ONLY ON CAMERA | JUDE BELLINGHAM

042.

— CHAPTER FOURTY TWO
❝HAPPY EARLY BIRTHDAY.❞

— JUDE —

HARMONY'S BIRTHDAY is in a week, and we're all leaving for her birthday trip in a few days. Two
of the gifts I have for her isn't something I can give her on holiday so I decided to do a little early birthday celebration to give her two out of her four gifts.

I haven't told her anything about the day I've planned today. All she knows is that I'm taking her somewhere. I pull up to her house and get out of the car. Knock on her door and wait for her to answer.

"Hi." She smiles brightly as she opens the door. Adore her smile.

"Hey." I smile back.

"Ready to go?" I ask

"Yes." She grins closing the door behind her and following me towards my car.

"No snarky remark from you today. Good job." She nudges me playfully.

"Trying to switch things up a bit." I wink at her as I open the car door for her to get in. She thanks me as she sits down and then I walk over to my side and get in.

"So where are we going?" She immediately asks as I start driving. Knew she'd ask in the first five minutes of the drive.

"Surprise." I answer

"McDonald's." She guesses

"You wish." I laugh

"Lunch."

"No."

"Holiday?" She asks curiously

"Holiday? We're going away in a few days and you guess holiday? Shit guesses Simmons." I mock jokingly.

"Shut up." She rolls her eyes.

"Just wait and see." I focus my eyes on the road.

"I can't wait and see I'm too eager to know where we're going. I don't like suspense." Harmony states

"I'm sure you'll be fine." Reach out and pat her knee. She looks at my hand. Smiles a little. It's like a shy smile. It's cute.

"You know I was thinking—"

"Oh no." I joke

She shoves me playfully.

"I was thinking, about our contract. How it's nearly over."

My heart sinks a little. Don't want it to be over. Don't want it to end at all. If I had things my way, we'd stay like this forever. Me and her, going out for lunch, going on McDonald's trips, hanging with Chloe and Gio. It would be the perfect life. It's not actually realistic. But it's perfect to me.

"Yeah." I clear my throat.

There's silence as she doesn't respond. She just looks out of the window. The weight of the fact that the contracts ending soon, now in the air. It's going to be a weird re-adjustment. She hasn't just entered my life. She sort of is my life now.