Chapter 4: Laugh So You Don't Cry

The first time that Harry realised just how much his life was going to change now that Nikki was living with him was the next morning. He was in the bathroom, showering before work, when the door suddenly opened and Nikki waltzed straight in. Harry pressed himself back against the wall, cursing himself for not locking the door. But Nikki hadn't even been showing signs of life when he'd got up.

"Nikki!" he exclaimed. "I'm in the shower!"

"Yes, I'm aware of that," she said, and Harry could see her blurry outline through the frosted glass. She had her back to him by the sink.

"You can't just come in here while I'm in the shower! Naked!" he cried.

"Oh relax, Harry. We cut up naked people every day."

"That is beside the point!"

"I can't even see anything, the glass is all steamed up," Nikki giggled. Harry grabbed a bottle of shampoo in a weak attempt to make himself more decent.

"Nikki, please," he pleaded. "Get out of the bathroom!"

"I only want to brush my teeth, I won't be a minute," she told him, and he could hear the amusement in her voice. It was like the previous evening's mishap with her box of underwear all over again. Little did he know it was about to get even worse.

When Nikki turned on the tap to brush her teeth, the water that was raining down over Harry suddenly turned ice cold. A string of obscenities escaped his lips as he flung himself out of the shower and grabbed a towel, hastily wrapping it around his waist before Nikki could see anything that he didn't particularly want her to see. She was stood there in her pyjamas, giggling at him with her toothbrush in her mouth. Harry glared at her. Once she'd spat out the foam and rinsed, she looked at Harry and said, "I need the towel."

"You need the towel?" he repeated disbelievingly from his position by the doorway as Nikki struggled with an obvious desire to laugh.

"It doesn't matter," she said, wiping her mouth with a piece of toilet roll instead. When she turned around to face him again, the look on his face was evidently too much for her and she broke into peals of giggles.

"It's not funny!" Harry cried angrily. "You can't just come in here while I'm in the shower!"

"I'm sorry," she said, although she didn't look it. "I didn't realise it was such a big deal. It's not like we're strangers, and I couldn't see anything through the frosted glass. Leo sees you in the shower all the time."

Harry grimaced and shook his head, trying to rid himself of the unpleasant metal image Nikki's comment had put there. "Leo has never seen me in the shower!" he protested. "He has seen me out of the shower, when I have a towel around me, but never in the shower! Besides, that's different, we're both men."

Nikki just laughed. "Okay. I'm sorry if I embarrassed you," she smiled. "I promise I'll never use the bathroom while you're in the shower again."

"Good," Harry said firmly. There was a minute's silence and Harry noticed Nikki's eyes travel down from his face and linger on his bare chest, still damp from the shower. This time it was his turn to smile and Nikki's turn to go red. She cleared her throat and said, "Right... well, I'll – I'll leave you to it then."

"That would be good," he grinned. Nikki's arm brushed against his stomach as she edged past him and out of the bathroom, snapping the door shut behind her. Harry blew out a long breath. Maybe he should get back in the shower and make it a cold one.

*

Half an hour later and Harry was fully dressed and decent again. He emerged into the lounge to see Nikki in the kitchen. She smiled at him apologetically.

"I've made breakfast," she stated. "To apologise about earlier."

Harry walked over to where she was buttering some toast.

"You didn't have to."

"I know. I wanted to."

Harry smiled at her and sat at his breakfast bar. Shortly afterwards Nikki arrived with a plate of eggs, bacon and toast, which she placed in front of him.

"I think we need some rules," Harry told her.

"You could be right," Nikki grinned.

"Okay. Bathroom. Whoever has to go to work earliest gets it first. If we both have to go to work, then... What time do you get up?"

"Well." Nikki looked thoughtful. "Usually my alarm goes off at six, but I don't get up until ten past."

"I get out of bed at six, so it makes sense if I use the bathroom first then."

"Okay. How about the food shop? Who's going to do that?" Nikki asked him.

"We'll do it together, otherwise we'll only end up arguing about the food that each of us has bought. We get most Sundays off, depending on our work loads, so we can do it then," he replied.

"Good. So that only really leaves one more rule," she said slowly.

"It does," Harry agreed, knowing what she was going to say.

"So... what happens when one of us wants to bring a... friend, home?"

"If I'm going to bring a woman home, I'll text you on my way and let you know. Then you can retreat safely to your bedroom and everyone's happy. Or vice versa if you want to bring one of your unsuitable men here," he said, feeling a curious sensation in his stomach as he realised that that last bit was more than likely to happen.

"That sounds like a plan," Nikki smiled.

"It certainly does," he replied, deciding to ignore the strange feeling. He had a suspicion as to what it could be, and it was something that he just couldn't deal with.

*

When Harry got home from work later that night, Nikki was no where to be seen. It was clear that she wasn't at home, yet the kitchen lights were on and it looked like she was in the middle of cooking dinner. Something was simmering on the hob, and Harry could see his casserole dish on the side with some layers of pasta in it.

Suddenly the front door opened and a minute later Nikki entered the kitchen, grinning and laughing to herself. She stopped when she saw Harry, but gave him a beaming smile.

"Oh good, you're home."

Harry frowned and looked around the kitchen once again. "I didn't know you cooked," he stated.

"There are many things you don't know about me," she giggled, pushing past him to the hob, where she stirred whatever was in the pan. "I'm making lasagne."

"Blimey," Harry said. "Where have you been, anyway? You can't just leave all this unattended. You're lucky I arrived home when I did, or you could have burnt the place down."

"Oh stop moaning. I was next door borrowing some dried herbs. You're useless, you didn't have any," she told him with another giggle.

"Next door?" Harry frowned. "Which next door?"

"A lovely Mrs Parsons. She's great, why didn't you tell me that you had such fantastic neighbours?"

Harry snorted, but then he realised that Nikki was being serious. "You have to be kidding?" he exclaimed. "Mrs Parsons? The eighty-year-old miserable widow? Nikki! That old bat bangs on the wall with her walking stick when I have the TV on and moans that it's too loud! She once had to take a parcel for me because I wasn't in and she didn't decide to give it back for nearly three days! And when she did she moaned about it!"

"Don't be horrible," Nikki scolded. "I found her highly entertaining. She certainly has some stories to tell about all the girls you bring back here." She laughed as some of the offending herbs were sprinkled into the saucepan.

"See! She's a gossip. Just... please don't get too friendly with her," Harry pleaded.

"Hmm... she didn't seem to like you very much, now you mention it. But I like her, and she's my neighbour now too," Nikki smiled. Harry frowned at her as she poured the tomato sauce she had just created onto the bottom layer of pasta.

"Are you drunk?" he asked her abruptly.

Nikki giggled. "No! What would give you that idea?"

"Oh, I don't know," he replied sarcastically. "The open bottle of wine on the worktop up there, and the half empty glass in your hand... Both kind of give it away slightly."

Nikki looked down at the glass and raised her eyebrows as if she'd only just noticed it. "I'm not drunk," she laughed. "I've only had a glass or two."

"Or three," Harry added.

"Look, I am here cooking for you, like a dutiful wife or something! The least you could do is stop insulting me and lay the table," she told him.

"A dutiful wife?" Harry repeated with a laugh, but he moved over to the cutlery drawer.

"Yes! I cook, and I clean-"

"Clean?" he interrupted with a snort.

"I'll have you know I cleaned the bathroom today. And hoovered my room because it was so dusty."

Harry smiled to himself as he set about laying the table.

Half an hour later and Nikki had just placed a bottle of red wine and a dish of lasagne on the table, which she then began to serve onto plates.

"Wow Nikki, this looks great!" Harry complimented as she placed a plate in front of him.

"Why thank you," she grinned, pouring some wine into his glass. "It's a one-off though. I won't be doing this every night."

They ate happily, except Harry couldn't help but notice that Nikki seemed to be consuming an awful lot of the wine, and was getting steadily drunker by the glass.

"Are you okay?" he asked her once they'd finished eating.

"I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?"

"I don't know. It's just... you've managed to get through an entire bottle of wine. Not to mention what you drank while you were cooking."

"I have not drunk all the wine! You've had some as well!" she exclaimed, her words slurred slightly.

"I haven't finished my first glass," he told her softly, and Nikki frowned. Then she giggled.

"What?" Harry asked her.

"Are you going to tell me off?"

Harry sighed. "No. But only if you tell me what's wrong. Because you don't normally drink like this, so something must have happened while I was at work today."

Nikki managed to make pretty steady eye contact with him for someone who was so intoxicated. "I heard from my father today," she told him quietly, suddenly sobering up a bit.

"Oh." Harry now fully understood the large amount of alcohol consumption. "What did he want?"

Nikki shook her head. "You know when he turned up at the lab a couple of years ago? I offered to pay him off, but he didn't want the money. We sort of made up. Kind of. And I told him that he could email me, or call occasionally."

Harry nodded. He knew that already.

"Well," Nikki continued. "I emailed him a few days ago to give him my new address and phone number, and it wasn't until today he got back to me."

She stopped, taking another gulp of wine. Harry didn't say anything, but waited for Nikki to continue in her own time.

"He obviously didn't know that I rented my flat, because the first thing he said to me was, 'How much equity have you got from the sale?'. He was after my money, Harry. Again!" She took another mouthful from her glass, and Harry could see tears sparkling in her eyes.

"Did he ask you for money?" he said softly.

"Well... no. But he obviously was hinting at it!"

"He might not be. He might just be curious," Harry countered.

Nikki snorted. "Asking someone how much money they've made from the sale of their flat isn't the sort of question that you ask people! You ask them why they've moved! Or what their new place is like!"

"Maybe," Harry replied. "What did you say back to him?"

"I didn't. I just couldn't be bothered to reply and get into an argument with him again. And I'm not going to reply either. He's not getting another penny out of me!"

Nikki blinked, seemingly determined not to cry. Harry reached across the table and placed his hand on her arm. "I'm sorry, Nikki."

"What have you got to be sorry for?"

"I'm sorry that you have such a waster as a father. I hate seeing you upset because of him," Harry told her. Nikki looked up at him and smiled warmly.

"It doesn't matter," she said, but it was obvious that she was lying. They looked at each other for a moment, before Nikki suddenly pulled her gaze away. "I suppose I'd better do the washing up," she said.

"No, I'll do it," said Harry. "You just go to bed and sleep off the one and a half bottles of wine that you've consumed."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. I wouldn't offer otherwise, would I?" Harry stood up and tugged the plates out of Nikki's hand, putting them back down on the table. Then he looked at her with his arms outstretched.

"What are you doing?" Nikki smiled, but she wasted no time in accepting his embrace.

"When you hug someone it suppresses their nervous system, slowing their heartbeat and therefore making them feel better. So I am hugging you," Harry told her with a grin. Nikki laughed softly and wrapped her arms around his waist.

"Thank you," she muttered. Harry kissed the top of her head.

"You're welcome."

Quite a long chapter today. I really have been good at updating lately! I tried to make this chapter a bit funnier, I hope it worked! Thank you to all the lovely reviews people have been giving me, by the way. I'm sure they make me write quicker! :D Have I already said that in a previous chapter? Oh, I can't remember.
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