After The End: Book 2

43. Power

Naomis POV

Louis and I were done. Saying that phrase still felt foreign and uncomfortable, but it was the truth. It came with finality.

Once I had suspicions about his coworker Becca, I'd asked Lux and she'd avoided me ever since. I genuinely hadn't been alone with her for more than a few minutes since I had asked. I thought about asking Harry, since he'd been present and would undoubtably know more than anyone, but it didn't seem right. He was finally doing more than just nodding when he saw me. Asking him to give me dirt on Louis wouldn't be a good look.

Resentment builds in dishonesty. Louis had told me that Becca was just a coworker and it hadn't been true. I knew that, even if I didn't know the extent of what it was. All I knew was that Louis had told a lie. It might have been a white lie, but my brain was spiraling in on it. I couldn't help but be a little angry at him.

Being around Louis hadn't changed much. We were still polite and civil. We had an okay time and I didn't think I was letting too much of my burning frustration pass through, but he seemed more at ease than he'd been before leaving for the gala and the idea that he might be moving on from me festered.

Having the baby to myself for two nights had been helpful in helping me see myself as a mum even in the absence of Louis. There was a role there that I could fill without him and if he was to be fraternizing with coworkers named Becca and lying about it then I was going to have to embrace that role. I would have to focus on being a mum without Louis.

I'd suggested that we work on a system or more split time. Louis had lost his shit over it and then we somehow fell into a schedule of my sleeping over every weekend. My goal had been to spend less time with Louis, which wasn't being accomplished, but I was welcoming of every chance to spend more time as a parent so I accepted it.

I slept on the sofa, while Louis entertained the idea of moving his music room down to Harry's flat to make an extra bedroom. He went on several long tangents about his hopes for us doing things the right way. It truly appeared to me that Louis seemed to consider the right way to mean his way. He didn't want to live away from the baby so that meant I had to and he wanted me to be cool with that. He wanted to base every future decision on how I'd acted at my worst and suddenly I understood what Harry meant.

I thought I could push through until a month in to our arrangement when I found the bra.

It was on a Monday. Louis and Lux were in a meeting that might have been about Harry. I'd not asked for the details. Louis had asked me to come by earlier than usual to watch Oliver while he worked.

Harry was in the flat, but he was busy in Louis music space listening to a recording of himself on replay. He yelled a string of expletives every few minutes, but aside from that, he hadn't surfaced. He'd been super focused all month, and also very reluctant to accept help of almost any kind. I was told he was on a deadline and would have to start collaborating in a few weeks time to uphold his part of things. I was also told that they were unsure whether or not he planned on honoring that.

That particular afternoon, I was sorting through the laundry while Oliver napped. I had slowly been moving my things back to my mums house. It was a slow and steady procession. Nobody seemed to do laundry at Louis since I had moved out either. Louis was a self proclaimed slob and so he often ran laundry but never folded it. My clothes were mixed in with Louis and Olivers in a giant basket and so to be kind, I folded the laundry as I went and that's when I stumbled upon the bra.

It wasn't mine and it wasn't lux's. I could tell due to the style and size. So whose bra had made its way into Louis house and why did my brain scream Becca?