Office Hours |h.s|

thirty five

Maude

As suspected, the committee meeting was miserable, but there's only so much fun that can be had in a room with my father and Juliet. I spent half of the time avoiding Juliet and trying not to imagine her texting Harry the entire time, and the other half listening to my father go on and on about how amazing he is.

But I'm leaving that all at the front door of Harry's house. I'm not even going to mention Juliet being on the committee because I'm being the bigger, more mature person he wants me to be. The only other person that will come up in conversation is my dad, but I feel like I need to give him a heads up that they're in town right now. Even then, I don't exactly want to keep talking about my dad today.

The only thing weighing on me is that text Harry sent about needing to talk about something important. I'm not quite sure what he means, and a part of me is scared that he's going to end things with me for real but I'm trying to keep my head up. We're gonna have a nice dinner, maybe just relax on the couch and talk over some wine, and things will be good. I'm excited for life to slow down for us at least a little bit.

It's been easier for me to go to Harry's place by myself without him having to pick me up since the coat, scarf , and hat combo makes me less recognizable. Plus it's been getting darker way earlier which makes things even easier for me to sneak around. This way we run less of a risk of people seeing us driving around together. I ring the bell and wait for him to open up for me.

When the door does open up, I can tell he is not happy which only makes me more nervous. "C'mon." He mumbles, glancing around to see if anyone's looking as I walk into the house. He closes and locks the door behind me as I get my winter coat and accessories off, and he takes them to hang them up for me before kissing my cheek.

"Everything okay? You seem off..." I point out, following him over to the kitchen where there is an amazing scent of whatever he's making us for dinner. He lets out a heavy sigh as he gets back to his cooking, and I sit up on the island, picking up the glass of wine he left for me.

He's quiet for a second, moving around the food in the pan before turning to look at me, picking up his own glass of wine. "How was studying with Will? Did it go well?" He doesn't sound mad as he asks, just genuinely curious but it's clear that he's avoiding my question.

I let it go for now, figuring he doesn't want to start our night together with whatever is making him upset. In a way, I'm appreciative of the attempt since we've been struggling in our relationship the last few days. I'd rather have a few moments of calm before all the emotions inevitably come out. "Studying was great. We got a lot done for our classes and I think we're getting on track for finals."

He nods, forcing himself to smile. It's clear he's pushing something down that's bothering him, but I try to let it go as I take another sip of wine. He'll tell me when he's ready. "That's good to hear. I was glad you were spending the day with a friend, I know Fridays tend to be lonely for you."

A small smile tugs at the corners of my lips. "Well, now I get to spend time with my favorite guy in the world and my absolute best friend so that makes up for how my day went." He really is my best friend at this point, and I can't imagine not having him in my life.

He grins a bit, turning to shut the stove off since the food is ready I'm assuming. "Yeah? Well you just said studying went great. I know it's not the most fun thing to do in the world, but did anything else happen that would make your day not great?"

Pressing my lips together, I swirl around the wine in my glass, trying to think about how to approach this topic. He's part of the staff so he has to know about the gala that's coming up, but just like he doesn't want to talk about what's upsetting him so early on in the night, I don't really want to bring my dad up right now either. But I don't think I have much of a choice.