After The End: Book 1

37. Things Are Different

Harry shrugged. "If you want her to be okay with your life, then I'd stop hoping for more. Settle for going public, maybe wait a bit on the whole lifetime legal love commitment. I don't think you ever even officially asked her to be your girlfriend. Maybe you guys aren't the titles type?"

I nodded. That had actually been good advice, which was odd considering Harry wasn't exactly the most experienced at healthy relationships.

"Are you and Lux the titles type?" I inquired. They'd obviously coupled up. Lux seemed to live in his room now. They held hands and kissed. I was scared to ask, but I was vaguely certain that the doorman's offhand complaints to me about two individuals having relations a little too near the rooftop camera might had been them. This outward affection had caught Naomi and I off guard although Harry had warned me that he was all in that night on the balcony. Not much had changed beyond their apparent affections. They were such good friends to each other before anything else and I was realizing that was unlikely to change.

Harry shrugged. "Are you asking if she's my girlfriend? I don't know that it's been labeled, no. I am going to marry her though."

He said it so offhandedly. He sounded so sure, as if he were just stating common fact.

"I've been thinking of getting a cat again," he added in the same tone. Just a fact, nothing major.

"Can we go back to the other thing you said?" I asked curiously.

Harry smirked. "I'm totally going to marry her."

I nodded. "You've known her for like 2 months Harry."

He smiled wider. "Im sorry, but how long had you known Naomi when you decided to procreate?"

I wanted to tell him that was an unfair comparison and that Naomis pregnancy had obviously been unintended, but he was already laughing. I wondered if he even realized that the majority of my problems with Naomi actually stemmed from our lack of for-thought about our futures together. Did he recognize that what he was describing was exactly what rushing into a relationship sounded like?

We passed an isle labeled "liquor and beer." Harry flipped it off unnecessarily as we walked by before shooting me a smile. He really was killing it at the sobriety thing. I worried about him less and less everyday. He even ventured out alone the previous week to return with the old guitar. He said he bought it from a pawn shop. He could afford a new one, but the old one had charm, as he'd put it.

"I think me and Naomi are in completely different circumstances than you and Lux," I said carefully.

"And what does Naomi say?" Harry questioned. Naomi was fully in support and Harry knew that. Naomi loved him and Lux and the two of them together. She mentioned it at the dinner table often, especially when the two of them would become escalated. Common dinner table fights were now over how long either of them spent in the bathroom, whether or not Harry let Lux help cook/his subsequent blaming of Lux for anything wrong with dinner and whether or not cutting his hair had been a good idea. He missed his hair, but Lux liked it "short and fluffy up top."

I chose not to answer him.

"Jay says you should lighten up on me," he added with a laugh. We had almost reached the front of the store.

I rolled my eyes.

"Naomi is going to come around," he added thoughtfully. He was staring at the candy that was conveniently placed at the front of the store. He apparently saw nothing of interest because he took the buggy from me and pushed it the rest of the way to the check stand. "She loves you more than she loves her privacy. You'll see."