The gravel crunched under our feet as we stepped out of the car and headed to the front door of the house Harry had put an offer on just 5 days ago. The rain was beating down on us so we ran to the front door, laughing like little children as we got soaked. I pressed my back against the red wooden door and looked at the drive and garden as I caught my breath. Harry's arm snaked around my waist as we watched the rain soak the brilliant green grass of the large garden. "It's great, isn't it?" Harry sighed.
"It's exactly how I imagined it to be from the brochure." A bird, brave enough to face the rain, flew onto the branch one of the trees lining the drive way and caught my attention. I watched as it fussed around, pecking its nest, adding more twigs and sticks, then two baby birds popped up and squawked at their parent.
"You like it then?" Harry asked, bringing my attention back to where we were. I took one last glance at the bird that was now feeding the babies before looking at Harry and nodding.
"So far, it's perfect." I took the hand he offered to me and turned as the door behind us opened. He must have knocked whilst I was daydreaming and looking at the birds in the tree. The person on the other side of the door was a tall man with no hair, wearing a badly fitting suit and a large, friendly smile.
"Hey guys, come on in." His voice was a lot higher pitched than I expected, it gave him an overall air of being friendly. "So, are you the couple that made an offer on Monday?" he asked as we stepped into the grand entrance and took our shoes off so we didn't tramp mud throughout the pristine house.
"We are indeed." Harry said. His sneakers looked scruffy compared to the heels I was wearing from work. I smiled and imagined our future children's shoes lined up here, wondering what it would be like.
"Excellent, I'm Jim, the estate agent. Do you want me to take you on a tour or are you both okay exploring on your own?" He asked as he watched us staring at the room in awe.
"We'll go on our own if that's okay" Harry smiled.
"Excellent, I'll be in my car outside, come and get me once you're done." He waved once before striding out the room. The door shut behind him which broke my silence.
"This is amazing" I laughed in amazement. The white walls were pristine and bare, ready for whoever bought it, possibly us, to fill with our own art, photos or, in Harry's case, music awards. "Seriously. Wow!" I walked into the middle of the room and looked up the winding, grand staircase to see the upstairs.
"Where do you want to go first?" Harry asked, I could see he was eager to show me around.
"Is it bad that I'd say 'let's buy it' just from looking at the drive, front garden and the entry?" I asked.
"Nope, I thought exactly the same" he admitted. "How about the kitchen?"
"Lead the way sir" I grinned. He took my hand and led me through the grand entry, through an arch and into the gleaming, white kitchen. The floor was white and shiny and reflected the light from the ceiling lights. The tiles were warm under my bare feet, making me want to stay there and not move. "There's a lot of white for a young child" I thought aloud as I took in the white, crisp, modern-ness of it all. I felt Harry tense next to me; he must have thought it was my way of saying it wasn't suitable. "But I think I could deal with that." He relaxed and I smiled at him. "This is great Hazza." We went through to the dining room and admired the long wooden table that was the centre piece of the room and came with the house before making our way through the living room, gym, bathrooms and up the stairs to the rest of the house.
It was still raining but it didn't matter as we were sat around the table in the garden under the shelter. Jim was typing away on his laptop as Harry and I looked over at the swimming pool which was humming away softly as it was being filtered.
"So you wish to put a firm offer on the house?" Jim asked as he looked up from his laptop.
Harry looked at me for reassurance, I nodded and he answered. "We do."
"Brilliant. I'll ring the owners now and we should hopefully have confirmation by the end of the day." He closed the lid of his laptop and slid it into the case before pulling out his phone from his pocket. He tapped away for a second before bringing the phone to his ear. "Hi Laura it's Jim, hi yes, I've got a couple here wanting to make a firm offer."
I squeezed Harry's hand which was linked in mine as we sat and listened to the only part of the conversation we could hear. Jim was saying "yes" an awful lot, filling me with hope. It felt like we'd been waiting forever when he finally hung up and looked at us both.
"They've accepted your offer." He grinned. "Congratulations, the house is yours!"
Harry laughed and pulled me in for a tight hug. "That's fantastic!" He smiled.
"Excellent." Jim cheered. "Now, we need to see you in the office as soon as possible to finalise everything, as it's a new build so you won't need a survey."
He carried on talking business to us, explaining the buying process and what we needed to do. We took it all in and left our new house with massive smiles on our faces.
(3 days later)
"So what's the big news?" Liam asked.
We were all sat around our kitchen table after eating the meal I'd cooked for everyone. Patrick was in his cot, Saffron was in her carry cot next to him, both of them sleeping peacefully, comforted by each other. Liam had his arm around the back of Danielle's chair as his fingers lightly tickled her bare upper arm.
"Yeah, spill." Zayn added. He was still the only single member of the band. I had a feeling he was going to forever be a bachelor, sleeping around, having fun and not minding in the slightest. Louis and Vanessa were, at last, engaged, they'd excitedly told us two weeks after Saffron was born and Niall and Bay still weren't engaged but I had a feeling they were happy as they were. Finally.
Harry looked at me and grinned knowingly. He knew how eager they were to find out, all apart from Louis. He was the only other person who knew as he'd been there when Harry went to look at it. "Well, we've got Patrick now and this place isn't big enough, so we've been looking at houses one house in particular. We signed the contract today, we can move in next month."
Niall chocked on the beer he was drinking. "Seriously?" He gasped.
"Totally serious" I smiled.
"That's great" Danielle smiled. "What's it like?"
"No, how far away is it from the rest of us?" Zayn interrupted.
"It's in Wimbledon, about half an hour away from you Zayn, you can come and stay if you miss us too much" Harry winked.
I noticed Zayn sigh with relief. "Good, I thought you were going to end up saying somewhere like LA!"
"Oh god no!" I said. "Not a chance, the British and American legal systems are totally different and I don't intend on retiring just yet" I smiled.
"Well I'm glad you're staying close" Bay said.
Harry stood up without warning and headed out of the kitchen into the pantry. He returned with a large bottle of champagne which he'd hidden in the beer fridge so nobody would find it. "It's time to celebrate." He grinned. "If getting married and becoming a dad didn't make me feel like a grown up, buying my first house definitely did." I got up to get 9 champagne flutes and placed them on the table near Harry. He popped the cork, filled the glasses and handed out the glasses. "To our first house." Harry said as a toast.
"To their first house!"
