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“Did I catch you at a bad time?” Henry asked. Words escaped her as she took in the fact that Henry stood in her doorway. He looked deliciously casual in jeans and a black tee-shirt. “Bre?” Henry asked, breaking her out of her reverie.
“What are you doing here?” she asked her voice breathless. Henry was literally the last person she expected to see at her door. She’d be less shocked if the Queen herself came to her door.
“Can I come in?” he asked, shifting awkwardly front foot to foot. His general demeanor took Bre aback. In their time together, Henry always stayed in control. It made reading his moods difficult but also exciting in a lot of ways. He took what he wanted and damned the consequences, it was one of the most exciting things about him. Watching him behave skittishly in her dingy hallway also felt endearing it is own way. For once, Henry looked like a normal human man, albeit an attractive one, instead of some sort of immortal good.
“I need to change,” she blurted out before answering his question. The fresh air from the hallway swept across her skin, causing her to shiver uncontrollably.
“Alright,” he said. “Should I remain in the hallway, or can I sit in your flat?” he asked.
“Oh, yea,” she said, remembering her manners. “Can I get you anything?” she asked as she stepped aside for Henry to enter.
“I’m fine,” he told her cordially. Everything felt stiff and formal between them, and neither of them knew how to act.
Bre felts the suds from her bath sliding down her legs, adding to her discomfort. “I’ll be back in a minute,” she told Henry as she rushed back in the bathroom to make herself more presentable. ‘What the hell is he doing here?’ she thought to herself as she rushed around the bathroom trying to make herself as presentable as possible. Naturally, Bre only brought some ridiculous pajamas into the bathroom with her, and all of her makeup was back in her room. ‘Shit’ she thought as she considered making a pit stop at her room, but her curiosity was peaked and did not want to wait to find out why Henry was at her flat, or how he even knew where she lived.
“Is everything alright?” Bre asked as she finally re-entered her living room her mind going a million miles a minute. Henry remained standing awkwardly in the center of the room, looking like an expensive GQ model amidst their cheap flea market furniture.
“Why would something be wrong?”
“Well, you are here,” she said, making a sweeping gesture across her flat. “How did you even find me? Did Matthew tell you I was back?” Her mind turned a million miles a minute; everything went so fast her heart did not have a chance to catch up.
“Matthew knows you are back?” Henry asked annoyance, coloring his voice. “Appears everyone knows you are back except for me.”
“Why would I tell you?” she asked him, annoyed. “I left London to get away from you.”
“You left because you were scared.”
Bre felt taken aback. “So, you want to start there?” she asked, crossing her hands across her chest. “If memory serves, you were the one pictured drunkenly out with a group of women while we were supposedly engaged.”
“You fled before allowing me a chance to explain. Though, you knew those pictures were taken out of context,” he told her.
Bre huffed out her frustration. “How dare you blame me!” she yelled out, allowing her emotions to get the better of her. “You screwed up, and when I gave you the chance to explain, to make up for it, you blew it. You don’t get to come to my home, which you’ve yet to explain how you knew where I live, and tell me all the reasons I screwed you over.”
Matthew mentioned that perhaps Bre needed closure, and until this moment, she had not agreed with him, but standing in front of Henry purging all the thoughts she had throughout the past several months felt good.
“You’re right,” Henry conceded. “But I’m here now.”
Bre snorted. “To do what? Are you bored with Sienna already?” she said snootily. “What? Do you need another fake fiancee to help rebuild your reputation?”
Henry pushed his hair back from his face. Bre tried not to notice how long it looked, and how worn his facial features appeared. “Have you not seen the news?” he asked her.
“The news?” she asked.
“Yes,” he said. “You asked why I’m here. Well, when I had not heard from you after Ascot, I wondered why.”
Bre’s face scrunched up in confusion. She couldn’t fathom what he was talking about. Why would Ascot concern her? Outside of Henry, she did not really know anyone part of English society, and despite growing up in a small town, she held zero interest in horses.
“Turn out Sienna Marlborough has been quite the bad girl. Someone caught her on camera admitting to setting up difficult situations for other Lords and Ladies to be caught in by the press. It’s how she’s managed to keep her own behavior out of the papers.”
Bre’s face dropped at his words, and she made a beeline for her cellphone. As she took in each headline, Bre tried not to feel too giddy at Sienna’s demise, but as she recalled how Sienna treated her, she did not feel so bad.
“Sienna and my mother set Nathaniel and myself up with that press. I swear nothing happened between the two of us. You wanting time alone pissed me off. I acted childishly and decided on a night of debauchery with Nathaniel, but we just drank. That morning Sienna asked for a ride back to her car from Nathaniel’s where they all passed out in a drunken stupor long after I locked myself in the guest room. Bre,” he took her hands in his own, “I swear to you that nothing happened. There hasn’t been everyone else for me but you since that first moment we met because I’ve fallen irrevocably in love with you, and I should have told you that months ago when you asked.”
His words shocked Bre. Months ago she wanted nothing more than for him to express his love for her, but now that time passed she realized that being with Henry came with baggage she was not sure she wanted to deal with.
“Please, say something,” Henry whispered.
“I’m not sure what to say,” she told him honestly. “Months ago, when I asked you, I thought that those pictures were our only problem, but after time, I realized that our problems went past Sienna and your inability to commit.”
