— CHAPTER FORTY THREE
❝GOING ON A PRIVATE JET.❞
— HARMONY —
I DESPISE early morning flights. There is nothing and never will be anything remotely fun about waking up at the crack of dawn to go to the fucking airport and stand in cues for hours on end.
Aaliyah has been up early, dressed, eaten and even had time to clean my apartment for me a little. Whilst she's done all of that I've been sleeping, well trying to sleep. She keeps waking me very then minutes to get up and I keep turning over the other side and ignoring her.
As she continues to try and wake I begin to let out a string of curse words to show her how much I really don't want to wake up. She gives up after the fortieth try and tells me that if I miss my flight that's on me.
I'm almost able to go back to sleep but then I feel someone poking me. I'm guessing it's Aaliyah again so I'm swatting her hands away.
"Fuck off leah." I mumble grumpily.
"Not Leah." The voice responds. I know who it is.
I open my eyes slowly to see Jude standing over my bed. An amused smile on his face. Aaliyah must of called him over early for reinforcements. He wasn't meant to meet us here. He was meant to meet us at the airport.
"You can fuck off too." I turn over to the other side so my backs to him.
"Come on. Up." He instructs pulling the covers back.
"No!" I whine as I try and pull the cover back over my body, but fail because he's holding it.
"We have to go." He sighs, turns me so I'm facing him again.
"No!" I complain
"Harmony." He says in a authoritative way. The way a parent would to their child.
"I need sleep! Sleeps important. Do you know why? Because it makes me pretty! Ever heard of beauty sleep!" I snap. My eyes are still shut. Trying to not loose any more sleeping time by opening them.
"You're already the most gorgeous girl I've ever seen, you don't need it. Now up!" He orders. Even though I'm annoyed he's trying to wake me up. I'm now smiling like an idiot from his compliment. I swear he makes it so hard to not like him.
"No!" I bury my head in the pillow.
He huffs. "Aaliyah how the hell do you deal with this girl."
"It's a lot of work lemme tell you that." She laughs and I'm mentally cursing them.
"Harms, come on we're going to miss our flight." Jude says sweetly. Probably trying to appeal to my sympathetic nice side. He's going to quickly realise that, that side doesn't exist when I want to sleep.
"Don't care." I mutter
"Your mums booked this amazing birthday trip for you. You have to care." He shakes me slightly to try and wake me up.
"I'll go tomorrow. Get an afternoon flight." I bury my head deeper into the pillow.
"Okay, fuck this." I hear him say and then all of a sudden I feel a dip in the bed, strong arms wrapped around me and the next thing I know I'm upside down. Jude has literally picked me up and put me over his shoulder, holding me by the waist.
If I wasn't so annoyed I would be smiling at the fact that he did that so swiftly and easily and how nice his arms feel around me.
"Jude!" I shriek trying to wiggle out of his grip.
"See, getting out of bed isn't that hard. Well done. I'm proud of you." He says patronisingly as he takes my suitcase and wheels it out of the room. He then returns to my room to grab my hand luggage.
"Put me down!"
"No I don't think I will." He smirks
"Jude!"
"Harmony." He retorts mockingly
"I hate you." I huff
"No you don't." He's grinning smugly now
"Yes I do." I insist
"Don't."
"Do."
"Where are your shoes?" He asks me looking around my bedroom.
"I can't just leave in this I need to shower." I say
"I don't trust you not to just run back and jump into your bed." He replies
"I promise you I won't."
"Okay." He states but he doesn't put me down. He grabs the things I need to shower and picks out some clothes for me after asking if I'm happy to wear them and then walks me to the bathroom. He closes the door behind us and only then does he put me down.
"You have ten minutes and then we need to leave." He tells me.
"Are you going to hop in the shower with me or something? Why are you still in here." I cross my arms over my chest.
"Is that an invitation?" He walks closer to me with a smirk.
I gulp. I don't know how to handle myself now I've openly admitted to myself that I like this man. And when he says things like this my knees go weak.
"Get out." I point at the door. Avoiding his eyes.
He smirks again and then walks towards the door.
"I'll be outside." He tells me and I flip him off.
After my ten minute shower I get out and get dressed and then I put on a little light makeup because right now I look like a character from that movie frankenweenie.
When I do finally leave the bathroom I see Jude stationed outside. He looks like a prison guard. He's on the opposite wall on his phone. I sneakily close the door silently. The plan is to run right back into my bedroom and lock the door.
Just as I'm about to leave he looks up. He can clearly see what I'm about to do. It really is now or never. I break off into a run but he's faster and grabs me, scooping me up and throwing me onto his shoulder yet again, so I'm upside down.
"You're so annoying!" I shout
"Oh because you're just a delight this morning aren't you." He says sarcastically.
"All this effort to stop me running away when you can just let me sleep and I'll meet you tomorrow." I say.
"All this effort to run away when you can just get on this flight now and sleep as long as your heart desires, on the plane." Jude retorts
"I can't sleep on planes. There's always some annoying ass kid." I groan as Jude walks me to my bedroom to see if there's anything else I need. I'm exceptionally organised so everything's already been packed and triple checked. Passport is on the ready in my hand luggage and suitcase is all packed and locked.
"Well that won't be happening on this flight because we're going on a private jet." He tells me. I look at him (as best I can because I'm upside down) in confusion.
"What? Aaliyah said my mum booked normal plane seats because she knows that I wouldn't want her spending her money on that. Not when I can do it myself." I tell him.
"Yeah she did. But I then spoke to her and said I want you to have the best since it's your birthday. And that I know you've done the whole private jet thing many times and heavily prefer it so I don't want you to travel any other way to your birthday trip." He explains
"Jude." He's the sweetest.
"You didn't have to."
"You're right I didn't. I wanted to." He smiles nicely.
"Thank you. Honestly." I say as he carries me into the living room where Aaliyahs waiting for us. She's sat on the couch on her phone.
"You're welcome." He smiles (I think). He finally, gently puts me down so I'm back on my own two feet.
"Cabs outside." Aaliyah states before she looks up to see both me and Jude.
"Finally got her up and ready then." Aaliyah smirks.
"Yeah. Takes a village for future reference." He laughs jokingly.
"Don't I know it." Aaliyah shoots back playfully.
I roll my eyes at both of them.
"You two being mean to the birthday girl is wild." I roll my eyes jokingly as I grab the handle of suitcase and my hand luggage and walk towards the door.
"Aw Jude your wife's upset." Aaliyah mocks teasingly.
"How sad. She looks cute though." He smirks.
I flip both of them off and then open the door.
"Come on then. You both woke me up at five am so we can be on time for our flight and now you're slacking." I call out as I walk towards the cab.
I hear them laugh as they follow behind me, Aaliyah locks the doors and chucks me the keys and then we place our suitcases in the cab and pile in.
The ride to the airport is an excruciatingly long one. I sleep almost the entire way until I'm woken up by Jude to let me know that we're there.
"You can sleep a lot can't you." He laughs but I shoot him the meanest glare I can muster up because I'm still irritable about the lack of sleep.
"She can sleep anywhere too." Aaliyah adds in since I don't reply to Jude.
He laughs as he looks at her.
"Come on, don't be a grumpy guts. It's your birthday week." He pinches my cheeks trying to get me to smile. I try my hardest to remain serious, but unfortunately it doesn't work and I end up cracking a smile.
"There she is. Missed that beautiful smile." He beams and I roll my eyes with a small smile.
We all get out and walk into the airport. Jude directs us to the to private terminal where our private jet is waiting. When we arrive chloe and Gio are there. My mum and sister and a few other family members are meeting us at the hotel since they flew from London.
"Good morning soon to be birthday girl." Chloe grins nudging me playfully.
"Hi." I smile back
"Wow, you got the nice treatment from her this morning. Must be nice." Jude jokes
"Yeah, we were faced with daggers, death stares and a lot of swearing." Aaliyah pipes up
"Don't forget the near escape and the screaming bloody murder when I picked her up to stop her from running." Jude adds in. Carrying on the joke.
"Oh yeah. That was something." Aaliyah finishes off, laughing.
"Okay okay we get it." I roll my eyes pushing my hair back because the wind is blowing it all over the place.
"You know we love you really." Jude grins pushing my hair back for me. It's a thing he does. Makes me happy.
I fight back a smile as I look at him.
"Hello guys." The pilot greets us as he opens the doors to the plane and walks down the steps.
"Hi." I say along with everyone else.
"I heard we have a birthday girl here somewhere." He does the typical fake look around as if he doesn't know who it is and then lands on me.
I give back a small wave.
"We have a surprise for you if you'd like to step onto the plane first." He holds his arm out for me to take. I look at him and then at the others wearily. They're all smiling from ear to ear, Jude especially. They're all clearly in the know about the surprise.
I walk up the stairs and get greeted by the one air hostess who's joining us on the flight. She smiles and then produces a tiara from behind her back that says "birthday princess." On it. She places it on my head and I smile.
"Thank you." I pout happily, re-adjusting it a little.
"Who's idea was this?" I laugh looking at my friends.
"Ours." Chloe and Leah say in sink.
"I love you guys." I quickly go over pulling them into a hug.
"We have one more surprise." The air hostess says. She points towards the main part of the plane. When I walk through I see a seat with balloons attached and a banner saying happy birthday. And then on the table of my seat is McDonald's.
"Oh my god!" I gasp.
I whip my head back to my friends to determine who it was. My eyes naturally gravitate to Chloe and Aaliyah seeing as they were responsible for the first surprise but they shake their heads no.
I then find Jude's eyes and he gives me a wink.
I literally pounce on him. I'm on him so much he actually has to hold me up. My legs are now wrapped around him and I hug him tightly.
"Jude!"
"Thank you thank you thank you." I'm probably killing the poor boy with how much I'm squeezing him. He pulls away a little so he can see my face. I've climbed on him as if I'm climbing a tree.
"You're welcome." He chuckles
"You're spoiling me so much!"
"Of course. It's your birthday why wouldn't I." He laughs again pushing my hair behind my ear so he can cup my face with his hand.
"You're the best." I stare into his eyes meaningfully.
He pulls my face closer a little and plants a sweet kiss on my forehead. I finally climb off him and then run to my seat in excitement. Everyone's laughing, including the pilot and air hostess. Happy to see me so excited.
"Oh my god it's even warm!" I gasp taking an immediate bite out of a nugget.
"How!" I look to Jude who's getting settled in his seat opposite mine.
"Microwave." He points towards it.
"Oh my days there's everything here!" I gasp. Probably sound like an over excited little kid.
He laughs as he settles down, looking over at me. Not saying anything just smiling.
About an hour into the flight I've eaten everything and now I'm feeling sleepy. I look over to Jude to see what he's doing, he's just looking out of the window aimlessly.
"Hey." I call out to get his attention.
"Yes?" He asks
"What are you doing?" I ask
"Nothing." He shrugs
"You." Nods his head in my direction.
"About to sleep since someone stopped me from getting any this morning." I tell him.
"Oh why of course." His voice is sarcastic.
He turns his head to his MacBook on the the table.
"Oh look." He says while moving the mouse.
"Harry Potter's on here." He looks at me.
"Give it a try! The first one. You'll love it." I plead.
"Okay fine, I will." He huffs, turns it on and then settles down to watch it.
I settle down to sleep, but I keep hearing the movie playing and I really want to watch it. I open my eyes, peak over at Jude to look at his facial expressions to try and gage how he's finding the movie. He's smiling with his eyebrows raised. Take that as a good sign he's enjoying it.
He catches my eyes and I quickly look away out of the window.
"Can I help you?" He pauses the movie grinning over at me.
"No. No I'm good." I shrug. My eyes glued to the window.
"Thought you was going to sleep because I stopped you from sleeping?" He asks smartly.
"You did. I am." I settle down into my seat, shut my eyes. I won't be able to sleep now. I want to watch the movie with him. See his enjoyment of it close up.
"Would you like to watch the movie with me harmony." He loves this. Being right. Being the witty one.
I snap my eyes open and look over to him. Make my eyes go all cute and puppy dog like.
"Yes please." I say softly. Manipulation tactic so he'll find me too cute to be all smug.
"Come on then." He waves me over.
I jump up like an excited little puppy, phone in hand. He holds his arms out for me and I clamber onto his lap. Settle myself down how a dog does when he's about to sit. Get myself real comfortable. One of his arm's is supporting my back, his other hand is on my knee.
"You're warm." I observe, grinning at him
"Thank you?" He says back confused.
He starts the movie and I settle my head into the crook of his neck. Feeling very content, very warm and very safe.
Even though my favourite movies playing I keep staring at him. I'm just observing him really. How beautiful he is.
I feel sad a little as I look at him. I'm going to miss him. Miss that face. The face I've grown to love. Every time I look at him I want to tell him how I feel. That I've fallen so deeply in love with him I feel a little sick. Makes me feel dizzy, scared.
But then I start doubting everything. Does he even feel that way about me. Recently, the past two months I've thought yes. He does. I've noticed the change. You'd have to be blind not to. A shift in our relationship. Long glances, spending more time together than just the contracted two days a week, the subtle jealously. It's all there. There's a vibe and it's more than just this so called "friendship" we've established.
And then, there's times I think no. That I've read into everything too deeply and in actuality, he doesn't have feelings for me. He's just being friendly. Just trying to get through these last two months and then he can be rid of me for good.
I'm always in two minds about it. As much as I want him to feel the same, I know that it can be very likely he doesn't. Once this contract is over all the niceness could stop and he could just return back to his old self. The cold and heartless player. There's nothing forcing him to get along with me anymore. So why wouldn't he go back to how he was?
I've fallen in love with him. So much. And it's the most scariest thing. Not knowing if he feels the same. Having a timer on our relationship. The fear of getting hurt is the one and only thing that's stopping me from telling him how I feel. And it's stupid, I know. I should just tell him because the worst thing he can say is no.
In reality that's true. But in my mind. My little mind that has conjured up the worst possible scenario that could happen if I tell him, it just doesn't seem like it's that easy. So I decide to keep my feelings to myself, ride out these two months without him knowing and then brace myself for the most painful departure of my life.
"Take a picture and make it your lock screen if you want." Jude jokes referring to my staring. It snaps me out of my thoughts.
"Oh, sorry." I blink a lot, looking down for a second.
"You okay?" He asks me concerned.
"Yeah." I plaster on a fake smile and shake my head.
"Sure?" He doesn't buy it. Knows me well enough now to know when I'm lying. I love that he's attentive. Pays attention to my emotions, double checks if I'm okay.
"Yeah." I nod, muster up my best smile even though I generally feel like crying. I wish I wasn't so in my head about everything. Wish I could just tell him. But I don't want to ruin what we have. I can't.
He gently pulls me back down onto him so instead of sitting up I'm laying down. I focus on the movie but I feel his eyes on me. He takes his hand and starts to play with my hair a slight smile on his face as he looks at me.
I settle into his touch as my eyes slowly start to droop. It's moments later that I'm fast asleep.
— guys I know you want
them to confess already but
I have a vision for how I want
the story to go so please bare
with me 😭😭. Love youuuu <3