.Perfect Fantasy. |H.S.|

Chapter 32. Lights Out.

.Natalia.

Sean slowed down the road, driving carefully into a stone-like entrance but instead of stopping in front of the house, he moved at the end of a large line of cars already parked in there. This place was even nicer than the other one, not only from the vast space that seemed to occupy, but the closeness to other houses around it, which already made it friendlier and safer in my book.

"Are these all your cars?" I asked out loud, waving at the garage and the line of parked vehicles crowding the front of the house.

"No?! Who do you think I am?" Harry said amused, arching a brow at me while Sean was trying to contain a half-smile at my gullibility. Well, sue me for assuming. He raised his arm, signaling the whole thing and mentioned, "Just friends and family, I guess."

He looked really excited as we entered the main house by walking to one of the sides of it, right through a large door that seemed to lead to the kitchen, where we were introduced to the delicious smells wafting through the spacious, airy room, all in neutral grey colors. Framed art lined the whole wall on the side and there were large cabinets with cute kitchenware in fun vibrant tones. At the far end of the room, two tall windows were lighting up the place filled with a lot more people than I anticipated.

"Perfect timing," His mom squealed with delight, embracing him into her arms, her face beaming very much like Harry did, with shiny bright eyes, she then looked at me and hugged me as well, taking me back with her actions. We walked around and he introduced me to the family members and some of Anne's best friends, all with smiles and jokes as they greeted him with so much emotion.
In my life, handshakes, hand waves or casual nods usually did the work, but in here, hugs were expected. There was a warmth in the house and love could be felt in the chatter of everyone, names being named and people were so damn nice to me that for a second I felt this was home too.

"Harry, hun, you have company." His mom's red-manicured hand pointed at the other side of the room, where we both looked up to find a girl standing there, around our age, just casually waving at him as he practically pranced to reach out to her. He quickly introduced her as a childhood friend and we both waved kindly at each other before I decided to move back to the kitchen to help out, giving them the privacy they probably needed.

Anne wanted to show me how to make some tiny pies; the brownish filling making me rise to doubt as if this was going to be tasty or if it was going to be weird. Mincemeat? Weird. Still decided to try it, making my way to the work table, where her friends were already drinking glasses of some light peach colored wine that looked perfectly chilled.
One of the friends smirked at me before sliding a freshly poured one into my hand, and I made my way to the side of the counter that had the cookie cutters; them giving me orders to cut down stars from the rolled dough resting there, just waiting for me to work on it.

Out of instinct, my eyes followed Harry walking his friend out to the backyard, where they kept their voices down as they chatted away from the house. I gnawed on my inner cheek as I looked away from them and focused on the ladies laughing at something I sorely missed, my brain absolutely clueless at what was happening because it was elsewhere, trying to steal a glance at what Harry was doing, sadly.

Watching him from afar was my only option when it came to him, and I certainly watched every chance I had.
I straightened up, clearly avoiding to feel the void, and hoped I didn't appear to be so out of sorts. I huffed a little, my fingers sinking the lightly floured cookie cutter into the dough to create more stars.

I was a little bit jealous of his long-time family friend, how absurd was I?
And even though I tried to focus in helping around the kitchen, every time I looked at Harry deep on whatever she was telling him, probably laughing at her jokes and being all touchy and gentle with her, my heart stopped.
I looked away from them and picked up the glass of my wine, taking a huge swig and swallowing down the cool liquid, tilting the wineglass to keep the drink flowing. It was actually very tasty, but not as sweet as the bubbly one.