Horse-riding.
My most favourite thing in the whole world. And somehow, Harry had managed to bring us out to an actual horse farm for us to go horse-riding. This was genuinely the best day ever and I could tell Harry knew just how happy I was with the expression on my face.
"You like horse-riding?" He asks me.
"Yeah, I love it!" I reply. "Although I haven't gone in like seriously a really long time."
"Did you go riding in England or Australia?"
"Both." I reply. "I had lessons in London from the age of seven. I continued when I moved and stopped at age fourteen."
"That's so nice." Harry smiles. "I've come to ride a lot but I haven't had actual lessons." He says but I don't get time to reply when a man who looks like he was in his late forties to early fifties approaches us.
"Mr Parker!" Harry smiles. "How are you?" Harry reaches forth to shake his hand before they also share a hug with one another.
They speak to one another for a while and I can understand that they both clearly know each other well. It makes me smile at how Harry somehow seems to know everyone in this town and has such good relationships with everyone.
"And who's this lovely young lady you brought along with you you?" He gives me a warm smile and a handshake.
"This 'lovely young lady' happens to be my wife." He smiles at me before looking back at Mr Parker.
"Ah yes, yes! I remember now... Robin was talking to me about you getting married." The person replies. "But I can't quite place my finger on your name?" He says and it's when I get an indication to step into the conversation.
"Jasmine." I respond with a smile, despite my heart rate increasing at the sudden attention that was now on me.
"Jasmine!" He smiles. "Such a beautiful name. Congrats to you both. How are you, Jasmine?"
"Thank you." I smile. "I'm good, thank you." I reply, asking him how he was aswell.
As we stand there, we have a brief conversation before Mr Parker leads us over to the stable, talking with Harry now. I make sure to stay listening so that in case I was mentioned, I could speak up, which was a few times considering the long walk to the huge stables.
When we got there, a young boy was busy grooming a horse whilst a lady was cleaning the stable out. We're quickly introduced to them both and I learn that the young boy, Samuel is Mr Parker's son, and also a good friend of Harry's. Samuel allows us to pick a horse each before we make our way to some plain land. Harry and Samuel were clearly good friends and Harry had been here a lot of times which is why Samuel didn't necessarily explain to us the ways of using and riding the horse as in detail.
"You always take Chestnut." Samuel chuckles as he takes a brown coloured horse out for Harry.
"The first time I came here, back when I was eight, was also the day she'd just arrived." Harry said as he pets her.
"Was that Chestnut?" Samuel asked, surprised. "Wow, she's been here long then."
Sameul only stays with us for a while as he demonstrates to us what to do and how to ride, aware that we'd both ridden horses before but still had to follow the protocol.
Once he ran through the information we needed to know, Samuel tells us we can mount the horses and we both turn to the huge mammals that were stood behind us.
"I hate mounting." I said to Harry and he laughs.
"Mounting is the important part. If you don't mount, you can't actually ride then." He smirks. "Get up, I'll help you if you need it."
"I'm not going to be able to reach." I say, attempting anyway but knowing it'll be pointless with my 5 foot 3 self.
Both Samuel and Harry chuckle noticing that I couldn't reach no matter how hard I tried to and so Samuel said he'd go and get the mounting block for me to use. He left us alone then, running back to the stable to get block.
"You're such a child." Harry said to me, laughing and I just scowled.
"The horse is just huge." I said.
"You reach my shoulders." Harry laughed.
"You're tall." I shrug my shoulders before tending to the horse beside me. But he just laughs regardless.
"You need to shop in petite, Jasmine." He laughs. "I don't know why I never realised before."
I give him a glare and he's about to say something when Samuel comes back, a wooden block in his hand. I thank him as he places it in front of the horse and when he nods, I get up, easily this time and Harry just chuckles.
"You're tiny." He says to me as he then follows through on his horse, getting up on her, effortlessly as he flings his leg over the horse's hind and sits down on the horse.
He smirks as he notices me watching him, trying to rub his height in my face but I just roll my eyes, turning back to look at Samuel who quickly reminds us of the safety information.
And it's then that Samuel smiles and leaves us in the field as he goes and continues with his job, clearly trusting Harry as he allows us to be alone.
"Are horses your favourite animals?" He asks me.
"Absolute favourite." I nod my head as my horse follows his one. "When I was really small, my dream was to get a countryside house that has close links to the city so I can go work, and I live in a small town with two pet horses that I ride every weekend. I wanted rabbits as well and a pet kitten. I realise it's silly now, though. But that was my biggest dream when I was younger."
"It's not silly." He frowns. "Dreams are destinations that you can always achieve so long as you work for them."
I smile at him softly, wishing he knew why my dream could never happen but not wanting to tell him.
"What was your biggest dream, growing up?" I ask him.
"I dreamed of being the first man to go to Mars and prove that aliens do exist." He said with a laugh and I smile.
"Well then, Harry, are you working for that?"
"Yeah, I've actually got to leave tomorrow. My rocket's waiting for me." He says and I laugh at that.
"Let's race?" He asks and I smile, agreeing with him as I tug the reign slightly harder so that my horse starts to run.
"Hey, that's unfair!" He raises his voice, a hint of amusement laced within it and I just laugh as my horse races ahead.
And of course, I win. Harry argued it was down to the fact that I started fast but for some reason ignored the fact that my horse had stopped to eat some grass on the ground, resulting in his horse, Chestnut, getting ahead of me. He laughed and made fun of me at that point but now seemed to forget about it since my horse caught up anyway.
"That's karma for starting too soon." He'd said with a smirk, when my horse stopped in the middle of nowhere.
"You only won because you started too soon." He was saying now as we stopped at the stable.
"You use that argument as and how you wish." I roll my eyes. "But the truth is you're a sore loser."
"But you did start early." He frowns.
"What about when I stopped mid-race for like two minutes?" I retorted. "My horse is better than your's and you know it."
"Whatever." He groans and I just laugh at his antics. "You wanna come down or will you stay up there?"
"Oh, I don't know... I mean she's good company you know." I laugh.
"You're replacing me?" He mocks outrage as he gets off of his horse. I follow suite as I notice Samuel coming out of the stable, with a smile on his face.
"Dad's at home." Samuel says to Harry. "I'll be there soon since we're about to close and we can hang out." Harry smiles, upon hearing that.
"We can wait around for you and go there together." Harry offers.
"I have to bring the car back." Samuel chuckles. "Stay there like that, both of you. You guys look amazing next to the horses." Harry laughs upon hearing that and hands Samuel his phone so that he can take a picture of the pair of us with the two horses.
****
He moves forward to knock the door and then moves back. "You got water droplets on you." He chuckles, leaning forward and wiping my cheeks with the pad of his thumb. "It's a good thing that it's only raining right now- the storm hasn't begun yet." As stated on the forecast today, it was raining once again and this time we'd gotten caught in it. Since the car was parked much further away from the horse farm, and closer to the Parkers' place and Mr Parker told Harry to come over, we made our way over here but without the car it meant that by this time, we were drenched in water.
I smile softly, exhausted and also afraid of meeting these new people. We'd just arrived at the Parkers' and I'd learnt that a lot of Harry's childhood was spent here. It was amazing that Harry felt so comfortable sharing all of this whereas I would hate to go and show Harry where I'd grown up in London since all the memories that would rush back would be too much for me to handle in front of him.
"Harry, Jasmine. I'm so glad you could make it." Mr Parker said as he remembered that Harry had only said we would come if we had time but Harry of course, made time for them. "Come on inside." Mr Parker calls us in, opening the door wide open for us and Harry holds on to my hand, giving it a tight squeeze.
"A storm is on its' way, you do know that?" Mr Parker checks. "It's not just raining."
"Yeah, I heard but the forecast said it should be gone soon, didn't it?" He checks with the elderly man.
"Yeah, it will be." Mr Parker nods as Harry hangs his jacket up on the hook. He turns to look at me when Mr Parker shuts the door behind us.
"Your jacket." He says to me and I internally condemn myself for not realising why he was looking at me so expectantly. I smile, removing my coat and handing it over to him so he can hang it up beside his own jacket. But since we both only wore jackets that were super thin, our clothes were still wet.
"Harry!" An elderly woman's voice sounds through the room as she enters the living room from what I think is the kitchen. She's probably Mr Parker's wife. "Harry, son! Oh what a pleasant surprise! It's been so long!" She gushes as she walks over to where Harry and I are stood and she gives him a hug, Harry hugging her back.
"Mrs Parker! I agree, it's been ages. It's so great to see you after so long!" Harry replies and they only break apart once Mrs Parker feels that she wanted to.
"It is truly great. Oh, how you've grown!" She looks at me. "This is the amazing missus I've heard about from everyone! Jasmine, right?" She smiles at me and I smile back softly. She hugs me straightaway and Harry keeps his hand on my hand that I wasn't using to hug as he was aware of my nerves.
"Yeah." I smile, nervously. "How are you?" I ask her, not knowing what else to say.
"I'm good, thank you, love." She smiles. "You're both going to get a cold if you stand here like this. Let's get you some fresh clothes to change into." She says with a smile before going over to the bottom of the stairs that were just opposite us all. Mr Parker had now gone into the living room, saying that he had to go and tend to a matter so we were now with Mrs Parker.
"Victoria!" Mrs Parker called and a reply came almost instantly. "Can you come downstairs, please?"
And it's only a few seconds later that this girl, Victoria, is making her way downstairs. Noticing that she looks around our age, I figure that she's probably Mr and Mrs Parker's daughter.
"Harry? Oh my gosh, it is Harry!" I hear which is what stops me from analysing her, instantly feeling bad for doing so despite it being subconscious.
But when I notice how she presents herself, fixing her skirt and smacking her lips together to fix the lip gloss that was already on her lips, I don't feel that bad anymore. I watch as she runs down the stairs, fixing her hair in the process before lunging herself at Harry when she gets to the bottom of the stairs.
I don't know whether I should feel threatened or disturbed but Harry hugs her back when she's hugging him. But when Harry doesn't remove his hand from me and instead rubs my hands, despite hugging her with the other hand, it makes me realise that even he understood her subtle ways of grabbing Harry's attention. Or maybe Harry was just afraid I would think that but he knows she's nothing like that.
I try not to keep any pre-conceived mind as I didn't want to judge her harshly if she was someone who Harry spent his childhood with.
"Harry!" She pulls apart to look at him, smiling widely. "I can't believe you're here! How are you? Oh gosh, I've missed you Haz! It's been so long." She then flings both arms around him again and hugs him once more.
"Hey Victoria." Harry smiles. "We've got a lot to catch up on for sure!" He laughs. "I'm good thanks, what about you?" Harry asks back as they release each other of the hug.
"I'm good." Her eyes flicker over to me. "I didn't know you had a girl again. It's always someone different." She laughs and Harry's excited expression turns to a little more serious. "What? I always say that." She frowns.
"Jasmine is my wife." Harry replies and it causes Victoria to look at me in surprise but she covers it immediately and smiles.
****
After Harry said that, an awkward atmosphere settled around the room and it took Mrs Parker telling us that we should all catch up later since she was concerned that we both would get ill with how wet we'd become. But if we thought that that was going to help ease the iciness between us, it actually made it worse.
We'd gone upstairs and Victoria was looking through her wardrobe to find something that I could wear and curiosity striking meant the first thing she asked me was about Harry and I and how we knew each other. But the problem was, Victoria and Harry were also childhood friends so she questioned my argument that we were childhood friends, arguing that we must have known each other with Harry being a mutual friend.
"I moved to London by the time I was four and then Australia when I was eleven." I replied, not knowing what else I could say.
But when she couldn't further attack me on that, she found that picking on my size was an easier way to attack and scrutinise me as she couldn't find anything that actually fit me.
"Are you anorexic?" She asked me, frustrated when she noticed that everything she had, which were mainly skirts or dresses were super huge on me.
But at one point, she handed over a pair of leggings and a hoodie since it didn't really matter if that looked huge. An issue was that the leggings didn't exactly fit me but it was the closest fit and I didn't mind. Not when what she said meant much more to me.
Harry was currently talking to Anne on the phone as I dried my hair with the hairdryer, the conversation running through my mind.
"Are you alright? You know you can tell me if something's bothering you, right?" Harry approaches me a while later as I was looking at myself in the mirror. I hadn't spoken to him once since we'd come here, my mood just slightly off.
"I'm fine." I smile at Harry, brushing my hair out with my hands.
"I heard Victoria." He said. "I'm s-"
"They're being so kind to us, talking about them isn't good, Harry." I shake my head as I don't allow him to finish what he was saying, even though it shocked me that he heard what Victoria said.
With that, we make our way downstairs, trying to brush off any other feelings and just leaving it in the room. Mrs Parker had cooked up dinner by this time and Samuel had come back. Harry and Samuel had a lot of fun together and Victoria joined in with them. Anxious, I just sloated through everyone's conversations but mainly enjoyed speaking to both Mr and Mrs Parker.
"I think I remember Anne talking about you years ago." Mrs Parker says to me. "Your Mum's name starts with a T, doesn't it?"
"Yeah." I smiled, finding it so cool that she remembered. "Tracy." I reply.
"That's it!" She smiles. "You lived down the road from Harry."
"Mrs Parker, you remember?" Harry said, surprised, jumping out of the conversation he was currently engaged in with Samuel.
"Yeah, I don't know, I just remembered when you said you were childhood friends." She smiles. "I remember Anne was so upset when you all had left."
Mrs Parker had made lovely chicken pie with a gorgeous, bright salad and a delicious dessert as well. And despite having so much fun, by the time the storm had passed, we'd finished dinner and even relaxed afterwards for a long time and so it was time to head back.
Since we were both exhausted, I knew that the pair of us were looking forward to go back and just relax. And I felt bad for Harry who had to drive half an hour back even in this state of exhaustion. But it had to be done and we soon reached back.
Gemma was the only one awake when we did get to Harry's place as she was sat in the living room doing some work on the laptop.
"You guys are late." She notes, whispering so as to not wake anyone up.
"The Parkers' invited us over." Harry whispered back. "Why aren't you asleep?"
"It's only half past ten." She said with a stretch. "And I was going to go upstairs."
"You workaholic." He rolled his eyes. "You're the one that said it was late."
"To come home, it's late." She retorted. "Michael's gone back to London."
"Are you missing him already?" Harry smirks, teasing her and she throws a pillow over at him.
"Okay, we're going." He said and I just chuckled softly as we left Gemma to relax and made our own way upstairs.
I've had loads of exams the past couple days and I will have some more in the upcoming days. So I apologise in advance. Just keep this book in your reading list and then you'll know whenever I update. I won't leave this midway, I will update whenever I can because I have so much planned for this book- you honestly have no idea!
Anyway, hope you enjoyed the update. Will try to update ASAP.
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Irmina xx