Together

Photograph

Some pure sweetness in this chapter, because sometimes, that's all we need. I hope you enjoy this one, as I'm quite fond of it. Comment/vote x
-ab

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November 30, 2025

Patrick

"Do you think I look alright?" Harper asks me, for what is probably the hundredth time.

"Sweetie, you look gorgeous," I assure her, placing my hand on her arm. She's dressed in a light pink, wool pea coat, black leggings, and her brown ankle boots. I'm in my dark grey wool coat and jeans.

I push a strand of her freshly straightened hair out of her face and kiss her forehead.

"Do you think I should wear my black beanie?"

"I think you're good," I tell her. "Your makeup looks really nice, too. Different than the stuff that I'm used to seeing you wearing, huh?"

"Yeah, stage makeup is obnoxious," she giggles. "This is a little bit more subtle, and the makeup artist worked wonders."

"Not like you needed any in the first place."

"Shut up."

We both laugh.

"Are you ready to get these pictures taken? I think that the photographer is meeting us at the Tower Bridge in half an hour."

She nods, so we start to head out of the flat. We are scheduled for an entire day session, shooting at locations around the Tower Bridge, Millennium Bridge, and Westminster Bridge. Both of us wanted to make sure that our photos are recognizably taken in London, as this is our city. It was where we first fell in love.

With her inspiration photo prints in hand, Harper and I make our way to the tube and eventually to the Tower Bridge.

"Oh, this is my favourite spot!" she exclaims, doing a happy little jump.

"I know, love," I laugh. "It's so gorgeous, isn't it?"

"For sure."

"Harper? Patrick?" a man asks.

"That's us," I reply, reaching out my hand to shake his.

"Lovely. I'm Gus. Congratulations on your engagement."

"Thank you," Harper smiles, moving to rest her head on my shoulder.

"Do you have any visions for the shoot today?"

"Show him your pictures, sweetie," I whisper to Harper, who pulls them out of her purse and hands them to Gus.

"Alright... I think that we can work with that," he smiles, looking them over. "Alright, so let's just have you two stand... about three meters in that direction, and hold hands and look at each other."

Harper and I move, following Gus' instructions for us, and he begins to snap pictures in between shouting at us to move, a step to the left, or a little bit closer together...

"Can you kiss each other?"

"I thought you'd never ask!" I exclaim, pressing my lips up against Harper's and moving my hands into the small of her back.

"Perfect. Press your foreheads together, now."

We do that.

"Can you do an Eskimo kiss? Like, rub your noses together?"

Gus seems to know exactly what he is doing, which gives me confidence. I know that our pictures are going to come out nice.

After shooting near the Tower Bridge for about an hour, we start to walk down the River Thames to get to the Millennium Bridge, where we are planning for our next pictures to be taken.

As we walk, every now and then, we hear Gus' camera click, capturing a candid shot of Harper and I, looking ever so loved up.

Soon, we make it to our next location. I think that this is such a perfect location to represent Harper. With Shakespeare's Globe on one side of the river, St. Paul's Cathedral on the other (she's just obsessed with that scene in Mary Poppins), and the fact that Taylor filmed a music video up here once, it really has lots of fun little 'Easter eggs' for her.

"Alright, so let's get you two posing," Gus suggests, not wanting to waste a minute of our valuable time. I really appreciate that, as we are paying him to take as many pictures as possible this afternoon. He seems to understand that. We are going to get a flash drive with every single photo on it, too.

As we start to shoot, the wind begins to blow, causing it to get quite chilly. "I hope it isn't about to rain," I remark.

"Don't even," Harper laughs.

"Well, honestly, if it does, then we have lots of nice shots already, so we could either ditch our last location and go into the studio, or finish up the shoot in the rain. I've taken some nice engagement pictures in the rain," Gus explains. "Either way, we will have to go back to my studio before this day is over so that we can get some quick, basic photos on the green screen."

"Alright," we nod, before diving back in to finish up the pictures, instructing Gus to hurry, just in case.

Before the rain starts, we are able to finish up our Millennium Bridge photos, and take a few nice ones at Parliament. Gus hands us an umbrella as the rain begins.

"Cuddle up under it. I just want to see how this would work."

We do as he instructs us, and he adjusts us a bit before starting to snap a few quick pictures.

"Those are awesome. Now, I'm parked just down this street here. What do you say we get to the car, and we can get this equipment loaded in and head back to the studio?"

"That sounds perfect," I tell him, so the three of us walk to the car, with Harper and I still huddling underneath our umbrella, and Gus' camera packed away in a waterproof case.

Once we are in the car, we are informed that it takes quite a while to make it to the studio, so Harper rests her head on my shoulder in the back seat. I'm quite sure that she takes a little cat nap, as her eyes are closed and she's completely silent.

It's a moment that I wouldn't trade for anything, with my arm around her, and Harper sleeping peacefully on my shoulder.

"Love, we are here," I whisper to her, once the car is parked.

"Alright," she says, rubbing her eyes and stretching her arms out a little bit before climbing out of the car with me. We head inside and prepare for the next part of our photo shoot.