Stumbling (H.S. / A.U.)

Chapter 75

It was a white a-line dress made entirely of satin. It had thin straps and a tight corset that made my normal already hour-glassed figure into something likening of a Jessica Rabbit cosplayer. 

I knew this dress would bring Harry to his knees as I spun around in the mirror. The white had a touch of innocence, but my underwear set beneath will scream 'fuck me'. 

Maybe becoming a new person throughout the last few months... hell even last few weeks was abrupt. I tell myself this as I slink off the white dress in the fitting room while putting back on my more subtle clothing option. However, maybe if someone else went through what I did they would take it as a learning curve, and understand when you are pushed like that too many times, eventually you just.... crack. Maybe even break. And who is there left to pick up the pieces other than yourself. Putting together something that damaged and broken is nearly impossible, so you have to improvise. Find new things to fill the cracks, and by the time you are done this new, different, and remade thing will exist.

I was afraid it was going to be Harry that is my undoing, something that pulls me into the riptide and leaves me to drown, when all along I never realized I never entered the water. I was a bystander on the beach watching the old version of myself paddle out there, to never return from the ocean. 

"Bitch. Did you know that the number on a toaster means how many minutes and not like... the level?" I open the fitting room door to see Autumn on a chair in the center of the fitting room area, cross legged, scrolling her phone while her dress lays neatly in her lap.

"Levels?" I question her while grabbing the white dress to toss over my arms. Ahh, the privilege of having two working arms again. "Levels... like of toastiness."

We start to make our way back to the counter of the boutique store, "pretty sure toastiness isn't a word." Autumn dismisses my statement and we both place our dresses on the cash wrap area. "My treat, I mean, my family dinner so I got it."

Autumn tries to argue but I pull out my card before she can. "My dress was like $300 dummy. You don't need to buy it for me." I told her it was no big deal, I had some spare cash from picking up a side job. Of course then I had to tell her what my apparent 'side job' was.

Couldn't tell her I get paid by my cartel loving boyfriend while also doubling as an agent for a rivaling cartel. That might seem weird to Autumn.

I instead tell her that in my spare time I had been doing simple things like tutoring some of the fraternity guys. I think she believed it. She didn't... not believe it... right?

***

"No Lou?" Harry questioned Autumn and he slides into the passenger seat of my Crosstrek. Autumn and I got ready at the apartment together, meanwhile Harry met us over here. Providence was about a twenty minute drive away, so we were all going to go together. 

Harry looked so devilishly handsome in his suit. He essentially looked like a disco ball with lapels. He had a black shirt on with what looked to be almost a custom suit overtop. It was slacks and a jacket made out of a nearly black sparkled material. How he just walked into a store and found this and not to mention it fitting perfectly, is astronomically insane.

Everything about Harry had a sexy vibe tonight, from the way he left his shirt half unbuttoned, the butterfly just on the brink of peaking out, his necklace that dangled and drew your attention instantly to his bare chest, and the way he brushed back and styled his new hair.

My jaw dropped right away.

Harry mimicked me though, saying I was a vision tonight and that keeping his hands to himself at dinner is going to be next to impossible.