Ephemeral //H.S

Chapter 15

My breath gets caught in my throat when I almost choke on nothing as my eyebrows shoot up on my forehead and my eyes are as wide as dinner plates while I stare at him for what feels like ages.

"What did you just say?" I'm pretty sure my eye just twitched, but I still ask because I'm not sure I heard him properly.

"Go to dinner with me?" He raises an eyebrow, looking at me like I was the crazy one here.

" Why?" My nose scrunches up in confusion.

Why would he say something like that, did he work out for too long or something? Is he having a stroke?

"Because I want to go to dinner with you? Is that too unbelievable to you?" He tilts his head to the side, narrowing his eyes at me and I copy his action, my eyebrows knitting together.

"Huh yeah..?" I shift on my feet and he smirks, shaking his head before taking a sip of his water and crossing his arms against his chest, leaning against the fridge.

Why would he want that?

"So, what do you say?" The corner of his lips twitches upwards and I look down at my hands, my fingers picking at my cuticles and my teeth sinking into my lip.

"I can't." I clear my throat, suddenly extremely interested in my fingers, trying to ignore the blush creeping up my cheeks.

"And why is that?" I can literally hear his cocky grin that I know is plastered on his perfectly shaped lips, so I look up to see that he is looking at me as if he knew something I didn't, causing me to glare at him.

"I don't, I've never... I just don't want to, sorry." Even I can hear the insecurity in my voice, that sounded so weak and pathetic. I'm so pathetic.

Going to dinner, that's funny. The last time I "went to dinner" with someone, didn't actually mean going to dinner. He wants something from me, that has to be it.

He doesn't say anything and just keeps on staring at me, while I keep on looking down, my face slowly getting hotter and probably growing redder. I have to leave before it gets worse.

"I have to go... Thanks, for the water." I mumble, glancing at him before turning around and walking through the backdoor, feeling his gaze on the back of my head until I'm out of his sight and can finally breathe again.

That was our weirdest interaction so far, I think. And I'm glad I was able to leave so quickly, because I don't know if I could've handled any more of this. It's not that I was uncomfortable because of him, I just wish he hadn't asked me that. Because now it's all I'm gonna be able to think about.

After that I spent the rest of the day doing random things and trying to get his question out of my head. I needed to clean around the house because Devon has been working in her office all day long, and I didn't want to ask her to do it herself because I felt lazy, so I worked up the courage to start cleaning.

I started in the kitchen, emptying the dishwasher, cleaning the counters and the floors. Then the living room, the conservatory, Devon's bedroom and then mine. And finally my office. The house was now squeaky clean, and I was sweaty and exhausted. I don't remember the last time I did this much in just one day. And as expected, all day long Harry's question kept on circling around in my head no matter how hard I tried to block it out.

Of course I felt disappointed, partly in him but mostly in myself. I was wrong about him all this time, just when I was thinking that he was okay he does something like this. I could probably be overreacting and overanalyzing this situation, but I don't see how this could be good for me.