CHRYSALIS

50.

November.

What a month. A strange month really, it feels like it's just a stepping stone month for most people, it only has one "important" day and really that day is shit anyway so for most people it's just a month about food and pumpkin-flavored things.

I never cared much for November, never really gave it much thought. This November though, this one I would remember. Not vividly the way you remember December or your birthday month. Not wholly like the way you remember the first month in your own apartment or your first month at college. I'd remember it softly and in pieces.

The way you remember a scent or a laugh. The way you remember how it felt the first time someone held your hand. I would remember it when I needed it. When I needed a soft place to land, I'd come back to this November.

It started out full of love, that's probably what made it so good.

We flew in on a Thursday, got home, and didn't do a damn thing. We laid around the house for almost three days straight, we never left. We spent time in the pool, weeded the garden, decided to put up some more stringy lights, we shaped the hedge, and about 20 other random projects around the house or yard.

Mostly, we just drank wine and cooked delicious meals, and danced. We danced to our record, the one he made for my birthday. We danced to Georgia and remembered that very first kiss before the Grammys. We danced to I'll Be Seeing You and held each other a little too tight, grateful to have those memories in our past and not our present.

Harry almost impaled himself on a Swiffer WetJet while he was attempting to use it as a microphone to Be My Baby. Slippery feet on freshly mopped floors were a hazard to even the most graceful of creatures.

I choked on my goldfish laughing at him.

The first time we left the house was Sunday morning. We left in his convertible, and pulled up to the cafe with books in hand, ready to go. We were greeted with big hugs, excited questions, hot coffee, and warm croissants.

I sat with my back pressed to the window and my knees bent up so that I could rest my book on them. I mostly used my left hand to maneuver the pages and left my right hand free so that I could snack and sip my latte, and occasionally rest my fingers with Harry's when they came looking for me.

That whole Sunday remained perfect. We left the cafe after a couple of hours. I went and saw Nicki at her new job and got an incredible facial, I picked up a gift, and then I headed home to get ready.

When I got home Kanye West was playing quite loudly which made me smile. I kicked my shoes off at the door, set the beautifully wrapped gift on the kitchen island, and smiled as I ran up the stairs.

"Real friends
I guess I get what I deserve, don't I?
Word on the streets is they ain't heard from him, uh
I guess I get what I deserve, don't I?
Talked down on my name, throwed dirt on him"

Harry had on a pair of black dress pants undone, his torso was bare, and he was singing to himself in the mirror while he worked a pomade through his hair.

I glanced over and smiled at the warm-toned, printed shirt he'd be wearing which was hanging on the closet door next to my berry-colored dress. I smiled as I came up behind him and whistled at the sexy view in front of me.

"God daaaaamn!" I hollered while he turned to me and wrapped me into a steamy kiss. Both arms went around my waist and dipped me backward as he kissed me, we both came up smiling.

We spent another hour getting ready and before I knew it it was time to go. My hair was blown out but I had a clip in my bag for either myself or Harry, in case things got too warm later.