May 17, 2015

For the first time in a long time, Harmony was legitimately nervous.

On the surface, she seemed calm and collected with her hands clasped around her mug of tea, but one glance at her feet tapping away under the table would have given her nerves away to anyone.

She glanced up at the clock. One Fifteen PM. Nessa wasn’t one to normally be late, but Harmony also knew what traffic could be like through Manhattan, so she wasn’t panicking over it. In fact, she was quite glad of the delay as it gave her more time to gather her thoughts on how exactly she was going to tackle the situation at hand.

The waitress heads towards the table and makes eye contact with Harmony, instantly reading the “not yet” signal and giving her a smile before heading back over towards the station at the front of the cafe.

Harmony knew this conversation wasn’t going to go well. Nessa was absolutely smitten with Matt Stone and while Harmony had a strong dislike for the arrogant little twerp, he had seemed to be doing right by Nessa and made her happy, so Harmony had left well alone and supported Ness. But that had changed after she had finally seen the video that had been posted on Nessa’s blog. He pushed her to cut Mikaela out of her life and that was a big warning flag to Harmony that his intentions were not as good as she had first thought. It was a slippery path towards him controlling every aspect of her life and Harmony didn’t want Nessa to get trapped into that sort of situation.

Harmony had been there before and she didn’t want to see Nessa go through it.

Nessa had fallen hard for Matt Stone and Harmony knew that was what was going to make this conversation so difficult. The last time she had seen Nessa like this was while she was with Matt Ford, and Harmony was pretty sure Ben and Jerrys couldn’t cope with another break up of those proportions.

It was definitely going to be a situation that needed handling delicately. She exhales a sigh at the thought of it, but doesn’t get a chance to gather her thoughts anymore as she hears the bell above the door of the cafe ring and the sound of heels against wooden floor crescendos from behind.

“Sorry I’m late,” Nessa’s voice sounded strained, slightly harried as she rested a hand on Harmony’s shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze before rounding the table to slide into the seat across from her friend. “Traffic was unbelievable and I got a later start than I’d intended,” she plopped into the chair with a sigh, setting her Louis Vuitton bag down on the empty chair beside her.

”I guessed the traffic might have slowed you down.” Harmony replied with a grin, placing her mug back down on the table. ”Don’t worry about it, you’re here now and that’s all that matters.”

Nodding, Nessa lifted her hand and signalled the waitress, the Pandora bracelet she was wearing on her wrist jingling musically as she did. ”Bring me a Chai latte, extra sweetener… do you have Truvia here?” When the girl nodded, Nessa smiled. ”Wonderful! Two packets of that with the latte then, darling. When you have a moment, of course.”

”Thank you.” Harmony made sure to make glancing eye contact with the waitress before she left the table. ”Would that be a new bracelet?”

The blonde looked down at her wrist, a wistful smile on her face as she fingered the pink beads before replying. “It is, actually. Matt gave it to me as part of my birthday present. He’s always spoiling me.”

”That’s lovely of him.” Harmony smiled despite wanting to scream at her there and then “he’s a scumbag”, hoping the smile and sentiment didn’t come across as fake. ”It’s nice to get spoilt occasionally.”

“And now you’ve got me wondering if this was really just a social call, or if you’re trying to figure out if I’m planning to turn on you the same way Mika has.” Nessa’s blue eyes were cool as they settled on Harmony, just a little hint of that smirk of hers hovering on her lips for an instant.”I can assure you… I’m not, if that will put your mind at ease.”

That caught Harmony off guard. ”What?! No, no hun, it never even crossed my mind.” Harmony picked up her tea and took a sip, cupping the mug in her hands afterwards. ”I do have a reason for inviting you to tea, though.”

She opened her mouth to reply, but stopped when she saw the waitress approaching with her drink. Waiting it out, she allowed the girl to set the mug down before reaching for the packets of sweetener, pouring them into her latte one at a time before stirring it slowly. Finally, she looked up with a sigh. ”So are you going to read me the riot act for being bad friend to that crazy bitch?”

Harmony exhaled a sigh as she furrowed her brow. ”Nessa, I’m worried about you.”

Those words were so unexpected that Nessa almost dropped her cup as she was lifting it to her lips. In stupefaction, she stared across at Harmony. ”I’m sorry. You’re what? Worried about me? Why on Earth would you be worried… about me?”

The sigh came again. ”Because after seeing the video of you and Matt on your blog site, I’m worried that the relationship you’re in isn’t exactly all it seems to be.” Harmony said softly.

Now it was time for Nessa’s brow to furrow as she stared at her friend. “I’m sorry… what video do you mean? The only one I posted of Matthew and I was when we built that house of cards and that was months ago.”

”I think you might need to take a look at your blog page, hun.” Harmony raised her eyebrows in surprise. ”It was posted back in March but I’ve only recently seen it as I’ve been busy.”

Nessa shook her head, clearly confused even as she started rummaging in her purse beside her, looking for her cell phone. Finally locating it, she pulled up her internet browser and clicked on the link for her blog. Scrolling back through the last few posts, she came across one that she definitely had no knowledge of, posted back on March 14th. Clicking on it, she only had to watch for a few seconds before it dawned on her what had happened and then she closed it down, pushing the phone away from herself. ”It… it’s not what you think, Harm. That was meant to be symbolic and we were just having a little fun. I had absolutely no idea…”

”That concerns me even more.” Harmony answered rather grimly. ”I’m going to say something now that you’re probably not going to like, but if I don’t say anything and it turns out to be true, I’ll never forgive myself.” She ran her hand through her curls before continuing. ”I don’t think your relationship with Matt is healthy for you. That video was a huge red flag that he’s actively trying to isolate you from your friends.”

Nessa took in that statement without any outward sign of how much it hurt. It wasn’t until she spoke again and the frostiness was in her tone that it became clear. ”I see. And you think that I’m some sort of bubble-headed idiot who’s going to blithely go skipping down the path into another disaster like Brad Jackson or Matt Ford? Goodness, you’re making it sound like he’s trying to control me.”

”Honestly Ness, if I didn’t think it was a real concern, I wouldn’t have said anything.” Harmony sighed, knowing that the conversation was going the way she had feared. ”I’ve been in this situation before and you don’t realise it’s happening until its too late and by that point, you’re in so deep that getting out is a real battle.” She pushed her mug to one side, leaning on the table with her forearms. ”I’m not saying you’re stupid. I never have and I never will. But I really don’t think Matt’s intentions are as honourable as he claims them to be.”

The blonde shook her head. ”No. There’s absolutely no cause for concern here. I’m sure he didn’t really mean to post it without telling me. So much has been going on lately and he was so focused on beating Linda and Misty that…” she trailed off, shaking her head again. “I appreciate your concern, sweetie. Really, I do. I just think you’re seeing something that really isn’t there.”

”Ness, answer me a question.” Harmony shifted in her seat. ”Did you want the world to see that video?”

”Not really, no.” She answered that immediately without thinking too long or hard about it. “But honestly? Maybe it’s a good thing. What I had with Mika was toxic and ending that was...”

”Does the fact he posted it without your permission and without telling you not raise a concern with you?” Harmony butted in, aware that Nessa was just making excuses for him. ”Because it seems to me like he did it to cause a rift.”

Nessa closed her eyes for a second, reaching for her latte as though that would get her off the hook for this lovely interlude she’d been looking forward to that had obviously turned into an interrogation of sorts. She lifted the cup to her lips, taking a bracing swallow of the sweet beverage before letting out a soft sigh. “I’ll talk to him about it and find out why he posted it. I’m sure it wasn’t malicious.”

Harmony sighed. Denial was clearly taking up residence with Nessa. ”Nessa, please believe me when I say I’m saying all this because I care. You’re one of my best friends and the last thing I want is for you to get hurt. Again.” Stopping, she took another drink of her tea. ”But he’s manipulating you and it’s a dangerous path to tread.”

”I think maybe it’s best if I go.” Nessa replied frostily, reaching for her purse again, only to pull out her wallet so that she could drop a ten dollar bill on the table. ”I really don’t want to say something to you that I’m going to end up regretting later. You’re a good friend, Harmony. I just… I really don’t want to hear this right now.” She stood up, shaking her head in silence.

Harmony stood up and grabbed hold of Nessa’s arm to stop her walking away. ”Ness, please just promise me you’ll be careful.”

”I will. I always am.” The words came out tinged with bitterness before she pulled her arm back, slinging her purse over her shoulder. ”Enjoy your tea, honey,” she said by way of parting, although it was clear that there was some sort of unspoken wish for Harmony to choke on the remains lurking there in the tone she used. With a toss of her blonde hair, she was headed for the door, leaving Harmony alone again.