Still the One

The moment that I can leave for lunch, I head out of the building and to Lynne and Dunham. I had so many questions for Victor’s ex-wife, Lisa. She loved and lived with him for years, so who else could know him better? The moment that I step into Lynne and Dunham, I notice all of the white. White walls, white carpet, white doors. It was almost blinding. The wooden clock on the wall was the best thing in the room. I double check my heels to make sure that I didn’t bring in a speck of dirt. The girl behind the desk, with jet black hair, dressed in black from head to toe, stuck out in the room.

‘Hi, welcome to Lynne and Dunham. What can I help with you today?’

‘Hi, I’m Libby White and I’m supposed to be meeting Lisa Raines here.’ I whisper, eyeing all of the workers in their equally white offices.

‘Ah, Libby. Ms. Raines is expecting you. She’s the first office on the right.’

‘Thank you.’ I reply, tiptoeing past the workers who were deep into their stack of papers.

I past the plaque that says Lisa Raines and give the door a short knock. ‘Come on in.’ A voice calls back happily.

I step into Lisa’s office and feel like I’m in another building. Her deep turquoise shelf was filled from left to right with wide, thin, tall, and short books. Her desk was cluttered with dozens of colorful sticky notes. She even had a little Snoopy bobblehead next to her sticker-ridden laptop. ‘You must be Libby.’ She smiles warmly, briefly taking her eyes from the screen.

‘Hi, Ms. Raines. It’s so great to meet you.’

‘Please, call me Lisa. Ms. Raines sounds too much like my ex-mother-in-law.’ She laughs, gliding her fingers across her keyboard. ‘Are you ready for lunch? I know this perfect Asian restaurant that’s a few blocks down the street.’

‘Sounds great.’ I nod as she pushes herself away from the desk and picks up her purple purse. I smile as her purse jingles with trinkets hanging off of the strap. She leads the way towards the elevator and out to the busy street. ‘I have a question, if you don’t mind.’

‘No, go ahead. I’m sure you have plenty of questions about my relationship with Victor. Go ahead and jump right in.’

‘No, I mean, I do – but that’s not it. What in the world are you doing there?’ I point at the office building behind us. ‘It’s so quiet and too clean.’

She tilts her head back with a loud laugh that matched her loud personality. ‘I’ve heard that all my career, believe it or not. Here’s the thing, my parents didn’t want me to pursue a career in writing. My dad was a surgeon and my mom was a math genius, of course, they looked down on my journaling as they called it. After a lot of yelling and endless arguments, we came to a mutual understanding. I needed a backup plan. I went to law school after graduation and started working with primarily women in need. I fell in love with it. I love giving a microphone to the voiceless and a hand to those who need it.’ She explains as we walk into the Asian restaurant that she mentioned earlier. We’re escorted to a table near the window with oversized menus. ‘I actually met Victor in college. We were both English majors.’ Lisa smiles to herself, almost like she was thinking about her better days with Victor.

‘What happened with Victor? In your email you said how passionate he was with his writing and I had to practically force him to even look at his manuscript for all of twenty minutes.’

‘Victor and I just couldn’t see eye to eye with one another towards the end of our relationship. We started to fight about the stupidest things like someone leaving the light on or someone leaving the cap off of the toothpaste. We weren’t happy. That man was the love of my life and it broke me to file for divorce, but it wasn’t fair to me or to him to stay in an unhappy situation. When I left, he wanted nothing to do with writing or me. He’s just so angry now. I couldn’t get through to him, but I thought this would.’

‘Any tips?’ I ask after a while, twirling my straw around in my glass. ‘He wants to withdraw the manuscript, but I feel like he is on the brink of something incredible.’

‘Don’t let up.’ She lets out an exasperated laugh, ‘he will fight, he will yell, and do everything he can to push you away – don’t let him. Just show him that he has something worth fighting for.’

‘Good to know.’ I chime just as the waitress places our food onto the table, ‘I’ll try that.’

At home, Harry’s at the table with Tanner and several papers. He stands up to wrap his arms around me as Tanner immediately directs his attention to his phone. ‘Hi.’ I smile kicking out of my heels, returning to my original height as he towers over me.

‘Hi.’ He repeats, glancing towards Tanner before pressing his lips to mine. ‘Since Tanner’s gonna be joining us I already ordered pizza.’

‘Sounds good. I’m gonna take a shower.’ I kiss him once more before heading towards the stairs and into our room. When I come back downstairs, the two of them are digging into the pizza box. ‘Thank you for waiting for me.’ I tease, pushing Harry’s shoulder while sitting beside him at the table.

‘Hey no one told you to audition for the X-Factor for twenty minutes up there.’ He taunts with that laugh that made my stomach swell.

‘I definitely do not miss your singing around the house. How can someone so talentless date someone with actual talent?’ Tanner chimes in as he works on his second piece of pizza in a minute.

‘Shut up, what are you working on anyway?’ I question, pointing at the stack of papers in front of us.

‘Prepping for exams. I need to ace this one. If I have to retake the course, I’m gonna bang my head into a damn wall.’

‘You won’t,’ Harry assures with a mouth full of pizza, ‘You got this.’ Harry easily explained each and every single problem to Tanner and made sure he genuinely understood it. He could just read through a couple of examples and figure it out on his own. It wasn’t fair how good he was at math – he only used it for the business side of his career and of course, to tutor the White siblings.

I watch on as Harry and Tanner finish up his exam prep sheet then turn towards the TV. Tanner hangs around the house a while longer before throwing his backpack over his shoulder and walking off to his car that sounded too loud when he started it. He worked at some bait shop on top of going to class just to be able to afford that car. It was his pride and joy. His baby. I smile as he waves before the sound grows fainter and fainter.

‘That’s a death trap.’ Harry stifles out a laugh folding a pizza box in half to stuff it down the trash can.

‘It is.’ I confirm, wrapping my arms around his waist. ‘Thank you for helping him.’

‘Of course, I love your family. I’d do anything for them.’ He brings my hand to his mouth leaving small kisses against my skin. ‘They gave me you, I kind of owe them a lot.’

‘Quite the charmer, huh Styles?’

‘I try.’ He turns in my arms and lowers himself into my collarbone. ‘You smell good, you always smell good.’ Harry speaks against my neck sending chills down my spine. ‘I’m gonna go shower. You should’ve waited for me.’

‘Oops, next time.’ I laugh, backing out of his arms. ‘I need to figure out how to get Victor motivated.’

‘How’d that go? Meeting his ex?’ He wonders following me up the stairs, ditching his shirt as he went.

‘Good, she’s great, a little optimistic. I’m not sure if he’s gonna want to finish up his work just because I smile and show up at his doorstep every day. I’ll try to meet up with him tomorrow but I’m already dreading it which I know, sounds whiny. I just want this to go perfect. If I can get through this one, maybe anything else won’t seem so bad.’

‘I think we need a night out.’ Harry speaks walking over to his closet and grabbing one of his sweatshirts from a hanger. ‘Get your shoes.’

‘Wait, what are you talking about? Where are we going? It’s already almost eleven.’

‘Get your shoes or I will throw you over my shoulder and carry you out to that car.’ He speaks with his back to me, but I could practically see the smile on his face. ‘You’re not going to make me use force, are you?’

I grab a pair of shoes and slip them onto my feet before hurrying down the stairs behind Harry. He locks the door and sets the alarm as I climb into his car. I knew better to question it, he wouldn’t be budging anytime soon. He casually murmurs along to Hozier’s Cherry Wine as he drives down through our dark neighborhood. All of the houses were hidden due to their tall walls and even taller trees. I glance over at him grabbing a hold of his hand. Somehow his hair was already past his ears, the ends slightly curling. A few specks of hair were resting above his lip, he took pride in his “stubble”. His green eyes were almost black in the darkness of the car. He was so endearing. Everything about him just pulled me in. In my years with him, I still couldn’t quite pin him down. He doesn’t stop until we’re outside of the city. Harry doesn’t wait for me as he rolls out of the car and starts walking up a grassy hill. He slightly slows his pace as I trail behind him.

‘I’ve been coming here a lot since I’ve been working on the album,’ He breathes out, sitting down at the highest point of the hill. ‘I leave every single thing in the car when I get out. It’s a nice escape from everything else. In between classes, work, and bringing your laptop to bed with us, you needed it.’

‘How do you always know what I need before I do?’ I lean into his open arm and try to make out the sounds from the city. It looked so small and insignificant. All of the buildings cast their silhouettes under the moon. ‘You know me too well.’

‘Because we are officially those annoying couples that thinks alike, finishing each other’s sentences and all that. It’s kind of scary actually. Sickening really.’

‘Sickening.’ I agree through a yawn, ‘we’re probably just too horrible to be around so that’s why we only have dinner with Tiffany and Paul, who are equally sickening and annoying.’

‘Yep, all that there’s left is to get married and hang around other married couples at brunch and dinner parties where everyone brags about their kids.’ He retorts, catching me off guard.

‘Married, huh?’

‘One day.’ He speaks matter-of-factly before going back to his humming.