Hair ties and claw clips found new homes everywhere. Sweaters, hoodies, and slippers wound up in the dining and living room. Even Harrison’s office for good measure.
And finally, for extra fun, I saved all my shows and movies to Harrison’s streaming services. Changed the thermostat. Turned lights on in rooms I didn’t even go in. Rearranged all the cabinets to ‘make things easier to find.’ Reorganized the pantry so that instead of ‘like’ items all clustered together, it was in alphabetical order. Instead of being (rightly) next to the angel hair pasta, the linguine was right next to the lentils. The brown sugar no longer sat beside the white sugar but was with the beans instead.
It was complete chaos.
It was going to take him hours to undo the damage.
It was going to be delightful to listen to him grumble and rant to himself as I lounged on the sofa trying not to laugh.
Close to the end of the workday, I took a long, hot shower in the primary bedroom, steaming up the whole space and the bedroom before I changed into my ugliest outfit: oversized men’s sweatpants and a giant pink tie-dye hoodie.
Then I made myself some of his expensive coffee, turned on some absurd reality TV show, and waited.
And waited.
And waited.
I was half-dozing when I heard the security system bleep.
Then there he was.
Looking really rundown. Face drawn, bags under his eyes, shoulders slumped.
I’d never seen him without the cool, calm, confident, charming mask.
It was startlingly human.
And I immediately started to feel bad about screwing with his sanctuary.
Something caught his eye.
Maybe one of my shoes?
It was hard to tell.
But then his brows pinched.
Until finally, his head lifted.
And found me.
“Layna?”
Thank God he didn’t breathe my name out like he normally did. My body seemed incapable of handling that. But a simple question? That, I could do.
“You’re home late,” I said, reaching for some of the popcorn I’d made earlier and making sure to trail a piece or two on the floor on the trip from bowl to mouth.
I almost smiled when his gaze tracked their fall.
Maybe this would be even easier than I imagined.
“It was a long day,” he agreed, taking a step forward and immediately tripping over one of my shoes. “You’re… here.”
“Well, it is our marital home, isn’t it?” I asked.
His lips quirked at the term.
“Indeed it is,” he agreed. “I’m glad you came,” he said. And I got to watch as his gaze took in the blankets, sweaters, books, and miscellaneous junk all around. “How long have you been here?”
