CHAPTER 35
Harvey
I barely leave my bed all week.
Henrik stares at me like I’m a lost cause.
It’s Saturday evening, and I haven’t seen Claire since last Saturday.
What should’ve been a monumental night between Claire and me, and my first time having sex in years, was ruined thanks to me.
The first few days, I thought she simply needed space. After Wednesday, I started getting antsy, and nothing would take the edge off. I knew I needed to contact her, or the anxiety would eat me alive.
But she never answered my texts.
She must be really pissed off to go the no-show route. It’s never been like her not to let me know about her days off.
I haven’t trained in a little while, and I can feel my body growing weaker. And unless she comes back, I don’t think I’ll get my strength back by myself.
Henrik forces me out of my room tonight, and I know he’s staying in for my sake. We sit on the couch, and he brings out cans of pop and a bowl of popcorn with too many bags of candies and drops them on the coffee table in front of us.
We watch whatever stupid YouTube videos Hen chooses. His phone rings nonstop all night, but he ignores it.
“Aren’t you going to answer Sophie’s texts? Or Ashley’s or…” He simply chuckles at my comment, and I shake my head. “That whole song and dance is going to get old, Hen.”
He shrugs. “We’ll see. We’re not all destined for the same life,” he tells me, and if that isn’t one of the most true things I’ve ever heard.
Because clearly not .
I don’t answer him. I don’t want to repeat last Saturday night’s events and argue with my brother. I can’t handle it. He’s the only thing keeping me afloat.
Randomly he tells me, “I have something to tell you, and you’re not gonna like it…”
“What is it?” I ask, curious.
“But I think you should know, for your own…sake.” I wait for him to continue, although impatiently, my fingers tapping on my leg. “Gemma’s moving in with her boss—with her boyfriend.”
“Seriously?” is all I say before a snicker escapes me.
I have so many choice words for her in this moment, but I shove them as deep into my hate box as I can, knowing that Henrik would probably defend her.
Then I laugh.
“I thought you should know. I don’t know exactly what went down last Saturday, but Gemma told me that she felt bad about how she treated Claire.”
“You hung out with her?”
He nods. “This week, yeah. Gia told me the news.”
I bite my lip, shaking my head. “I fucking hate her.” I can’t stop the words from spilling out. “Not only did she ruin our relationship, but she may have ruined mine with Claire too.”
I look at him sideways and see him swallow before grabbing a bag of gummy worms and popping a few into his mouth.
“Gem betrayed you, I get it. And she’s pulled a lot of dick moves.”
To say the fucking least.
“Just remember, if it bothers you that I hang out with her, let me know,” he reminds me.
“No, it’s fine.” For now, it’s fine at least. How else would I have known that she was moving on with her boss and moving in with him so soon after our breakup? Not that it’s any of my business or that I need to know these things, but it certainly helps.
My fingers are itching to text Claire, but I don’t. Instead, I hang on to the hope that she’ll show up to work on Monday with her beautiful face and that we’ll have moved past our big fight.
Because I miss her.