"Grace... Please, talk to me. Don't go in yet. Please." Harry ran up to me and turned me around. His face was more serious and worried than earlier and he managed to break my cold surface with his caring look. "Let's go inside the car for a bit. C'mon." He continued and took my hand and started to walk us towards his car.

"I asked you something before we left the park. And your response was quite horrible considering how I had just vented about the dilemma I have with you and Naomi. And with myself most of all." I said and tried to hold back tears. I had just gotten so angry before that crying felt the most natural way to let the stress go.

"I know. Okay, hear me out. I'm sorry- again. I hope I don't have to apologize to you as often as I had tonight in the future. But... The thing is that I like you a lot. And... To be honest, I want to be with you more than you know. I want to be your boyfriend. I'm not hanging with you because I want to get you to my bed, or myself to your bed. It's just that I'm not very good at this. At being this vulnerable, if it's what this is called. But I knew right when I saw you that there was something special about you. Like I said, I want to be with you."

Harry talked slowly and a lot. I had to take a few seconds to really let his words sink in. I wondered if he would ever stop surprising me. Probably not, it was one of his nicest qualities. I noticed a tear rolling down my cheek and quickly wiped it away.

"See... That's what I wanted to hear before. I'm sorry about my temper as well. I want to be with you too Harry. I really do. But is it going to be too hard for us? I just know I'm not ready to talk to Naomi about us. I know I might be over-reacting but you are also one of the few guys she has ever honestly liked. And that scares me. But until I'm ready to tell her, what do you think we should do?" I asked Harry who had taken my hand to his.

"I understand your point-of-view and we'll take as much time as you need. But I don't think I can be without seeing you, being with you. I suggest we keep seeing each other like we've had. And don't date anyone else. But keep this private and act as friends in public. Do you think you could do that?" Harry suggested.

"Could you?" I challenged him.

"I'd do it for you... For us." He simply responded and made me smile.

"Let's do it. Hello boyfriend." I said smiling, wrapped my arms around Harry, gave him a quick kiss and then hugged him tight.

"Hello girlfriend." He responded and chuckled.

I went home a little while later, feeling a lot better than earlier. I was glad we had talked about the status of our relationship, about Naomi and how we wanted to proceed. It gave me a bit of piece of mind to know we were in this together and we had clear rules on how we would behave around others. It was definitely not going to be easy and I would probably still feel shit about lying to Naomi at some point but at least I wasn't alone with this.

All I knew was that I couldn't help myself being so into Harry. I wanted him in every possible way and I had fallen more and more into him these past few days. I realized he was just not used to dating someone for real and not just for fun and sex. And the fact that I was probably the first real girlfriend in his life made me feel extra special.

I went to bed, feeling relaxed and more comfortable. As I shut my night lamp off, I got a text. I took the phone from the nightstand and opened the message.

'Goodnight girlfriend! Thanks for being patient with me. Imagine me giving you a massive hug right now because I would do that if I was there. Call me tomorrow, okay? .xx'

---

It was Sunday, which meant I got to meet mom's boyfriend Johnny for the first time as he would join us for dinner later in the evening. It was weird calling him her boyfriend. Technically, he was more like a man-friend, which I had to admit, sounded equally weird. I was actually feeling a little excited about meeting him; he was obviously doing something right as mom was always so giddy when she came home from seeing him. And I felt really happy for her, she definitely deserved a good man in her life.

It was a nice and warm day so I went for thin, cuffed jeans and a black and red striped top. To make it a little less casual, I added a so-called statement necklace and a bunch of bracelets. I had helped mom with the cooking previously and now we were just waiting for Johnny to arrive.

"Do you think these are too casual for this dinner, hun?" Mom asked and pointed at the tableware I had laid out.

"They're fine, trust me! We're eating at home and it's not a fancy dinner or anything. Just a normal Sunday dinner. Stop stressing mom!" I responded and punched her shoulder playfully.

"You're right, I'm acting all crazy right now. I don't know. I just really enjoy being with him and his house is all 'zen' and pretty and I'm just worried this is too casual..."

"Didn't you say he picked a stylist to decorate his new house? Again, stop stressing."

"Right, right. He did."

"We have a perfectly nice house and two very nice people living inside it. And if you worry about me liking him, don't. I'm sure he is charming." I smiled at mom and went upstairs after mom smiled thankfully back at me.

I went to my room and sat on my chair for a bit to check out some of my school stuff. As I waited for my ancient laptop to open, I glanced around my room not waiting to see anything out of the ordinary. But I saw something lying on the floor behind my armchair and went to pick it up.

I opened the dark bundle of fabric and noticed it was Harry's hoodie. He must have forgot it when he was here the last time. I pulled it closer to my nose and inhaled. It smelled just like Harry, a bit musky and still sweet and the scent brought a smile to my lips. I folded the hoodie nicely and placed it on my armchair so I could give it back to him tomorrow at school.

Soon after, I heard the doorbell rang and figured it was probably Johnny arriving to our very casual Sunday dinner. I heard mom opening the door and waited for a few seconds before I walked downstairs to greet him.

"And this is my daughter, Grace." Mom smiled and introduced me to Johnny.

"So nice to finally meet you Grace. I'm Johnny Parker." Johnny said and shook my hand firmly.

"Nice to meet you too!" I said smiling at him.

Johnny was a nice looking man with gentle brown eyes and hazel brown hair. He had a nice smile and he knew how to dress. He obviously worked out and took good care of himself. He seemed very nice and the way he looked at my mom, made me very happy.

Mom showed Johnny around the house as I was putting bread to the table and getting drinks from the fridge. We sat down and started dinner shortly after. Just as I was putting some feta-cheese salad to my plate, the doorbell rang. Mom looked at me and I looked at her. We both looked quite puzzled and wondered who it could be.

"I'll get it. Excuse me." I said and smiled at Johnny.

I opened the door and noticed Harry's smiling face staring back at me. He lowered his eyes to look at my top and I looked at his t-shirt and we both started laughing.

"I guess we both got the memo this morning! I like your top." Harry finally said. We were both wearing red and black striped shirts. He had to be my soulmate, I thought and shook my head in disbelief.

"What's up? I would ask you over, but we are having dinner with mom and her boyfriend. Or man-friend."

"Boyfriend sounds a little off, but so does man-friend." Harry said and looked as if he was trying to find another expression for it. "Anyway, I wanted to come and see if I left my hoodie here before? I can't find it anywhere. And I guess I wanted to see you a bit as well." He smirked.

"That's lovely Harry. And yes, it's here. Wait, I'll go and get it." I said and ran upstairs to get his hoodie.

As I was walking back downstairs, I noticed Harry was standing in our hallway and talking with mom.

"Gracie, I invited Harry for dinner. C'mon, the food is getting cold." Mom said and hurried back to the kitchen.

Oh dear god. Johnny is going to ask if he is my boyfriend and everything is going to be so awkward and weird and... I just didn't want to do this now. But Harry looked as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened and just followed me to the kitchen and sat next to me while mom got him a plate.

"Well hello, didn't know we were expecting more hungry lads. I'm Johnny Parker." Johnny said, extended his hand and got up from his chair a bit. Harry got up from his as well and shook his hand.

"Nice to me meet you Mr.Parker. I'm Harry Styles." He said with the cutest introduction voice.

"Oh young man, just call me Johnny." He replied and laughed. "So Grace, is Harry your..."

"Friend. Yes, just friends." I interrupted him from saying the word 'boyfriend'.

"How on earth do you have similar shirts on?" Mom suddenly noticed and looked both of our shirts.

"I have no clue. I guess we both just really like black and red stripes. It's a bit anarchic." Harry said as he was filling his plate with grilled vegetables and chicken skewers.

"Haha, yes!" Johnny chimed in and everyone was laughing at Harry's comment. Suddenly, mom and Johnny were reminiscing their teenage punk years.

The dinner went on nicely and we shared a lot of laughs together. Johnny was easy to get along with and he was good at listening to others and telling interesting stories. I already liked him a lot and thought he was welcome here anytime.

No matter how charming Johnny had been, Harry had totally stolen the show. He was so easy-going and cheerful the whole time, making everyone like him. I noticed mom just looking at him from time to time with a very approving face and then glancing at me and silently asking if I was crazy.

After dinner, me and Harry excused ourselves and went back to my room. I wondered if I should close my door or not, but in the end, left it open anyways. At least it wouldn't bring up any more thoughts to my mom's head, in case she would notice.

"You have a lovely mom Gracie. And Johnny is alright too! Was this the first time you saw him?" Harry asked smiling as we got to my room.

"Yeah, first time. I like him too, he is very charming indeed. I'm sorry you got kind of dragged into this whole dinner thing. I know how hard it is to say no to my mom."

"Are you kidding? I never even wanted to say no. But I guess you were not quite ready to have me here as your boyfriend?" Harry said and became a bit more serious, still having a faint smile playing on his lips while he cupped my cheek and stepped in closer.

"I'm so sorry about that. I just panicked and didn't know what you were thinking and yeah... Not ready just yet. Can you forgive me?" I said and lifted my hands to his chest.

"Nothing to forgive babe. Like I said, we'll go as slow as you want. I'm not going anywhere." He simply replied and leaned in closer to my face, our noses almost touching.

He rested his other hand on my hip and had a crooked smile on his lips before he kissed me softly. I responded to the kiss and felt like a thousand butterflies were starting to fly inside me all at the same time. But the kiss ended sooner I had hoped as Harry pulled slowly away from me.

"I need to get going. We have practice today with the lads and I'm already late."

"Band practice?"

"Yep." He replied.

"Alright... Can you please not tell anyone about tonight. We don't need Naomi hearing anything about this." I said.

"Of course I won't. See you in the morning?" Harry asked and took my hands to his.

"Actually, I think I'm going with Naomi tomorrow. We usually always go together on Monday's and I haven't seen her for a bit." I replied and smiled a bit, hoping he would understand.

"Sure thing babe. I'll see you at school. Come here..." Harry said and pulled me in for one last kiss before he left.

As I went back downstairs, I noticed he had forgotten about his hoodie again.

Notes

Long time, no see! :)

I just got home from a vacation and I'm back writing again! Totally missed this :)

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xoxo