Harry Who?

I came home from a doctor's appointment one night to find the house empty. I called out for Harry or anyone else that might have been home, with no response. I texted Harry, but heard his phone buzz in our room. 'Typical' I laughed to myself. I walked to the balcony and heard laughter from the beach. It was dark, and they were far away, but I was pretty sure Harry was down there. I slipped into something more beach appropriate and headed down towards the party.

"Elloise!!!" I heard Harry belt out my name as he caught a glimpse of me.

"Hey," I waved back, and as I got closer, I realized Harry was wearing...a dress? "What's this?" I laughed and pointed to his outfit.

"A toast!" He ignored my question and held up his beer bottle, the others followed suit. "To you, my dear Ellie, for being my shining north star amidst all this craziness, for leading me...to freedom!"

"Are you on drugs?" I asked as he finished his drink.

"Want one?" He held up a bottle as he grabbed another for himself.

"Sure. Perhaps you should pace yourself a bit, hon," I placed a hand on his arm to steady him as he started to tip over a bit.

"Is this that bikini I got you?" He traced his finger along the strings of the top of my bathingsuit, up my collarbone and around my neck.

"Yes, I thought we might go swimming, but I can see you're not in a good state to swim, or do much else," I looked him over as he wobbled back and forth.

"Nah, I can swim just fine," he set down his beer in the sand and took off toward the water.

"Harry! At least take the dress of first! You'll drown!" I shouted as I ran after him, removing my own dress in the process. Everyone else on the beach seemed to be just as drunk as Harry and didn't care, or thought it was amusing, that he was going to try drunkenly swimming in a dress.

"Nonsense, love, it's just like Dunkirk all over again!" He shouted as he waded into the water. "Nolan had us swimming fully clothed, and I only nearly drowned twice."

I finally caught up to him as we were waist high in the calm ocean. I wrapped my arm protectively around his waist and tried to pull him back. "Come on, let's get you out of those wet clothes."

"Oh, I see what you want to do now," he turned to face me and put both arms around me, planting a drunken kiss somewhere near my mouth.

"Let's just get you back up to the house, okay?" I looked up at him and he nodded. "Then we'll see."


***


"What did you mean last night when you said I was your 'north star'?" I asked.

He blinked a few times. "What?"

"You were kinda drunk, you probably don't remember it, but you said I was your north star, and I had led you to freedom," I explained.

He thought for a moment, with his eyebrows adorably scrunched up as he tried to remember last night. "Sounds like a slavery reference? Like, the underground railroad, and Harriet Tubman? I'm not sure how that applies to me," he laughed and sat up to look at me. "Though, I will say this: you've kept me on track, and heading in the right direction, so, I guess that's what drunken me meant by that. Actually I got you, uh," he stood up and rummaged through his dresser, but seemed to change his mind. He turned around to face me again, his eyes open wide, searching for something. Suddenly his bright green eyes stopped on my hand, and he reached forward to pick it up. "Where did you get that?"

"This?" I pointed to the ring on my left hand. "You gave it to me, last night."

His face was paralyzed in the oddest expression as he tried to piece together his memory of last night. I noticed in his other hand he had the empty black box the ring had come in. "Harry, were you about to propose to me again?" I giggled, and he started to smile.

"I don't remember doing that," he said, and started to laugh, "but yeah, I was." He sat down on the bed next to me and admired the way the ring looked upon my hand.

"Do you remember trying to swim in a dress last night?" I asked, and he laughed.

"I did what? This keeps getting worse..." He shook his head.

"Okay, I'll start from there. You were wearing a dress, I'm not sure why, I wasn't here for that part," I started. "But I brought you inside and got you out of the wet dress and gave you a towel to dry off. While you were drying off, I tried to get some clothes for you, but you would not let me near your dresser. It was pretty funny, actually:

I asked you why, and you said you had a surprise for me.

I said, what is it?

But you said you couldn't give it to me, not yet.

I asked, why not?

That seemed to stump you, and you stared blankly for a moment before you said 'I don't know.'

You looked through your top dresser drawer and found that little black box.

My heart nearly stopped when I saw it, but before I had time to think, you dropped to one knee.”

Harry stared back at me, biting his lip, but grinning. “What did I say?”

“You asked me to marry you,” I shrugged. Wasn’t it obvious?

Harry laughed, and closed his eyes for a moment. “I had a whole thing planned out, of course drunken me had to ruin it.”

“What were you going to do?” I asked.

“Well, I was planning on doing it out on the beach, but I’m too hung over to go out in the bright sun right now,” he started. “I would have told you how much I loved you, and how much I realized I needed you when I thought I might have lost you. I would have told you how much I’ve changed since I met you in that book store in Ottawa over a year ago, and grown to rely on you over the past year. I would have told how I couldn’t imagine spending the rest of my life without you, and how my world fell apart the moment you looked up at me and said ‘Harry who?’ I would have told you how much I need you, and I would have asked you to marry me, if you’d have me.”

We both had tears streaming down our faces by the time he finished, his hands holding mine. “I would have answered yes, of course; I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

He leaned in to kiss me, and held me closer for a minute before pulling away, blinking away tears of happiness.
“I hate to ask, but, is this because I stupidly brought up the that ring when I was in the hospital?” I bit my lip, hoping I hadn’t accidentally pushed him into proposing before he was ready. ”Because that was not what I meant at all, I was not trying to hint at anything…”

Harry shook his head and smiled. “Ellie, I have loved you for a long time. Yes, recent events made me realize that I didn’t want to live without you, but I’d rather realize that soon than later.”

I leaned in and kissed him one more time. “Now mom has two Wilson weddings to plan.”

“You don’t want a double wedding? Like they did in ‘Sense and Sensibility’?” Harry joked (I hope).

“God no, I’ve had to share enough events with Scott, I’m having my own damn wedding,” I laughed. “But honestly, I’d be perfectly happy with a small wedding, just you and I, a couple of friends and family, on a beach or in a field somewhere.”

Harry kissed me again. “That would be beautiful.”

Notes

I think it was the Rolling Stone interview where Harry mentioned wearing a dress at a party in Jamaica. I wish there were pictures! I wrote half of this chapter a long time ago, but I added the part about the proposal more recently. The ending is a bit lackluster, but I didn’t want to do anything too spectacular.

Don't forget to read the epilogue: Christmas 2017 (chapter 34)!!!!

I recently re-read the whole story and edited it, fixing grammar and anything that reader's commented on. If you still see some errors/anything that doesn't add up, let me know! : )

Thank you so much for reading, and to everyone who has voted and commented, it means a lot to me! : D