Mandolin Rain

Elliot's POV

We stand there for what seems like forever. Just breathing him in. I missed him. As much as I tried to hide it and stay away from him I just couldn't. Yes he lied to me, it's not something I'll forget, but he just has this pull on me and I feel like there is something between us that I just have to figure out.

He slowly pulls away and I let go.

“So, what are you doing for the rest of the day?” He asks me.

I take a deep breath, “Nothing.” I reply simply.

“You want to spend the day with me?” He asks sheepishly.

“Well, I'm already here.” I laugh. “What are we doing then?”

He looks around his messy house and pulls at his neck. “As you can see I have to clean up just a little bit first.”

I laugh and stare at his disaster of a living room/kitchen/dining room. He has quite the mess. It literally looks like he came home, started unpacking and just threw his shit all over the place.

“So do you need help?” I offer.

“Only if you want to, or you can just sit here and watch tv, think of something to do.” Harry tells me as he pulls me in for another hug. I cant help myself as he pulls away I snake my hand up to his neck and pushing him towards me, tilting my head ever so slightly and connecting my lips with his. He quickly reacts and wraps his arms around around my waist pulling our bodies together. God I missed him. I feel like were melting together as we move in sync and pull away breathless.

“Or we could just do that all day.” Harry suggests and I can't not laugh.

“Pick up your stuff messy marvin.” I tease.

“Messy Marvin?” He asks confused.

“Its an expression my Mom uses all the time.” I tell him.

“You and your expressions.” He shakes his head and starts picking up clothes off the floor.

“What did you do in here?” I ask him as I follow him and start picking up things.

“I was upset that you seemed like you didn't want to see me and I didn't think you were coming to see me so I had a mini freak out.” He explains as he throws his pile of clothes in the laundry room. I hand him the pile that I have and he throws it in as well. I watch him walk to the counter and move his bag revealing the key he had given me that I had given back.

He picks it up and turns around to face me. “I see this is here?” He asks.

“Um, yeah. I thought you needed it back, thought you and me were done before anything even happened. And I was pretty pissed at you.” I state as a matter of fact.

“Well you can have it back, because we're just beginning.” He holds the key out for me and I put it in my bag I put behind the couch. I take a deep breath, this is not how I thought today was going to go.

“You okay?” Harry almost whispers, but still loud enough that I can hear him.

“Yeah, I'll be fine.” I shrug and walk back towards him, pulling out a chair to sit by the island.

“You don't look fine. Tell me the truth Elliot.” He sits next to me.

“I'm just a little overwhelmed I guess. You know, woke up this morning just looking forward to sitting on the couch and doing laundry but you kind of changed my plans. I don't know, I just never thought you would show up at my door and I never thought I would be here again. I didn't want to have you back in my life, I didn't want to put myself in this situation again but here I am.” I have no idea if that even made sense but in my head it did.

“So you don't want to be here?” He asked, obviously it didn't make sense.

“No, I do, I just didn't think that...” I take a deep breath to make sure what I'm saying makes sense. “I didn't think that I would ever sit here with you again. I still like you a lot, it was so hard to sit back and not answer your phone calls, send your gifts and flowers back, and just do me. I was so stressed with my parents being gone, you left, your ex-girlfriend is all the sudden pregnant, I have a studio to run, people who I didn't know were recognizing me on the streets, I just needed a step back. I need to stop and think.” I feel better getting a little bit off my chest.

“You still like me then?” I see a twinkle in his eyes.

“Out of everything I just said, you pick that out?” I tease. “Well I just made out with you in the living room, if that wasn't a hint I don't know what is Harry.” I tease him.

“That's the Elliot I know!” He cheers. “Come on, I'll do the laundry later, I want to take you out.” He informs me.

“Where are we going?” I ask curiously.

“We never went on that hike...” He tells me.

“Well as long as I don't puke when we get there.” I laugh, remembering when I hardly made it out of his Rover to puke all over the bathroom. “Guess I'm dressed for it. I just need a sweatshirt.” I look down at my yoga pants and tank top, it's LA, but it is still January, it can get a little chilly.

“Just let me change, I”ll grab you a sweatshirt, and we'll be out.” He hops off the chair giving my shoulder a squeeze and rushes off to his bedroom.

We finish our hike breathless. We ran for a little bit, talked for a long time, and ended our hike holding hands. And of course, we were spotted by the paparazzi, so that's just awesome. I think that being in Harry's life I will never be used to this attention he gets.

He's always so protective when he sees them, holding my hand tighter, pulling me closer to him, whispering for me to ignore them. I don't know if he knows that I've been very good at ignoring them for months now.

He told me all of his fears about becoming a dad, about how he's not ready for his life to change like that. How he feels terrible that he doesn't want to be a dad, he wishes this baby isn't his. I feel like I understand where he's coming from, but he knows he's equally to blame if the baby is his. He's concerned about the baby being his and him being so busy all the time, living in LA and London, how he'll have to sell his house and move back to London permanently. He's just waiting.

We're in limbo.

It's a weird situation for me to be in. This guy I like may or may not be having a baby with someone else. I never thought I'd be in this situation.

“Hello?” I turn to Harry and smile. “So, thinking we can just pick up dinner, take it back to my house and hang out?” He suggest.

“Sounds good.” I'm still a little unsure of everything but I'm taking it in stride. Things aren't fixed overnight and I've finally convinced Harry to quit apologizing. Not that I don't appreciate his apologies but they're annoying after a while.

Harry pulls up to a In-N-Out and quickly orders our food, as healthy as I try to be, everyone loves a good greasy cheeseburger. Its torture because Harry doesn't allow anyone to eat in his car, so all I can do is smell delicious food the whole way back to his house.

“I was thinking about getting a cat.” Harry tells me as it seems like he's just thinking out loud.

“Oh yeah?” I ask him probing for more information.

“Yeah, just a little thing, something to keep me company.” He nods his head as if he's agreeing with himself.

“What about when you're on tour in like a month and a half?” I ask suddenly remembering he's leaving again in the middle of February, we don't do well being apart.

“Oh, that's where you come in.” He looks over in my direction and I can't help but smile at his perfect smile.

“Me?”

“Well yeah, you have my house key, I have extra rooms even though you would stay in my room, and you could just chill.” He explains pulling into his driveway.

“You want me to stay at your house when your away?” I ask really surprised, we just started talking to each other today after we haven't talked for over a month.

“Only if you want to, or you could bring the cat back to your house. It's up to you.” Harry backtracks fast.

“We'll see.” I tell him, talking about this hypothetical cat is confusing.

“Do you want to stay here tonight with me?” Harry asks as we sit in the garage. I pause and think for a minute.

“Harry, as much as I want to, I don't think it's a good idea yet. I mean, just give me some time. I need to process this day.” I hope he doesn't get mad but I mean, I just forgave him for lying to me like six hours ago.

“No, I understand.” He tells me unbuckling his seat belt and climbing out of the car.

“I'm sorry.” I tell him.

“No, don't be, if I were you I don't even know if I'd be talking to me yet. I don't want to push things. I just still really like you and I want to be around you until I do the next stupid thing and you won't be around anymore.” He explains.

“Well, don't do the next stupid thing then and we'll be fine.” I wink at him and walk into the house.

Notes

Ta-da! Thirty-one chapters, crazy.

Hope you like it, LOVE coming to post and seeing so many people have viewed my story!

No worries...the drama with Zoe will be coming back, among other things that shall remain a secret. :)

Happy Wednesday!!

xoxoxo

P.S. I LOVE your comments. hint hint, wink wink.