How It's Going To Be [h.s.]

Chapter 4

An alarm on Harry's phone rang out at quarter past seven the next morning. At first, I didn't open my eyes. I tried to wish away the wakeup call. Suddenly, I felt a body move in the bed beside me. I peeked through squinted eyes to see Harry's bare back as he propped himself on his elbow and leaned over to silence the alarm.

He muttered my name as he lay back down and pulled the duvet up over his chest. He rubbed his eyes sleepily and sighed. "Good morning."

"Morning," I mumbled back to him.

He let out a low chuckle, "I'm glad to see some things haven't changed."

"What?"

"You are still not a morning person."

I shot him a disapproving look as his lips spread into a wide smile. Instead of saying anything back to him, I just watched as he pushed himself out of bed and stumbled into the bathroom.

After a few minutes, I stood beside him in the bathroom staring into the mirror as I brushed my teeth and he put some kind of product in his hair. I saw a hair elastic on the counter top and took it. I gathered my hair into ponytail on the top of my head and secured it with the elastic. As I pulled the ponytail tight, I noticed Harry was stealing glances at me.

"Why are you staring?" I said jokingly.

He flashed a big smile. "Well you never wear your hair up. And the time you finally do, you use my hair elastic to do it."

I couldn't hold back the laughter. "I share hair elastics with my boyfriend. That's something I'll have to remember."

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When he was finally ready to go, Harry wore dark wash skinny jeans and a crisp, white button down shirt. He pulled a black peacoat on and looked expectantly at me as we stood by the front door.

"Ready?"

"Yeah," I nodded.

He opened the door for me and we stepped outside together. The air hit me and the cold took my breath. A chilled wind rushed through the trees and stung my eyes. I was glad to get into the safe confines of Harry's SUV.

As we crossed the bridge toward the iron gate to leave the property, Harry turned to me. "Was everything okay last night?"

I didn't know if he meant the pain of my headache or my back. I didn't know if he meant the adjustment of getting to know him. I didn't know if he meant staying at his house. I didn't know if he meant him sleeping in the same bed as him. Truthfully, I could give the same answer to each question. "Yes."

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Harry drove us into the city and straight to a building. I recognized it as the building I lived in. I had picked the flat out with my friend Alessandra after we had both landed jobs in London. She lived in a building a few blocks away.

He parked the SUV in front of the building. Some photographers were already leaned against the brick wall near the door as if they had known we were going to show up. I started getting nervous. Harry pulled his keys from the ignition and said something about opening my door for me.

I was taken by the cold air again as Harry pulled open my door. I tried to focus on his calm eyes as dozens of other eyes were staring at me through the lenses of their cameras. We only had to walk a short distance to the door of the building, but that distance didn't come without overwhelming intensity. The photographers shouted our names as we got out of the car. They rushed to us and I felt their hands as they pushed against Harry and me.