Together

Have A Word

Hello hello hello! I hope that you're all staying warm tonight! We love having two snow days in a row because it's below 0°. Haha. I hope that you all like this chapter- a bit of drama going on in this one hehe. Not too much but enough that it might make Nessa a tiny bit heated. We'll see. Comment/vote x
-ab

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October 29, 2025

Patrick

I stand inside of the box office for the Piccadilly Theatre and grab the attention of the lady selling tickets. "Excuse me, my fiancee is in rehearsal here, and I need to talk to her."

"It's a closed rehearsal, but they should be done any minute now," the lady states.

"I'm sorry, but it's a fairly important matter."

The lady sighs. "You know what, go ahead in. They're done with running their scenes in there, and they should just be finishing up their notes."

"Great. Thank you," I say to her, walking further into the lobby of the theatre, then through the doors, where I find myself in the stalls. I quickly pick out Harper, sitting in the second row of seats, listening intently to the notes from her director. I hang out in the back of the room as her director finishes up the notes, then, once they're dismissed, I walk up to her. "Hey, Love."

"Patrick?" she asks, whipping her head around. "What are you doing here?"

"I got off of work early. Long story. Can I have a quick word with your director?"

She eyes me suspiciously. "What do you want?"

"It's nothing too important, but just a small concern with your schedule," I tell her. "I just want to make sure that you'll be able to take off on the 23rd of December."

A little smile breaks onto her face as I mention that date. "Patrick, that's really sweet with you and all, but I'm perfectly capable of handling that."

"Well, I want to meet him, too," I tell her. "Just, wait here, okay? That's him up there, right?"

"Yeah," she rolls her eyes. "God, don't embarrass me."

"You sound like a teenager," I tease, giving her a cheeky smile before walking off to her director.

I've not been entirely honest about what I need to talk to him about.

"Luke?" I ask. He turns around and looks at me. I can tell by his face that he's trying to figure out who I am. "I'm Patrick Alwyn. Harper is my fiancee. I know that this may be bold of me, but I was hoping that I could have a word with you concerning her safety in this show."

"Oh?" he asks. "What's up, kid?"

"It's just... the other day, she heard a remark made by some of the costumers which really hurt her, and it caused her to do some things that she regrets... I wanted to bring the incident to your attention."

"What happened exactly?" he asks with concern.

"Apparently they told her that she was 'bigger' than any of the other Anyas, so they would have to make her new costumes instead of altering old ones. I'm sure that it was a simple misunderstanding, as she's so tall, but she took 'big' as meaning 'fat.' Anyway, long story short, apparently she's had some body image issues for quite some time now, and she got this tea that was supposed to help her lose weight. She doesn't even need to do that, of course, but it made her horribly sick. That's why she was forced to take off on Monday. I've told her that if she drinks the tea again, then I'm taking her to get professional help, but I just don't want her to have to fall back into that place again in the first place."

"Oh my god," Luke whispers. "Yeah, I had no idea. I'm sorry. I'll have a word with the costume ladies. I don't think that there's much more that I can do, but I'll keep an eye on Harper for you. Thank you for informing me about this. Please, if you think that she's falling back there, let me know, alright?"

"Okay," I tell him. "Thank you so much."

"Is that all that you'll be needing with me?" Luke asks.

"One more thing, actually. I'd better actually tell you this, because this is what Harper thinks we are actually talking about right now. The two of us have an appointment at the registry office on December 23 to sign our marriage certificates... essentially, an elopement. Can you make sure to give her that day off?"

"Of course," he laughs. "Not a problem. Congratulations to both of you. Now, I've got to be on my way, if you don't mind."

"Not at all," I smile. "Thank you so much."

"You're very welcome," Luke replies, giving me a little wave before we part our ways. I walk back to Harper. "All taken care of."

"You're the best," she says, slipping her hand into mine. "Now, why are you not in work right now?"

"I didn't have any clients scheduled for the rest of the day, so I just asked if I could leave early, and they told me that they really didn't care what I did, so long as I clocked out."

"Lovely," she laughs. "You're missing two hours' worth of pay."

"Alright... that's true..." I concede. "But I would have just been sitting there, if I'd have stayed."

"You'd have made money for staying there," she teases me.

"Don't worry. It won't happen again," I state, squeezing her hand. "Plus, what did I tell you when I took this job? You don't have to worry about money, love. I'm making plenty to support both of us."

"Alright," she replies with a small smile. "Now, let's get going home, alright?"

"Sounds perfect," I tell her. The two of us head to the Piccadilly Circus tube stop, which is the closest to the theatre, and start to head to the trains.

"I hate to say it," Harper whispers to me, "but I think I miss the steps at Covent Gardens. I'd really take those over having to go through this giant tourist trap known as Piccadilly Circus."

I laugh. "It's not that bad, really. Just... crowded."

"Yeah," she nods. "I'm alright with it. I think I just miss Les Mis, more than anything."

"You miss performing," I tell her. "You'll be fine, as soon as you make your debut. And that's coming up really freaking soon."

"I can't wait," she smiles, giving a little skip with excitement.

"Who all is coming again?" I know that she has a giant group of people coming to support her during her debut as Anya.

"Besides you... um, Nessa and Kath, Taylor and Joe, my parents, your parents, a few of my teachers from university, Harry, Megan... that might be it," she laughs.

"Geez, you're popular," I tease my fiancee.

"I'll tell you a secret, though," she whispers with a cheeky hint to her voice. "Out of all of them, you're my favourite."