Chapter 5

Sighing I close my eyes and sit down on the stairs leading up to the front door. Now that I am away from the hustle and buzzle of my own surprise birthday party, I feel the tears streaming down my face.

I should be happy and grateful for it, but how could I? He only invited his own friends who spill their drinks everywhere and make fun of the art I created in our home. And all Luke does is to stand there and do the same.

Sobbing I cover my face with my hands. Why is it so difficult? I can hear the motor of a motorcycle stopping a few feet away from me, but I don't look up. I can just hope that it isn't another friend of his. When and where did he meet all of them anyways? I met people whose names I've never heard before.

"Charlotte?" I can hear his deep voice in concern. His question is followed by footsteps. "Are you okay? Did something happen?" he asks me and then I feel his warm hand on my shoulder.

I remove my hands and tilt my head backwards. My vision is blurry due to the tears which don't want to stop. I try to blink a few times to be able to see clearly, but it is in vain.

"Please leave me alone," I tell him, and I can hear him sigh loudly.

"I won't. You clearly look as something has happened to you and I won't leave you alone in this state. Either you tell me what happened, or I walk in there and ask myself," he says with a stern voice. "It's your choice," he adds after a few moments of silence. Well not really silence, because I still sob, and I can hear the laughter and music coming dully from inside. I'm a mess.

"I'm probably overreacting," I try to defend what is happening in my house without my consent. My voice is trembling because I'm still crying.

"It doesn't look to me that way." I notice him sitting down next to me and I can feel his body heat radiating from him. "You can tell me. I'm a good listener and my mother bestowed all her wisdom on me."

"I don't want to burden you with my problems." I take couple of deep breaths, then wipe away the tears that slowly start to subside.

"That's what friends are for Charlotte," he tells me and nudges my shoulder gently with his.

"You know, you can call me Char or Charly."

"I was aware of that, when you didn't correct Heather. However, I like your name. It would be a shame to shorten it," he explains, and I turn my head in surprise. Shortly I see the worried and sad expression on his face, but he quickly removes it with a stoic one. "Now, that you stopped crying, will you tell me what happened?"

"Actually, it's stupid. Luke is throwing a party for me."

"A solid start. Now you need to elaborate on the problem, because so far, I haven't been able to figure out what troubles you so much that you're sitting here."

"It's a surprise birthday party." I emphasize the word surprise with disgust.

"Okay. But there is more, isn't it?" Groaning loudly, I tilt my head backwards to look at the night sky and ball my hands into fists.

"Yes," I say between pressed teeth. My frustration just turned into anger. "All I wanted was going out with him to my favorite restaurant and then spend the rest of the evening alone with him. But now countless people are on my property. None of them are friends of mine. They are spilling booze everywhere and making a mess. I'm astonished that no one has called the cops yet."

"Well, the only neighbor that is currently around is me. If you want me to, I can call them and tell them that the noise coming from your house is disturbing me," he offers, and I shake my head. I know it would lead to another fight between Luke and me.

"Then what can I do to help you feel better?"

"Honestly, I don't know. I'm angry at him for doing this. I'm frustrated because I don't know what to do. I'm overwhelmed by their sheer inability to respect someone else's property and belongings."

I move my head to rest my forehead against the palms of my head. My elbows are propped up on my thighs. I am on the verge of crying again. Suddenly I can feel him wrapping his arm around me and rubbing his hand in a comforting manner over my upper arm.

"All these feelings have their justification. I won't think less of you if you want to let them out. Scream, shout, yell, cry, do whatever you feel like right now and when you are done, we'll try to find a solution to this together," he sooths me and tears start streaming down my face again. I start to reflect on the past two weeks.

I'm angry because Luke didn't listen to my wishes as he had hinted something would happen on my birthday. He put his own agenda to party before my own, even though he knows how much I hate surprises. Throwing a party on my birthday is like a slap right in my face. But everything he has done since he came back from that bachelor party, felt like that.

I'm frustrated, because we haven't been talking to each other lately. In the past two weeks he was gone early in the morning and came home late at night. And when I tried to start a conversation, it mostly would have turned into an argument if it wouldn't have been stopped by sex.

Sex that felt like something that we had to do and nothing that we enjoyed doing. Mechanical and not pleasurable. I have never felt that used and disgusted after sex and I had my fair share of one-night stands when I was still in undergrad.

Everything feels so off. I don't really recognize the Luke I fell in love with. The man who gave me the stars, the moon and the earth. The man who went out of his way to make me happy, even if it meant driving to the next grocery store to get me ice cream in the middle of the night, because I wanted some.

Exhaling loudly, I sit up and take a deep breath before turning my head to Henry. A deeply concerned look is on his face.

"I believe I can think clearer now," I announce, and he nods his head slowly while studying my face intently. "I don't want you to call the cops-", I don't get further, because the door behind us is torn open. The noises that were stifled through the door are now loud and when I turn my head, Luke is standing there with a furious look on his face.

"Dude, get your fucking hands of her," he says with a tone in his voice that I haven't heard before. I can feel that Henry removes his arm around my shoulders slowly and then gets up from his sitting position next to me.

"Mate, you need to calm down." I get up as well and look at Luke's staggering condition. He has his hand against the doorframe to still be able to stand.

"Oh, a fucking Brit," Luke almost spits at Henry and I take in a sharp breath. He is clearly drunk. "Cece, come on, let's go inside and party. It might help you loosen up your stick-up personality and maybe I'll give you some mind-blowing orgasms afterwards." He tries to grip my arm, but I pull it away and step down a few stairs. Henry steps protectively in front of me.

"Are you trying to get my girl, mate?" Luke laughs drunkenly and mocks the British expression.

"I was doing your job for you."

"Really and what would that have been? Eye-fucking her, because she didn't want to let you touch her?" I feel like I am being stabbed into my heart by his words. Henry takes a deep breath and I notice his hands balling into fists.

"No. I was trying to comfort her, because you made her birthday miserable for her. Unfortunately, you are way too drunk to hold a civil conversation, so I will let you be and leave you to your party. So please do me the favor and go inside to drink more shots and by the looks of it sniff another line of coke all in honor of your girlfriend's birthday," Henry says, and I can hear the sarcasm in his voice, but Luke is too drunk to understand the tone.

When Henry mentions cocaine, I see some white residue underneath Luke's nose. Not only that they have the audacity to do that in my house but that he partakes in it, makes me want to vomit.

"That sounds actually like a very dope plan, bro. Do you want one too? I could hook you up with someone." Henry shakes his head, and I am surprised by Luke's sudden shift in demeanor. "Your bad, bro," Luke adds and without another thought of me, he turns around and closes the door.

I can hear Henry taking couple of deep breaths that make him seem taller than before. When he is done, he turns around to me.

"You are not going in there," he tells me without leaving me room for a discussion. There wouldn't have been any to start with, because no money or promises in the world would get me into this house tonight.

"Definitely not. I'll call an Uber and then get a hotel room somewhere around here for tonight," I say, and half of my brain still tries to process what just happened.

"No, you'll stay at my place. I have enough bedrooms and all of them have freshly changed bedding." There is anger in his voice that he tries to hide by adding things that I could care less about right now.

Slowly I nod and he quickly grabs his helmet, before we start walking over to his house. When he opens the door, he lets me get in first and then turns his head to look if someone has followed us. Pleased, that all of them were too occupied with partying, he gets inside, closes the door and then turns off the alarm.

I can hear the clacking of Kal's nails on the floor. Confused as why I am here, he tilts his head but wiggles his tail in excitement only a second later.

"Go back to bed," Henry orders him behind me, followed by a "good boy" when Kal walks away. I can hear him undoing the zipper of his leather jacket. He carelessly throws the piece of clothing on the couch and then goes to his kitchen.

"I think we both could need a drink right now to calm down but for different reasons," he says, and I get rid of my shoes. Quickly he gets two glasses out of a cabinet and a bottle of brown liquor. While he fills them, I join him in the kitchen and sit down on one of the bar stools of the kitchen island.

"What's that?" I ask him when he pushes the glass in front of me. Skeptically I pick it up to look and then sniff on it. Surprisingly it doesn't smell as bad as I envisioned it.

"Whiskey. I remember you saying that you don't like to drink alcohol, so please don't feel obligated to," he tells me as he grabs his own glass and then takes a sip from it. Carefully I nip at it and cough when the alcohol makes its way down my throat into my stomach.

"I'm sorry," I say, and I don't know if he heard me, because he doesn't comment on it right away.

"What for?"

"Luke's behavior. He is drunk and-", I try to defend him, but Henry stops me.

"Don't. He is old enough to know when to stop to enjoy the buzz of the alcohol. He clearly got drunk on purpose and I don't want to mention the drugs he is currently on. He might be your boyfriend, but it doesn't give him the right to talk to you or anyone else the way he did. It was condescending, degrading, abusive and fundamentally repulsive what he said. He should be the one apologizing, but not to me. He should be on his knees begging you for your forgiveness for how he treated you, even if he doesn't deserve it," he says with a stern voice, and I finish the rest of my whiskey in one gulp. With a thud I place the glass against the counter of the kitchen island.

"I know. Can you pour me another one?" I push the glass over to him, but instead of filling it, he puts it into the sink.

"No.", he gives back matter of fact and I draw my eyebrows together.

"Why?"

"Because I won't let you get drunk, because of him. He is not worth it, Charlotte."

"Why does everyone around me think that they can tell me what to do? First it was Luke. Then my agent and now you.", I say louder than I meant to and flare my nostrils.

"That's the anger, frustration and confusion speaking out of you, because I would never tell you what you can and cannot do. However, I'm trying to protect you from doing something that you will regret tomorrow morning if I let you. You would wake up with a headache and probably only remember bits and pieces of what happened. You would go back to your house wondering what happened, because it most likely is trashed and forgive him for what he did, while not knowing the full extend."

Huffing I lean back in my chair, because even though I don't want to admit it out loud, he is right.

"If you really want to get drunk and forget about this, I'll drive you to the next bar and give you enough money to get the most wicked hangover you've ever had, to be able to pay for a cab and a hotel room. However, I wouldn't be calling you a friend after that, because I don't want people in my life who drown their sorrows and problems in alcohol."

"No," I tell him and look him straight into his eyes.

"Good, because I didn't take you for a person who takes the easy way out. Do you want to talk about it more, or do you want to go and try to sleep?"

"Why are you like this? I mean how can you help me?"

"Because you have only shown me kindness and that tells me more about you than you might think. I have never had the feeling that you wanted to get something out of knowing me. Your first statements after meeting me, already made that pretty clear, but the actions afterwards spoke louder than your words."

"Things are easier said than done," I say, and he nods his head.

"Exactly. When you took Heather shopping and then even wanted to pay back what she had spent on your groceries, showed me, you don't really care about money. They fact, that you wanted to throw back my dog's favorite toy at the time without being asked to do it, made it clear to me, that you don't care about getting your hands dirty – because let's be real, that ball was about to be thrown into the garbage. And it showed me that you are a thoughtful and considerate person. These are personality traits that I appreciate and like to be around to," he elaborates further and then shrugs his shoulder.

"You know me already pretty well, don't you?"

"Perhaps, but there is still a lot to find out to uncover the enigma of you," he laughs, and I need to smile. "There you go. Finally, a smile again."

"Thank you and this time it is for being there for me and being a friend that I didn't know I needed," I tell him honestly and he nods.

"Not for that Charlotte."