I Must Be Blind, to Not Have Seen the Signs

I hadn’t had so much as a text from Henry in days. I tried calling but it went straight through to answer phone. I was getting vaguely worried by now, I mean, how hard could he possibly be working?

It was a Tuesday night and I was lying in bed by about nine, I mean I had nothing else to do, when my phone buzzed beside me. I snatched it up and saw Henry had sent me a text. My heart was beating viciously and I opened it expecting the worst for some reason. It read:

I’m so sorry I’ve been awol lately,
I guess I’ve just been working myself into the ground.
I miss you like crazy,
Hopefully I’ll get to see that pretty face of yours soon.
I love you, H x

I texted him back right away because I knew he was by his phone and would answer.

I miss you too, I thought you’d died or something.
When can I see you next?
I love you, too. P x

I got a text a few minutes later just as my eyes were closing. The sound though made me wake up again.

I really don’t know,
I mean maybe Sunday afternoon?
It’s free right now but we’ll just have too see how things go.
Sorry. H x

Sunday felt like years away, and even then it wasn’t definite. I just wanted to see him. all he did was spend time in his bloody office writing. I mean how many things was he reporting on?

Josh popped into my head then, and that Idea he’d given me the last time I’d seen him. he told me to surprise him, add some spark back or something. So I decided to go with it.

I texted a girl called Ava Langly who worked there too. she worked in the makeup department for when ands came in for shoots. I asked weather he was in tomorrow and she said he’s be writing all day as far as she knew.

So the next morning I got up and got dressed before heading out and over to the place where Henry took me on our first date. I ordered take out of what we ate that night and then went over to his office.

I had a chat with some of the guys that worked there before I went in search of his room. The door to his room was slightly ajar and just as I put my hand on the handle I heard a girls laughter erupt from inside.

“Shhh, no one can know you’re here” I heard Henry say quietly before it went silent again, but I was pretty sure I knew what was going on. I pushed the door open and my fears were confirmed.

There was Henry, sucking the face off some girl who was sitting on his desk. Both their heads snapped up as they heard me open the door and the colour drained from their faces.

The girl, who I now recognised as Ava looked too the floor uncomfortably and Henry was frozen in place, as was i. I knew I should have got out of there as fast as I could but I couldn’t. I wanted him to do something first, but it was clear he wasn’t so I turned away and tried to get out of there as fast as I could.

I made it out and threw our lunch away in the first bin I found. As I went to walk away I felt a hand grab my arm and spin me around. When I saw it was Henry I tried to fight free but he wouldn’t let go.

“If you don’t get off me Henry I’m gonna scream”

With that he let go, but he blocked my path so I couldn’t go anywhere and I had to listen to his bull shit.

“You don’t understand Pip, I know it looks bad but-“

“No buts’” I cut him of, my eyes were filling up and I didn’t want him around to see me cry. “you’ve fucked up big time. It’s over. I never want to see you again so just stay away from me”

“Pip please” he said reaching for my arm but I managed to get out of the way in time.

“Is he bothering you m’am?” a passer by said to me and I nodded at them. The man who’d asked me then stopped to look at Henry. “look mate, she obviously isn’t interested”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about, this is none of your business, so just go”

“Well I’ve made it my business, so just leave the girl alone yeah?”

“Pip, please?”

“Come near me again and I swear to god I’ll kill you” I said finally before walking past him. I felt him go for me but the guy held him back and told him to just leave it. When I turned around Henry was walking in the opposite direction and the man was running towards me.

“Are you okay?” he asked when he got near me, and I nodded.

“Yeah. And thank you for stepping in, I don’t know what would have happened if you hadn’t.”

“Don’t mention it” he smiled. “well, I hope you have a nice rest of the day” he smiled before walking off.

I guess there are some decent people out there.

It’s a shame the one person I thought loved me turned out to be the worst person in the world.