After Gemma and I came back, she seemed more sure of herself. She kept looking at herself in the mirror and took so many pictures in her new black dress. The hair style and color suits her like no other.
Anne and Harry were taken aback from her transformation and even agreed that she looked much more alive. It was currently midnight and Harry, Gemma and I were staying at a hotel.
We spent our alone time having sex in the shower about two times before I decided on getting out, not wanting to wrinkle like a prune because of the water.
"It's getting out of hand." I say, slipping on my panties before I covered myself with a dress shirt of his. I button up and brush my hair as I watch him get out of the shower, the towel low on his hips.
"I'm in my thirties, I'm allowed to be sexually active." Harry retorts making me roll my eyes.
"You're going to have to stop using that same excuse sometime." I say with the narrow of my eyes making Harry grin at me.
"Of course," he says. "I'm not going to be in my thirties forever, eventually my excuse is going to be, I'm in my forties." He remarks making groan whilst he let out a mocking laugh.
"You're excruciating." I say while I watch him lather shaving cream on his beard area. As I watch him shave, I remember what Gemma and I talked about.
"Harry's old and with children, I'm sure his intentions aren't to go fucking around with any woman he meets. I can see that he really loves you."
I knew Gemma was right. Harry has shown me that he means me no harm and that he truly wants to be with me. I mean, he went all the way to Portland to bring me back home to him and the kids.
Harry is good for me, and I'll be dammed if I don't let him see that I love him too.
"You seem pensive," Harry says, washing off his face before he pats on aftershave. After washing his hands, he dries them and turns to me. He was now in his boxers and his hair was all over the place. "Penny for your thoughts?"
"My thoughts cost more than that." I joke with the roll of my eyes as I walk away.
"Well then, I'll PayPal you a thousand." He winks making me giggle and lay on the bed with Harry. "Seriously, what is it?"
He looks at me expectantly making me sigh and look away. "Do you remember after we first had sex?" I ask after hesitating. Harry puckers his lips in thought as he looks up.
"You couldn't take me fully?" He mocks making me slap his arm which caused him to laugh. "I remember I made you cum." He says seductively into my ear, his hot breath making me stomach to erupt in their usual butterflies causing my toes to curl. "I also remember I told you that I loved you."
He says, admitting to what I wanted to hear. That made my eyes lock with his, his arm helped prop his head up as his free one tucked stands of hair behind my ear. "Did you mean it?" I ask after a while of silence.
Harry stares at me, his eyes running along my features before his eyes go back to mine. "Of course I do." He says making relief wash over me. When I don't say anything, Harry's thumb caresses my cheek lightly. "I'm sorry that I fell in love with you too soon."
I shake my head, placing my hand on his over my cheek and he smiles. "Don't be," I say. "I -" I'm about to tell him that I love him too, but something in me seems to stop myself, almost as in telling me that I wasn't ready to tell him yet.
Harry looks from my paused lips to my eyes before kissing me. "Let's just get some sleep." He says and pulls me in by the waist towards him, my leg wrapping around his hip as his hand rubbed up and down my back and with that, we both fall asleep.
—
It's around five in the afternoon and all morning, Harry has been making calls and forwarding emails from his laptop. He refused to stop working, even though we were away from Seattle. He always took his work with him wherever we went.
"...Mum, please don't feed her more than what she's supposed to." Gemma comes in the room with her hair straightener as I was putting in my earrings. "As soon as this thing is over, I'll be there. Good bye." She says into the phone before setting her phone down and turning to us. "I swear this won't take long."
"Let's hope not, we can't be late to our own charity event. That'll look insensitive." Harry comments from the couch, not taking his eyes away from his laptop.
Gemma rolls her eyes as she begins to straighten her now short hair. "I'm sorry, I'm just always a wreck when it comes to the charity, and now that I have Des," she breathes out.
"It's going to be fine," I offer her a smile. "Let's just have fun tonight. I promise I'll be with you at all times." Gemma smiles back at me.
"If my brother doesn't marry you, I will." She jokes making me laugh but the comment only added to the stress about telling Harry I loved him. This is moving so fast, but I am happy. So does the pace really matter?
After about twenty minutes, Harry is ushering us out the door where a black SUV awaits us. Harry scolded Gemma for taking so long and that we were half an hour late but Gemma only ignores him.
Once there, I notice cars arriving and being valet away to a spot before our driver stops in the entrance and we are able to get out. Light orchestral music is heard as we reach the door that is being held open by two men in black and white.
I link my arm around Harry's as Gemma does the same and when we reach the inside, the place was adorned with fancy interior and all around us the people were images of pure perfection, hundreds of them in the room and they gathered around their tables.
The three of us head towards our reserved table but we're drawn aside by a man who mirrored his date on his arm, both dressed in expensive clothing and jewelry.
"Harry, I was wondering when you'd show up." He says, his accent more thick than Harry's. They both shake hands. "Who's this?" His blue eyes look to me.
"I'm Rosalie," I say, extending my hand to his go which he takes it. "Nice to meet you."
"Likewise, I'm Louis." He gives me a smile.
"Louis runs the London branch of the company and has been doing so for quite some time now." Harry adds. "Gemma was supposed to take over but -"
"Can we not, please?" She says and walks off making Harry look at her before he turns back around to face Louis.
"Don't mind her." Harry says to Louis making him nod. I excuse myself from the group and go on my way to find Gemma by the drinks, holding a flute of champagne on her hand and looking at the poster that read: Cancer Awareness: In Memory of Desmond Styles, this annual auction helps raise money for those undergoing this disease. 100% of proceeds go to hospitals for cancer patients.
Auctions this year include trips to: Hawaii, The Bahamas, Maldives, Paris, Jamaica and more.
"Are you okay?" I say, my arms crossed in front of my chest as I watch her take a sip of her champagne before she turns to me with her eyes teary.
"Things were much easier when I hated Harry." She says, taking me aback but I let her continue. "I didn't have to come to this and not feel guilty. So I thought hating him was the reason it was better that way. Not just because he left."
"What do you mean?" I ask, hoping it was okay that she could tell me.
"I knew my dad was sick for a while, being the older sister the responsibility of his business would fall on me one day if I wanted it. I hated that he saw me as a way on keeping the company alive, even when he was gone. This company is what prevented him from spending time with us, though I know he tried his best but it was never enough that my mum divorced him." She clears her throat. "I refused to take on the company and started to rebel. I basically made my dads last few years a nightmare when I started seeing this guy who put me on alcohol and drugs and then I eventually became pregnant. I wanted him to stop seeing me as a savior for his company and to hate me instead, but even when I got pregnant it was almost as if his love for me grew." she sniffs.
I noticed she was having a hard time telling her story. I rubbed my hand on her arm. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to." I say and she wipes under her eyes.
"I got an abortion." She says making my stomach drop. "In almost as a last attempt to get him to hate me, but he never knew about it because he passed a few hours after I did." She holds back tears. "He died thinking I was still pregnant, and he died still loving me."
To say I was shocked about her revelation was an understatement and even had my eyes watering. "But why hate Harry?" I ask.
"I was just being a hypocrite." She shakes her head. "After my father passed, my anger just sort of bottled up. My mum had remarried and the guy was a great person. But then Harry married Renata and my anger sort of ticked off. He ignored my mum's warnings about her and Harry just stopped visiting overall. He would only call once a month. Then," she takes in a breath. "My stepfather got into a car crash on his way to work one morning and died just a few hours later, and when my mum called Harry he didn't even answer his damn phone. So I just started hating him since."
I nod. It made sense to me now why she hated him. "It was like my father all over again." Gemma adds. "I know I shouldn't hate him, and I don't but I just can't help it with being here." She looks around.
"If you want to go I'm sure Harry won't mind." I say but she only shakes her head.
"I need to be here, I'd be shit if I left my own father's legacy." She says with a small smile making me sigh and grab a flute of champagne, clinking it with hers.
"Then I guess it's going to be a very long night." I say making her nod in agreement. When I turn to face Harry, he is now talking to more business people before my eyes divert to the doors where a blonde woman is walking in next to a man and when I look closely, it's none other than Renata.
"Are you shitting me?" Gemma grits, now from my side as she looks where I'm looking at. She's wearing a revealing red dress with a slit down her leg while her date wore a navy blue suit.
"What is she doing here?" I say, my eyebrows furrowing as I look towards Gemma who only grabs my hand and leads us towards Harry.
"Harry -" I begin but Harry nods.
"I know." He says, his jaw clenching.
"Why is she here?" I ask, watching as she walks around.
"Her father and I used to do business together when we were married." Harry explains but says no more and only looks at Gemma with a warning in his eyes. "Let's just go have a seat, it's about to begin." Harry says, placing his hand at the small of my back and leads us to a table with our names.
When we are seated, the chair beside me is being pulled making me catch a glimpse of red and when I look at the post card, my hand clutches the tablecloth. It read Renata Styles.
"Well," She takes her seat next to me and I can see Gemma lean towards to look over Harry who sat in between us two. "What are the odds? We're in the same table."
"What the hell are you doing here?" Harry remarks, looking beside me with a glare.
"Doing my part of course," she says. "You know my father can't be here personally, though he sends his regards."
"Go sit somewhere else." Harry says.
"Until the divorce is finalized, I'm still a Styles, so really I belong on this table." She turns to me with a smirk. "Why are you here, babe? I would've thought you would've been taking care of my children."
"I'm here because Harry wants me to, and unlike you I do take care of them." I remark making her give me a taunting smile before taking a sip of her drink.
"So what are you auctioning this year?" Renata speaks again. "Because I'm auctioning that villa in Paris, you know the one where we -"
"That's enough!" Harry slams his fists furiously on the table making the silverware rattle, startling me in the process. I knew he was getting angry, so I did my best to ignore Renata as she chuckled.
The lights around us dimmed and a blonde woman in a blue cocktail dress stepped up on the stage. The rest of the night was spent by people bidding and winning over others before it reached to Harry's villa in Jamaica.
"And last but not least, we have Desmond's own son Harry auctioning their family villa in Jamaica for two weeks. Starting at ten thousand."
Without warning, Harry hands me the paddle. "Hold it up and say twenty thousand." He says making me furrow my eyebrows.
"What?" I ask in disbelief.
"Just do it." He says. I go after some other man who calls for fifteen thousand.
"Twenty thousand?" I say unsure of myself, catching a glimpse of Renata rolling her eyes before she leans towards me.
"Been there, done that." She says into my ear making me clutch the paddle. The lady calls for more bidders but when no one else speaks up, she calls out sold.
"What was that for?" I ask Harry making him smile at me and turn to Renata.
"And by the way, I didn't take you to the villa." He says. "It was a hotel." And with that, the night was over.
—