CHRYSALIS

30.

"So, I'll pick you up at 9, when you land. Do you want to get breakfast before I take you home or you just wanna get it over with?" I'm walking through the airport with a coffee in my hand, staring down at the checkered fabric covering my feet.

"No, If I do breakfast I'll pussy out and never talk to him. I just have to get it over with and see how he's feeling." I love knowing that it looks like I'm talking to myself while I have AirPods in. They are an excellent impulse buy at the airport, I highly recommend. Makes me look just as crazy as I am.

"Okay. Straight home it is then. I'm proud of you yanno. This is good, these are very big girl steps you're gonna take. Very much mature adulting is going to be happening."

"I literally ran out of a beach cabana at six-thirty in the morning in a soaking wet dress to escape being an adult, Frankie. Don't hold your breath that this will go well." The man sitting a few seats over in the seating at my gate flicks his eyes to me for just the briefest moment before my raised eyebrow makes him turn his attention back to his book.

If you're gonna eavesdrop, do it subtly for christ's sake.

"It's all gonna be fine Jo, he's crazy about you. Everyone can see it. He made it quite obvious with his daily phone calls to me for the last week. You two are going to be great together." Frankie's tone is honest and sincere but it still makes me want to vomit with nerves.

*Now boarding flight 2855 to Los Angeles...*

"Ugh, gross. Okay, I'm about to board, cross your fingers for me. I love you. I'll see you in a few hours."

I hang up with Frankie and huff out a deep breath, sink back into the uncomfortable chair, and think about how the hell I got to this point.

~

I remember waking up and thinking I had turned on sleep sounds because the ocean waves were so perfect, it took a few seconds for me to realize where I was.

My face was stuck to his bare chest, which had happened before when he slept shirtless, but it was still alarming. More alarming, however, was the fact that I could feel the sea breeze on my bare ass cheeks.

I squeezed my eyes shut, begging my brain to wake up from some kind of hot sex dream...but I did not. When I opened my eyes again I was still very much naked, in a beachside villa, laying on top of Harry Styles.

Then I began to pray. I prayed to whatever God would listen to me that this man was asleep and would stay asleep while I removed myself from the bed.

I freed my head first, checking to make sure he was out, which he was, thank God. Then, I peeled my arm off of his hips gently and used it to help scoot me away from him enough to slip my leg out from between his. He stirred briefly, moaned slightly, and shuffled to a new position on his back with his face turned away from me.

I was very grateful that I couldn't see his face any longer, it would have made it harder to do what I was about to do.

I grabbed my dress from the floor, where it sat soaking wet in a pile after it fell off of my body. It was freezing cold and still wet when I got it back on my body, but I couldn't be bothered to care.

I left.

I ran up the beach, got my phone, grabbed nothing else, and started walking. I called an uber to meet me outside the gate and anxiously waited the six minutes for them to arrive.

I stood on that sidewalk for six minutes, but it felt like an hour. My hair was a mess, my dress was wet, my feet were bare and covered in sand, but none of it made me more uncomfortable than the thought of facing Harry when he woke up.