London - January, 1998
Audrey let herself into Percy's apartment. She expected to find him in his bedroom getting ready or in the kitchen cooking dinner or even in the living room reading.
But he was nowhere to be found.
Audrey decided he must have been hung up at work at she would hang out at his apartment until he got back. Maybe she would even make him dinner. Yes, that would be romantic. She took out all of the ingredients for a pasta dish she knew and loved and whipped up some pasta.
When she was done half an hour later, Percy was still not there.
Audrey began to look around the apartment. Maybe he'd left a note or something. But there was nothing.
She grabbed one of the books off of his shelf and sat down at the table to read. It appeared to be a book of fairytales, but they were very odd fairytales. Things like … She read the entire book before she dropped her head to the table and fell asleep. She awoke when she heard a popping noise and a small yelp.
Percy was standing in front of her. "How did you get in?" he demanded.
"I know where you hide your key," she reminded him, raising her eyebrows. "I didn't hear the door open."
"I was quiet," Percy murmured.
"Where were you?" Audrey demanded.
Percy made a face.
"Where were you?"
"I was at work…"
"Again?" Audrey looked at the clock. "Percy, you said you would meet me here four hours ago! I've been waiting here for four hours! I made dinner, I read this book" – Percy's face paled when she held up the book – "I waited for you."
"I'm sorry. Work's really crazy lately. I think I'm going to get a promotion," he said. Percy was so proud of all of the hard work he'd done to get to that point. And, yes, they may have been in the middle of a war, but a promotion would make that all better. Perhaps then he could also try to make a difference.
"So you had to leave me here?" Audrey demanded.
Percy walked up to her and wrapped his arms around her. "You're overreacting," he told her.
"No, I'm not!" she insisted, slipping out of his grip. "Because this isn't the first time this has happened. You always chose work over me, and I'm sick of it."
"Audrey, I…"
"No! I don't want to do this anymore. I don't want to sit around and wait while you're off doing some job that I don't even know about." She gave him a look that invited him to explain what it was he was doing, a question that had hung open between them since the beginning of their relationship, but he once again did nothing to soothe her worries.
"I can't tell you," Percy insisted.
"I don't think I can accept that anymore."
Audrey grabbed her coat off of the chair and shrugged it on. She grabbed her purse and was halfway out the door when Percy called, "Whatever! You're just some stupid Muggle anyway!"
Audrey wheeled around. "What did you just call me?"
"I… I…"
Oh. No. Percy had just screwed up. This was what he'd been worried about the whole time. He'd let a wizarding term slip and now he was going to have to pay for it.
While Percy tried to gather himself up to respond, Audrey lost patience. "Whatever!" she exclaimed, and she left his apartment.
Their breakup didn't last long. Audrey realized that she'd left her hair drier at Percy's apartment (yes, so maybe she'd spent a few nights there, though they blatantly said that) and she didn't have enough money to buy a new one, so she went to his apartment in hopes that he wasn't there.
But, of course, he was.
"Hi," he said when he saw her at the door.
"I left my hair drier here."
Percy was suddenly very glad that he hadn't smashed it like he'd wanted to. He retrieved her hair drier and she was about to leave when he suddenly smashed his lips into hers.
It was that easy.
A few weeks later, she'd moved into his apartment (along with all of her Muggle paraphernalia) and they seemed to have forgotten about those three days they'd been apart.