LifeStyles

Sixty-Nine

After delivering the blow that I am the sole reason for her utter unhappiness at the world, my sister storms out the bathroom.

"Nathalie, wait!" I shout after her but to no avail. 

I slam my fists down on either side of the basin and a frustrated sigh puffs from my mouth. My eyes flick up to catch Harry staring at me in the mirror.

"Well played, I asked you to stay out of sight until we'd left," I snap at his reflection.

"I was only having a bit of fun," he dismisses far too easily for my current mood.

My clipped tone reinforces my annoyance. "Harry, I wanted my birthday to be a happy affair for everyone."

"And it is. She'll be fine when we get back to the table," he brushes aside again.

"Don't be so sure about that!" I stride angrily towards the door. "I'm going back, please promise me you will stay here for a minute or two."

I grip the handle to jerk it open but immediately feel his presence behind me. His arm reaches over my shoulder as he leans to rest his palm flat on the surface of the door to stop me from leaving.

His calm tone brushes my cheek. "I'm sorry.  I didn't mean to upset anyone."

I hang my head, fixating my glance on his rose tattoo. The inking is so intricate, just like the flower itself that symbolises so many different emotions and expressions depending upon its colour. The most obvious is a red rose of love but I wonder to myself if his tattoo was in colour, what colour it would be?

"I'll apologise to her later if it'll make things better." He wraps his free arm around my waist, tugging me back into his chest. "Okay?" Lingering puckered lips brush across my shoulder.

I rest my hand over the top of his and relax my head back onto his shoulder. "There is no need, I'm sorry too. I just, she's so up and down all the time, I don't want to do anything unnecessary to aggravate that."

He glances down at me and plants a soft kiss on my forehead, resting his lips there as he speaks. "I wasn't thinking, forgive me, Beautiful?"

His adorable pout cannot contain my smirk. I raise my pointer finger in the air at him and push away from his clutches. "You can stop with the charm offensive right now!"

Opening the door, I disappear down the corridor with his subtle wolf-whistle on my tail. "A few kisses and she's putty in my hands," he brags.  

I glance back over my shoulder at him peering round the door and wink. "Whatever you want to think is fine by me, Handsome."

Harry dutifully waits for a few minutes before returning back to the table where my family is busy chatting.

Nathalie is quiet but knocking back the wine. At one point, Billy seems to ask her to slow down but she shoots him a look then ignores him and pours herself another large glass.

Despite her tension, we sit and enjoy a lovely meal in the great surroundings and although a celebratory atmosphere prevails, I feel relieved when desserts are over and coffee is declined in favour of drinks with my birthday cake that is waiting at the comfort of home.

-*-

Olive makes hot drinks whilst I grab a bottle of champagne out the fridge.  I am surprised when Nathalie appears with yet another glass of wine in her hand.

I decline Olive's offer of milk in Harry's tea simply commenting he does not drink milk late at night. Nathalie, clearly still vexed, rolls her eyes. I am starting to tire and have just about had enough of her attitude. I politely ask Olive to take the tray of drinks to the others and say we will come through in a minute.