"...How was the party?" I ask Cami as I sit down on my couch, crossing my legs as I begin to eat from my ice cream. I look towards my MacBook screen to see my sister lean back on her chair and blow air.

"Screaming children and loud music, how do you think it went?" She had told me Brooklyn's dad invited her to her cousins party but Brooklyn dragged Cami along as well.

"Another day being glad I have no children." Hearing about Cami's life makes me glad I'm on birth control. "Is Brooke asleep?"

Cami nods. "Yeah, she nodded off an hour ago, all that sugar finally wore off. See, that's another thing I can't stand, I say no sweets and Michael's mother goes out of her way to give Brooke the biggest candy bar and right in front of me!"

"It sounds to me like maybe you should be setting firm boundaries. You're not obligated to let them see Brooklyn, she's there for her dad not them."

"I do, but then he bitch's at me that I'm doing this to hurt him and that I'm being petty and that she should be able to see her grandparents and it's like, she hardly even knows who they are because they denied her at first, it's not like they're the worlds best grandparents."

My phone rings beside me, Harry's contact unexpectedly flashing on my screen that it made my heart sink. Cami notices. "What?"

"Harry's calling," I say as I set the ice cream down.

"Still? I thought he backed off."

"I'll call you later alright?" I say and she agrees and I pick up the phone almost instantly. "Hello?"

I hear rustling on his end before he answers. "I just bought a boat."

My eyebrows furrow at his words, the clock on the wall reads 2 AM and this is the most bizarre line I've heard him say. "What?"

"Yacht? Boat? It's all the same shit."

"Harry, where are you right now?" I can hear him walking around before I hear water sloshing followed by wind.

"You know, I don't know if I can tell you." His words were slurred and if he's drunk and not on land, that worried me even more.

"Why not?" I say as I slip my shoes on and grab my keys. "Why can't you tell me?"

"You know why."

It was always so difficult to reason with him when he was under the influence, he was stubborn without it but even more so when his inhibitions were compromised. "I don't care about that, I want to see you." I say, finding a loophole. "Don't you want to see me?"

"Don't lie to me." Is what he says before he hangs up the phone only for a text message to show up on my phone a few seconds later with his live location. It lead me to the other side of town, quite frankly I wasn't aware there were docks but I was proven wrong when I arrived at one. I made the walk on the boardwalk, passing various boats that were tied to the side before my phone dinged on a very prestigious one.

The lights inside made me walk on just as I heard music coming from the inside. "Harry?" I call out, sliding the door open and I'm allowed to see him sitting down on the couch, a beer in his hand. He was still wearing the suit from the wedding, the white dress shirt was unbuttoned and creased.

"You found me." Harry says in almost a mocking tone. "I didn't think you would." He takes a drink from the bottle.

"What's going on?" I ask, walking closer, the waves made the boat move, each time getting me dizzy so I sit on the couch beside him. "Why are you here?"

"I can't enjoy myself on my own boat? If you've come here to critique and act like my mother you should've stayed home."

"You called me here." I point out.

"Yeah because I needed comfort."

"How do you want me to comfort you if you're cold with me? You don't even let me near you." I say as I notice the way he moved away when I sat next to him. "Here I am, let me be here for you." I reach my hand out for him but he stands up, stumbling.

"Shouldn't you be with...what's his name... Jason?"

"Jackson." I correct. "And he has nothing to do with this."

"I'm just saying, maybe it was a mistake you came here. Don't you think you've cheated on enough boyfriends with me?" As he mentions this, my heart sinks.

"That's neither here nor there. You and I both know that never happened."

"Sure, maybe not with Bill, but what about Luke?" He's just trying to hurt me and he's drunk.

"That doesn't matter, Jackson and I aren't dating, we're coworkers."

"Weren't you and Luke coworkers? And I remember we were coworkers once too."

"Did you call me here to humiliate me? Or are you just determined to make everyone hate you?" I bite back, my face feels hot as he dismisses me and takes a swig of his beer.

Harry shrugs. "Don't you already?" He says, his eyes wandering elsewhere but at me with a glazed over look.

My face softens at what he just said to me. "That's the thing," I say. "You could never make me hate you, Harry." That was just how much love I have for him, despite everything going on between us.

Harry seems to find this amusing because he chuckles. "I don't know why I called you, I had your number blocked but it's not like that would be of any help considering you live a building over." He admits. "I guess things are just getting too crazy for me at the moment, I needed some familiarity."

I nod and listen, I knew exactly what he meant. With the way things are between us I've been in a constant back and forth battle with myself, wondering if I made the right decision to move here. But then I have to remind myself that I didn't move here for him, an opportunity was presented to me and I took it, simple as that.

Still, in the back of my mind I knew Harry was a small factor in that plan, I don't know maybe I hoped things would've been different this time.

"I think I want to be alone now if you don't mind." He says and I look at him. "I don't know if you being here does me any good."

"That seems to be a popular opinion lately." I retort.

"Georgia talk to you?" He asks and I nod.

"It's like I'm a walking plague to her, she basically blamed me for your addiction."

At this, Harry looks down. "She's not all that off."

"Excuse me?"

"Nothing, forget about it."

"Did you tell her that?" Georgia had no motive to hate me, we don't even know each other but this would make sense if Harry put his addiction blame on me. "Harry you know I'm not responsible for your addiction. You've been this way since I met you."

"I've never been this bad." He challenges.

"You went on a bender when you were with Hailey, hell you even married her or were about to at least. You recorded girls and kept the tapes as blackmail and even had so much control of one of your past submissives that she ended up killing herself! And that all happened before I even came into the picture." I spit. "Does Georgia know all that or were you just trying to make me look like the bad guy?"

"Clearly it was my mistake calling you here. You should go." He dismisses as he walks past me outside and I follow suit.

"Is this really how you plan on pushing me away?" I say, looking at how he ignores me and looks ahead at the water while he finishes his beer.

"Don't tell anyone where I'm at."

—

My alarm blaring on my nightstand has me jolting awake, my heart beating in my ears as I see I'm ten minutes late to work. "Shit." I mutter as I hurriedly scramble across the floor to find my heels, I practically throw myself inside my closet to grab my outfit when the doorbell rings across the hall. "Coming!"

There's no time for me to wait for the hot water so I splash cold water on my face, the stinging is enough to wake me up and I quickly brush my teeth, seeing no point in wearing much makeup today.

The doorbell continues to ring, adding on to my annoyance and I decide to open the door, regardless of my missing shoes. "Can I help you—" I stop once I see who's standing in front of me.

Joseph Fox. "I hope so," He says. "I'm looking for my son, have you seen him?" My mouth is dry as he comes in, hands inside the pockets of his slacks as he looks around. "Vogue treating you well?"

I clear my throat, closing the door and turning to him. "Yes," I say, walking behind him and we are now standing in the living room. "I'm sorry, what's going on?"

"Well, you and I both know the kind of person Harry can be. I take it he got rather close to you?"

"We're good friends." Or were.

"Please, spare me the white lies. I appreciate your loyalty to him, he's a good man but Jesus is he an idiot. I gave him not so great news the other day, I don't think he's taking it rather well. He had a responsibility and didn't show, my guess is he's going on a bender and told you not to say anything?"

He sure does know him so well, or maybe I'm just bad at hiding the truth.

"Don't tell anyone where I'm at."

After last night, I shouldn't have any loyalty to him. If anything it'd do him good to face whatever it is he's facing and maybe even get the help he needs.

But then again, he'd hate me if he knew what I did.

"He needs help." I say. "I'm scared of what will happen if he doesn't."

"Leave that to me."