Being Harrison Bloom’s Girl

“I think I’ve asked too much of you already. I’ll look at it as my first real lesson in weights. We’re all supposed to lift nowadays.”

Leigh chuckled.

“I guess it counts, if you stretch your imagination a little bit. I… I don’t want to impose. I can leave.”

Roger waved off her protests.

“There, I’ve got it for sure this time. And hey, presto! We have an open door. I won’t hear of it, Leigh, unless you’ve got a date and you’re looking for a polite out. If you’re not, then stay and have dinner, and maybe we can go through that paper and see where you can improve your grade. I’m not going to tell you what you should do, mind you. I’d just like to see what I’m working with.”

Leigh hesitated.

“I’m not sure that’s the first impression I want you to get of me.”

Roger grinned, that charming flash of brightness again, and walked in.

“Don’t worry, the first impression has already been taken care of. Now come on, let me thank you by giving you a lavish meal that spans  some of Southeast Asia.”

Leigh laughed and relented.

It was just dinner. There would be no harm done.

Leigh didn’t notice until much later that she had missed about seven calls from Harrison.

Harrison knew he was supposed to be patient, but patience didn’t seem appealing to him anymore.

Leigh was slipping away from him. She was slipping slowly out of his world and into one where he didn’t belong. Where he couldn’t belong.

The thought of losing Leigh made Harrison feel dizzy. They had gone through so much to be together. They had taken such risks, and now they were supposed to be enjoying the rewards.

But Leigh hadn’t been talking to him as she used to. She hadn’t been very subtle about needing time to herself, either. The last conversation with her, she had been so distracted that he was quite sure that she hadn’t even heard most of what he’d had to say.

A part of him was angry. He was a busy man. You didn’t build a financial empire without being busy. He hadn’t started off inheriting incredible sums of money or wealth. He had worked from modest beginnings, and found success that he had earned on his own skills.

He was still building on that success.

So why was it that he could find the time and make the effort to spend time with Leigh, to talk to her, but she couldn’t do it?

The thought of losing her…

The need to hold on to her, to keep her close, was so heavy on him that it made his head swim. He could hardly think straight.

He needed Leigh.

Leigh needed him, too. He could rest easier if he could know that the only reason why Leigh didn’t have time to spend with him, to come home to him, was because she had too much on her plate. He should be supportive and patient, he told himself, again and again.

But lately, he had found himself beginning to consider things that he might not have, a while ago.

Sighing, Harrison pushed away from his desk and walked to stand at the tall glass window.

He could buy almost anything his heart desired. He could have any luxuries he wanted. But the only thing he had ever needed, truly needed, was to know that Leigh belonged to him – unconditionally and unquestionably.

It had been a few months since they’d started dating. In that time, so much had changed. Most of it, he told himself, had been for the better.

But sometimes, he wondered if Leigh had needed to get away from him, and from how much he needed her. Was that why she had chosen the law school that was a good two hours’ drive away from him, when she could’ve picked one just as excellent close by?

No, it had been for her own ambitions.

He respected her ambitions.

Harrison had no intention of ever standing in her way. He would only help her, every step of the way.

And yet…

Harrison turned his back on the view, almost hypnotic with all of those lights, and everything it represented. He walked back to his desk and sat down.

He opened the little door under his desk and moved a file out of the way.

He looked at the little box for a while.

Something very precious was in there – something that represented more than he could explain. With Leigh, he wouldn’t have to explain. He knew that.

He had always known that when the time came, he would offer everything he was to the right woman. He had always known, in some part of him, that Leigh was the right woman, too.

What was he waiting for?

He needed to know that Leigh was in it with him, all the way, for the long haul. He hated the uncertainty he felt at that moment. He’d been feeling it for a while.

He needed to know that he could trust her to be there for him, and he needed her to know that he would be there for her, too.

Could there be a better way of expressing the truth and gravity of his commitment to her?

Carefully, he took the box out and opened it.

It wasn’t particularly ostentatious. It was a rose gold band with an emerald, surrounded by tiny diamonds.

It had been his mother’s. Martha had kept it safe for him for a long time, until he had been ready to take it, and keep it, without being broken by it.

He had been a child when his mother died, but he remembered that ring on her finger. She had always worn it. He saw it clearly in all his memories of her – some vague, some distinct.

He wanted Leigh to wear it, and he wanted memories that would never fade of Leigh with that ring on her finger. He wanted her to be proud to wear it, and know what it meant to him.

He wanted it to mean just as much to her.

If he had misgivings, Harrison paid no mind to them. He wasn’t in the mood to second-guess himself.

He was tired of second-guessing himself, anyway. He never had, not with Leigh, not in any other part of his life.

Leigh could have her time, and she could have her space. He would give her both willingly.

But Harrison decided that it was only fair for her to give him what he needed. No, that wasn’t quite right – what they both needed. Leigh had felt torn, tugged between two worlds. Well, this would anchor her, wouldn’t it?

It would be good for both of them.

What he didn’t know was that Leigh was, at that moment, having dinner with Roger. The ridiculous amount of takeout and his unexpected company were combining to make her feel better than she had in ages.

She wasn’t thinking about Harrison at all.