After The End: Book 2

27. The Next Part

Naomis POV

I wasn't going to pretend that getting verbally slapped in the face by Harry felt good. Afterwards, Louis had very awkwardly ushered me onto the elevator and up to his floor with Oliver and I'd done everything in my power to keep from crying. Things between Louis and I were already weird and so much was going unsaid. It was feeling unstable the longer it went but Louis insisted that he was content to do it this way.

"Why do you keep trying with him?" Louis asked once we had settled back upstairs. He sounded exasperated and a little upset by what he'd walked up to. I knew that he was mad that Oliver had been present for that particular outburst. I wasn't happy with Harry for airing his frustrations in the babies presence either, but it was my fault, not his. "Why keep pushing?"

"I was just trying to fix things," I said placing the baby on the rug in the living room. He immediately grabbed the bright red cat toy Harry had given me. It jangled in his hand eliciting a giggle. He seemed unfazed by the conflict although he had too stiffened at Harry's tone. I wondered if he'd ever seen Harry upset before. I'd never seen Harry upset in the babies presence. I was truly bringing out the worst in everybody here.

"Harry doesn't want to fix things with you," Louis stated plainly as if Harry hadn't just made that quite clear.

"Clearly," I agreed.

Louis took a deep breath and then fixed his gaze on the baby as if to pull calming feelings off of him from across the room. "I will talk to him about remaining civil, but I won't make him talk to you. He's completely in his right not to want to speak with you. Respect him. Stay out of his flat. Don't subject our child to your guys' drama."

I wanted to argue but there wasn't anything there I could argue with. Louis was right. I was pushing for something that wasn't there. Lux had told me just as much that Harry was uninterested in a relationship with me at the moment. She had been less blunt but as it stood, Harry didn't want to speak to me. Message received.

"I wasn't trying to put the ax in all of our friendships," I muttered quietly.

"It's just Harry," Louis said.

"It's isn't though. You have no idea how to talk to me either," I stated matter of factly.

"I talk to you," Louis protested although I could see in his face that he knew exactly what I meant. It wasn't his fault, of course. I was the one who had made it like this. I was the one that threw our relationship as partners and as parents in the garbage.

"It's okay," I told him. "I know I put you in an impossible situation."

Louis frowned at the ground. "I'm trying," he said quietly. "I'm trying to not make it weird for us."

"We can't do this forever," I added timidly.

Louis looked up at me. His face was emotionless but his eyes held panic. Neither of us wanted to think about that. "It's working for now," he said evasively.

"It's only working because you do most of the work," I argued. Oliver's toy fell from his hand and rolled a few feet away. He reached for it before looking up at me with sad eyes. I grabbed it and then settled on the rug beside him before returning it.

"I don't mind," Louis said although his eyes were tired. He woke up with the baby every night. He worked, slept and parented. That's all he did.

"I mind," I said. "I went to see the therapist this week. I'm starting to do better. We have to think about what happens next."

Louis scowled. "I don't want to do that."

"We have to," I insisted.

"Not tonight," Louis said sternly. "We can talk about officially breaking up the family another night."