Chapter 23 Cordelia – Wake up calls
For some must watch while some must sleep, so runs the world away
Hamlet, William Shakespeare
I was awakened abruptly by Harrison yelling through my door. Groggily, I sat up. “Fuck off,” Damon growled at the door. “What’s this asshole want?”
Rather than fuck off as instructed so politely, Harrison threw open the door, his face falling when he saw a bare-chested Damon beside me. I clutched the sheet to my naked body. He didn’t have the right to see the girls anymore.
“Get. Out. Now.” Damon said in a low, deep voice.
“Well, I fucking would if I could. I’d love to be asleep right now, but I have a million phone alarms going off in my room every 10 minutes.”
“We know nothing about that Harrison. Use your last remaining brain cell and turn off the alarms maybe?” I suggested snappily.
“That would be the logical move, but they’re hidden all over my room. There was even one in my fucking air vent. Where did your bitch sister find so many old phones?”
I laughed out loud, not even trying to disguise my pride in my sister.
If Harrison had been a better boyfriend, he’d know that Cam worked at a phone dealer, a place where people frequently traded in old models for recycling.
I wouldn’t tell him this now, of course.
He’d had his chance to get to know my sisters and their partners.
Did he even know what Seamus did for a living?
“So fucking look for them. We can’t and won’t help you.” Damon stared him down until he backed out of the room, muttering curses under his breath.
“Your sister is a master of sleep disruption,” he remarked, pulling me back down into his arms. This man was a miracle.
He was kind, fun, and patient. He loved Miranda’s antics and never used words like “flighty” or “chaotic” to describe her.
I felt content and hopeful, and more than ready for Harrison to concede defeat and sail off into the sunset with his child bride and suitcase of sanitizer.
Let Emma deal with his gigantic pimples and even more gigantic ego.
Love is blind, but in my case with Harrison, love was blind, stupid, and wildly misplaced.
The next morning, the world’s most awkward foursome sat in the kitchen.
Damon and I enjoyed a full breakfast, while Emma fussed over a banana and Harrison downed a coffee.
He looked truly awful. The bags under his eyes were huge, and Emma had begun sniping at him more regularly.
At first, he was patient and seemed wounded by her jibes, but he’d recently begun to retaliate.
“Careful you don’t spill your coffee on your vest, mate.” Damon nodded at Harrison’s Walmart vest. “I hear that you only get one, and if you ruin that, you have to pay for another. My little cousin works there to earn money for Roblox.”
Harrison narrowed his eyes at Damon. Emma was dressed neatly in her pharmacy uniform. Harrison didn’t have a shift until later this afternoon, but he was still in charge of taking his little girlfriend to work given she didn’t have a car, or even a license.
“Let’s go,” Emma urged Harrison. She was an irritating presence in my life, a constant reminder that Harrison was a lying fucking cheater, but she’d become a necessity.
She seemed to grind Harrison’s gears almost as much as Miranda did lately, so it was very gratifying to watch their relationship implode.
He grabbed his keys and headed out but stopped when I called to him.
“What?” he snapped.
“Juliet gave me a message for you.”
“Oh, I can’t wait. Do enlighten me,” he replied nastily.
“She said that the hospital pharmacist Dom mentioned something about your name coming up at a guild meeting?” Harrison was desperate to be a senior member of the Pharmacists Guild.
At the moment, he was an associate member, but given he was no longer employed as a pharmacist, I don’t know how long that would be the case.
“What did he say?” Miranda was right. This man was a gullible fool.
“I don’t know. Something about Walmart and car parks. Maybe he knows about your new job.”
Harrison paled. He knew that in this fictional conversation, Dom was not talking about his new job. He was talking about his little Walmart trysts.
“Oh, and Seamus has a message for you too.”
“What?” His tone was now weary.
“He said to fuck off and stay gone. And something about a dumpster fire. I don’t really remember that part.”
“Great. Thanks for sharing that.” By this time, Emma was wringing her hands and checking the time on her phone.
“Harrison, I have to go! Brian’s on my case all the time since you left and I don’t want to give him any reason to completely clean house!”
Grumbling, shoulders slumped, Harrison left the house with Emma haranguing him about his lack of support for her career. Poor kid.