Savior

The Girl that Forgives

Be a man, Harry. It's just a harmless girl. Nothing to be so anxious over.

No amount of repeating these words ease the anxiety I feel building in my chest as I raise my fist in the air and then freeze. Do I knock once? What if she doesn't hear? Twice, then? But, that could be annoying.

Be a man, Harry. It's just a harmless girl. Nothing to be so anxious over.

Yeah, a girl that is terrified of me.

Regardless, I knock twice on the wood and restrain myself from knocking once more for good measure. The silence that greets me is long, but expected. I try my best to smile because I know she is looking through her peephole.

And then the door opens and all the anxiety I felt leaves my body as quickly as the air escapes my lungs.

Lips that put red roses to shame. Hair so red it's as if fire is woven through it. Eyes as green as the sea and just as deep.

Fuck.

She seems slightly flushed; skin damp and fiery hair stuck to her skin like glue. It's only when I look down and see a silk robe tightened around her body that I realize she had just come from the shower.

It's in that same instance that I realize that she is naked underneath said robe; freckled skin peeking through the slits, every curve clearly seen through the translucent white cloth. My eyes struggle to remain on her flushed face because her apartment is quite chilly and her nipples show evidence of that.

Heat crawls up my face quickly when I feel my pants tighten slightly and my gulp resounds throughout her empty flat.

What in the world is wrong with you? You have a girlfriend, you perv.

When she asks me what I'm doing at her place, it takes all of my strength to keep my eyes on hers, "You're furniture came in. Thought I'd help you move it."

Of course, what I don't tell her is that I had to bribe Gemma into letting me personally deliver the furniture. It was all suggestive grins and endless teasing, but I get to see Layla again after almost three days all for the price of watching the shop for two weeks.

It's worth it.

"Okay," I'm shocked when she actually agrees and my eyes snap up to meet her face, but just end up lingering on her long legs and curves, "Let me just... change while you bring everything up."

The relief I feel when I glance into her eyes and see that all the fear she harbored has vanished completely is almost crushing. Her hands shake as they tighten around her robe and I can tell that she is more anxious than she has been around me in a while.

But, the fear –the fear is gone.

And I can finally breathe again.

She doesn't meet my eyes and practically runs to her room in an effort to cover herself, but only succeeds in making the short robe fly up slightly. I have to physically remove myself from her doorstep before I start to drool.

I make my way down to the lobby in order to move the couch and table with the help of a trolley and try to clear the inappropriate images from my brain.

The furniture was just a convenient ruse in my plan to see and –hopefully- speak to Layla since I haven't been to the café since Eliza's scolding and Layla's reaction towards me.

What wasn't a part of the plan, though, was Layla coming to the door wrapped up in a little robe with water dripping down her skin and giving me a semi.

Now, I am a gentleman and have always been, but fuck me if that sight didn't make my throat grow dry and my heart race. Again, I have to remind myself that I have a beautiful and loving girlfriend who would hate that I was having these thoughts about another woman.