Strangers

Epilogue Part Sept: Mother Knows Best

A/N: I wrote this ginormous chapter a few months ago. Not my best work, but I've been rereading the end of Strangers lately and thought it was time I gave you all a bit more, because I miss Lola and Harry and their big family. 

Sundays were for bed.

Sundays were for movie days and fort building and family.

Sundays were for replying to an email while Harry snored beside me, shirtless with the sheet hanging off the bed from moving around in his sleep too much. His mop of hair covered his face and I could just barely see his lips parted to let the air come in and out with every breath.

Sundays were also a day when work was forbidden. Unless it was a last minute assignment for school, in which everyone would participate till that person too was stress free.

Sundays were not for work. Sundays were not for replaying a song over and over again until a new idea pops into your head. But sometimes rules were to be broken.

"You know I can hear you typing." Harry grumbled, not moving just yet but I could feel his eyes on me as I rapidly responded to a barrister.

"It's all in your dreams. Go back to sleeeeeeeeep." I put on my best ghost voice but Harry's arms, in one swift movement, pulled my laptop out from under my fingers and placed it on the nearby bedside table before launching himself onto me, pushing my back down onto the mattress and climbing over my now pinned down body to look down at me.

"Charlotte Styles you get more and more beautiful every day."
"I found a new wrinkle yesterday. And a grey hair."
"I've always loved an older woman." He raises his eyebrows at me and I laugh, a full breathy laugh that can only be laughed on the perfect Sunday morning in London, it must be almost noon and we're still hiding in the sheets away from responsibility. I can see that it's raining outside and I love the sleepy vibes its spreading through my house; My house with my 4 rapidly growing children and my gorgeous husband.

"Yeah, should I get Caroline Flack on the phone? She'd be nearing 50 now, that's gotta be prime time for you hey? We could have a threesome."

"I know you're joking but that almost got me going for a second there." He presses against me as though trying to provide evidence, and I can't help but giggle. Nothing could ruin my mood this morning.
"I can hear footsteps so tell your little friend to chill in case someone decides to burst in wanting their Dad's famous waffles and bacon."

"Well, why don't you set an alarm for twenty minutes time and go back to sleep, when you wake up breakfast will be waiting for you?"
"What did I do to deserve you?"
"A hell of a lot. Would you like your waffles with a side of chocolate ice cream?"
"OH baby, I've got all the chocolate ice cream I'll ever need right here." I pull him down to kiss me, before letting him go and watching as he leaves the room, pulling on some sweat pants as he does.

An old school Alt J track was playing in the kitchen when I woke up from my nap, pulled my satin kaftan around me and tied my hair up, wandering into where Charlie and Annie sat at the kitchen table and Harry slaved over the stove.

"What'd you get for English?"

"A. You?" Charlie had a cocky grin on his face, sipping his coffee victoriously at the kitchen Uh oh.
"A+. Suck it." Annie was more than happy to shut him down, rolling her eyes at him as though the difference between an A and an A+ was the difference between an A and a D.
"What?! But I read yours, it was nonsense!"

"As if it was, you can't expect to get an A+ when you analyse Pride and Prejudice, honestly it's been done to death. The Bronte sisters write circles around Jane Austen."