a/n: today is harry and lili's one year meet-a-versaryð (irl not in the book lol. it's still feb 2020 in here)
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"And you're sure you've packed everything you'll need?" Harry shoots me a stern look, and I knew exactly what he was implying.
"Yes I got my tampons," I say bluntly and he chuckles. "The Anguilla situation will never happen again, as far as I'm concerned."
Harry laughs once again, mumbling a quiet "okay" before pushing the button to close the trunk door. He lets out a sigh, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his black joggers. They looked almost identical to his other ones, but these ones didn't have the small vertical stripe along the side of the calf. For some reason, this made me wonder how many other pairs of black Nike joggers he had in his closet.
"Ready to go?" Harry asks, a soft smile on his face.
"Of course." I smile back and I feel the nervous feeling flutter back into the pit of my stomach.
I step forward to walk around to the passenger side door, expecting Harry to go the opposite way toward the drivers side. So you could say I was a little surprised when he quickly maneuvered around me, walking along the passenger side of the car.
A confused look crosses my face, just as a smile does to Harry's. He reaches down and opens the passenger door, stepping out of the way.
"How come you always open the door for me?" I ask, taking a seat in the front seat.
"Because it's the right thing to do," he puts it plainly before shutting the door. He walks around the front of the car, and as I buckle my seatbelt, he gets in. "I would've let the car warm up while we were loading it, but you know...air pollution."
I let out a chuckle as Harry started the car. He then turns to me. "You can play the music if you'd like."
"Really?" I raise my eyebrows. Usually whenever Jess and I go on long drives, (or long-ish, in this case), we always decide the driver gets to pick the music.
"Of course," Harry says with a nod, shifting the car into reverse, but keeps his foot on the brake.
"Your music taste is much better than mine." I tilt my head. "Are you sure you don't want to play your own music?"
"Not that I'm agreeing with you," he begins, pulling his phone out of his pocket. He holds his phone out towards me. "But you can play my music, if that's what you want."
After I take his phone from him, he turns his head to look out the rear window, placing his hand behind the head rest of my seat to enable his head to crane further over. I feel the movement of the car as I look at his phone in my hands.
I can't remember his password. It's been a while since I was last on his phone, and I've only ever been on it once. I haven't really had the time to memorize it yet.
Didnt it start with a 2? Or was it a 6?
"What's your password again?" I decide to ask since he's fully pulled the car out of the driveway.
"Great memory you've got there," he teases, chuckling. "0639."
I tap in his password before opening the Apple Music app. 'Songs that remind me of you.' It may be little biased of me, but that's the one I eanges to go for right away. I've only heard a few of the songs that are on it, and it's a pretty long list. I was curious to see what other songs he had on there. But I chose to go to his entire library first
I scroll slowly for a few seconds, looking at every song until I found the one I wanted to listen to first: Chasing Pavements by Adele. I changed the setting so it would shuffle after the song, then locked Harry's phone, placing it in the cup holders between us.
"Hey, do you mind if we stop for coffee?" Harry asks after a moment of silence between us, both listening to the song. I'm fairly certain we had a mutual liking toward Adele.
"Of course," I say with a nod.
"Wait, of course you mind or of course we can?" Harry furrows his eyebrows in confusion.
"I don't mind if we stop for coffee," I say, much clearer this time. Harry chuckles, adjusting his grip on the steering wheel so he was steering with only his right hand. His left hand reaches out to hover above the center console, palm up.
I take ahold of his hand, interlocking my fingers with his. He turns head to look at me briefly, a soft smile on his face. He turns back to the road.
"I'm really glad your here," he tells me. And I could tell he meant it wholeheartedly. That's why I could feel my heart melt out of my chest.
I wasn't sure what to say, so I just laughed sheepishly. I give his hand a gentle squeeze of appreciation, which he returns.
* * *
Harry parallel parked on the side of the street near a Starbucks. I offered to go in for him, but he was very insistent on going in.
"Wait," I stop him before he has the chance to close the door completely. "Don't you need your phone?" I reach down to pick it up for him, but he waves me off.
"It's alright," he says with a shrug. "It's playing the music." He flashes me a smile. "You stay here and play dj, I shouldn't be too long."
I give him a small nod and he shuts the car door. Immediately, I press the lock button, terrified of someone hijacking the car and kidnapping me.
I check my phone, only to see that I had no notifications. So popular, I think. With a roll of my eyes, I tuck my phone under my thigh, deciding to watch people and cars pass by instead.
The music plays softly through the speakers of Harry's Range Rover. I just let his music library shuffle, instead of choosing each individual song. There has yet to be a song that I've wanted to skip, so his phone has remained in the cup holder the entire time. Hold Me by Fleetwood Mac was the song that currently played.
I feel my phone buzz from where it was tucked under my thigh, signaling an incoming phone call. My mind automatically jumps to the idea of Harry being the one calling me, maybe to confirm my order or something, so I pull it out to answer it. But Harry's phone was sitting in the center console, playing music. So it obviously couldn't be him texting me.
It obviously wasn't Harry, but in fact an unknown number. Must be Noah, I'm quick to think. I click the off button, silencing the call. I didn't want to decline it, but I didn't want the annoyance of listening to it ring because I was not going to answer it.
I set my phone down on my lap, feeling annoyed now. I fold my arms and stare out the window again, watching cars drive past just as I was before I was rudely interrupted. My phone buzzes against my leg again, but this time only briefly. With a loud sigh, I glance down at my phone.
New voicemail.
A voicemail? Noah doesn't leave voicemails. At least, he never has.
I pick up my phone, unlocking it. I was way too curious now. I open up the voicemail, pressing play before quickly raising my phone to my ear.
"Hello Liliana, this is Officer George Smith. I'm not sure if you remember me...it's been a while. Anyways, I have a few questions to ask you, so if you could just give me a call whenever you have a moment, that would be lovely. Thank you, buh-bye."
I furrow my eyebrows as I bring my phone back down. George? Why on earth would George be calling me? And what questions did he need to ask me?
My mind flooded with questions, and after a few seconds I was making up scenarios in my head that were freaking me out. So I felt the need to return his call, not necessarily for him, but to put all my worries to rest.
I press the small phone button on my screen, which immediately begins to call George's cell phone. I quickly raise my phone to my ear, feeling nervous to talk to him all the sudden. I keep mentally reminding myself that it was George I was talking to, not Noah. Even if they're closely related, they are mostly definitely different people.
"Hello?" George's voice rings into my ear. There was almost a sense of comfort in the familiarity of his voice, as odd as it sounds. After all, he helped me get where I am right now. And by that I mean sitting in the front seat of Harry's car.
"Hi George," I speak up, trying my best to sound enthusiastic. I quickly reach forward to turn down the music so I could hear him better.
"It's great to hear from you, Liliana," he says. "I didn't expect you to call back this quickly, but I'm pleasantly surprised."
"I would've answered the first time, but you came up as an unknown number. I guess I hadn't put your number in my phone." I hear George chuckle on the other line. I felt the urge to get straight to the point. "So, you said you had a few questions to ask me?"
"Right." He lets out a sigh. "It's about Noah."
Oh.
I swallow my fears. "Noah? W-What about him?"
"I just haven't heard from him in a while. And that's just very...unlike him. He's always been the child his mother and I could always count on when it came to staying in touch." He lets out a chuckle, almost as if he was reminiscing his past. "Anyways, Noah's said that you two have been keeping in touch recently, so I just wanted to see if you knew what was up with him."
"He said we've been in touch?" I ask, just to ensure I heard him correctly the first time.
"Yes," he says positively. "I don't know Noah to be much of a liar."
"I'm sorry to say it George, but Noah and I haven't really stayed in touch." I couldn't find the right words to tell him. I didn't want to be the one to tell him how his son really is, I feel too guilty.
"What do you mean by that?" He ask, a subtle hint of hurt in his voice.
"I mean..." I don't want to say it. I shouldn't expose Noah to his own father. "We've talked briefly in the past little while, but he's really done most of the talking."
"Well, when was the last time you spoke to him?"
"Last night, actually," I say. I wanted to add more to that statement, but George was quick to cut me off, probably unintentionally.
"Last night?" I could just tell he was raising his eyebrows. "I haven't spoke to him since...well, I can't even remember. It definitely hasn't been in the last week. It's been so long, I can hardly remember what we last talked about."
"I'm sorry, George," I say sincerely. And I meant it. I was so so sorry for him. Because here I am complaining about the fact that Noah hasn't left me alone, while George has been left wondering why Noah hasn't talked to him. "Have you tried reaching out to him?"
"I've tried...many times. No response."
I can't help but feel bad. George is such a kind man, and it's just unfortunate that Noah is his son.
"Well are you sure you have his new number put in your phone correctly?" I ask, beginning to list off the possible reasons Noah wasn't replying.
"Noah got a new number?"
Oh fuck.
Just as I opened my mouth to respond, the sound of the car door handle being pulled startles me. I look over to see Harry trying to get in the car up, hood up, sunglasses on, drink carrier in hand. I quickly push the unlock button to let him in.
"Liliana? Are you there?" George asks and I realize I've been silent for an abnormal amount of time.
"Yeah, yeah I'm here," I say quickly and I see Harry shoot me a look of confusion out of the corner of my eye.
"When did he get a new number?" George asks and my heart genuinely hurts for him. "And why?"
"I'm not too sure," I lie. I still felt like this wasn't my place to tell him. Noah should've been the one to do this, not me.
"Well I guess if he wanted me to know his new number, he would've given it to me." The disappointment in his voice made everything ten times sadder. "I'll check with my wife and see if he's given it to her, although I don't know why she wouldn't tell me."
"Yeah, maybe she just forgot," I try to give him a little hope.
"Maybe." He sighs. "Well, I better let you go. I'm sure you have other things to do rather than listen to me talk your ear off."
"Alright, well it was great to hear from you, George." I see Harry's head turn to look at me.
"Ditto. Goodbye, Liliana."
"Bye, George."
We hang up and I let out the loudest sigh ever, dragging my hand down my face.
"Who's George?" Harry asks me after I've had a moment to chill out.
"A cop." I roll my eyes, tilting my head to look over at him. He furrows his eyebrows.
"A cop?"
"It's Noah's dad." I roll my eyes. And before he can say anything, I quickly add, "I really don't wanna talk about it."
"Alright," he says understandingly, nodding. "Well maybe this will make you feel better." He reaches down and retrieves a cup from the cardboard holder in his lap. He holds it out for me to take.
"Thank you." I smile, taking the drink happily into my hands. I take a sip and my tastebuds are immediately filled with joy, causing my smile to widen. "It's a little odd to drink one of these after making them for a while."
"Really?" Harry asks, maneuvering the car out of his parking spot. "It wasn't very weird for me to make bread after working in a bakery."
I roll my eyes playfully. "Weren't you a cashier?"
"I baked sometimes," he says defensively.
"Sure you did," I tease.
Suddenly, a familiar guitar strum played through the speakers, so quiet it was almost silent. I felt my face light up as I looked at the stereo screen, just to make sure it was the song I thought it was. And sure enough I was right.
"I love this song!" I pipe up, reaching forward to turn it up. Harry chuckles as I raise the volume.
"Are you a Joni Mitchell fan?" He asks.
"Not her biggest," I say with a shrug. "But I like this song a lot. I like the Counting Crows version better."
"This is my favorite version," Harry tells me with a smile, eyes still fixed on the road. He taps his thumb on the steering wheel to the beat, and I can't help but watch him in admiration. Everything he does is just so endearing, and it can be hard to look away. So sometimes I just feel the need to watch him.
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a/n: since y'all just loved george so muchðâ