Imperatrix

chapter 32

Jack stared at Harrys door for a full minute before slowly raising her hand to knock. She tucked her hands into her back pocket as she waited.

What am I even doing here? Jack wondered as she stared.

Am I so miserable that I had to come see him?

There was no answer. He wasn’t home. She sighed and turned to walk back to her car when the door opened revealing Harry clad in only black tennis shorts.

“Anna,” he said sounding surprised. His hair was sticking up on his head.

“Hi Harry,” she said softly.

“Hey. W-what are you doing here?” he asked. He had every reason to be confused. After ignoring him for close to a month, she suddenly showed up on his door step.

Jack’s smile fell. She could ask herself the same question. “I-I don’t know. I’m confused,” she replied honestly.

“Come on in and we can talk about it if you want,” he said opening the door wider. She walked in with him behind her. His laptop was open on the kitchen island.

“Were you working?” she asked, and he nodded. “Sorry if I disturbed you.”

“It’s nothing,” he said and closed the laptop, then he sat on a high bar stool and turned to face her, “So, what’s up?”

The reality of it all came crashing down and she suddenly felt overwhelmed. Becoming emotional was not something that just happened to her, but it did now. Tears spilled down Jack’s cheeks and she angrily wiped at them, but they just kept falling. She sniffed.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” he asked as he pulled her to him and made her stand between his legs. “Baby what’s wrong?” he asked again as he cleaned her face.

“I don’t know,” she cried as she wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her face in his neck. For the life of her she couldn’t tell why she was crying. Was it the news that someone was trying to kill her? Because if that was it, it wasn’t a new thing. She received threats everyday, she had been in worse situations and it wasn’t enough to make her cry.

God, she felt so pathetic. Going to his house and crying in his arms like a baby.

“Hey, stop crying, whatever it is, we can work it out,” he said as he hugged her and rubbed circles on her back.

“No we can’t!” she mumbled into his neck.

You are on Diego’s hit list. They want to kill you.

And me seeing you is a problem. Everyone keeps telling me I shouldn’t, but I don’t want to stop.

Maybe it was the fact that Yuri knew about him now, which meant that anyone could find him. All they had to do was follow her and she could lead them straight to him without knowing.

What was she doing? She should be spitting mad, not blubbering like a baby. She had decisions to make and it did not involve crying. She sniffed and pulled back as she cleaned her face, “God I’m so embarrassed.”

“Don’t be …Are you alright now?” he asked, and she nodded.

“I’m sorry for barging in on you and getting all wishy-washy.”

“Wishy washy? Never heard that one,” he said amused and she laughed. “Do you want to talk about it?” he asked but she shook her head.

It was strange seeing her like that. She was always so confident and sure of herself, seeing her like that made him confused as to what had pushed her enough to make her cry. But he was happy that out of all the people in the world, she had come to him.