Stumbling Into Perfection...

Chapter 32

Harry took a deep breath and put his hand up to knock on the door. He waited for what seemed like years, dropping his eyes to the ground and shoving his hands in his pockets. When he heard the door open, he looked up to see Kelly standing in the doorway.

She didn't say a word. She stepped outside the door and pulled it closed, crossing her arms to show him that she was pissed.

He sighed,

"Okay, I deserve that."

She shook her head,

"You deserve way more than this."

Harry looked up at her,

"I came by to apologize." Kelly's expression softened as he ran his hand through his hair, "I'm sorry...about this morning. I had no idea she was gonna show up."

Kelly chewed on her bottom lip thoughtfully,

"It's ok."

Harry shook his head,

"No...it's not."

Kelly sighed,

"What do you want me to say, Harry? She was nice to me. I totally expected her to rip my head off when she walked in and we were holding hands." Harry looked down at his shoes as Kelly took a deep breath, "But I know from what you've told me about her already that Jennifer isn't that girl. She's not going to make a scene in front of everyone." Harry nodded, still looking at his shoes. Kelly felt her annoyance with him wavering. "Did you talk to her?" She asked quietly. Harry just nodded his head to indicate that he had. His attention was still focused on his shoes. "Hey," she said quietly, stepping toward him, "It's ok."

He looked up at her and for the first time the total sadness in his eyes made her breath catch in her throat. She reached up and touched his cheek,

"I don't know why anyone would want to hurt you on purpose..."

And that was all he needed to hear. He let out a huge sigh of relief. For every kind of way she wasn't like Jennifer, the one thing that continued to draw him to Kelly was her ability to instantly make him feel better. And it didn't hurt that she wasn't directly linked to his relationship with Jennifer either, meaning that he didn't have to think or talk about Jennifer unless he wanted to.

He brought his hands up to her face and pushed her hair back off her shoulders. When he leaned in to kiss her, he did so without any hesitation whatsoever. He felt her hands at his hips then as she leaned into him. She wasn't Jennifer. He didn't feel the electric spark with Kelly that he felt whenever he even thought about Jennifer.

But she made him forget about how badly Jennifer had burned him and the saddest part was that Kelly knew he didn't love her. And that he probably never would. But she was a source of comfort for him that was hard to explain even to himself.

When he finally broke the kiss, they were both breathing heavily. She was staring up at him with flushed cheeks.

She reached down and grabbed his hand, leading him to the door,

"Come on...let's go inside."

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Jennifer sat in her kitchen a few days later. She'd spent much of the time crying until she woke up this morning and was just over it. Done with being sad, done with wondering why, done with asking herself what if. Harry had moved on and it was time she did too.

The sun had set hours ago but Jennifer still had no idea what time it was. Holly had called a few hours ago to check in and make sure she was ok. Jennifer had to smile, still worried even though throughout this entire ordeal with Harry, she had yet to even think about taking a drink of anything.