More Than You Know (h.s)

Chapter Forty One.

ROSALIE'S POV ❁

- Eight Years Ago -

"Rosie, please just talk to him and let us all continue on with our lives. I can't take this anymore." Camellia groans loudly as my phone continues to vibrate on my nightstand. With Eli visiting us for the remainder of the weekend, Camellia is forced to sleep in my room with me so that he can sleep in her room. His old bedroom has been turned into a home office and my mother refuses to let him sleep on the couch.

"I don't want to talk to him yet. I'll just turn my phone off." I reach for the device, but she stops me.

"Answer that phone or I'll slit your throat. I am not staying up all night again and listening to you fight with him by ignoring every one of his never-ending phone calls." She threatens back. She's not serious, but I can she's beyond the point of annoyance.

"Why don't you just take care of it for me?" I hand her the phone, but she swats it away.

"I'd rather jump out that window across the room than fight with your boyfriend for you. Us sharing a womb means nothing now that I'm sleep-deprived and pissed off. Talk to your boyfriend." She ends the conversation by turning her back to me and pulling the blankets up over her head. I give in for a change, not wanting to make her any more upset since we'll be sharing a bed for three more days.

After untangling myself from my bed sheets and tiptoeing across the room, I make my way into the bathroom and lock the door behind me. The light is bright above me, but it's not the top of my worries. My phone is ringing again and I'm dreading the thought of answering it.

In a split second, I open the flip phone and press it to my ear. It's silent for a moment on the other end.

"Rosie?" Harry speaks lowly after a long moment of silence. I tug at the hem of his t-shirt that's adorning my body, then respond in a soft voice.

"Yeah. Hi."

"Hi, baby. I'm so relieved to hear your voice." He sighs softly and I do the same.

"Harry, you have to stop calling me thirty times a day. You're not only annoying me but also my family and I'm sick of not even being able to pick up my phone to check the time without having sixteen missed calls from you in one hour." I continue to touch the soft fabric of his shirt and wish suddenly I could see his face rather than talking to him over the phone.

"I need to talk to you, Rosie. I'm not going to give up until you let me apologize for last week. You can hang up this phone right now and not answer it again, but that's not going to stop me from calling you thirty times tomorrow, and thirty more times the next day." His voice is confident, even though I can tell he's a mess. I knew he was serious the second day I was ignoring him on my vacation when he wasted an entire day at work calling and texting me in hopes of me talking to him.

"Please just talk to me, Rosie. I'm dying without you. I messed up- I know I did. But please don't let this ruin everything that's-"

"We can talk tomorrow." I cut him off.

"I'm outside of your house. I bought you a milkshake and it's melting so if you don't come down now it's going to be a melted mess in a few minutes." He surprises me by answering back. My heart feels as though it falls to my butt.

"You're outside?" I ask back. I'm standing from my seat on the edge of the bathtub before I can think too much about it. The window in the bathroom is high up on the wall, but I don't have to stretch too far to see out of it. Sure enough, Harry's classic white Mercedes is parked across the street in front of my neighbors house as he always does so that it's not obvious he's here for me.