118 Elizabeth Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts
a love story about Harry Styles, a girl who only wears dresses, and a house on Elizabeth Street
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Grace hadn't even worn heels in her own wedding. She'd worn her favorite navy keds Harry bought her the Christmas before with dotted ankle socks. She mentally cursed her sister as she sat on the bed struggling with the heel's buckle on her right foot. Mary Kate insisted that each bridesmaid wear the same white pointed kitten heels and lavender dress, and Grace had promised herself she wouldn't go there again; she was just thankful that Mary Kate was speaking to her.
The strap missed the buckle again, and she gave up with an exhausted grunt and fell back on the duvet in frustration. "Five minutes, love!" she heard Harry call from downstairs. She couldn't hold back another grunt as she covered her face with her freshly maincured hands. Deep breath, she thought. Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, inhale, - "MUM!" Grace didn't move hoping and praying whatever was wrong would work itself out before she had to end her much-needed breathing session.
"Mummy?" A profanity crossed Grace's mind as she lifted her head from the bed to face Maisie and fix whatever "crime" Lola had just committed.
"Hm?" she asked Maisie
Maisie whined, "Lola got into my school crayons and broke every single one of them, and I just wanted her to apologize but then she started crying and Daddy told me -"
"Maisie, sweetie, not now. I can't handle this today, okay? We can go to Staples tomorrow and pick you up another box, okay?" Grace practically begged.
"Yeah but that's not the point, mummy! She didn't even ask me and I - "
"Maisie, we are done talking about this. She's not even two she didn't know any better and you need to stop with this whole forced apology thing, Lola's a baby, sweetheart. Okay?" Grace scolded with frustration. Maisie rolled her eyes and mumbled as she turned around and stormed into her bedroom. Grace caught the eye roll, "Maisie Elizabeth I saw those eyes don't you dare-" she heard Maisie's bedroom door slam and flopped back onto the duvet.
She continued her breathing session until she thought she felt one of the cats jump on the bed. She had had cats her whole life and her love for cats was the one thing she and Harry could not seem to agree on. When Grace tried to get Harry to buy her a cat when they first got married, he had downright refused. Never, he said, would he ever even consider buying a cat. "They're only a couple chromosomes away from a lion or a tiger, and lions and tigers eat humans. No way," he would say. Six years and three children later, however, Harry was much less stubborn (and Grace was much more adamant).
