The Guy Named Harrison: Book One

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Carrie dug under the covers for her clothes, but ended up finding Harrison's t-shirt and sweatpants. She quickly changed into her favorite Boston College t-shirt of his and his very baggy pair of sweatpants.

If Carrie could wear one of his t-shirts and a pair of his sweatpants every day, she would. They were so comfortable, and smelled faintly of him. It was a scent she'd come quite accustomed to loving.

She stood up, threw the covers on him, and headed downstairs to get something to drink. It had been raining for a day now. And with that rain came some of the strongest thunderstorms North Carolina experienced in a long time.

Carrie made it to the kitchen as another clap of thunder rumbled loud enough to make the entire house shake. That was exactly why she couldn't sleep. Lightning flashed as she made her way to the cabinet and found a glass which she filled up with water.

She sat at the counter and turned on her laptop to check her email. There was another 50 new emails for her to read. But Carrie narrowed it down to the ones that were flagged and deleted the others. The flagged ones were of somewhat importance. Some were from Harrison sending her wedding ideas, while the rest were work and bank related.

As she read through a few emails, wind and rain continued to pound against the windows with thunder rumbling and lightning flashing. After only a few emails, Carrie had to go refill her glass of water.

On her way back to the counter, Carrie shuffled through some of the mail that was still unopened from this afternoon. She groaned as she came across more and more bills.

Although they weren't married yet, they took a step in that direction by setting up a joint bank account. And Carrie now did most of the payments since Harrison hated it.

While shuffling through the envelopes, Carrie came across one with someone else's address on it, and was titled, 'Mikayla.'

It was written in Harrison's handwriting.

She now had a tough decision to make. Head upstairs and ask him who Mikayla was, or try and figure it out herself.

Carrie decided to tear the envelope open. Inside was a birthday card. She felt a little bit better about that. But when she opened the card, Carrie wasn't feeling reassured anymore.

Happy 21st, it read. Then Carrie took a look at the check inside the card. Use this to buy yourself a few drinks. Hope to see you soon. Lots of love, Harrison.

She stormed up the stairs with the card in one hand and her glass of water in the other. Carrie needed to know who Mikayla was, and why the hell she was getting a pretty hefty birthday check.

The handle of their bedroom door banged against the wall as Carrie stormed in and dumped the rest of her glass of water on his head.

Harrison quickly sat up. "What the hell Carrie? It's 2 in the morning!"

"Who the hell is Mikayla?" She demanded.

"My-"

She didn't let him answer. "I really hope this isn't what I think it is. Because I trusted you Harrison! I let myself fall for you. You showed me that not every player is like Alex! And now this!"

He looked absolutely furious. So mad that Carrie was a little scared of him. "As I was trying to say, she's my sister in law. My brother Terrance's wife. And you want to know something, I don't really appreciate your assumptions about me. I don't know who you think you are storming in here in the middle of the night accusing me of cheating on you. It's a birthday card for my SISTER IN LAW!"

"Why would you even jump to the conclusion I was cheating on you. Why would I ask you to move in with me or propose to you if I had someone else? I can't believe you would think that of me."

She poked the edge of the envelope in his chest. "You could've told me. So I didn't have to see some envelope titled to some random girl. What was I supposed to think!?"

"You're supposed to trust me! You jump to so many conclusions. I can't take it anymore!"

"Then maybe I'll just leave!"

"Maybe you should!"

Carrie took a deep breath. "Gary come!"

Both dogs were wide awake after the yelling started. Gary jumped off the bed and ran out their bedroom door just before Carrie slammed it closed.

❺❾

Harrison came downstairs the next morning to see Carrie sleeping on the couch with Gary. He couldn't believe she fell asleep on the couch. It was so uncomfortable to try and sleep on.

He passed by into the kitchen where he threw the card away and shredded the check. On his way downstairs, he stopped and looked at her. Instead of letting her sleep on the couch, he picked her up and carried her upstairs to their bedroom where he tucked her under the covers.

Just as he pulled her long hair out of her face, she woke up. Neither of them said anything right away. It was their second major fight in five months.

"I'm sorry about last night," she whispered.

"Me too. We both said some things we didn't mean."

He sat down on the edge of their bed and kissed her forehead. "I see you stole my shirt again."

"And your pants."

"And my pants."

"Hey, you know I love this shirt."

"And why's that?"

She smiled. "Because you've had it for so long and it smells so much like you."

"Is that good or bad?"

"That's good."