Page 96 of The Summer I First Saw You
We hang up, and I force myself to down some crackers and head back to campus, looking over my shoulder the whole time. It’s not that I think Christian will do something to me. I’m just not ready to weather another round of accusations.
I somehow get through my next three classes and return to the apartment determined to get through my reading, though all I want to do is sleep. Except Helen is blasting death metal while she does some cardio workout on the TV and Claudia’s got a scrunchie on the door, which means she’s in there with her boyfriend so Ican’tstudy and Ican’tsleep. I’m too fucking nervous to even go for a walk. The only reason I don’t call Harrison is because if he sees how despondent I am he’ll probably try to come solve this for me. I don’t want him to start feeling as if he’s my parent rather than my boyfriend.
Eventually Helen goes to her room, but Claudia shows no sign of emerging from ours. I do my best to study and wonder why the hell Harrison hasn’t called like he said he would.
Hey, you’ve been quiet. Are you still at work?
Harrison
I’m going to call you. Give me thirty?
By ten, I’m exhausted. Harrison hasn’t called, and Claudia and her boyfriend haven’t opened the bedroom door, which means that I can’t even pee or brush my teeth. I give up and shut out the lights, using my sweatshirt as a pillow.
Months after I went to Harrison’s house intending to sleep on his deck, I’m back to feeling homeless.
Harrison
Are you still up?
Yes. Are you home?
Instead of texting me, he calls. “Hey,” I whisper.
“Please tell me you’re not sleeping on the couch,” he growls.
If he realized that the alternative was sleeping in a bed my roommate just had sex in, he probably wouldn’t be so appalled. Unless he was even more appalled. “The situation is a little fucked up at the moment. I’ll figure it out.”
“We’llfigure it out,” he says. “I’m outside. Let me up.”
It takes me a very long second to understand what he’s saying. And then I shriek so loudly that Claudia finally rouses and opens our door. I ignore her as I run out of the apartment, taking the stairs when the elevator doesn’t arrive fast enough. I burst out the building’s front door and leap at him, whole for the first time since I left California.
He laughs at my enthusiasm. And then he kisses me hard, and thoroughly, so it’s a full minute before I can even ask him how this unfolded.
“You flew all the way out here to discuss this?” I finally manage to ask. “That’s insane, even for you.”
“No,” he says, setting me down. “I flew all the way out here because I don’t want to be where you’re not.”
Huh? “But…you’re supposed to be coming over the weekend. Are you going to be able to take time off until—”
“I’m not going back,” he says. “It’s just not going to work, being away from you, even if it means living in DC for the next five months. But I’m not sleeping on a fucking couch.”
I press my face to his chest. “You can’t do that. What about your job?”
His hand runs over my back, and his laughter is quiet against my ear. “I must have forgotten to mention this, Daisy, but I’m pretty fucking rich.Artisanal honeyrich, even.”
“But—”
“I hated that job, and more importantly, I hated being away from you,” he says. “You spent the whole summer taking care of me. Now it’s my turn.”
I throw my arms around him, and he’s once again forced to support my weight while I press my lips to his neck, tears running freely down my face the entire time. It’s not that he’s going to take care of me. It’s that hewantsto. And there’s no one I want to entrust that role to more than him.
We go upstairs. He has me pack an overnight bag, though Claudia sheepishly offers to let us have the room since her boyfriend is now leaving. The look on Harrison’s face is exactly what you’d expect when a very wealthy adult is told he can sleep in a filthy bed someone just had sex in.
“We’re staying in a hotel, thanks,” he says, making no attempt to hide his disdain.
He ushers me into an Uber. “I’m going to talk to the police in the morning,” he says, “and then I’m going to find us an apartment. Is that okay?”
I nod. It’s better than okay. I nestle against his chest and breathe him in, grateful to be home at last.
