Seven Years Later…
Annie

“Are you almost ready, Sugar?” Harry yelled from the other room as I slid the red lipstick across my lips. I replaced the lid, did one last check and walked towards the bedroom.
“Ready,” I said as I leaned against the door frame. Harry was sitting on the end of the bed putting his boots on. He looked up at me, his hair hanging in his eyes. He flipped his head and I watched the curls move as if it was slow motion.
“Fuck. Even after all these years you still know how to make my heart stop. When did you get this outfit?” I walked towards where he was sitting, my heels clicking against the herringbone wood floors in the room. I straddled his lap, my skirt sliding up before my fingers quickly ran through his long curls. His green eyes sparkled with the light that peaked in from the window from the city outside that transitioned in to night. He smiled and there it was, the gymnastics team in my stomach. Someone must’ve done a vault because I felt my heart get kicked to my throat as his dimples formed.
“A while ago. Lyla and I went shopping. Lizzy and Kim were at footie games for the kids. You were in meetings. So I told Lyla she was in charge of helping me find something that would drive you wild.” I’d opted for a short pale pink skirt that flared out from my waist and stopped mid-thigh. I had black tights, black heels and a black long sleeved top on. I felt his hands start to rub my thighs under my skirt.
“Well, you look stunning. And I’m beginning to think we could be late to dinner.” He leaned forward finally kissing me as I felt his fingertips press hard in to my thighs. Just as my hands slid from his hair to the collar of his shirt there was a knock at the door.
“Let's go!” Nate yelled. Harry huffed loudly and his head fell on to my chest. I could hear a small laugh sneak in to his heavy breathing. I kissed his neck and he whimpered softly.
“After dinner. You. Me. This bed.” He was staring in my eyes. Those green eyes filled with lust and determination.
“Deal,” I said kissing him and standing up. I pulled him off of the bed and quickly grabbed my phone and clutch from the table. Harry went to the armoire grabbing both of our jackets. I opened the door to find Kim and Nate waiting for us in the hallway. Nate was leaned against the wall next to the door checking email on his phone. Kim had a glass of champagne in her hand and was dancing to the sound of silence. “Already?”
“You would too if you had my night last night. Nate’s little angel refused to sleep in her bed and would only sleep in bed with us. For being a three-year-old she kicks like she’s going to beat her older brothers for a spot with ManU already.”
“I can’t even begin to say how proud I am that you can finally talk footie,” I said laughing.
“Well, between he and Niall on Sundays and their plans for practice for a group of five and six year-olds to dominate their league, I can't even pretend like I don’t know. It’s upsetting. I’ve tried to get the boys to try basketball and they end up just hitting themselves in the head with the ball because they can’t get an arch to their shot. So they just kick it and proceed to play footie with their basketball, which is blasphemous.”
“Mate, honestly that first trip here I never would’ve imagined you and Niall would be coaching a footie team of kids together,” Harry said laughing as he helped me put my jacket on and shut the door.
“And I didn’t think you’d still be leaving the house with her lipstick smeared across your neck,” Nate said. I turned to see a red mark on Harry’s neck and couldn’t help but laugh as I reached to try and remove it. “But yes I also didn’t see Niall and I coaching footie together. But we are. I guess that is what happens when he marries your cousin. Which I also, never saw happening.”
“Me either. But Lyla and Niall are quite adorable. Especially now that she’s got that tiny little baby bump showing,” I said. I watched Kim down the last of her glass of champagne. “Dimples, open the door and hide her empty glass in there.” Harry opened the door quickly and put the glass on the table inside the door. He took a peak in the mirror above the table at the lipstick on his neck. I saw him grab a tissue and wipe it off. “Does my lipstick look like I made that mark on you?”
“Shockingly no. Somehow you don’t look like we were about to fuck, my neck however, did.” I laughed before lightly kissing his lips.
“Good, now let’s go.” We headed to the elevator and I leaned in to Harry’s chest as he hugged me.
“This is going to be our greatest trip yet,” he whispered. I glanced up at him and couldn’t help but smile. He looked really happy.
“I know.” I turned to face Kim and Nate as they stood holding hands, her head rested on his shoulder. “So how many times have you checked in with Nana to see how the kiddos are?”
“Only once, when we got to the hotel room,” Kim said. “We FaceTimed them so we could say hi.”
“I may have text my Mum a few times on the train,” Nate sheepishly replied.
“Loser.” Kim started to laugh at him. “Did she send pictures?” He nodded and pulled out his phone. “Aww look at Ollie!” Kim cooed as she looked at the phone. She flipped it and there I saw a picture of her youngest, Oliver, just six months old, covered in baby food. I could see his older brothers, Max and Jack, and sister, Evelyn, at the counter beside him. Nate’s mother had come down to London to stay with them and the kids’ nanny so we could go have this weekend getaway like we do every year. This trip was a few weeks later than usual and would be shorter than normal because Nate was in the middle of a big case. It had become tougher to get them away from their kids for long periods of time, four kids ages five and under meant that life was different for the Salsbury family than it had been when we first took this trip to Paris together seven years ago.
“He’s growing so fast. I love that,” I said. Harry rubbed my shoulders.
“He is pretty damn cute,” Harry said. “I feel like it’s been ages since I’ve seen him.”
“Well, you two have been world travelers for a while,” Kim said laughing. “It’s been what a month almost two since you saw the kids.”
“World Travelers?” Harry started laughing. “We spent some time in Los Angeles and she planned a trip for my birthday. We are less world traveler, more dual country dwellers”
“I swear to you both. Next year for New Year’s everyone needs to not be pregnant and we need to go spend a week in Fiji. That was the best trip of my life. I literally just laid around in a bathing suit and watched him walk around shirtless. Well and there was sex. Fruity drinks with umbrellas and a lot of sex.”
“I don’t need to hear about that,” Nate said pretending to gag as the door opened. We walked across the lobby of the hotel. I loved that we had come back to this hotel for this trip. It was where we stayed on our first trip to Paris, you could see the Eiffel Tower from the terrace off of our suite. The last several years we had rented flats so we had a kitchen and more space. This trip, being only Thursday through Sunday, we opted for the luxuries of a hotel. We stood waiting on the side walk for a moment until the car service that Harry had ordered arrived. It took off from the sidewalk and I laid my head against the window watching the city go by. People making their way in to small cafes for dinner or drinks. We’d come to Paris every year, sometimes more than once, and I was still mesmerized by everything I saw. “So Styles, did you get much work done in LA or Fiji?”
“I mean….LA yes. Fiji not really. She got work done.”
“I got a lot of the copy written for the book in LA and approved some of the layouts while we were in Fiji.” I was working on a book of my photography from over the years. I’d seen more of the world than I ever imagined and was approached by a publisher about my blog. We were putting parts of it together as a coffee table book with my photography. I had always kept my blog and been open about the relationship I had with Harry. We had several friends question if I should publish the book or even keep the blog, but I was excited. Nothing was going to be invasive in to our lives and we’d never felt like we had a negative reaction to sharing our lives through my blog. And to be able to show off the photos I’d taken over the last seven years of living in England and traveling around the world meant I was sharing my art, not just my life. “But he’s lying. He got work done.”
“I wrote the introduction to the book, which I haven’t let her read. That’s all I’ve accomplished. I mean I got some stuff worked on with an artist in LA before we left. I maybe wrote a song or two while we were on vacation. Writing on vacation never seems like work, it seems like ‘the inspiration is there, take it!’ And she tends to just lay there reading so why not write if I can.”
“They were great songs.” I turned to look at Harry and smiled as I squeezed his hand.
“They were about you weren’t they?” Kim asked. I started to laugh. “You like every song he writes, especially if it’s about you. Conceited bitch.” I laughed harder.
“Yes, me totally conceited.”
“You do tend to love the songs I write about you,” Harry said.
“Umm, excuse me, aren’t they all about me?”
“Conceited bitch,” Kim said again. We all laughed.
“Well, they are,” I said smiling. “I mean unless they are breakup songs in which case totally not about me. I’m not going anywhere.”
“Good,” Harry said kissing my cheek. The car finally pulled up to the restaurant. I watched Kim glance out the window finally realizing where we were. She looked like her eyes got a little watery for a second.
“Aww, how sentimental,” Kim said. “This is where we came for dinner our fist night in Paris seven years ago.”
“And where I proposed to you,” Nate said as he helped Kim climb out of the car.
“I love you,” Harry whispered in to my ear.
“I love you.” I kissed him. “Now get out of the car, Dimples. It’s dinner time."
“Yes, love.” He kissed me again and quickly jumped out of the car before reaching back and pulling me out. We walked inside, fingers intertwined as we always did if we went anywhere. Seven years later and we still looked for excuses to touch each other. We were quickly taken to the same private dining room that we’d eaten dinner in the first night in Paris on that first trip. We all sat in the exact seats we had sat in that night. I glanced around the room smiling. This tiny little dining room made perfectly for two or four people held a lot of memories for all of us. The waiter opened a bottle of champagne for us before leaving the room to give us time to look over the menu.
“A toast,” Harry said. “To friendship, Paris, and love.”
“Cheers,” I said clinking glasses with everyone and leaning over to kiss Harry. It was the same toast he’d made at our first dinner. That night he’d been determined that he was going to fit in to our group. It was early on in our relationship and a big night for Nate and Kim. Harry never had a reason to feel like he wasn’t a member of our little family, but I know there had been times where he was. He was younger, the new guy and trying hard to impress the friends of the girl he’d decided he was in love with.
“You had something to do with this didn’t you,” Kim said looking at Nate after sitting her glass back down on the table.
“I swear I didn’t,” he said. He held up his hands in defense and almost confusion.
“Nope,” I said laughing. “For once Harry let me help plan. So I thought that it was appropriate to come back here for our first dinner this trip.”
“Those two are so sappy and sentimental,” Nate said.
“I know. It’s like they think we need help in the romance department. You’d think four kids would prove we still have a clue what we are doing,” Kim replied. I laughed and then felt the familiar feeling of Harry’s warm hand on my thigh. He was to my right which meant that I was using my hand to hold my champagne glass so instinctively he touched my leg instead of reaching for my hand.
“Nah. It was a big night for us too. We got to travel together for the first time. It was the first time I saw Paris.”
“It was the moment I knew you were it,” Harry said. He moved his hand to grab mine as I put the champagne down, kissing my knuckles. “I knew on this trip that I wanted to spend forever with you. That you were the missing part of my life.”
“And you were mine.”
“And you are nauseating tonight, as always,” Kim said. “We are the ones that are supposed to be reliving our engagement night, not you. You two got engaged in Lake Como. Not Paris.” Kim was laughing. “Hilarious that you got engaged that summer after you started dating and you still aren’t married. Slow pokes.”
“Eh,” I said laughing. “What was the hurry? It’s not like either of us was going anywhere. Plus we’ve been busy. Everyone else has been having babies and he was busy with work.” We had gotten engaged in Lake Como. He’d been in Italy for tour and had a few days off. I wanted to be a tourist and go everywhere. I wanted to see the small town my great-grandparents left when they moved to America and started their new lives. I wanted to spend every second I could eating and sight seeing and enjoying Italy. He wanted downtime so he convinced me that we’d come back after tour, and off to Lake Como we went. We arrived to Lizzy, Frankie, Kim, Nate, Niall and Niki waiting for us. That first night, with our friends all around us, under the stars he proposed to me. It was the perfect night and the perfect setting. And just as he promised when he had time off we went back to Italy and saw everything I’d put on my list and then some.
“You haven’t toured with One Direction in almost five years. You’ve spent that time acting and singing but not doing a lot of touring. And you,” she said pointing at me, “You’ve mainly just been traveling around, taking pictures, writing your blog and texting me about how hot he looks in nearly every country of the world. I’m pretty sure you could’ve found time to get married at some point in the last six and a half years.”
“Probably,” I said laughing at her description of my life. I did text her often with descriptions of how hot Harry was in whatever city we were in. My favorite Harry, outside of ‘Anywhere in England Harry’ or ‘Los Angeles Harry’ was always either a city in Italy or France. Our best memories that weren’t normal every day life were somewhere in either of those countries. Whether it was travel or work, we’d spent quite a bit of time in both places. “It has just never seemed important…before.”
“Before?” I watched Kim perk up in her chair.
“Before,” Harry repeated.
“What’s happening?” Nate asked. Kim smacked him.
“They are finally gonna get married. When did you guys decide it was time?”
“When we were in Fiji. I was laying there reading a book on our deck and enjoying the gorgeous weather and view. And he came out of the water after swimming, dripped water all over me and my book, then looked at me and said he was done waiting and it was time to get married. He wants my first book to be published with Styles as my name.”
“So that’s part of this trip,” Harry said smiling at me before looking across the table. Kim and Nate were both sitting there with their jaws practically resting on the table in front of them. “We are here to get married. We had originally thought about it just being us and then realized that you two were the only people we wanted to have with us.”
“WHAT?!” Kim and Nate both practically yelled.
“Yeah, after all these years together we decided that it wasn’t necessary to have a large wedding. We just want to be married and we pretty much are already. This isn’t changing what our relationship is, just what my name is. So we are eloping.”
“In Paris?” Kim asked.
“In Paris,” Harry replied.
“With just us?” Nate asked.
“You’re our best friends, we couldn’t think of two better people to be our witnesses. We have a photographer in Paris that we know that is going to take pictures, her husband is normally her second shooter, but he also happens to be able to legally marry us. So we are getting married,” I replied.
“When?” Kim asked.
“Day after tomorrow,” Harry answered.
“I figured that we should have a day in Paris to get you something to wear,” I said laughing. “So tomorrow we are shopping and then Saturday we are getting married.”
“Holy shit. Congratulations,” Nate said leaning back in his chair. “That was not what I expected to do on this trip.”
“We thought we should surprise you,” I said smiling. “So surprise!”
“I’m so excited about this. Are you really going to publish your book as Styles?” Kim asked. I’d always been sort of adamant about keeping Catalano if I ever did actually get married. My family name meant the world to me. I had always thought that no matter where I was in the world if I was Annie Catalano it meant that I had my family with me. In the seven years that Harry and I had been together we had been through a lot and had changed my opinion about a lot of things, my name being one of them.
“I am. I mean they don’t know that yet, but as soon as we are back in London I’m calling my publisher to let them know that they can publish this as Annie Styles. I know that the Catalano name has always been a huge part of my identity, but it’s time for Styles to be part of my identity too.”
“It’s a big deal to give up a name. Leaving Scott behind was tricky, but at least I didn’t have to change any monograms,” she said jokingly. Nate just shook his head at his wife. They were still perfect for each other and always managed to even the other out. Whether Kim was in a weird mood or Nate was being too serious the other one always managed to center their relationship.
“You’re still weird,” he said.
“That’s clearly not going to change with age, unless I just get weirder.”
“You do, Petal, you do.” Nate leaned over and kissed her cheek. “So no one at home knows about this?”
“Nope,” we replied together.
“Our parents do know,” Harry said. “They were supportive of this. They knew that a gathering of the Styles and Catalano families is always difficult to arrange so we are going to plan something at each home later.”
“They knew as well as we did that we wouldn’t be able to get both of our families together in the next few months, especially based on our schedule.”
“Your schedule?”
“Well, Niall and I have been talking about it for at least a year. Louis and Liam are finally ready too. Life is settling. It’s time to go back in to the studio.”
“You’re just trying to give me a heart attack aren’t you,” Kim said.
“Pretty much,” I replied laughing. “The talk is that they go back in to the studio so that Niall is at home with Lyla for the birth and then the album comes out shortly after that. I also think it’s a trial run of having Freddie in school in London.”
“And then we take the whole circus on the road. At least we are thinking of doing that,” Harry said. “Annie and Lyla are ready to live in buses again.”
“I’m jealous,” Kim said. “I want to take the circus on the road, but members of our circus is likely not allowed in several countries.”
“Yes, they are. Your circus is cute. You’ll have to bring them on the road or Aunt Annie will go through withdrawal symptoms.”
“Deal! I could tour manage,” Kim said. It had been years since she worked at The Roundhouse. She and Lyla had opened their own business. They worked to curate an online store filled with the most desired items for people to give as gifts or buy for themselves. I’d gone on buying trips with those two and it was crazy the things that they got for free just so they would put a companies items in their store. They had just hit five years and thrown a huge party to celebrate.
It all started in the kitchen of Kim and Nate’s first house as she was pregnant with the twins. She knew that she wouldn’t be able to return to the world she’d been working in once the boys were here. Lyla and Niall were planning their wedding and as we all shopped for the things Lyla needed the idea came to Kim. Why should people have to order these pieces from different places when they could put them all in one place? They were able to pick and choose what would be the next great housewarming gift or the go to new stuffed animal for a brand new baby. When you needed the perfect piece of art for your new office or the personalized gift to make your bridal party feel appreciated, theirs was the website you went to first. It was high quality goods shipped right to your door. They had even developed their own subscription service similar to Amazon Prime that offered expedited shipping to anywhere in England after the first year. At three years they had expanded to cover all of Europe. Last fall they opened their first few warehouses in the US so that the shipping option was now available to the US and Canada.
It had been fun to watch them start this together. See them create this dream and build it in to the massive company it had become. Harry had tried to convince me to take their offer to be a partner with them when they first launched. He’d even offered to lend me the money to do it. When they became a million dollar company at two years I had slightly regretted my decision, but instead they allowed me to have my own curated section of their store and became the primary sponsor of my blog. The items I found when Harry and I traveled often ended up in my section of their store. I’d even done a few limited edition photographs that I’d taken and they had sold online. I was able to join them on their trips to meet with companies and take advantage of some of their freebies without feeling like I was in business with two of my best friends. They were in a position now where Kim had been able to take time off since Oliver was born, after this trip she was headed back full time so that by the time Lyla welcomed their first child she could the time she needed at home.
“You haven’t dealt with musicians in a long time babe,” Nate said. “I don’t know that you have the patience for them. I sure as hell wouldn’t and I was in a band.”
“I’m raising four kids under the age of five. I could handle the four children that make up One Direction.” I almost spit my champagne. “It would be a cake walk by comparison.”
“You are probably right. Though we’ve all aged a bit since our last tour. I would think that Louis and Liam’s kids would cause a bigger stir than any of us would. We had dinner with Louis and El when we were in Los Angeles. It’s terrifying how much Freddie is like his Dad, he’s already a total smartass.”
“How are Lou and El?” Kim asked.
“Good. They are still enjoying LA, though you can tell they are both itching to get back home. I know it’s tough for them being away from their family as much as they are, but neither of them want to be away from Freddie just so they can live in England. I just wish Briana understood that without Johannah here that they try to have a much larger role with Louis’s brother and sisters and that by them being in Los Angeles the majority of the year they aren’t there for his family. But after several years she still doesn’t get it, so I’m not holding my breath.”
“It’s hard,” Harry said squeezing my hand. “Louis will never feel like he’s doing enough for Dan and the kids. But Dan gets it, Freddie is who Lou needs to watch out for the most.”
“Dan will always have support here and he is glad Louis is with Freddie. Lottie and Louise were in the office last week for meetings with Lyla and I. Their new line of lipstick and eyeshadow is getting ready to launch on the site. We will be the exclusive retailer for it. I’m excited. It’s geared towards brides and will launch in time for the spring and summer wedding season.”
“That’s amazing.”
“Yeah, so Lottie was telling me that she is finally settled in to a house. She’s literally across the street from Dan. She helps get the kids to school every day unless she’s on the road, but Fizzy is living with her now that she has a house. So Fizz is still helping out too. We should all go up and visit, we haven’t been up since last fall when Louis brought Freddie home to visit.”
“We should. When we get home let’s look at the calendar and all go. Louis said they were going to be in England for a few weeks. I think they actually land tomorrow.”
“That’s awesome,” Nate said. “Maybe Louis will be interested in helping us at tryouts for the footie team next week. I have been trying to get it arranged that the league the kids are in will let Freddie play when they are in the city and I think I finally get them on board.”
“Oh dear god. Dimples, you are not allowed to start coaching with them. The four of you together is the worst nightmare of the women in your lives. And remember, we don’t have a child that is on that team.”
“Kim told me I could pretend that Max was mine since he refuses to let her cut his hair.”
“I tried to tell him that he didn’t have a choice and has to cut his hair. He keeps telling me that he wants to look like Uncle Harry. So, I’m going to start to petition you to cut your hair if he won’t budge. Everyone in my family is coming over Easter. If my oldest looks like he needs a man bun I might have a problem.”
“I mean, I’d like to think that the kid doesn’t wear his hair a certain way just because I do. But if necessary I can have a talk with him about cutting his hair. Though he’s got some awesome hair.” The twins were the spitting image of Nate. Dark brown eyes, dark brown hair and curls for days. They were five going on 20. When they started school in fall they came home the first day to inform their mother and father that they each had three girlfriends and had already figured out that their teachers could barely tell the difference between them. Some couldn’t remember if Max or Jack had the long hair. They were already wise beyond their years and would be terrifying as teenagers.
Evelyn was three and her mother’s mini-me. So much so that when she started talking Harry and I were positive she’d have a southern accent. There were times where her little posh London accent mixed with a y’all and I nearly cried laughing every time. I’m pretty sure her Uncle Harry tried to teach her these things when he babysat. Evie was just the perfect mixture of tomboy and ballerina. She chased after the football in the backyard in tutus and loved to be the center of attention at every gathering. She was her Daddy’s universe. Nate loved that right out the gate they had twin boys. Every man wants to see his family lineage carry on. But when they found out they were having a girl it was like his world changed. He drug me around home improvement stores until we found the perfect shades of blush pink and lavender to paint her nursery as a surprise for Kim when she was on a trip for work. Everything was pink or purple, despite this little girl’s mama’s favorite color being blue. And when that little girl came with her blonde hair and blue eyes, in true mini-Kim style, she came home from the hospital in a Kentucky onesie. It was pink at her Daddy’s request.
We were all pretty sure that Kim and Nate were happy with their three kids. For the first year it was a struggle with three kids under three and the boys still being in diapers for the first part. Then one day she told me she was pregnant again and surprisingly didn’t look terrified at the idea of having another one in diapers again. And when little Ollie was born we all melted. This kid was beautiful, he looked like he should be on every diaper box or baby food jar. He was the child who was the perfect blend of Mom and Dad. Blue eyes and fair skin with Daddy’s dark curls. Kim was a rockstar with these kids, especially during the times where Nate had a case that took over his life, which had basically been the situation since Ollie was born.
The times where we were home we always had a night with the kids. I jokingly called it birth control, but Harry just loved being with the babies. We’d discovered early on in our relationship that kids weren’t in the cards for us, so we decided to be the best Aunt and Uncle the world had ever seen. We perhaps spoiled our nieces and nephews, as well as our friends’ kids, more than we should. But almost everyone let us get away with it. It was hard for us to realize that we may never get to be a Mum or Dad to anyone other than the cat. But as with anything we’d faced in our relationship, we did it together and are stronger because of it. So we did what we could to spend time with the kids who were in our life.
Our desire to be the World’s Greatest Aunt and Uncle meant on top of having a home in London and Los Angeles we also had a townhouse down the road from my brother and his family so that we could make trips to see the kids and not be stuck in hotels or my family’s houses for the usually extended trips. We tried to go home four or five times a year if we could. We were currently at the point where we had the longest stretch of the year, we went from Thanksgiving to my Dad’s birthday in March without going home. We would be home again in May for Mother’s Day and my Mom’s birthday, then in July for my niece’s birthday, then October for my nephew’s birthday and always back for Christmas and usually stayed until after my step-mom’s birthday at the beginning of December. It was always Christmas in England, which had been hard for my family to come to terms with at the beginning. But given that no one in Harry’s family celebrated Thanksgiving we were always in Iowa. It was perfect, we got to spend my favorite holiday with my family and Harry got to argue about American football with my brother.
“Can we not let Max’s hair thing escalate to the point where Uncle Harry actually has to cut his hair? You know I get sad when it gets short.”
“You loved it short the last time.” Harry winked at me.
“Ugh, stop it. You could shave your head and still look hot. I just PREFER this length.” His hair was full of curls today, he’d actually refrained from putting it in a ponytail or bun before we left the house this morning for the train station. The first time he’d cut his hair while we were together was for his first movie role and since then it was the only reason he would cut his hair. Every time a role would require it I’d cry as I watched Louise cut off his hair and then spend the first month thinking I had this sexy new fiancé and then I’d start to miss the ponytail and the long curls. Luckily, his hair grew insanely fast.
Our dinner tonight was magnificent. This had been a restaurant we visited over the years on our trips because of the sentimental nature for Nate and Kim. This was where he proposed to her. They’d been back together for a short time on that first trip but he wasn’t going to wait for her to realize that he wanted to spend forever with her. Harry had known that he was intending on proposing at dinner, which was why Harry arranged for our dinner to be in a private dining room. As we sat here tonight in between courses sipping on our champagne I couldn’t help but remember that night.
We’d come for a late dinner after doing some exploring through Paris. Nate had been a little bit off but we usually took that as Nate being Nate. He had been distracted recently because of work and the new house. He had been putting together a proposal for his Dad to convince him that he should be able to work remotely while looking for a location to open a London branch of their firm so he didn’t have to live in a different city during the week. And then at dinner he opened the bottle of champagne and as he filled a glass for Kim dropped her engagement ring in it. He told us later that he’d hoped for some elaborate proposal but his nerves had gotten the best of him. So he put the ring in her glass. As she picked it up and Harry said his toast she managed to not see the large diamond staring at her. It wasn’t until she took her first drink and it hit her lips that she realized there was a ring in her glass. She pulled the ring out of the glass in her lips with the diamond facing out. Nate proceeded to get on one knee and stumble through asking her to marry him. He was so nervous and so completely in love. I cried, Kim cried, Nate cried, even Harry cried.

That dinner was officially the shortest meal the four of us had ever shared. Nate and Kim returned to their hotel room to call families and celebrate in ways that normal people celebrate an engagement. Harry and I proceeded to have a night that felt like it was right out of a Richard Linklater film. We spent the night walking around and talking. I got to be amazed by the way Harry could fluently speak in French with any person who approached us. It was that night that we both realized that we were each other’s forever. I had known I loved him before we boarded that train at St. Pancras Station that morning but by the time we were welcoming in my 30th year on earth with a light dusting of snow and the sunrise I knew that he was it. We had continued this tradition often when we traveled. It was easier for Harry and I to walk around uninterrupted in the middle of the night and the things we were able to see and the conversations we were able to have remain some of my favorite memories.

Notes

Oh. My. God.

I can't believe I actually sat down and cranked that out this weekend.

I've always felt like there was an empty part of my heart because I'd abandoned this story. My life got complicated and I got lost from this world. But I knew I needed to come back at some point. And this weekend was some point.

I felt that it didn't fit to just pick up where I left off. Harry is 23 now and Annie would be 33. Advancing several years gives a chance for our characters to have grown as people. So we pick up seven years later partially reliving that first night in Paris for Annie's 30th birthday. We find out that Kim and Nate are happy. That Niall is married to Lyla! That Annie and Harry are as happy as ever and finally ready to get married, just not have a wedding. But what about Lizzy, Frankie, Patty, Niki and our other gang of misfits? Well they are going to get their deserved end as well.

My goal is to have this piece finished over the next few days or weeks. I have everything planned in my head and have already started the next chapter. And then pieces like Harry proposing to Annie, Nate and Kim's marriage, and how the hell Niall and Lyla ended up together may get told through Always In My Head if there is interest. So if there is please comment of message me to let me know. I love writing these characters but lost my drive for a very long time. Life got crazy. I fell in love and then unceremoniously fell out of love as so often happens in life. I landed my dream job and then was laid off from my dream job only to decide to just create my dream job. And in the midst of that I would occasionally pick up London Calling and hope that some day I'd be able to come back to this. And I finally have been able to.

So please. Comment. Message. Kik (raybandandcoffee). Tumblr (http://raybansandcoffee.tumblr.com). Twitter (@raybandsandcoffee). I want to know if people love where these characters are.