The Middle | Hemmings + Styles AU

45. the starry night

Hearing that Harry was going to sign Luke and the boys was a weird mixture of emotions.

It wasn't bad news at all. It was great, for the boys. For Harry too. There was a piece of my heart that was smiling at the thought of him chasing his dreams and starting his own label.

And for the rest of the boys, it was their dream come true. It was everything they'd worked towards. 

I suppose it was just weird for me: the worlds of both boys well and truly colliding. It was strange to think that Luke would be dealing with Harry on a day-to-day basis, while I was left wondering if we'd ever speak again.

There wasn't much time to dwell on it all, though. Luke helped me paint until lunch time, and I spent the afternoon cleaning up and working on my to-do list until it was time to go home and get ready for dinner.

Mum, Dad, me and Aunty Peg were going out to dinner at a stuffy, fancy restaurant that charged a whole lot of money for not a lot of food. For the sake of my parents home-coming, I was going to sit through dinner and smile like I didn't hate places like that.

Typical Dad, he'd brought his digital camera along to dinner to show us more photos from the trip. And his iPad. And his video camera. (Who needs a video camera? I said when he bought it last year. Use your phone like a normal person.)

When our entrees came to the table - cauliflower soup with garlic croutons for Mum and Dad, sweet potato wedges and stuffed mushrooms for me and Aunty Peg - the poor waiter struggled to find enough empty space on the table to set them down. Sorry, I told him with a gentle smile, gritting my teeth with embarrassment.

As my parents spoke, Aunty Peg kept making this weird face at Mum when she wasn't looking. She was dressed head-to-toe in things she'd bought along their travels including the beret and a Moroccan scarf which had bells that jingled every time she moved. 

She leaned into a spoonful of soup. Jingle jingle. "The best soup we had while we were away was in Romania!"

Dad nodded knowingly. "What do they call it, dear? Borgs?"

"Borscht, darling," Mum said with a smile, then looked at me and Aunty Peg. "It's made of beetroot!"

"Sounds great," I said politely.

"Sounds bloody awful," Aunty Peg said. We all laughed.

"Darling, show them the photo from Paris! The one where it looks like you're holding the Eiffel tower in your fingertips." Her face lit up as she laughed - jingle, jingle - and I didn't have the heart to tell her that there's hundreds of photos floating around of strangers doing the exact same thing.

Dad set down and reached for the iPad, then changed his mind and reached for the camera. He flicked through the photos until he found the one and tilted it around to show me. I gave them my biggest smile. For all of their embarrassing habits, I was happy they were home.

With the camera still facing towards us, Dad scrolled through the photos, while Mum gave us the appropriate commentary. Somewhere after the canal cruise in Amsterdam, my attention was taking up by something else. A someone else, taking a seat at an empty table for two on the other side of the restaurant.

I snapped my eyes away. Look at the menu. Don't look back up, Stella. I scanned the menu for something that I'd actually want to eat: lobster, black and wild rice salad, black skinny jeans... My eyes had slipped up for just a second. "And here's the Van Gogh Museum," Dad said. I pulled my eyes back to the table, to Aunty Peg, but hers were darting off. She'd already spotted him.

"Well," she said, in the most delighted voice. Then pinched my shoulder to get my attention. "Look who it is."

It was Harry, that's who it was. Sitting at the table, alone, at the moment, with a soft pink shirt, only one button undone at the top. I decided to ignore Aunty Peg.

"Did you see that painting?" I asked Dad enthusiastically, like I was crazy about art or something. "The Starry Night?"

Dad shook his head. "Wrong museum dear. The Starry Night is at MoMa. We'll take you there one day."

That perked Mum right up. "Oh, yes, darling. Let's take a trip to New York! It can be a late birthday present."

"We could see a Rangers game," Dad added.

Aunty Peg still had her eyes firmly across the room. I watched her mouth open slightly. Surely she wouldn't dare. Not in a restaurant full of people. All I could do was chant silently: please don't call out to him, please don't call out to him.

And then she said, "Excuse me for a moment, would you?"

She stood up from her chair, ignoring my glare, and waltzed away from our table. Mum and Dad were still talking about New York excitedly. "A white Christmas!" I heard Mum say. I'd forgotten how she spoke like she was overflowing with exclamation marks.

I figured if I just kept my eyes on Mum and Dad, then far less harm would be done. I was still scarred from past interactions between Harry and Aunty Peg, I didn't need anymore to be lodged into my brain forever. If I just pretended it's not happening, she'd be back over here before I knew it and we could enjoy our dinner, and Harry could enjoy his date whenever she arrived.

His date.

My stomach jumped slightly and landed with a jealous thud. Which was completely unreasonable. I liked Luke. I mean, I slept with Luke this morning, and before that I was thinking all kinds of crazy things. Girlfriend and relationship and forever type things. Still, I wondered what she looked like, Harry's date. Out of curiosity, I let my eyes wander back over to the table Harry had been sitting...

But he was no longer sitting there.

Instead, he was fast approaching with Aunty Peg dragging him towards our table. "And we could visit the Statue of Liberty!" said Mum, still not out of excitement and exclamation marks.

"Room for one more?" That was Aunty Peg now. She'd stopped back at the table and seemed to be looking for a way to make some space amongst Dad's camera, iPad, video camera and the now empty entree plates.

"This is Harry, a friend of Stella's."

Harry reached over to shake Dad's hand, and then did the same to Mum. "It is so lovely to meet you both." He sounded so genuine, it tugged at my heart strings a little.

Mum looked like she'd won the lottery. It was the first time I'd ever seen a similarity between her and Aunty Peg. "How lovely to meet you! I wish I could say that Stella's told us all about you but I suppose she's been keeping you a big fat secret."

"Excuse me?" Dad lifted a hand towards the passing waiter. "Could we please get an extra chair at our table?"

"I'd really hate to impose," said Harry politely. I still hadn't looked him in the eye.

"Nonsense!" said Mum and Aunty Peg in unison. Another similarity in as many minutes. This was getting weird.

"We don't want to keep you from your date," I said, torn because part of me did want to spend time with him, but without my parents and Aunty Peg.

My Aunt glared at me. "He's not on a date. Poor boy was going to eat alone."

The waiter came back with the extra chair and Mum, Dad and Aunty Peg all watched eagerly as Harry took his seat. The entree plates got cleared and put the iPad and the camera into her large Kate Spade handbag (I bought it from London! Isn't it gorgeous? She told me earlier before we left for dinner). 

We all ordered drinks - champagne for everyone, Mum's insistence - and then she turned towards Harry, all smiles and heart-eyes, and asked: "So, how did you and Stella meet?"

there's less than five chapters to go. would love to know how you all think it's going to end :))