Page 6 of With Wine Comes War
We said goodbye and I felt much better. That was exactly what I needed today. I climbed into my SUV, crossing my forearms overthe steering wheel, laying my head on them—exhausted mentally and physically. I stayed that way contemplating my next move. This may be exactly what could help work out my issues with Roman. I took a couple of deep breaths, deciding to have a three-way call with the girls on the ride home. It might be time to get back to attending our Sunday brunches.
Chapter 3
ROMAN
Damn, where am I? It’s so dark in here. There’s no light coming in from anywhere. I tried to adjust my eyes to focus on something, anything.What time is it?I rubbed my hands over my face and wince. My head feels like I got hit with a bat. I need to get back to the office for those meetings.
I need some water. Shit, my head fucking hurts.I squinted my eyes and glanced out the window. The sun’s no longer shining, but instead there’s a gentle hazeon the horizon, letting me know it’s later than it would be if I took a quick nap. Guess I didn’t make any meetings this afternoon. I better check my messages.
I rolled to my side and reached around on the table to feel for my phone without having to get up. Either the phone was on mute, or I really needed that because I can’t seem to find it. Well, the phone’s ringing just fine now so I must’ve needed that sleep, although it doesn't feel like it did anything for this damn headache. I pried myself up off the couch, grabbed my head and looked around for my phone.
“Hey.” Harrison said, “You ok?” He actually sounded worried. I’d smile if I could.
“Yeah, just have a headache,” I groaned. I got up and dragged myself to the kitchen and reached into the fridge for a cold bottle of water then took two blue gel caps, rubbing the icy bottle over my forehead to get some relief.
“Okay, well, I just finished up your last meeting. I’m heading up to your place so please put the code in. Or do you just want me to do it?”
I punched the code in from my phone. “I got it.”
“Damn, man, you look like shit. Are you sick or something?” Harrison says as he walked in from the elevator, giving me a look that tells me I may look worse than I thought.
“Thanks, I feel better now.” I said, laced with sarcasm. Alex must’ve rubbed off on me.
He arched an eyebrow clearly not amused, realizing that wasn’t my usual response to his quips. Normally they don’t bother me but nothing about my life has been normal recently. I made my way back to the sofa where I sat down and rolled my neck a few times to try and loosen it up. The head pain created some major tension in myneck and shoulders.
“I’m not good at this stuff, but do you want to talk about it?” He seemed genuinely interested in talking but I wasn’t.
“Not really, it’s just a headache.” I had my face down in my hands so I couldn’t see how irritated I knew I was making him.
“Do you need to talk to mom about your headache?” He was taunting me. This isn’t helping.
“Harrison, are you trying to be annoying, or does it just come naturally? I just have a headache.” I lifted my head up in frustration, but that movement wasn’t good either and a wave of nausea overtook me, and I put my head between my knees.
I guess he lost his patience with me because he said, in an uncharacteristic tone, “Just a fucking headache, huh? You walked out of the office at noon and didn’t come back. No phone calls, nothing. Just left me and Amelia to figure out the four meetings you had for the rest of the day because you wouldn’t answer your fucking phone.”
Yeah, this isn’t helping my head. But I had to chuckle a bit anyway because it was kind of funny listening to him scold me.
“Yeah, how did they go?”
He’s right, he did me a favor. “I came up here to take a quick nap and I just woke up ten minutes ago. I guess it’s one helluva headache.”
I needed to calm him down. I wasn’t planning to sleep that long, that's for sure. I leaned back and lay my head gently on the back of the couch. Harrison settled into the chair beside me.
“Amelia told me about the detective coming to visit. Did that have something to do with this? By the way, your meetings went fine. They were just updates. Amelia took notes for you.”
She’s the best assistant I’ve ever had and getting Harrison to step up makes her even better.
“Thanks. Um, I don’t know, maybe. This is just a real cluster fuck, you know?”
“I don’t even know what to say. I thought you two had a good thing. I was happy for you. I even think mom was too, and that’s saying something,” he pointed out.
“Harrison, I know you’re trying to help or whatever, but that is definitely not helping. It feels more like salt in the wound.” Definitely not making the headache better. I turned my head to glare at him.
“Shit, sorry. I told you I wasn’t good at this stuff.”
“I appreciate it, but I’ll be fine. I’ll see you tomorrow.” I waved the back of my hand at him hoping he’d get the point and leave.
“Alright man. Call me if you need anything, but I probably won’t answer.” I managed to let a small laugh escape because that was the truth. He wasn’t much into talking about feelings.