Page 151 of Harrison's Wedding

I wince as the memories of that night come to my mind. The nausea is mild now, and has been for a while, but I don’t think I’ll ever be able to remember them without feeling sick.

—“I don’t know how much you really remember, and now isn’t the time for that discussion, but, honestly, it wasn’t any worse than what had been in my dreams. Heck, most of it was actually much better than I expected.”

I’m surprised by this because, in my mind, it’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to me. I can’t fathom that Heather could possibly think it wasn’t as bad as it was.

“Maddy has had a really tough time since it happened. I feel terrible for her. Anyway, by the time she’d left, I’d made my peace with her and what happened. When you and I spoke, I almost asked you to come around, but I didn’t because I wanted to see if I would have another nightmare last night.”

“Did you?” I ask, dreading her answer, because I’m assuming that hearing all about that night from Maddy would’ve given her subconscious even more to work with.

“Nope. I slept like a baby,” to my surprise, she grins at me, “first full night’s sleep for me since October.”

Relief floods through me, and I’m so grateful that she got a peaceful night.

“Oh, angel,” I smile at her.

“Then, I was so happy. I was planning to tell you about it when you got back from LA, but then Ariana called me and told me you’d missed your plane. I found out you were here and that you were in surgery, I sat here all day, and you woke up, and I started telling you this story,” she finishes in a rush, and I can’t help but laugh.

“I want to kiss you,” I say.

She walks over to me and places her lips on mine. I lift one of my hands to hold the back of her head and deepen our kiss. My cock stiffens and tents the blanket above me.

“Harrison Fletcher, if I wouldn’t literally break you doing it, I would climb on top of you right now and ride you until the break of dawn,” Heather tells me in a breathless voice.

I laugh, and tell her truthfully, “I think I might take that trade-off with the way I’m feeling right now, angel.”

“Well, lucky for you, I am completely sensible and rational and not ruled at all by my emotions. Therapy has been good for me!” She flips her hair and gives me a haughty look before smiling at me as she sits back down in her chair.

I grin at her, but my smile slips and nerves hit me as I ask her, “So, where does this leave us?”

If she’s still not ready to label what we’re doing, that’s okay, but fuck, I hope that this means we can move forward together.

“Well, it leaves me hating that fucking apartment I’ve been staying in and not wanting to spend another night away from you ever again, I don’t know about you?”

A thrill of excitement runs through me because I feel exactly the same way, and I never want to be apart from her again.

“Look, I love Hayden, and I appreciate him giving me a place to stay, but I’m ready to leave.”

“It’s been a long five months, honey,” she tells me as she picks up my hand and kisses it.

Her lips are soft and warm on my skin, and the room is full of her floral perfume. Everything feels right again.

“The worst five months of my life, angel,” I confirm.

“I was really worried about you,” Heather says quietly, “you were drinking a lot.”

Shame hits me as I think about the months I spent getting drunk to deal with the grim reality of my life.

I admit to her, “Yeah, I was. I wasn’t coping, and I knew that I’d promised you that I wouldn’t put my health at risk, but I also couldn’t handle reality when I was sober.”

“That’s really concerning, Harrison,” she says, a frown marring her beautiful face, “like, really concerning.”

“I know, angel. Hayden cut me off many days. I owe him a lot for keeping me from hurting myself.” I think about all the nights he and Michael helped me stagger out of Club Delirium after I’d gotten wasted. I don’t ever want to get that way again, so I tell Heather, “I’ll speak to Brendan about it, and if it’s still a problem now, I promise to get treatment.”

“You still see Brendan?” Heather asks, rolling her eyes.

I laugh, “Yes. You two really did not get along, did you? He’s actually been really good, and he’s probably another reason I didn’t hurt myself.”

Our last session together wasn’t too bad, but in the early days, Heather was consistently biting at him. I think she was just so hurt that we couldn’t make any progress in our sessions. I’m not sure that we could ever have reached the place we’re at without some kind of separation to work on ourselves, first.

---