A long road to happy

Chapter 15: The morning after

"I want you to tell me what you're thinking, I don't want it to be like last time, I want us to move past this." She says, reaching for my hands. I tug them back, out of her way. I really can't have her touching me right now.

"It's fine." I say. "You made me think you wanted me, but you don't. You just wanted someone, and I happened to be there. It's fine. You got to feel desired after everything with your marriage. You got what you wanted, and now you're done. Last night was just sex, I get it, I've been there, granted not quite the same circumstance, I at least let them know I don't want anything more beforehand. But whatever, let's just move on." I say as I turn back to my coffee.

She scoffs at my outburst, clearly unhappy with what I said. Welcome to the club, love. "No, hold on, no, you don't get to do that. I didn't say any of those things. You're putting words in my mouth. This isn't my fault. We were just flirting, I didn't say I wanted anything with you. We were drinking last night, and it just happened. I thought you could be mature about this, but i guess not. I should've known better than to sleep with, with a . . . ." 

"Go on, finish that sentence. To slip with a what?" I ask, my anger picking up. She stays silent, just staring at me with fury in her eyes.

"No, nothing to say now? Maybe I should guess, I'm good at that. To sleep with a non famous person? No, not that, that's too nice." I look up at her. She says nothing. 

"OK, to sleep with a woman? Someone who could sell stories to the press and out you in some way? Or maybe that's the point? Who would believe anything that came from my mouth? I'm just a nobody, after all." I look up, and she's no longer looking at me,  guess I hit the nail on the head there.

"It just happened," She whispers.

I can't help myself, I laugh out loud. "It just happened? Yeah, OK Scarlett, it just happened once in the living room, then on this very counter, before we did it another 2 times in your bed?" I shake my head as I lean back on the stool, biting my tongue before I say anything else. I'm checking my phone, hoping Danny has text to say he's here. No joy yet, though.

I'm so done with being here now, I honestly don't care. I don't want to discuss it. Whatever she wants me to say, i'll say it. I just want this to be over. Fuck it, I'll just leave now, this is getting us no where.

She grabs my arm as I go to stand up, pulling it to get me to look at her as she stands over me. "You know what, fuck you Harley, you think you've got it all figured out. You think you know me and what i'm thinking? Grow up" She basically screams at me, throwing her hands in the air.

I flinch, then freeze, my whole body becoming rigid as the memories of the park spring straight into my mind, like deja vu, she's angry at me, mad, now it's time for her to hit me, right? That's what happens, that's how this goes, that's what Cam did. 

I instinctively close my eyes and grit my teeth, awaiting the onslaught, but it doesn't come. Seconds pass, but no blows rain down on me. I slowly peek one eye open to see Scarlett standing in front of me, her eyes wide and mouth open. "Harley…." she whispers. 

I snap back to reality as I look into her eyes. I can't quite tell what they hold, sadness, worry, maybe even anger? I don't know. "Just, lets just drop it OK. I get it, I understand. It was just sex. Let's forget it, yeah? Please." I almost beg her. 

"OK" she replies, although her eyes never leave me, I can still feel her piercing gaze on  my face.

"I actually have to go, I have work soon and Danny is coming to get me." I push out, scrambling to get up and make my way towards the front door. 

"Oh, OK, makes sense. Thank you for letting me cook for you." She says, as we reach the door. Her eyes scanning my face, searching for something.

"Thanks for the amazing food." I stand there on her front step, much like yesterday, only this time i'm a few steps away from the door, and i'm nervous for an entirely different reason. It's taking everything in me to not just bolt right now. 

She leans on the door. "Nice outfit by the way." She smirks, crossing her arms. I guess we're just ignoring the elephant in the room then.

I look down, rubbing the back of my neck. "Yeah, sorry about that, I didn't really know where my clothes were. I'll make sure to get them back to you. I'll see you around?" 

She leans forward to hug me, but I turn away from her, walking down the street in the direction Danny would drive, messaging him to let him know I'll be walking down the pavement. After 10 minutes I see him driving past me, a few seconds later he's pulling up beside me. 

"Get in then you dirty stop out." He shouts through the window, smiling devilishly at me. I chuckle and hop in the passenger seat. 

"So, you didn't fancy doing the walk of Shame at 7am then?" He asks, grinning at me. 

"Something like that mate, something like that" I reply. 

Danny keeps looking over at me, he wants to say something, but he's waiting for me to talk first. 

"OK, what? What is it you're dying to say Danny? Come on, hit me with it all, get it all off your chest in one go."

"Nooo! You promised, I need the details, I want to know what happened. . . Well, I can tell what happened, those are not the clothes you left in last night, and you have a couple marks on your neck that weren't there when I dropped you off! So spill!"

I snap my head over to him, eyes widening. "What? I have love bites on my neck? Please tell me you're joking." I pull the sun visor down, flipping the mirror up to look at my neck. "You're fucking joking me! How did I miss these this morning? What the actual fuck." To say I'm pissed is an understatement, she asked me not to leave marks, which i didn't. But i also asked her not to leave marks, apparently that request fell on deaf ears. 

Danny can't seem to stop laughing at me. "Alright, carry on like that and I won't tell you what happened." I threaten. He stops laughing for a second, looking at me with a straight face until he starts laughing again, hitting his hand off the steering wheel. 

I huff out and cross my arms over my chest like a petulant child. 

"We both know that you'll tell me anyway, threaten me all you want. You'll be in my room in the hour spilling all your dirty little secrets." 

"Fuck you." I huff out, knowing he's right. "Prick."

-------------------------------------------------

Scarlett's POV:

I close the front door as Harley starts walking down the driveway. I'm hoping we can just move on from this, be friends, perhaps. I honestly didn't mean to make this much of a mess of things. It seems to be all I do at the moment. I just, I don't know what I want. Last night, it was great, amazing even. But she's, she's a she. . . God, that sounds bad. That's not what I mean. I mean, I'm into guys, I've never been into women. I can appreciate a woman's beauty, of course I can, but that doesn't mean I want to shove my head between their legs. But I wanted to do that with Harley, I did do that with Harley. I groan out loud. "Why do I keep doing this, I need to just work my shit out."