Room Service
Chapter 25
Oct 24
Lily wakes with an acute ache in her chest the next morning. The contrast of this heaviness to the bubbling warmth that had filled every inch of her being just twenty-four hours earlier feels almost laughably cruel. And it is with a desperate hope of allaying this torment that her fingers scramble over to the bedside table just as soon as her eyes open to reach for her phone—now fully charged—and pull up her chats.
There are only two texts from James, sent over an hour ago this morning.
James: Okay
Glad you're alright
She stares at the brief messages with something akin to loathing brimming inside, the knot in her throat tightening to painful proportions. Lip caught between teeth, her thumb hovers over the call button on the top right corner of the screen, wondering if he's even likely to pick her call now, given the tone of brisk aloofness in his responses. It's evident to her by now that he's clearly misread her radio silence from yesterday as an attempt at ghosting him after what happened. And the non-bitter, non-heartbroken part of Lily realizes, quite unfortunately, that he probably has a good enough reason to feel that way. The other part of her—it cracks and splinters.
Her thumb shifts, goes back to the chats, and scrolls until she pulls up another.
WhatsApp Private Chat
Sirius Black to Lily Evans
24/10/2021 09:02 a.m.
xxxxxx
Sirius: Hard to tell
What did you do?
Well. At least he's no longer spitting rage at her.
Lily Evans to Sirius Black
24/10/2021 11:13 a.m.
xxxxxx
Lily: It's just a misunderstanding
Can you please ask him to call me?
Sirius: I'll try
Give him some time
Even though Sirius's message gives her next to no proper answer, Lily still clutches onto the hope it stirs inside her with both hands. It's probably not the worst scenario, then, if James hasn't outright decided to never speak to her again, or if he hasn't asked Sirius to cuss her out for her alleged cowardice when it comes to confronting the consequences of their Night Together.
And so, when she goes to work that evening with misery coating her mouth and weighing down her limbs, she still does not make a move to immediately ring 208 and demand to speak to James right away. Instead, she spends the first several minutes fending off questions from Mary about what happened that night—an attempt that is only partially successful when she is quite effectively derailed by a particular piece of information bestowed upon her.
"Potter didn't tell you?" Mary is saying, the left side of her hip resting against the counter as she frowns at Lily. "He's gone on another one of his client meetings."
"What?" She breathes, heart clattering, insides twisting. "Where? When—when's he coming back?"
"Don't know, didn't get a chance to ask." Mary's dark brows arch in concern. "Lil, are you okay?"
"I'm…" A hand, rubbing down her face; air flooding bitterly over her tongue. "I slept with him."
Mary's voice, then, falls quieter than a whisper. "What?"
"I slept with him," Lily repeats, looks up with a strange buzzing noise in her ears. "And it was… perfect. We were going to figure out what to do, how to sort this out at the hotel afterwards. But then Petunia called, and she was mad, and I had to take off from work for the dress fitting. But my phone was out of charge, and James—he called and texted so many times, and I'm pretty sure he thinks I ghosted him after having sex with him and he doesn't believe that I didn't actually, even though I was honest with him later, and he said it was okay, but I could tell it wasn't. And I thought—I thought that I could talk to him about it today, but now he's—um, not—"
"Okay," Mary says, eyes wide. "Okay. Okay, okay, come here."
Lily lets her pull her into a hug, lets her rub her back soothingly. The tears don't come this time, a fact for which she's eternally grateful, even if the hollowness in her chest does not abate.
It's around three in the morning when—surprisingly enough—Sirius arrives downstairs… with two other blokes in tow who Lily has never met.
They're all laughing boisterously, clearly tipsy, the lot of them, and despite the impulse to call him over and ask after James, she figures this is not the right time, nor is he in the right state, and simply goes back to her eBook. But not ten seconds later, they're on the other side of the reception desk, demanding her attention.
"Hi," she says tentatively, clicking off the phone and standing up. "Can I be of any help?"
"Hey." The sandy-haired, blue-eyed bloke greets her with a small smile. One look at him proves that he's the soberest of the three at the moment, with lightly flushed cheeks and a kind face. "You must be Lily. My name is Remus." He inclines his head to the left. "This is Peter."
Lily nods at the stout, blonde one with watery eyes, who seems a stone's throw away from passing out right on the floor. "Hi, Peter."
"We're mates of James and Sirius'," Remus adds. "Just wanted to um… meet you."
"He means to say he was curious about which bird completely fucked our mate up," Sirius says flatly from the side, looking almost bored as he leans against the counter, sharp eyes dulled tonight with alcohol.
Lily bites her lip, discomfort churning, mixed with a healthy dose of affront. "That's not what I—" A deep breath through her nose. He's drunk. It won't do to engage him right now. She redirects her attention to Remus. "Are you going to be staying here long?"
"Just here for the night and tomorrow until James arrives. Been a while since we met these idiots, so figured might as well come over for a visit."
"Yeah, that makes sense." She smiles weakly.
"I think I'm going to be sick," Peter speaks up suddenly, face having turned green to match the honesty of his words.
Her customer service panic momentarily kicks in. "There's a bathroom to the left and down the hall."
"Cheers. Come on, mate." Remus guides Peter away with a hand on his back, preventing him from toppling on the way. Right before leaving however, he offers the low, clipped words to Sirius in a whispered tone. "Don't overdo it."
Grey eyes look on in annoyed exasperation as the two disappear down the lobby, before they turn to refocus on Lily, already watching him with a grimace. "Explain yourself."
Anger: bristling immediately. "Lose that tone, you tosser. I didn't fucking mess James around."
"Really, Evans?" Sirius sneers, arms folding over chest. "Is that why he looked like he'd had just about every single one of his wishes fulfilled yesterday, and then that happiness just fizzled out of him progressively as the day passed for no bloody reason? I couldn't get him to stop talking about you when he got back, and then… what the fuck happened? Why didn't you pick his calls? Or talk to him?"
"I wanted to!" she insists, temples aching, fingertips tight on the counter. "I tried! My phone—"
"Was out of charge, yes, he said." Sirius narrows his eyes. "And that's the truth, then? You're not lying?"
Lily grits her teeth. "I'm really not. And it's—well, it's actually fucking bullshit that he'd doubt me so easily after we… after I—"
But Sirius seems undeterred even as her voice cracks.
"Is it though, Evans?" His mouth slants, unimpressed. "Is it really bullshit? From the moment we entered through these doors, at the beginning of the month, he's done nothing but let you dictate the game. You told him you didn't want to be together, he listened. You told him you didn't want him to leave, even though it was killing you both, and he listened. You kept saying you had more at stake here, that he couldn't possibly understand or relate, and he still didn't fight you—"
"Okay, that's not f—"
"And I'm not even fucking getting into the mess of you snogging him, by the way, because he only told me all of that after it was apparently sorted out between you two—but then, when he thinks you finally give this a chance, give him a chance, you don't speak to him for a whole bloody day, you don't show up to work." Sirius looms closer here, palms planted on the counter, any earlier dullness vanished straight from that accusing gaze. "What the hell do you reckon he's supposed to think, if not doubt that you're second-guessing being with him after you've run so hot and cold throughout the month? I've told you before—he's so fucking gone over you, Evans, it's not even fucking funny. The state he was in yesterday… it was pretty crap to even just watch. And all of this only means that he's more scared that you'll break his heart."
A breath shudders through her, the words hitting harder than a punch to the stomach.
Oh God.
He's right.
All of it, laid out like that, it's—
"I won't," Lily whispers. "I won't break his heart."
"And how's he to know that, Evans? Haven't said any of that to him, have you? He can hope, of course, and fuck knows that he does—but the bloke's got to have a limit."
She watches him silently, understands what he's hinting at, and closes her eyes with a heavy exhale. "Thank you, Sirius."
When she looks at him again, a few beats later, he's no longer frowning, but rather standing on the other side with a contemplative look on his face. In a progression that is as slow as it is mesmerizing, his lips curve up into a smile—something gentle, and genuine, and entirely unlike any expression he's directed at her so far.
"I was right, wasn't I?" he asks.
Cheeks heat, chest warm, but Lily holds the stare, doesn't need to ask him to clarify. "You were right."
WhatsApp Private Chat
Lily Evans to James Potter
25/10/2021 04:49 a.m.
xxxxxx
Lily: Hi James
Can we talk?
Please?
James Potter to Lily Evans
25/10/2021 08:32 a.m.
xxxxxx
James: As if I could say no now
Okay
Let's talk once I'm back