London

60 - "All of me."

One month later

Alex

"Twenty-six," Uncle Theo applauds as he steps inside. "What a lovely age."

"It feels old."

"Congratulations," Marie says, shaking my hand and leaning in to kiss me once on my cheek. "You're still young."

"Some might argue that," I reply, smiling when she gives me a hug.

"Not us old spinsters," she laughs. "Had a good day so far?"

"Yes, it's so funny to celebrate my birthday in England. I don't think I have for years."

"We're glad you're here for once," Theo says and I lead them further inside. 

For my birthday Nina and Liam decorated the place with flags and balloons. At first I thought it was a bit childish of them, but now I kind of like it while people drop by to celebrate my birthday. I feel like the older I get, the fewer people seem to care. But I try not to let it get to me that it is only a small group of people and not some great party in the jungle followed by a night of drinking on the strip of Palas with many, many tourists as my guests. 

Today I got breakfast in bed made by Liam and Nina as they sang to me. Around lunch Sage, Nick and little Calum joined us with Tessa and now my aunt and uncle are here. The only one I'm waiting for is Harry who I haven't seen since last weekend when he came over to London and we had dinner together. He says that he has a surprise for me later today so that's why my family is already here this early. 

It is nice to be out on the balcony where we barely fit all together and enjoy the food me and Liam made this morning. It's a very sophisticated birthday to say the least, but I'm happy to spend it with this bunch.

"So, how is our little man doing?" Uncle Theo asks as he watches his grandchild in Nick's arms. 

"Good, this is his first real outing," Nick answers. "Funny to think the due date was actually after your birthday," he adds, directing himself to me. 

"And now he's already a month old, our dear boy," Sage softly speaks to the baby, but then quickly takes a sip from her champagne. "Although it is nice to five him out of hands and have a drink."

"That's my girl," Theo laughs and we talk some more about how the first month of parenting has been. 

I can tell it has been tiring, but every time either one of them looks at Calum their eyes give so much love and little Calum doesn't do much more than sleep and make funny faces in his sleep. He goes from his grandfather to grandmother and in the end I get to hold him. I find it a scary feeling to hold a baby, not something I'm used to or do as easy as my family who for obvious reasons have spent a lot more time with Calum than I did. But it is nice to hold him and let him curl his small hand around my finger. I watch in awe, barely realising that the last guest of my party has arrived and is watching me with the same look I was giving Calum. 

"Hey everyone," Harry says, addressing the entire group of people that have fallen silent. All of them wondering how he'll behave. Either one of them having asked me what we are and if we're together. "Lex," he adds, grinning as he watches me with baby. I want to give him back to Sage, but he orders me to sit down. "No, no. Keep him. I can congratulate you later."

"Okay," I mumble, sitting down again, eyeing him for a second and feeling a little bit let down that he isn't holding a gift.

"In private," he whispers in my ear as he sits down next to me. 

My cheeks blush and Tessa seems to notice, giving me a smirk. Liam offers Harry something to drink and I'm happy that he listened to me begging him to be nice to Harry. Over the past month Harry and I met up a couple of times on our free days. Only doing fun stuff to reconnect and so far it is working. We both can't deny the electricity and butterflies when we look at each other. That's the only reason why Liam is able to put aside his grudge for him because he wants me to be happy and is slowly accepting that I am with Harry.