BEAUTIFULLY UNFINISHED novel Chapter 19

EIGHTEEN

"Too bad I can't see the view from up here." Ben says while looking out at the spacious outdoor terrace while the massive rain were washing down on everything from the outside.

I sort of love and hate it when it rains. I love it cos it's cold and I get to drink hot chocolate milk with Benny. I hate it cos if I'm outside my house, I just totally get soaked and now that my car is on the fix again, it means I'm going to take subway trains and buses once again.

"You can always come here if I'm around town." Harry speaks. "I'll let you take a watch from the view of New York if it's not raining. And we can watch the sunset together." Harry promises.

"You promise?" Ben asked.

"Yes. I promise." Harry swore.

"Ben takes promises seriously." I say.

"Me too." Harry smiles at me.

Harry's phone suddenly started ringing. He quickly pulled it out from his pocket like he was expecting this call.

"I'll take this call." He leaves us and stands away from the table.

"Hey honey." I hear Harry.

Honey.

It's his fiancée.

She calls to check if Harry is being a loyal soon-to-be-husband. He is. He was almost tempted to kiss me the other night but he's been a very loyal fiancé to her. Damn it, why is it making me annoy about the thought of her when I haven't even seen her personally.

Ben glares at Harry. "Who is he talking to mom? Who's honey?"

"I don't know sweetheart." I say and I'm also looking at Harry. "And that's bad that you're listening to other's conversation."

It's bad to listen to other's conversation Miranda. Don't listen to their conversation. But then I can't help it, I'm trying to listen to him even though he's far from where me and Ben are.

I gaze at Harry over my shoulder and he looks puzzled and disappointed. He pushes his hair back and sighs heavily. He's talking as if he's mad at her. What might have happened to them? Is their relationship in a shaky situation?

As bad as it sounds, I hope they are.

But then I'm scared of karma so I take it back, I wish they're beyond totally fine.

I still try to eavesdrop and listen to him but all I could hear were things like,

"I waited for days..."

"No text? No calls?"

"No it's not okay."

And other murmurs that I can't quite figure out what he was trying to tell her. Even though I was trying my best not to listen, I was still listening and I think Harry is noticing it cos his voice becomes a whisper now.

Ben and I remained quiet on our seats while I was finishing my glass of fizz water. Suddenly Harry pulled his chair and joined us back on the table again.

"How's the pizza Benny?" Harry asks.

"It's very delicious. Thank you uncle Harry." Ben smiles.

"Baby wipe your cheeks. Your mouth's all oily." I hand him a ply of tissue.

Ben does what I told him while my eyes move to Harry. He stares at his phone and hi's gripping tight on it to the point his knuckles were getting pale white. I think something might have happened to them. I think they must have exchanged words they never meant to say to the first place. I wanted to ask him what happened but I don't have the right to do that. I wanted to talk to him about it and maybe help him out but I'm sure he won't tell me. Harry thinks I don't see it, but I do. He's hurt. He's mad as hell but he's trying to stop himself from getting mad cos Ben and I are here with him. I quickly looked away so he won't catch me.

Ben suddenly stands from his seat and I quickly moved my head to him, "Let's build tents mom!"

I gaze at Harry and his hand was now relaxed. I look back at my son. "Ben this is not our house. Take a look around."

Ben does it.

"Everything around here is breakable and we don't have the money to pay for it once you destroy something." I add.

"We could've build a very huge tent around this living room mom. Plus it's raining outside, perfect time for hot chocolate milk drink." Ben pouts.

I gaze at Harry and he's just looking impassively at Ben.

"Have you tried building tents inside your house uncle Harry?" Ben asked.

Uh-oh. Now's not a very good time to ask Ben. Harry's mad at his fiancée for some unknown reason right now.

"I haven't." Harry answers.

Then a smile shows on Harry's face, "My sister did when she was young but I didn't join her. How do you do that?"

"Building tents out of sheets inside the house was a major part of mom's childhood." Ben gazes at me. "That's why we do it too when it's raining outside like now. Or when it's snowing. It's easy." Ben says with a smile.

Harry listens eagerly with a smile plastered on his face.

"But first off we need massive amounts of blankets. Oh! And pillows! Flashlights too!" Ben extends his arms to the side as if he's showing us something really huge.

Ben starts talking to Harry about building a tent out of sheets inside the house. He started off by scrounging up the blankets and sheets. Ben said we needed to connect one blanket after the other and once the corners are tucked under the couches and shelves and anything else that could hold it up, our tent is built.

"We need to stock a few pillows inside and flashlights and snacks and hot chocolate milk drinks with marshmallows and sprinkles on it." Ben says with his eyes closing on the part of mentioning the hot chocolate milk drink.

I smile and I noticed that Harry was smiling too. His forefinger was covering his cheeky smile while he glances at me.

"That sounds really fun." Harry compliments, pulling his finger off his lips. "And it would be much more fun if the place is insanely huge." He adds.

"Yeah. Like this place." Ben answers.

"Ben we're not building tents here. This is a hotel, we'll do that once we'll go home. Okay?" I tell him.

Ben nods.

Harry suddenly stands from his chair, walks to the counter and stopped right in front of the bar. He picked up the silver colored phone that hanging against the wall. He pulled it up, held it to his ear and clicked one button while tapping his finger over the counter top. Ben and I were curiously looking at him.

"Mommy what's uncle Harry doing?" Ben asked me whisperingly as he moves his head close to my ear.

"I don't know baby." I answered.

"Yes, hello. This is Harry from Penthouse South." He took a pause. "Could you send me three flashlights and three mugs of hot chocolate milk drink with marshmallows and sprinkles on top."