ISABELLA
"You're beautiful, you know that?" The deep drawl of his voice accentuates his accent, the words being spoken eloquently and slowly. His vibrant greens looking at me dotingly. I try my best to stop lips from breaking out into it's giddy smile. There was no use in trying.
"You may have said that once or twice," I smile.
Harry looks down. His pink lips quirking upright into a bashful smile. "Pretty girls should know that they're pretty," he responds back. His hand gripping mine from across the table. I watch as his thumb traces over my hand. The skin on skin contact, simple as it is, burning after it's touch.
The diner was busy as usual. The hustle of the lunch crowd hurrying about around us. Everyone getting their daily dose of a burger and fries. Yet even in the craziness that surrounded us, Harry and I managed to stay in our little bubble of alive flirtation. His eyes fixated on my every move. My every breath. Our ice teas and chicken sandwiches long forgotten.
"How was your night last night?" He asks. Our competition of intense eye contact breaking.
He let's go of my hand for a moment so that he can take another bite from his now cold french fry. "Alright," I take a bite of my sandwich. Harry chuckles, taking his napkin and wiping away a glob of mayonnaise that escaped down my chin. "Thanks," I blush.
"Just alright?"
"Saying goodbye is always the hardest part. We had a great time last night before that. Showed her around London and had a great "sister bonding" time. But leaving her at the airport sucked. A lot."
Harry nods. His mouth preoccupied by the sandwich he's biting into. "Mmm, I'm sure it was... but you'll see her soon, yeah? Christmas isn't that far off."
"Only six months," I chuckle.
"It'll go by soon enough, I'm sure." Harry shrugs. Even though I knew he was right, it still felt like ages away.
"Well," I sigh, "I'll just have to Skype her is all." I give him a the best smile I could muster and continue to eat my lunch.
The rest of lunch goes by. Our silences filled with meaningless talk and endless amount of giggles and shameless flirting. After Harry paid the bill, he walked over to the door where I stood. His fingers interlocked with mine, pulling me out and into the cool summer air. "Where to next?" I ask. I run my fingers through his long hair. He had let it down- free of any scarves or beanies. Was it weird that I was jealous of my boyfriends hair?
Harry had insisted on spending the day with me. Claiming it as his birthday treat. Since my actual birthday was full of partying and the rest of the week with my sister, Harry and I hadn't really spent time with one another for a what felt like ages. At least, time longer than one or two hours alone.
"There's a place I wanted to show you. It's about an hour drive, if that's okay?"
"Of course," I agree. My curiosity peaking. "Are you going to tell me where we're going?"
"Not a chance."
"Please?" I plead, my eyes giving the best rendition of the puppy dog look.
He chuckles, "No babe. Sorry. It's a surprise."
"Come on," I whine. Pulling on his arm gently, "Give me a hint?" I try one more time.
"Nope!" He laughs along with me. His arm wrapping around my body, pulling me closer to his side. "Not a chance."
"You suck," I joke.
"Actually, doll - that'd be you." He winks.
I gasp at his crude remark. Hitting him lightly on the arm. "You can be such a perv, you know that?" This only fuels his laughter. I don't say anything more. Too caught up in the joyful sound that escapes his lips.
-
We drive for what felt like hours. His little car unable to go too fast or it'd begin to rattle. Many times I'd hear Harry curse under his breath but I'd grab his hand, squeezing it tightly. I knew he tended to get embarrassed about his car, but it really didn't bother me. It was one of the many things I loved about Harry. He didn't need a fancy sports car or a Range Rover for me to love him any more.
We drove for a total of an hour. The houses growing bigger and the land growing greener the farther out of the city we drove.
"Where are we?" I finally ask.
"Surrey. Just out of London." Harry answers briefly. I only nod my head, too preoccupied by the passing homes.
"What's in Surrey?"
"You'll see in a moment," Harry squeezes my knee quickly, giving me a wink. I smile over at him, before turning my attention back to the road ahead.
He drives his beat up station wagon towards a small park. It's located beside a cul-de-sac of homes. It's not a fancy park - a wooden swing set is all that stands there. Harry parks the car beside the curb.
I follow him out of the car and towards the swings. Taking a seat beside him, we lazily move our feet back and forth. Allowing our bodies to sway rhythmically. "Where are we?"
"Surrey."
"You said that already," I point out. A smile on my lips. He bites back his own smile, the cheeky dimple fighting to burst out.
"My granddad lives a few houses over," he starts off slowly. I continue swinging. My feet matching his own swings. "When Ben and I were kids, we'd come to this park every day. Whenever we'd visit. This swing was my favourite place to be."
I listen quietly as Harry shares. I'm attentive as he speaks about his childhood - something he rarely did.
"It probably sounds stupid-" he shakes his head. His eyes searching outward, not once looking my way.
I stop my consistent swinging. My hand reaching out to grab his. He jumps slightly but soon wraps his hand around mine. "No. It's not stupid," I reassure him.
"Um," he coughs. His free hand rubbing his eyes quickly. He pulls out something from his back pocket, passing it over to me quickly. "Here."
Carefully, I take the wrapped box from his grasp. It's a small box, wrapped in newspaper. I smile to myself at his attempt at gift wrapping. It was cute to see Harry try to make it look perfect. Underneath the wrapping is a silver box. I open it up.
A faint gasp escapes my lips. "Harry," I say quietly.
My fingers trace over the bracelet. From the looks of it, the tennis bracelet was old. Vintage. It was gold with small diamonds encrusting it. "This is -" The bracelet is delicate in my hands. Words were failing me. "Harry," I turn around to face him. He is watching me carefully. His expression serious. "This is beautiful."
He doesn't say anything as he grabs the bracelet from my hand. He holds it above my wrist. I stretch my arm out for him. He is gentle as he wraps the bracelet around my wrist, clasping it shut. "There," he says under his breath.
I study the diamond bracelet. "Thank you," I whisper to him as my lips press gently against his. He responds to the kiss, his lips moving painstakingly slow against my own. He pulls away too soon, breaking the gentle kiss.
"I love you," he breathes against my lips.
"I love you too."
I look down at the bracelet. My fingers gently tracing over the delicate piece of jewelry. "Where did you get this?"
"My granddad." He says. His eyes are still focused on me. He keeps his voice low, the words slow to speak.
"Oh," I reply. My eyes still trained on my wrist.
"Yeah - uh, yesterday. I drove over while you were with Natalia. I - uh, this bracelet," he holds my wrist in his hand. His thumb tracing over the bracelet gently. "It belonged to my nan before she died. Granddad gave it to her when they first started to go steady. It's fucking cheesy, but I always admired that as a kid. I knew that I wanted to give it to the woman I loved whenever I found her. Didn't think that'd happen for a while there... but, with you - I fucking know that there's no other girl I'd want to give it to."
Speechless. Absolutely speechless. That's what Harry does to me.
"What about Ben? He didn't -"
"Nan's engagement ring. That went to him," Harry explains.
"Oh."
I look up, only to be met with Harry's watchful stare. I smile. "You're something else, Styles."
His serious expression breaks out into a dopey grin. "You too, doll." He leans in, kissing me once more.
"So, does this mean we're going steady?" I joke.
"Better be," he smirks.
"Good."
We sat at the swings for a bit longer, enjoying one another's company. Being here with Harry, at this spot, held much more sentimental value than it may have seemed. This was his favourite childhood place. His gift was a family heirloom.
I honestly didn't feel worthy of this love. I didn't feel worthy of this gift! It seemed unreal that Harry was at that place with me where he was finally opening up about his family. I knew that giving me this bracelet meant much more to him than it would to anyone else. It was a declaration of his love. That he was different now.
"Hey," I look over at Harry. A mischevious look on his face.
"Hey?" I look at him questionably. "What's up," I laugh.
"Your list... your fear list. How's that going?"
I had almost forgotten about that list. Everything with Harry had been going so well that I had, once again, forgotten why I was here in London in the first place. To face my fears. To live my life for me. I had already faced two of them - my fear of spiders and... well... Harry. Yet, there were still a few left to do.
"It's going, I guess. Haven't really worked on it much."
"I thought you were doing well on the business planning."
I sigh, "It's a lot more work than I thought it'd be."
Harry's hand pulls me up, bringing me over to where he sat on the sing beside me. He pulls me down so that I'm sitting on his lap. His arms wrapping me close to him. "Tell me about it."
"Um, well -" I bite back the butterflies that have erupted by his touch. "I got the main plan written out. It's a matter of talking to people that would be interested in actually making it come to life. And authors... that's the hard part. Nobody wants to help a poor college student try and make her dreams come true."
"Don't give up on your dream, baby." His hand goes under my shirt. His thumb rubbing the skin of my side. "If this is something you want to do, then you have to get out there. Fight for your dream. Don't stop pursuing it because you're scared."
"What if nobody wants to help?"
"Then they're idiots. Fucking morons."
I lay my head on his shoulder. Wondering if he was right. "Do this for you, babe." He whispers against my neck. His lips leaving a soft kiss in it's wake.
"I'll try."
And I would. He was right. I needed to do this. I couldn't sit on my butt, dreaming about a publishing company that would never see the light of day if I didn't even try. That was it. Tomorrow, I was going to contact the government about setting up my own company, research local distributors, google every possible investor I could, and make a damn list of everything else I needed to do. It was time to start doing this. It was time to get every other ball rolling in my life. Just because I had the guy, didn't mean I had to stop fulfilling the rest of my dreams.