Un-Tying the Knot {h.s.}

Chapter 55

Before everything got so fucked up.

"You just said please," he points out, trying to put some of the previous humor in his voice, but regret tastes bitter in his mouth, and he hears her sigh. He tries again, "You never say please. I think I should mark this on my calendar-"

"I emailed you this morning with a few links," Eleanor says quickly, her voice firm, showing no indication that she suspects anything amiss, and for once, he's grateful she's missed his less than chipper tones.

"Yes, I see it here," he says, cradling the phone between his shoulder and his ear, clicking on the first link.

Harry's brow furrows as one of those celebrity blogs comes up and pictures of himself, Johannes Gauch, and Olivia fill his screen. It was the day they'd spent at the beach in Martha's Vineyard under the guise of discussing a new swimsuit line for his clothing company, but in all honesty it was a way to let Olivia see the Atlantic Ocean, which she'd never seen before.

They'd had a good enough time, and honestly, by the end of the "meeting," he was almost convinced it'd be a good idea to do a swimwear line. Especially when he saw her in this intricate black strappy bikini set.

They'd gotten back to the exquisite mansion they were staying at in Martha's Vineyard, drained from the sand and surf, skin stinging from getting a little too much sun. And when Harry had followed Olivia to her room to borrow some of the aloe she'd had the foresight to bring, he'd gotten a chance to see her tan lines.

He smiles at the memory, unable to erase it from his mind. Nor from his heart, instantly taken with the way she laughed — the cute surprise face she made when she came to skip rocks with him at the edge of the beach, or when she put the suit on his designer had hand picked for the first time, modeling it with much praise from the company they were with. She was the epitome of curvy perfection to him.

"Did you click the link?" Eleanor asks, breaking his train of thought, and he shakes his head — as if trying to shake away the memory, but when he shifts uncomfortably in his chair, he can still feel the rug burns on both of his knees.

"Yeah, I did. Me at the beach," he says absently, clicking through the group of photos, watching Olivia hand him a pen and paper, watching himself and Johannes point down the beach, seeing their heads all thrown back in laughter.

"You and Olivia at the beach," Eleanor corrects and Harry's blood runs cold. "Click the next one."

His hand is shaking hard as he clicks the next link, sending him to another celebrity blog, this time with pictures of him and five or six dancers from Ke$ha's last tour along with Olivia, all leaving the SoHo House. Kyle and Diana are laughing and carrying on behind him, and he and Olivia have their heads resolutely down. His hand hovers at her lower back. They hadn't even made it to the hotel that night, him pulling her right over the gearshift and into his lap in the parking garage...

"Harry," Eleanor's voice is calm, devoid of emotion, and he feels like his heart is going to hammer it's way out of his chest, absolutely sure she can hear it through the phone. "Harry, there are six links there, all of which show you and Olivia together."

How could he have been so stupid? How could he have thought that she wouldn't find out? The distance and the anger had kept him from really thinking about the consequences too much, but now with Eleanor's voice in his ear, knowing she is just across town and not across the country, he realizes everything he could lose.

They've been together for three years. They're involved in each other's families, have a home together, share a life together. They're engaged. And he has been putting all of that in jeopardy, for what? A few fleeting moments with a girl who he hasn't even known a year, who while he considered her one of his closest friends was still just that, a friend...or maybe some weird hybrid version of the term that allowed for the intense connection he feels with her now, but that could just be the sex. How does he even know these feelings he's starting to have are anything more than just lust in an otherwise barren sex life, filling an empty role Eleanor stopped filling a long time ago.