Delicate

Chapter 4

HAVEN MCQUEEN

"I'm gonna throw up."

"No, you're not," I laugh and make a double take at Katie in my passenger seat. "If you do, I'll kill you."

She shakes her head with a pained look on her face. "I don't wanna go, Haven. Take me back."

"Katie!" I cackle. "You've been talking about this every single day all day since I told you that you could come with me! Get your shit together, dude."

"Wait, why are you slowing down? Are we here?"

My brakes squeak just faintly as I bring the car to a complete stop. "I'm stopping because there's a stop sign, dummy."

"Oh, right," she offers a nervous chuckle and adjusts her top. "Am I showing too much cleavage? I don't wanna look desperate."

"But you are desperate," I turn right where my map tells me to.

"Thanks a lot," she scoffs as if that's news to either of us. "I'm just nervous, okay? I've loved him since we were 16. We're 23 now. That's a long time to be in love with someone."

For the last two minutes of the drive, I go on to remind her that despite what she thinks, she doesn't actually know him at all, which means she's not actually in love with him. She didn't seem to absorb any of that by the time I was stopped in front of Jeff's house for real this time, and she clutched my arm like we were about to ride a rollercoaster.

"Okay, look at me," I pull the keys from the ignition, and she stares at me with panicked eyes. "He is my new boss, yes? He's trusting me to not invite someone who's going to scream and cry at him at his own party, yes? So what are we not going to do?"

"We're not going to scream and cry at him at his own party...even though I've sort of been waiting for this moment my whole life–Oh, God, Haven, I can't do this–"

"Yes, you can!" I cup her face in my hands. "Now, shut up, and let's go."

Muttering words of affirmation to herself, she gets out of the car and follows me up to the gate so I can put in the code Jeff trusted me with to let us in. That's enough to send her into another mini-panic attack, and her breaths are shaky as I try the doorknob. Jeff had told me to just head right in when we arrived, and the party seems too loud for anyone to hear us knocking even if we tried.

Jeff's house is just as gorgeous as any other Beverly Hills mansion, but it's not as "in your face" as some that I've been to before, and I remember thinking Harry's was the same way when I visited him there earlier this week. It feels cozy, despite the sheer size.

"Okay, so..." I click my tongue and glance around the house until I see Jeff standing in the living room with a woman by his side. He mentioned that he has a girlfriend so I'm assuming that must be her.

"Haven," Katie says, and as I turn to look at her, I see her swallowing with her eyes straight ahead. I follow her gaze to see Harry coming our way, and I say a silent prayer for her sake.

"Hi," Harry smiles, standing before us in a black short-sleeved button-up shirt and tight black jeans. His tattoos and tanned chest are exposed by the buttons being halfway undone, and he has a drink in his hand. I think Katie forgot how to breathe.

"Hi," I put my hand on Katie's back. "This is my best friend, Katie."

"I'm Harry," he extends his hand to her.

Katie clears her throat and raises a slightly trembling hand of her own, but her expression is more calm than it was before. She's trying to settle down. "Hi, it's really nice to meet you."