Blind Date

Chapter 42 • Assuming Things

🚨Trigger Warning🚨
Sensitive dialogue about weight is in this chapter. Just know that Harry and I think you're beautiful no matter what ❤️

Even with the sound of the cars driving by and people talking around the busy shopping area, I recognize her panting from a distance and I sit up straight on the bench, inclining my ear towards the sound.

"Hey, love, we're here," Gemma says somewhat out of breath and I stretch out my hand in front of me.

Maggie's damp nose nudges it up, guiding it to her head. As I begin petting her head and scratching her ears, she rests her head on my knee and I smile softly.

"Thanks for bringing her."

"You're welcome. Considering the circumstance, I figured . . ." Gemma trails off and I sense her moving to sit next to me. "I'm sorry this happened," she soothes my shoulder and I nod in acknowledgement. "Do you want to talk about it?"

I sigh heavily at her question, continuing to pet Maggie in hopes of keeping this calm feeling just a little while longer. I know talking it out with Gemma will help me make sense of what happened, but I don't want to right now.

"Not here, no. Let's just go home, yeah?"

"Sure, love, if that's what you want. C'mon then. I'm parked across the way."

With my right hand gripping Maggie's harness and my left on Gemma's elbow, we make our way over to the car. While I get in, I listen to her help Maggie get settled in the backseat and I buckle my seatbelt. She gets inside without saying a word and the engine starts so I grip the handle bar to support myself and I feel the car move forward.

In the time I've waited for her to pick me up, I've grown even hungrier since JJ and I didn't eat our brunch but I don't feel like eating now; I don't feel like doing anything really.

"You'll never guess what I have packaged to put in the mail tomorrow morning," Gemma says, piquing my interest and I hum in question. "The sunnies."

"Really? You've decided to submit them?"

"Yep, and it's all thanks to you and your encouragement, more like nagging, but yeah. M'gonna just submit them to the company and if they say no, then what have I lost? Only the price of the postage . . . and a little bit of my ego since they're my design, but I'll just search for another visually impaired specialty company who'd like to sell them."

"Y'know what's funny, and I don't mean ha ha funny, I mean funny interesting; you try to tell someone they have potential and give them compliments and constantly tell them they're a lovely person and when they don't believe you, they have the nerve to get angry with you and blame you for whatever went wrong."

I can feel my blood pressure rising and I clench my teeth together, swallowing harshly. The only sounds in the car now are the heater blowing through the vents, the blinker clicking and my heavy breaths being forced out through my nostrils.

"You've already told me about the physical insecurities JJ has, so that part isn't new," Gemma points out and I acknowledge her statement with a hum. "So what happened at the restaurant that upset her so much that she just left you there? And that doesn't sound like JJ at all, by the way."

"Well, we had already gotten into her car when our fight sort of exploded, but she did walk me back to the restaurant so I wasn't in the parking lot, but I'm sure it was out of pity. If I had functioning eyes, I'm positive she would've just left me right there. So that little act of kindness was really just an act of pity."

"Hold on a second, Harry, I think you're being a tad presumptuous. We don't know if she did that out of pity," she says as if she's Mum and I huff out an irritated breath. "Okay, just start from the beginning. Tell me what happened. I'm a little lost as to what actually happened."