It Takes Patience III: Stripped
Chapter 25: Mine...
*Tamsin’s POV*
We walk into the house and Gemma sets her spare keys onto the kitchen counter before we both greet her mum. More wedding details. Anne is working so hard so that she can secure a venue and has even changed some minor parts of what she wants for that day seeing as how she has ample time to do so now.
I sit down on the couch with Gemma and look at more dresses that Anne wants Gem to try on for the wedding, but that’s not what holds my attention. I can hear him come down the stairs. He passes the family room as he goes into the refrigerator with his phone in hand. His shirt is off and I try to look away, but I feel it would be inhumane not to check him out. He’s been working out, going out of his way to come jogging by my house even. He want’s people to look.
He wants me to look.
“Good morning love. Put on a shirt, Tamsin and your sister are here.” Anne speaks to Harry and as he glances in my direction, he grabs the t-shirt he brought down with him off of the back of a dining room table chair before quickly tugging it over his head.
Gemma stands to give her little brother a hug. It’s not until then that I realize that the he’s in fact on the phone with her again, a face time chat this time instead of texting. Gemma awkwardly tells Reagan hello and I stand from my place to join in the greeting games. Just as I’m about to get a good glimpse of her, Harry and I make eye contact. When usually he’s quick to break it, this time his eyes remain with mine longer than I expected.
They’re dark, not only around them but the color of his irises as well. He hasn’t been sleeping again and I’m taken back to a few years ago, a memory that will stay with me forever, one that I hold dear to me. I look away from him no longer feeling the need to approach him. I already have his attention. He sits down at the table deep in conversation with Reagan and I go the refrigerator instead of him, not really looking for anything. Nothing is more appetizing than who sits less than five feet away from me.
I look look at him and what's right and wrong is tossed out of the window out of site and mind. It's not a matter of what's right and wrong anymore or me wanting what I can't have. It's a matter of me wanting what should have always been mine in the first place.
The room gets quiet for a moment, and I notice that he looks back at me before he starts to talk to Reagan again.
“It’s just Tamsin, it’s not like she heard me and if she did I don’t give a fuck.”
I wasn’t paying attention to their little conversation, but now I wish I had been. I grab a soda can before closing the refrigerator and waving at them both, sure to be on camera where Reagan can see me. I’m here. I always have been and I always will be, I just hope that he realizes it soon.
*Harry’s POV*
Reagan called me back this morning and I finally feel like she’s opening up more. She’s still damaged by everything that London has thrown at her, but she seems to be dealing with it better at home. I’m happy for her, but it scares me at the same time. I don’t know if it’s my mind playing tricks on me because she’s not here, or if it’s the intuition that I had when she got on the plane, but I fear that she’ll get comfortable there and forget the reason that she agreed to go. Forget me. When we talk, she tells me that she needs to get back to me, but when I look at her, I see something different.
“Good morning love. Put on a shirt, Tamsin and your sister are here.”
My mum speaks to me briefly, putting her hand on my shoulder as she passes by. She hasn’t said much to me since we’ve argued, but I know that it’s only because she’s trying to find a way to deal with everything that I’ve told her. When she speaks, her tone is soft. She’s tired and I know that I’m to blame. I seem to tire everyone around me, I try their patience and drain it all until there’s basically nothing left. This is why it would be better off if I lived alone. No one would have to worry about me but myself and I wouldn’t have to worry too much about other people, however I feel that my worries concerning my mum and Robin are inevitable. Dr. Baker and I haven’t talked about my moving out in a while, but I haven’t forgotten about it. It will definitely be something that I bring up later on today in session.
I pull my shirt on quickly before I look back down at my phone screen to see Reagan maneuvering herself around her dimly lit kitchen, grabbing herself a late night snack as I prepare myself a small breakfast. We haven’t really spoken much during this call, but it comforts me to see her. It makes it feel like she’s still here with me.
“Hey donut.” Gemma fluffs my hair and I slap her hand away before giving her a quick hug and kiss then popping an aripiprazole. She see’s Reagan and waves at her while smiling. It’s somewhat awkward, but it’s better than how she treated her before. I feel like she’s warming up to her again and it honestly means the world to me, although I’ll never say it to her. She should have never treated Reagan poorly in the first place.
Gem mouthed the words ‘how is she’ to me and I shrugged my shoulders, partially because I wanted her to leave me alone now and let me have my time with my baby, and partially because I don’t have an exact answer for her.
She’s getting better there in LA, but who knows what would come to be of her when she comes back here. When Gem leaves to go back in the family room with mum, I feel another pair of eyes on me, ones that don’t belong to my sister.
I turn my head and make contact with eyes as blue and dewy as the sky and for some reason, I can’t turn my gaze away from her fast enough. Her words from last night echo in my head louder and louder as I look at her. They’re only silenced when I’m finally strong enough to break free from Tamsin’s stare and rest my eyes on that of golden hazel. I clear my throat before I speak to Reagan again, hoping that she didn’t notice my moment of weakness.
“What are you eating?”
“A peanut butter and banana sandwich.” She answers me covering her mouth to chew around her food without me seeing.
“Did you happen to work up an appetite from earlier? Afternoon your time that is. I think it was around five thirty when we had phone sex...face time sex, that is unless you did it again by yourself.” Reagan began to choke on her sandwich and couldn’t help but laugh.
“You did didn’t you? Did you think about me while you made yourself come the second time?” Reagan grabs a glass of water from her nightstand and begins to drink in order to try to settle herself and I laugh again before checking my watch.
“Harry where are you while you’re saying these things to me? I can see someone behind you.” I look over my shoulder and make eye contact with Tamsin again. This time, they have no effect on me.
“It’s just Tamsin, it’s not like she heard me and if she did I don’t give a fuck.” Tamsin waves as she hears her name being called and I can see Reagan physically tense. A frown appears on her face and her beautiful features change from happy to a look of distress.
“What’s wrong?” I ask of her mood change.
“Nothing.” Reagan shakes her head and smiles a half smile that lets me know that whatever is bothering her is still on her mind.
I look back at Tamsin and our gazes hold again before she grins at me and turns her attention back to the stupid wedding catalogue that Gemma has in her hands.
“I can tell something is wrong.”
I say with my eyes still away from the camera as the siren’s call gets louder in my ears. Tamsin notices my stare almost as she can feel me watching her the way that I can feel Reagan. There can’t be the same pull there though. That would be impossible. I haven’t seen one yet as strong as Reagan and I. I love Nialler to death, but the way he and Laurie are together doesn’t even compare to what Reagan and myself have. We’re in a league of our own, set apart from all of the others and I know that it will always be that way.
Even if Reagan and I don’t last as long as forever brings in the relationship sense, I will always be hers and she will always be mine.
I stand from the kitchen and walk to my room after I finish my food and get ready for session, noticing that Reagan has yet to answer my question and she’s gone somewhat quieter than she was a moment ago. I can barely even hear her breathing.
“Glasses,” I sit down on the loveseat and look down at the camera to find Reagan hiding behind her knees, “Babe?”
Reagan looks at me and gives me an unsettling grin that she thinks pulls the wool over my eyes, “Nothing, Harry. Nothing is wrong, its just…” She trails off her sentence and shakes her head before she continues. “I’m just a little tired that’s all. I’m fine though.” She smiles again and I nod my head realizing that it is almost two fifteen in the morning in LA, but at the same time annoyed that she’s lying to me and thinks that I don’t notice it.
“You should go to sleep then.” I speak quickly and my tone comes out cross.
“Yeah I should. It seems like you already have enough company there anyway.” She adds with her tone coming out just as curt and sharp as mine did leaving me confused. The conversation has quickly taken a turn down a road that I want to avoid. Arguing when she’s so far away aren’t exactly waters that I want to test, but the ripples have already formed. She has no reason to lie or to be angry. We were fine literally two minutes ago and now her attitude has set a spark to my mood.
“What was that supposed to mean?”
“It means whatever you want it to mean.”
“Tamsin? You’re upset because, Tamsin who is MY SISTERS friend NOT mine is here looking at wedding shit with MY SISTER?” Reagan doesn’t answer me and instead shakes her head at the camera.
“Harry I’m tired and I’m not going to argue with you. Have a nice day at your session, maybe we can talk later. I love you.”
My eyebrows furrow before I respond, “Yeah, love you too.”
Reagan rolls her eyes slightly before she kisses her hand and then waves bye at the camera. My screen goes black indicating that she hung up and I put the phone down, more than slightly confused and pissed off by what just happened.
I go to my closet and grab my shoes and my jacket before I leave. I almost would have forgotten my phone if it didn’t ring alerting me of a new notification.
When I picked it up the notification came up on my screen as an unknown sms message, but when I read the numbers on the screen attached with the message, I knew exactly who it was.
From: Unknown
Can we talk? I’ll come by the bar later after you get off work.
We walk into the house and Gemma sets her spare keys onto the kitchen counter before we both greet her mum. More wedding details. Anne is working so hard so that she can secure a venue and has even changed some minor parts of what she wants for that day seeing as how she has ample time to do so now.
I sit down on the couch with Gemma and look at more dresses that Anne wants Gem to try on for the wedding, but that’s not what holds my attention. I can hear him come down the stairs. He passes the family room as he goes into the refrigerator with his phone in hand. His shirt is off and I try to look away, but I feel it would be inhumane not to check him out. He’s been working out, going out of his way to come jogging by my house even. He want’s people to look.
He wants me to look.
“Good morning love. Put on a shirt, Tamsin and your sister are here.” Anne speaks to Harry and as he glances in my direction, he grabs the t-shirt he brought down with him off of the back of a dining room table chair before quickly tugging it over his head.
Gemma stands to give her little brother a hug. It’s not until then that I realize that the he’s in fact on the phone with her again, a face time chat this time instead of texting. Gemma awkwardly tells Reagan hello and I stand from my place to join in the greeting games. Just as I’m about to get a good glimpse of her, Harry and I make eye contact. When usually he’s quick to break it, this time his eyes remain with mine longer than I expected.
They’re dark, not only around them but the color of his irises as well. He hasn’t been sleeping again and I’m taken back to a few years ago, a memory that will stay with me forever, one that I hold dear to me. I look away from him no longer feeling the need to approach him. I already have his attention. He sits down at the table deep in conversation with Reagan and I go the refrigerator instead of him, not really looking for anything. Nothing is more appetizing than who sits less than five feet away from me.
I look look at him and what's right and wrong is tossed out of the window out of site and mind. It's not a matter of what's right and wrong anymore or me wanting what I can't have. It's a matter of me wanting what should have always been mine in the first place.
The room gets quiet for a moment, and I notice that he looks back at me before he starts to talk to Reagan again.
“It’s just Tamsin, it’s not like she heard me and if she did I don’t give a fuck.”
I wasn’t paying attention to their little conversation, but now I wish I had been. I grab a soda can before closing the refrigerator and waving at them both, sure to be on camera where Reagan can see me. I’m here. I always have been and I always will be, I just hope that he realizes it soon.
*Harry’s POV*
Reagan called me back this morning and I finally feel like she’s opening up more. She’s still damaged by everything that London has thrown at her, but she seems to be dealing with it better at home. I’m happy for her, but it scares me at the same time. I don’t know if it’s my mind playing tricks on me because she’s not here, or if it’s the intuition that I had when she got on the plane, but I fear that she’ll get comfortable there and forget the reason that she agreed to go. Forget me. When we talk, she tells me that she needs to get back to me, but when I look at her, I see something different.
“Good morning love. Put on a shirt, Tamsin and your sister are here.”
My mum speaks to me briefly, putting her hand on my shoulder as she passes by. She hasn’t said much to me since we’ve argued, but I know that it’s only because she’s trying to find a way to deal with everything that I’ve told her. When she speaks, her tone is soft. She’s tired and I know that I’m to blame. I seem to tire everyone around me, I try their patience and drain it all until there’s basically nothing left. This is why it would be better off if I lived alone. No one would have to worry about me but myself and I wouldn’t have to worry too much about other people, however I feel that my worries concerning my mum and Robin are inevitable. Dr. Baker and I haven’t talked about my moving out in a while, but I haven’t forgotten about it. It will definitely be something that I bring up later on today in session.
I pull my shirt on quickly before I look back down at my phone screen to see Reagan maneuvering herself around her dimly lit kitchen, grabbing herself a late night snack as I prepare myself a small breakfast. We haven’t really spoken much during this call, but it comforts me to see her. It makes it feel like she’s still here with me.
“Hey donut.” Gemma fluffs my hair and I slap her hand away before giving her a quick hug and kiss then popping an aripiprazole. She see’s Reagan and waves at her while smiling. It’s somewhat awkward, but it’s better than how she treated her before. I feel like she’s warming up to her again and it honestly means the world to me, although I’ll never say it to her. She should have never treated Reagan poorly in the first place.
Gem mouthed the words ‘how is she’ to me and I shrugged my shoulders, partially because I wanted her to leave me alone now and let me have my time with my baby, and partially because I don’t have an exact answer for her.
She’s getting better there in LA, but who knows what would come to be of her when she comes back here. When Gem leaves to go back in the family room with mum, I feel another pair of eyes on me, ones that don’t belong to my sister.
I turn my head and make contact with eyes as blue and dewy as the sky and for some reason, I can’t turn my gaze away from her fast enough. Her words from last night echo in my head louder and louder as I look at her. They’re only silenced when I’m finally strong enough to break free from Tamsin’s stare and rest my eyes on that of golden hazel. I clear my throat before I speak to Reagan again, hoping that she didn’t notice my moment of weakness.
“What are you eating?”
“A peanut butter and banana sandwich.” She answers me covering her mouth to chew around her food without me seeing.
“Did you happen to work up an appetite from earlier? Afternoon your time that is. I think it was around five thirty when we had phone sex...face time sex, that is unless you did it again by yourself.” Reagan began to choke on her sandwich and couldn’t help but laugh.
“You did didn’t you? Did you think about me while you made yourself come the second time?” Reagan grabs a glass of water from her nightstand and begins to drink in order to try to settle herself and I laugh again before checking my watch.
“Harry where are you while you’re saying these things to me? I can see someone behind you.” I look over my shoulder and make eye contact with Tamsin again. This time, they have no effect on me.
“It’s just Tamsin, it’s not like she heard me and if she did I don’t give a fuck.” Tamsin waves as she hears her name being called and I can see Reagan physically tense. A frown appears on her face and her beautiful features change from happy to a look of distress.
“What’s wrong?” I ask of her mood change.
“Nothing.” Reagan shakes her head and smiles a half smile that lets me know that whatever is bothering her is still on her mind.
I look back at Tamsin and our gazes hold again before she grins at me and turns her attention back to the stupid wedding catalogue that Gemma has in her hands.
“I can tell something is wrong.”
I say with my eyes still away from the camera as the siren’s call gets louder in my ears. Tamsin notices my stare almost as she can feel me watching her the way that I can feel Reagan. There can’t be the same pull there though. That would be impossible. I haven’t seen one yet as strong as Reagan and I. I love Nialler to death, but the way he and Laurie are together doesn’t even compare to what Reagan and myself have. We’re in a league of our own, set apart from all of the others and I know that it will always be that way.
Even if Reagan and I don’t last as long as forever brings in the relationship sense, I will always be hers and she will always be mine.
I stand from the kitchen and walk to my room after I finish my food and get ready for session, noticing that Reagan has yet to answer my question and she’s gone somewhat quieter than she was a moment ago. I can barely even hear her breathing.
“Glasses,” I sit down on the loveseat and look down at the camera to find Reagan hiding behind her knees, “Babe?”
Reagan looks at me and gives me an unsettling grin that she thinks pulls the wool over my eyes, “Nothing, Harry. Nothing is wrong, its just…” She trails off her sentence and shakes her head before she continues. “I’m just a little tired that’s all. I’m fine though.” She smiles again and I nod my head realizing that it is almost two fifteen in the morning in LA, but at the same time annoyed that she’s lying to me and thinks that I don’t notice it.
“You should go to sleep then.” I speak quickly and my tone comes out cross.
“Yeah I should. It seems like you already have enough company there anyway.” She adds with her tone coming out just as curt and sharp as mine did leaving me confused. The conversation has quickly taken a turn down a road that I want to avoid. Arguing when she’s so far away aren’t exactly waters that I want to test, but the ripples have already formed. She has no reason to lie or to be angry. We were fine literally two minutes ago and now her attitude has set a spark to my mood.
“What was that supposed to mean?”
“It means whatever you want it to mean.”
“Tamsin? You’re upset because, Tamsin who is MY SISTERS friend NOT mine is here looking at wedding shit with MY SISTER?” Reagan doesn’t answer me and instead shakes her head at the camera.
“Harry I’m tired and I’m not going to argue with you. Have a nice day at your session, maybe we can talk later. I love you.”
My eyebrows furrow before I respond, “Yeah, love you too.”
Reagan rolls her eyes slightly before she kisses her hand and then waves bye at the camera. My screen goes black indicating that she hung up and I put the phone down, more than slightly confused and pissed off by what just happened.
I go to my closet and grab my shoes and my jacket before I leave. I almost would have forgotten my phone if it didn’t ring alerting me of a new notification.
When I picked it up the notification came up on my screen as an unknown sms message, but when I read the numbers on the screen attached with the message, I knew exactly who it was.
From: Unknown
Can we talk? I’ll come by the bar later after you get off work.
Notes
Hi loves, Beautiful new and faithful subscribers!! How are you all? I'm not so good :( I have an update for you. Sorry that it took so long. I feel so sick so I'm sorry if its shitty! Also, sorry if there are typo's or mistakes. I'll be editing it in a bit I just wanted to get it up for you before midnight (Chicago time). So what did you think? Please leave me lots of feedback (even if its just to tell me that this chapter was shitty and short! I can handle it and I would more than likely agree with you!) I love talking to you all SOOO COMMENT and make my night a lot better, please? :D Who texted Harry? ;} I'm gonna go take some cough syrup and knock out for the night, but know that I LOVE YOU ALL ENDLESSLY FOR READING AND JUST IN GENERAL!!!
Please vote and subscribe if you haven't done so yet and you enjoy my little trilogy as much as I love writing it for you!~Xx
PS: The very first ITP made page three of the popular page today it might not still be there but I screen shot it on my phone haha (I'm a nerd)!!! :0 I love you guys and thank you all so much! Have some motorcycle Harry as a thank you from me 
@XOXOH
Hi there lovely, I am a big fan of your books and you don't know how happy I am to see you back here. I LOVE THIS TRIOLOGY so dam much......so let me get this straight....you are not updating this story anymore on here? You are only going to continue this story on wattpad?? .....despite what decision you make I will be waiting for you because I want to know what will HAPPEN ....sorry I am weird xxx
8/22/15