Last Place You Look

Chapter 32

Today hadn't gone exactly as planned. It was our last night in London and we were supposed to be packing and getting ready for our flight back to America, but we were broken down on the side of a back road with a flat tire and no spare instead. We were on our way back from a dinner that was way too extravagant then it needed to be, but Harry insisted.

"This is a day to be celebrated, Charlie."

It had been a year to the day we met. Harry deemed it our anniversary without me even knowing and dinner was great, but now we spending then end of our night sitting on the side of the road. We called Anne, but she was at work for another two hours. We called Gemma too, but the baby was asleep and she couldn't leave. To add to our lack of luck, we were two hours away from where Anne was. We had a bit of a wait.

We'd exhausted all conversation topics and we were sitting in silence just enjoying the music he'd put on. He kept it slow and calm, knowing I didn't like that we were stranded in the middle of nowhere at night. I knew I was safe with Harry and I was trying my best to push the anxiety down, but I couldn't help it. He was doing his best though, which I appreciated.

"Do you wanna walk a bit? Stretch our legs? I'll be with you the whole time." I nodded my head as he turned off the car and took the keys out of the ignition. We walked in front of the car, keeping our fingers intertwined.

"How have you been the last two weeks? I know we've been together the entire time, but that doesn't mean I know what's going on in your head." He sounded hesitant to ask. He'd been avoiding bringing up any sensitive topics the last couple of weeks, knowing what the last two weeks were for.

He'd been amazing since the moment he found out my grandma had died, but he'd gone above and beyond since we left America.

He'd spent the last week doing whatever he could to make me smile. We had play dates with Cece, dinner dates with Anne, so many wine fueled nights with Gemma after the baby was asleep.

He'd shown me around Holmes Chapel too. We spent so much time at the bakery he worked at as a teenager. Barbara was a character. She pinched his butt a lot. He jumped every time. He picked out his favorite pastries and cakes for me to try, basically force feeding me.

I met a lot of his friends from high school too. It seems that he'd been quite popular when he was a teenager. We spent a lot of time just walking around his town, and I spent a lot of time writing about it. I was worried that some of his female friends would have an issue with me, since I was new and Harry was well, Harry, but they were all incredibly nice. It made me wonder if they had seen the aftermath of the breakup Niall had told me about. It's been months since he told me but Harry still hadn't brought it up. I was beginning to think he never would.

He also took me to the spot where he would go when he wanted to be alone. It was a big grassy field with an abandoned brick building near the edge. One of the walls was filled with graffiti, words written by all the teenagers that spent time there like he did. There were song lyrics, poems, rants, everything. I asked him if he'd ever written anything. He said yes but didn't give me anything besides that.

I looked for his handwriting though, hoping to catch a glimpse. I knew he wrote, but I'd never seen anything he'd written. I felt almost scared to ask. It seemed like something he was nervous to share, just like his guitar skills. Knowing there was a guitar in his closet and he could play it but hadn't played for me was making me more curious.

I'd be patient though. It was the absolute least I could do considering how patient he'd been with me the last year of our lives.

"I think I'm okay. I'm a little scared to go home though." I was trying to be more honest with him. I wanted him to see that.