Last Place You Look

Chapter 25

The rest of April came and went, May too. The weather warmed up so fast. I'd missed the heat though. I wasn't made to be in the cold.

June started and the flowers the city planted along the sidewalks near the trees were almost done blooming. It made my walk to work so much prettier.

Kimmy and Dustin sent a lot of pictures from their honeymoon. They flew to California for two weeks and I'd never been so jealous before. I'd been writing and editing a lot more than usual because we were in our busy season now that summer was coming. A vacation was more than needed but I didn't have the time.

Business at Harry's store had picked up as well. He'd apparently helped a well known business man from Charlotte. He told Harry he was visiting family near the area and needed a quick gift. He was over the moon that Harry just happened to have the record his sister liked and he had apparently raved about Harry to all his friends. He'd had to keep the store open later though.

We'd both been working a lot of long hours. We'd spent more time apart than together lately. He ended up sleeping at his place the last few nights because I was already asleep by the time he was able to close up for the night.

He'd had an unusually slow day today though and made it to my apartment before I finished getting ready for bed.

I heard the front door open and close. There was silence for a few seconds and I heard soft footsteps walking toward the kitchen.

"Darling?" His voice was quieter than usual. It was dripping with exhaustion.

"Bathroom!" I was in the middle of washing my face when he came in. He wrapped his arms around my waist from behind so I could keep my arms and kissed the back of my head. "How was your day?" He watched my fingers work through my skin.

"Less stressful than the last month. I think that weird rush might be dying down. I probably shouldn't be grateful for it, but I can't help but be a little glad. I'm exhausted." He moved next to me and grabbed his toothbrush from the holder and wet it before putting toothpaste on it and wetting it again.

I cupped water in my hands and brought it to my face a few times to make sure all the facewash off. I dried my face with the towel on the counter and followed Harry's actions to brush my teeth.

"Good. You've been tired lately. I feel bad that I've been asleep by the time you've been able to leave, especially since the store is closer to here than the house." I talked through the toothbrush in my mouth.

"You don't need to feel bad. I'd rather drive home than ask you to stay up to wait for me." He spit in the sink and rinsed his mouth before bringing the toothbrush back to his mouth.

We finished brushing our teeth in silence. He washed his face when we were done while I went to the kitchen to grab water for us both. He'd finally gotten rid of his bottled water only kick and had finally stopped complaining about my filtered water. I didn't understand it, but it's fine.

I heard the water shut off and the light switch flick. He joined me in the kitchen a few seconds later and took the water from my hands. He was missing his shirt. I'd missed getting to look at his tattoos the last few days. The butterfly was my favorite, aside from his silver spoon on the back of his arm.

"Tell me about work today?" He put his elbows on the island and took a sip from the straw.

"It was the same as always. A million things to edit and strict deadlines to accompany them. My to-do list wasn't even a quarter of the way finish when I left today either."

He didn't say anything but looked at me with a sad expression. I knew we were both feeling stressed about work and hating that we hadn't been able to see each other lately, but I felt like we were managing pretty well.