Sinner's Place {h.s}

sixty-two.

Though, I was soon brought out of my trance when my phone buzzed. My first instinct was to ignore it, but when it buzzed again to signal a call coming through, I sighed and ruffled through my bag to pull it out. My eyes squinted at the name, AJAX. I clicked the side of the phone to silence it, sending a small glance to Harry who didn't notice the call, and put it back into my bag.

I didn't know why he was calling me, but they knew not to call us while we were on our vacation. I swallowed thickly as I placed my hands onto the table and grabbed Harry's who was playing with his fingers.

"Have you heard from the boys at all?" I asked out of curiosity. I had wondered if they tried to call Harry and he just didn't answer out of respect.

Harry shrugged his shoulder, "No, they haven't reached out. I imagine they are holding the fort down." He pulled his phone from his pocket, showing the turned off phone, "Plus, I turned my phone off. I just want today to be about me and you."

Ah.

That's why they were calling me.

"Oh, okay." I offered a small smile.

I pulled my hands from his when the waitress brought our food to the table. Mentally I checked out for a few minutes to figure what they would be calling about? Was it not important enough to text? I tried to push the thoughts to the side while I ate, but they were lingering.

Could it be his mom?

Could it be...something else?

Something much worse?

I shook my head. I didn't want to think about this. If it was important, they could text me and tell me instead of calling. Right?

As much as I wanted my mind to stay present, just from that one phone call had put my mind in a past place where the memories were locked away. Picking away at my food, there was a nagging voice in the back of my mind that told me I should have answered the call.

If it was an emergency and I didn't know, then it would be my fault for not answering, right?

Just as I placed my fork down onto the clean plate, I went to grab my phone, but Harry caught my attention as he pointed out the window.

"Look!" Harry said with a cheeky smile, "There's a flower shop across the street. I didn't see that last night."

I gazed out the window, following his finger to see the display of flowers across the street, multi-colored with the rainbow on a stand.

"Ah, there is." I smiled, retracting my hand back from my bag, "Do you want to go?"

Harry nodded, finishing the rest of his oat milk coffee. I sipped mine down as much as I could stand, then scooted out of the booth. While Harry paid for the food, I made my way outside to call Ajax back. I wanted this vacation to be about us, if he knew that Ajax tried to call, then he would stress out and potentially think about work for the rest of our time here. We only had one day left, but it was the principle of the matter.

Pulling the phone out of my bag, I swiped my phone open and hovered my thumb over the red name from the missed call. I stopped, nibbling my lip as I looked back at Harry who was getting change from the cashier. Maybe calling wasn't the best idea. I didn't have time to have a conversation.

Instead, I clicked open my texts and tapped on Ajax's name.

To Ajax

Hey. everything ok–

"The coffee was a buy one get one free." Harry said as he walked out of the shop with a lopsided smile, "Isn't that nice?"

I jolted, quickly clicking my phone off and sliding it back into my purse as I turned on my heel to face him.