Introspective Strangers [h.s.]

Chapter 58

Bookstore Girl - Charlie Burg
Adele - Tapes
Sleep On The Floor - The Lumineers
Fallingforyou - The 1975
———

Chapter 58

"Now?" I clarified with a wide-eyed Friday. "You want me to go right now?"

"That's what I'm saying!" he responded, jumping up from the couch and pulling me with him. I almost toppled over my own two feet in an attempt to quickly find my balance.

"Wait," I held out a hand, scrambling to calm my frantic mind as I watched Friday grab both of our glasses and the bottle of wine. "Just – I don't know. Are you sure? I'm kind of drunk."

"Even better," Friday shrugged, keeping a firm hold on my wrist as he yanked me out of the living room. "It'll get you talking."

"Friday," I half-whined, wringing my hands together. He was busying himself near the entryway, fetching my jacket. "I just really don't know if this is going to end well."

He froze for a split second in the act of helping me shrug my jacket on. His face had softened when I turned to look at him. "You'll never know unless you try, though."

All I could muster was a small nod. He was right. There was no point in stressing about something that I didn't yet know the outcome for. I heaved a small sigh, shifting back on forth on my feet as I watched him pull out his phone.

"Listen," Friday looked up from his screen, catching my eye. "What's his address? I'm calling the uber for you–"

"No," I interrupted with a vigorous shake of my head, "Stop. Don't worry. It's okay. I can take the bus."

I reached forward to grab the phone from him, but he held it above my head, pursing his lips in disapproval. "I'm not doing it for you, Miss Month. I'm doing it on the condition that I am the very first to hear how this ambush pans out."

I couldn't help but outwardly wince at his use of the word ambush. I was trying not to think about how I was basically showing up to Harry's place unannounced and forcing him to talk to me because I knew how I would feel if the tables were turned. Instead, I just bit down on my inner cheek and nodded.

"Okay," I breathed, muttering Harry's address aloud, "Sure."

"Fancy area," Friday commented, furiously typing away on his screen. "And you promise?"

"I promise."

He bit his lip in an attempt to contain his smile, slipping the phone back in his pocket. "Four minutes away."

A noise mixed between a groan and a whine left the back of my throat. "Christ, okay."

"You ready?"

I shook my head. "Not in the slightest."

"Good." Friday grinned, "I can't wait to hear all about it."

--

I arrived out front of Harry's building with a growing pit in my stomach and the horrible realization that I was yet again going to have to break into another place in order to see him. My drunken brain had had a momentary lapse when I figured I could just show up here, forgetting completely that his front entrance was manned by security.

And my solution wasn't nearly as sensible as I hoped.

I probably looked like an idiot waiting out back by the parking garage in chilly, April weather for a car to arrive, my only solace being my ability to twirl Harry's ring anxiously around my thumb. When one finally did and the large entryway swung open, I tried to sneak in as inconspicuously as possible, only to end up having to ask that same car where the elevators were located.