After

Chapter 99.

"I love coming home." I announce to Hardin as we walk into the apartment. My breath can nearly be seen in the freezing living room.

"Except when you turn the heat off," I shiver and he chuckles.

"I still haven't figured that thing out yet, it's too high tech," he defends himself and I laugh.

"I'll grab some blankets." I say as Hardin tries to figure out the thermostat.

I grab the blanket from the bed and two from the closet before taking them back to the couch then returning to the room to change out of my dress.

"Hardin!" I call.

"Coming!"

"Can you unzip me?" I ask him, turning my back to him. I flinch from the coolness of his fingertips against my bare skin.

"Sorry." He hastily unzips the material and it drops to the floor. I take my shoes off and the concrete floor is freezing as well.

I hurry to the dresser to grab the warmest pajamas I can find.

"Here, let me give you something," he says and walks to the closet, pulling out a gray hooded sweatshirt.

I smile, thanking him. I don't know what it is about wearing Hardin's clothes that I love so much, it's almost as if wearing them brings us closer. I never wore Noah's clothes except a sweatshirt once when we were camping with his family.

Hardin seems to like when I wear his clothes too. He watches me slip the sweatshirt over my head with lustful eyes. I notice him struggling to get the tie off and I pad over to help him. He watches me silently as I pull the tie from around his neck and sit it down before grabbing a pair of socks. I go with thick, fuzzy purple socks that my mother got me for Christmas last year. Christmas is only three weeks away, I wonder if my mother will still want me to come home. I haven't been home since I left for college.

"What are those?" He chuckles and flicks the balls of fur at the top of my ankle.

"Socks. Warm ones to be exact." I stick my tongue out at him.

"Nice." He teases and changes into sweat pants and a sweatshirt.

By the time we get back to the living room the apartment has warmed up drastically. Hardin turns the television on and lays on the couch, pulling me onto his chest and encasing us in the mound of blankets.

"I was wondering what you were doing for Christmas?" I ask him nervously. I don't know why I feel shy asking him about Christmas when we already live together.

"Oh, well I was going to wait until next week to bring it up with everything being so chaotic over the last week but since you brought it up." He smiles, his face holds the same nervousness that I feel.

"I am going to go home for the holiday and I would like if you would come with me?"

"Home?" I squeak.

"To England.. to my mother's house," he explains the obvious. "I get it if you don't want to, I know it's a lot to ask and you've already moved in with me."

"It's not that I don't want to, it's just.. I don't know.." The idea of going to another country with Hardin is thrilling but terrifying. I have never even left Washington.

"You don't have to answer me tonight but let me know soon okay? I will be leaving the twentieth," he explains.

"That's the day after my birthday," I tell him. He suddenly moves and lifts my head up.

"Your birthday? Why didn't you tell me it was so soon?" He questions, accusation clear in his voice.

"I don't know, I haven't really thought about it I guess. Birthday's aren't really a big deal to me." My mother used to go all out on my birthdays, making each one special but not in the last few years.