at me with a knowing smile on his face. Damn! He could be so full of himself some times and other times he seemed like a shy insecure little boy. It was a strange contradiction.
   I rolled my eyes at him and pulled my phone out to occupy myself. I had a text message from Liam. Of course he would chose this weekend to get in touch with me! I haven't heard from him in a couple of weeks so he didn't know I got back together with Henry. And I wasn't sure how Henry would feel about me talking to Liam after all the trouble he caused for us in the spring. I had left things with Liam on a good note at the end of the semester so I wasn't ready to give up his friendship. Plus, Liam had told me that he finally accepted that I was in love with Henry and not him. All our communications over the summer had been friendly text messages checking in with each other. I opened up the latest one.

"Hey Em! How's your summer going? Good news...I'm going to be in ur neck of the woods in 2 weeks visiting one of my frat bros. Let's get together!"

I had no idea how I was going to handle this. I really wanted to see Liam. I missed everyone so much this summer. But things were going so well with Henry and I didn't want to cause any drama. I decided to just ignore the text message for now and figure out what to do later. The weekend was going perfectly so far and I didn't want to ruin it by bringing up a sore subject. I closed the message and put my phone down. When I looked back up, Henry was now standing by the register paying for his haircut. That was fast. It looked like he had only gotten a little trim. His hair didn't really look any different. Just less messy.
     He walked over to me and he pulled me up out of the chair.

"Does it look better?"

He pushed his lips out making a duck face like he was posing for a picture. I giggled at his silliness.

"You look beautiful dahling."

"Let's take a walk while we are down here. We practically have the place to ourselves."