Luella

42 | golden oldies

H A R R Y

First ring, second, third, fourth, fifth ring and she picks up. My heart leaps up to my mouth and I swallow it down, waiting for her voice to sound through the other line. I press the phone closer to my ear as she breathes into the microphone.

"Lu?" I softly start, hearing a door click closed in the background.

"Hi," she says sweetly, her voice smooth like velvet. I melt with it as I lean more into the hard wall of the back of the bar, cars wheezing by with the harsh, cold air.

"How are you?" I try, cheeks numb and iced. At least my hair is tamed by a thick beanie.

"Okay. You?"

I bite on my bottom lip. "Okay. Are you free right now?"

She pauses for more than a second. "I don't know."

I freeze in confusion. (I'm actually freezing from the cool wind.)

"You don't know if you're free or not?" Why do I feel so fucking nervous with her now? Why do I feel like we're drifting apart since that bloody party? I always screw everything up. Before she can reply, I quickly add with an unintentionally croaky voice, "Are you still mad at me?"

She takes a breath. "I'm not mad at you, Harry."

I lean off the brick wall and start walking down the street where I'd parked my car. "Can you do something for me?"

"What?" She sounds unsure.

"Could you get the mail?"

"What?" I can picture her tiny little forehead crease in adorable confusion. "Your mail?"

"No, yours -Kate's, I mean." I fumble with the keys in my pocket. "Just...check it out. In the building's entrance, there are like ten metal boxes with numbers on them. Get the flat's key and open up number twenty-two."

There's a lot of shuffling on the other end of the line before I hear a door open and close. Something heavy settles at the pit of my stomach as I climb into my car and switch the heater all the way up, waiting for a response.

"You there yet?"

"Yeah," She's anxious.

"Don't worry," I chuckle to lighten the mood. "I haven't put a bomb in there or anything."

"What did you put in there?" I hear keys clinking and the eek of the metal as it slides open. Luella stammers. "It's a package... An expensive one."

I smile with satisfaction and turn the key in the ignition, hearing the car roar back to life.

"Wear it," I tell her. "And be ready by seven. Please."

06:30PM

"You did what?" Ben blinks his wide eyes at me in shocked surprise.

"I bought her a dress, man," I sighed. "A three-hundred-dollar dress."

"Damn!" He exaggerates, sliding me a cold beer bottle that I shake my head to. "Three hundred?"

I roll my eyes. "You know that half my money is Josie's. I have a shit load of cash in my bank account, plus my gym income, so I'd better spend it wisely."

"Wisely? As in, bribing the girl you love to forgive you, huh?" Ben laughs and I frown deeply as he takes a seat in front of me. "Dude, you're so fucking whipped. You never spend a shit dime on chicks."