Take Me To Another World

As we sat in the cafe by the window, my phone started to buzz and ring repetitively. I would't check or answer it, but after a while I saw that the noises where aggravating Harry. When I checked all of the missed calls and texts, I was curious why the caller had been wanting to talk to me so badly. What made matters worse was that they were all from Zac. What could he have wanted me for? He had made it very clear that he wasn't too bothered about all the papers. Anger filled me up from deep within. What did he want? Soon enough, my phone rang once again. I looked up at Harry and saw him looking with a suicidal look in his eye at the mobile. I sighed and answered.

'Hello?' I said.
'Why the hell haven't you been answering my calls? I've been trying to get hold of you all morning!' Zac shouted.
'Will you calm down? What do you want? You didn't seem very bothered yesterday. What could have changed? Eh?'
'I need to talk to you. It would be a lot easier if we were face-to-face,' he said. I looked at Harry and signalled to him that I would be about two minutes. He nodded and drank his drink as I walked out of the shop and leant against the window.
'What? Why can't you just say it over the phone?'
'I need to see you!' he exasperated.
'I'm not risking anything. I'm not coming to see you. If we get caught together and photo's get taken this time, it could be the end of me and Harry, and I get hated by everybody. I'm still trying to be normal with Harry now, but it's hard. I'm coming home soon, you can talk to me over the phone again, but you're not coming to see me.'
'When are you coming back?'
'I don't know, three days? I'm going now, Harry's waiting for me. I need to be with him. Bye,'
'Okay, bye. Love ya,' he said, and that got me angry.
'Don't you dare say that. Especially after the last few days,' and I hung up.

I walked back into the cafe and sat opposite Harry.
'So who wanted to talk to you so badly,' he asked. I didn't know what to say. I didn't want to tell him it was Zac because he would have been so upset, but I didn't want to lie to him.
'Just someone from my old school and college,' I said, after all, Zac had been to my school and college, but then, so did lots of people.
'Oh, Okay. Want to look after Lux today? Give us something nice to do, and her parents are busy. I quite enjoy looking after her. She likes water, I thought we could take her to the swimming pools? Then maybe a walk in the park in her pushchair?'
'Yeah! That'd be lovely. What time's she coming?' I asked, trying to be cheery.
'About one. Should we go back to get ready? It is nearly twelve,' he suggested.
'Yeah, sure, come on then,' I got up and reached out for his hand. He hesitated a little, and as I was about to drop my hand he took it and stood.

We walked down the street and back home. I went upstairs to pack my swimming costume, his trunks, some towels and Lux's back up costume in case her mum didn't bring one around. I took the bag downstairs.
'Want me to make a picnic for the park? Or should we just buy an ice-cream and a drink there?' I asked.
'Won't put you through too much trouble. We can just get something there. Anyway, their car's pulled up now,' and he went to answer the door. He got the seat out of the car and put it in his and folded up the pushchair and squeezed it in the back. He said goodbye to them and brought Lux in. He sat her on the sofa and started to play with her.
'Hello! Hello Lux! Want to go swimming? Should we go and splash in the water, yeah?' he said. Lux was bobbing up and down in the seat and smiling. I wasn't quite sure that she understood what he was saying, but she seemed happy. He picked her up and placed her on the floor. She started crawling around and picking up the remote off of the coffee table. She started playing with it. She decided to show it to Harry and he told her it was a remote. He showed her what it did and she was immediately intrigued. Once he turned the TV off, she tried to do the same, but it didn't quite work. He scooped her up in his arms and took her to the car. I took the bag out to him.
'Oh, forgot the keys. Can you hold her for me? Thanks,' he said and handed her to me.
'Hello, Lux!' I said in that annoying high-pitched voice people often did to babies. She laughed and started fiddling with my hair. She was a clever little girl. She looked up and smiled.
'Is Harry back? Yeah? Cool, let's go!' I said, as Harry opened the door and I placed her in her car seat and strapped her in. We slid in the front seats and started the engine. We drove for about twenty minutes before arriving at the pool.

We took her out the car and the bag. We got a locker key and used a family changing suite to change in, that had a baby changing table at the side. I changed Lux into her costume while Harry was changing into his trunks and wrapped her in a towel. I gave Harry the baby and a towel of his own and they made their way to the baby pool. I changed, took my towel and shoved our things into a locker before tying the key to my wrist, and putting my hair up. I found them in the shallowest part of the pool. Lux was making little splashes with her little fists. I joined them. We took her by a hand each and started to walk her around the edge of the pool. We spent about an hour playing in the pool with Lux squealing and laughing before she looked bored. We decided to take her out of the pool and dry her off.

Once we were all dry and changed, we drove over to the park. We played with her in the baby swings and baby slide, and guided her down. We sat near the flower beds and watched her eat a strawberry ice-cream rather messily. We kept wiping her with a baby wipe every five seconds. She started playing with single strands of grass. She started to fiddle with the deep purple flowers that blended in with her little dress. We smiled at the pretty and curious baby. I put my head in Harry's neck and he put his neck around me. We carried on watching her play - until my phone went off again.
'I swear, I'm going to wait for this thing to die and then never charge it up again,' I growled.
'Go on, answer it,' Harry sighed. I brought it up to eye level to check the caller. I felt Harry flinch as he saw the name. I closed my eyes and answered it.

'What now?'
'A hello would be nice,' Zac sarcastically said.
'I'm fed up of this, what do you want?' I sighed.
'I need to see you! I need to talk to you!'
'Then bloody well talk to me over the phone then. There's also Facebook! And you could text me! You don't need to see me! Just tell me now!'
'For God's sake Tia, I can't!'
'Why not?' I stung, I felt my voice raising and Lux was staring at me. I stood and walked away.
'I can't!'
'You are seriously pissing me off now, Zac,' I mumbled.
'You're coming down in three days right? I'm coming to your house. I need to talk to you, I need to show you something.'
'Give me a hint of what you want to talk to me about and I'll decide if I want to talk to you.'
'Don't go shouting out and stuff. I...I...I gave the press the pictures. Marcia was the insider, she said what I told her to say. But before you do anything, I didn't think -' but I cut him off.
'You what? You what? You're an absolute arse! You...You little...I tell you what when I get my hands on you you'll never see the light of day again! You prick!' I didn't swear very often, but this got me furious.
'Will you shut up! I'm trying to tell you I didn't think that that was what they were going to do with the article! I didn't know what they were going to do! They just wanted information on your past to do a little cover for it so they could include an interview with you and Harry!' he stammered.
'And you believed them? You stupid, stupid idiot! Oh my God, Zac, why the hell? You little...for God's sake! You bastard!' I hung up the phone without thinking. I'd drawn a little attention to myself. I stared down at the phone in fury. I turned on my heel and went back over to Harry and Lux. He'd been watching me.

'What's wrong?' he asked.
'Did you hear what I said? Sorry, I know you don't like it when I swear, I don't like it either, but...this....augh, doesn't matter,' I stumbled.
'Okay,' he said and he picked up Lux and sat her on his lap to clear her up. I stared into mid-air thinking over in my head. He hadn't meant for the articles to turn out like that, but he gave the pictures. I knew I'd have to see him and talk to him, there was a risk of getting caught and ruining everything, but I had to see him after that.