Red String [h.s] (Completed)

Chapter 54

"But nothin' is better sometimes
Once we've both said our goodbyes
Let's just let it go
Let me let you go"

Harry's flight lands in New York and he is thankful Jeff got him on the Azoff family plane landing at the private airport. He heads off to his Tribeca apartment in the car service that Jeff arranged. He knows he only has about four hours before he is due back at the airport for his second flight so he has to make the most of every second. He does actually have a few clothing items that he would like to grab from his apartment while he's here. After changing his clothes three times, he checks himself in the mirror once more before heading out again.

Harry takes the elevator down to the lobby and when he walks out on the street he instantly sees three girls that have very clearly been camped out in front of his building waiting for him. He hasn't been to this apartment for months so who knows how long they've been waiting. He gets quickly into his waiting car before they reach him and he urges the driver to leave right away. They don't manage to snap a picture and he feels instant relief at not being ambushed. He hates when fans do that. The experience is always forced, never organic.

And then he thinks about Amy. He thinks about his plan right now to find out where Amy is and force her to talk to him and he sees the parallels. He feels like an idiot for even considering it. Tracking her down using any means necessary when she clearly doesn't want to talk to him is crossing a line. In the past he's done it too. Used Tom as a person she trusts as a means to get in contact with her. He's no better than the 'fans' that stalk him.

"You know what, I had a change of plans," he tells the driver. He aborts his mission to see Amy and he directs the driver instead to his favorite lunch place in the city.

He pulls up out front and thanks the driver before getting out, letting him know that he won't be long. He walks inside and the hostess recognizes him from past visits and immediately seats him in a more private booth. As he is walking, he scans the room and his breath catches in his throat. She's here. Amy's here. He sits quickly in the booth, not giving away that he sees her.

He can't believe that it's happened again. Just like in LA when he had given up trying to force her to see him, is when she had appeared. It was as if the universe had its own ideas about Amy and Harry and the two of them would be foolish to interfere with them. Like letting go of control was the only option, something neither of them were good at it. Harry thinks about how beautiful she looks. He remembers every inch of her face that he has stared at so closely so many times. The way he could make her whole face light up with a silly joke. How she would pout her lip out sometimes when she asked him to make her lunch at her apartment. The face she made after she was coming down from a high he had given her. He misses every single one.

Amy suddenly gets the overwhelming feeling of deja-vu. It's the same feeling she got in Los Angeles when Harry walked into the restaurant. Like she has an extra sense to know when he's near. She looks towards the entrance to the restaurant and sees a crowd but doesn't see his face. She keeps searching, sure that her gut feeling that is telling her that he is near is not wrong.  But she doesn't see him and she has to direct her attention back to the people at the table. Maybe she's lost it, this connection she's always felt with him. That she somehow severed it when she left him in Tokyo. The thought saddens her.

Harry watches her from afar. Watched as she looked up as soon as he was seated, like she somehow could sense he was here. He watches her search the faces and then look both distraught and disappointed when she didn't find what she was looking for. He wonders if it was a coincidence and that she was expecting someone else but as he sits at his corner table he notices that no one else ever joins her table.