Charming by Haig Moses (1st Draft)

Chapter Forty-One

    Sending a quick email Olivia was out the door carrying a heavy perfume with her.

    "Is anyone else nervous?" Tatiana asked breaking the silence among the seven of us.

    My eyes scattered amongst us until Ana exhaled, "I'm more pissed that I'm going to have to see his face in court. Smug piece of shit."

    "I heard he has an army of lawyers."

    "Well we have each other," I pointed out as the door bell rang and I sprang up to get it. "So, it doesn't really matter who he has." Opening the door my breathing stopped at the sight of Louis standing in front of me. "Hi."

    "Hello," he swallowed.

    "Do you want to..." I pointed inside and he nodded. As I led him upstairs to the room I was occupying I could feel all the girls whispering and staring at us. And as soon as I closed the door behind us the word vomit spewed. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry for leaving without telling you and ignoring your calls. I was just—I got the call about Tatiana and I panic and ran and I'm sorry."

    Louis shook his head. "It's fine," he said. "I mean you should've told me I was worried sick about you until I saw you on the news yesterday. Couldn't answered a phone call or something."

    "I know."

    He sat down on my bed and exhaled. "Look I know this isn't going to be easy and we don't have all the details worked out, but I've talked to some people in Cambridge and they'd be willing to take you for your last year of undergrad along with law school."

    "What?"

    "Well you can't do another year in America," he pointed out. "It's thousands of miles away from each other."

    "Long distance."

    Louis groaned and started pacing the floor. I know long distance wasn't something I wanted either, but neither was me giving up my entire life. We were both going to have to make sacrifices for each other. I had a year of school left then two years of law school, then I'd be free to do whatever. "Canada is a commonwealth and they have amazing law schools," he said. "Maybe you could finished your year at Harvard and I can ask grandmother if I could spend the next few years there."

    I shook my head. "Canada isn't apart of my plan Lou."

    "Screw the plan," he laughed. "If you haven't noticed none of this has been according to any of our plans and yet here we are." Louis neared me and held my shoulders together as his green eyes watched me. "I love you Harriet, there has to be a way for this to work."

    My breath hitched in my throat at hearing his words for the first time and as I stood before him his eyes waiting for me to repeat the words to him. "Louis," I breathe. "I—I thought that I could do this. I thought I was ready, but I'm not." Louis's arms released me and slowly he stepped away. "I just—I have so much to do, to finish, to see and I'm not ready to make the sacrifices committing myself to you would take."

    "I don't understand."

    "Louis—"

    He released my hand and took a step away from. "No, because a week ago you told me that you wanted this. That you wanted me and now you're telling me that you can't do it."

    "I do want you," I said. "I do, but I'm just not ready."

    The prince watched me with heavy eyes before something went off in his mind. "Did my mother talk to you?" I groaned. "Edward? Candice?"

    "Nobody told me anything I didn't already know."

    "So somebody did put this in your head."

    "Nobody put—" I stopped and exhaled, pinching the beige of my nose. "Louis, I am very fond of you, but love isn't always enough for two people to stay together. I'm not ready. And if we do this now, if we go into that spotlight with all the world watching us picking and scrubbing and stretching us in every direction we will never make it. If we go into this, unprepared and with rose tinted glasses we will never get out together. They will destroy us. That's reality Louis!"

    The silence between us was almost unbearable, though I knew this was the right thing for us. Lady Caroline hadn't told me anything that I hadn't already knew but had been trying to keep at bay. The reality of our situation was that unlike many some my entire life wasn't to be a wife and mother—honestly, the thought of obtaining such titled hadn't even occurred to me until I started dating Louis—I wanted more and if I gave all that up for our relationship I would resent him.

    Going into my bag I pulled the ring out and handed it back to him. Louis scoffed and pocketed the jewel. "You know what your problem is Harriet?" he said. "You're scared. You're scared to stick out your neck and just let life take you were it needs to. You think if you plan everything out—that if you could just get it all down perfect then it'll make up for the years of crap that's happened to you, but your wrong. Only love can do that, and it baffles me that someone as smart as you can't see that."

    Louis walked out the room and I took a second before leaving my room and joining the other girls downstairs. As I reached the ground floor, everybody turned to look at me and said nothing. "I'm fine you guys," I said feeling the constraints in my throat. "I'm fine it's just—"

    The door bell interrupted me and my heart lifted thinking for a moment that Louis had come back. I dashed over to the door and pull it open to see a poised looking couple with shadowed faced and jet black here. "We're here for our daughter," the overbearing made said.

    My mouth fixed itself ask who exactly he was looking for until Ana's voice chimed in the back. "Mom? Dad?"