Strong • W2S

XXXII

Chapter Thirty-Two

"Honestly this is exactly what I've been needing." Harry had driven the two of us to a log cabin not far from London, we'd arrived less than an hour ago and here we both were relaxing in the hot tub with two glasses of wine and complete silence.
The last week had probably been the most stressful ones of my entire life so far. Not only had I been in constant meetings and filing out a pile of paperwork the size of Mount Everest but I'd also been supervising new starts on countless of viewings. On top of work I'd just moved into the new house and had been working nonstop on that. I've lost count of the amount shopping trips Harry and I had taken in the past four days.
The good news was that the majority of the house had been decorated minus a few bits here and there but by the time Harry and I got back home it would all be done. Oh and Ronnie finally had a bed to sleep on instead of a really uncomfortable blowup mattress that needed blew up every ten minutes. Ronnie's "thing" had been sleeping over most nights as well, I say thing because I honestly had no idea what was going on between the pair of them. Millie, remember her? The girl from the club, yeah well Ronnie and her had been seeing each other since then. I didn't really mind because Harry hadn't left either, I know we agreed not to move in with each other but let's be honest— we basically have.

"I think we both have." Harry replied with his eyes closed and a smile on his face as he leaned his head back. "It's weird seeing you with wine instead of a beer." I chuckled looking at the drink in his hand, I brung my glass to my lips and swallowed almost half of the glass.
"Oh don't worry, there's plenty of bottles in the fridge." I rolled my eyes and continued staring up at the clouds in the sky. I don't think I've ever felt as peaceful as I did right now in my life, the only sound were the birds chirping in the trees and the noise that the hot tub was making and even then that was actually quite soothing.

It was late afternoon when the two of us made the decision to take a walk. We had no idea where we were going, we let our feet lead the way and somehow we ended up mid way up of a massive hill.
"Do we have to do this?" Harry shouted from behind me.
"Yes! It's fresh air babe, hurry up!" I shouted back as I continued looking ahead. I was tired, exhausted actually but I was also determined to make it us this bloody hill. For it still being the Winter basically it was actually a really nice day, almost as warm as Summer but with the most amazing breeze. The flowers had already began to bloom and the grass was beginning to turn from the horrible yellow/brown colour to the bright green that reminded you of late Spring/ early Summer.

After another twenty minutes of walking and Harry's constant complaints we finally made it to the top. The view was unbelievably breathtaking as we sat down against one of the many rocks that surrounded us. Harry laid down his jacket and immediately lay down on top of it, I chuckled as I passed him the half-drunken bottle of white wine.
"See this is nice isn't it?" I spoke after taking back the bottle from Harry, he sat up and looked out into the distance before turning his head towards me.
"Sure if you want to die on the way up." He shrugged still trying to catch his breath.
"You're so dramatic!" I rested my head against the rock that was behind me. Harry and I passed the bottle back and forth until it was empty, then we opened another bottle and another... and another. We kept drinking until we can barely walk but still we somehow had to walk back to the cabin, we made it halfway down the hill... by rolling that was until we eventually just stopped and lay flat on our backs staring at the stars above us.
"I don't think I've ever felt like this before." I spoke softly as I glanced at Harry.
"What drunk? Erin you've been in worse states than this before." He chuckled turning to face me.
"No I mean this, in love. I've never felt this in love with someone before especially in so little time."
"I know what you mean, see with Katie it was different I mean we grew up together and then eventually started dating but I never loved her as much as I do you and I was with her for years."
"Yeah and we've only really been together for like a month now but it..."
"It feels like forever right?" He finished my sentence and I nodded in reply.
"Right enough of the cheesy stuff, we'd better get home before I fucking freeze to death." I stood up and for a second almost fell back down, the walk back to the log cabins were at least another thirty minutes away from where we were but honestly I didn't mind and I don't think Harry did either.

MONDAY

The best two days of my life. Honestly it really was. We'd lounged around the whole of Sunday well right up until dinner time when we decided to go out for a meal at the restaurant on the beach nearby, we'd grown so much closer over the course of those two days but now it was back to reality.
Harry had just dropped me off and work and I'd already been cornered by one of the new starts James. It was a Monday morning and all I wanted to do was sit in my office, drink my coffee and prepare myself for the team meeting I had after lunch so I sent James to Madison so he could pester her instead of me.
I reached my office shortly after and like I did every other day I logged straight onto my computer and opened up my emails. Over the weekend I had two hundred and four emails that I had to respond to and that was a lot of fucking emails, it's a good thing I love my job eh?

The day dragged in but then again every Monday dragged in didn't it. Harry was leaning against his car waiting for me like he did every single day and every single day he looked up with a huge smile on his face and his arms open wide.
We drove home in a comfortable silence, that was the only silence of the day I'd get until bed time because from the second I stepped foot in the door there was tears, shouting and even more tears.

"Oh... oh no" That's all I managed to say before darkness overcame me and I hit the floor.