Moon Bay // Harry Styles Series #2 - Ghana

The Next Day

They tried so hard not to behave any differently toward me at breakfast. I really was half in love with all of them by this point.

Zayn said a soft good morning but seemed to have a hard time meeting my eye. Louis couldn't stop staring, a knowing smile and nod of the head his only greeting. Niall was obviously torn between fear and curiosity, and Liam was as serenely polite as ever.

And then there was Harry.

He blushed when I smiled across the table at him, but was quickly drawn into the general conversation about the day's plans. Volleyball and perhaps some archery in the morning, then lunch and a nap, followed by a few hours on Big Beach in the afternoon. Gladys and Sam would be setting up a cookout and bonfire that evening.

Making a team-balancing sixth for volleyball, I played with Zayn and Liam. I'm quite fit and was ready to play to win, but Zayn's heart wasn't in it, despite Liam's encouragement. The other team was all in. We only took one game out of five.

Archery was another story. I practiced every time I went to Moon Lodge, and it showed as I put them all to shame.

I spent the morning in very brief running shorts and a sports tank, catching all the boys stealing glimpses of my body in motion. I wondered if anyone was changing their guess. I was certain that my swinging ponytail and taut belly pointed toward youth, and my tan probably disguised any telltale signs of time on my arms and legs. Harry seemed to know, but he hadn't said a thing.

We sat next to each other at lunch, my thighs and hips burning at his touch as he pressed against them. I wondered if he felt the same. The desire I had for the young man was threatening to overcome me; I considered inviting him back to my bungalow for 'a siesta' but knew it would be prudent to wait until the night.

The afternoon's swim was wonderful. Sam dug out a few boogie boards and we all took turns in the surf. Every time Niall went down, he would jump right back up crying out, "I'm fine!" Liam was great on the board. He'd had surfing lessons in Australia. Zayn walked along the waterline, far down the shore. I worried about him. He seemed lost in himself.

Louis and Harry played. Dunking each other, pulling down one another's swim trunks, racing in the water and on the sand. They were all boy. Soon Zayn was back and the chicken fights began. I climbed on Louis' shoulders and Niall on Harry's. I thought Zayn would be too much for Liam, but evidently he was even lighter than he looked. And for all the softness of his face, it turned out Liam was buff.

I nearly lost my bikini top once or twice, and Louis' hands, steadying me, creeped farther and farther up my thighs. I think I saw everyone's ass at some point as bathing suits were yanked in an effort to pull the others down into the sea, and mine was bared as well. They didn't hold back, treating me like one of the guys. I loved it.

Exhausted, we each took a chaise lounge and dozed until Fred and George, who had been watching like indulgent parents, woke us before we burned in the lowering sun. As we made our way over Full Moon Point to the bungalows, Harry pulled me aside behind a rock outcropping.

"We're leaving at ten o'clock tomorrow. Promise me we'll spend the night together?"

"We will. We'll have dinner and enjoy the bonfire with everyone else, though. Take advantage of your last night with no obligations, your last night of freedom. Now, let's go get cleaned up for tonight."

*****

Dinner at the bonfire was amusing. Several sausages were lost in the flames, and the burgers were blackened, but no one cared. The evening was all about stories of their antics and excitement for upcoming plans. They even sang bits and pieces of songs, their own and others', for me.

The breeze off the bay fanned the flames, sending sparks up into the air, and pulling my hair out of its twist.

"Leave it down?" Harry asked as I began to put it up. "I like how it blows like strands of silk in the wind."

How could I refuse?

As I looked around the fire between the locks of hair now crossing my face in the wind, I realized something surprising.

"Harry?" I asked I his ear.

"Yes?"

"Nobody's really taken any photos while you were here. I know you all have your phones around, but no one's gotten photos or videos of you being stupid, having fun. Why is that?"

"This is a really private time for us. Not something to post on social media, you know?"

"Would you like me to take a picture of you all here at the bonfire? It's so cool, with the flames and the full moon behind it over the bay. That might be something you'd all like to have, just for yourselves."

"Let me ask the boys."

He made his way around the circle, the question answered with nods and smiles. They all handed over their phones.

"Annie, give me your phone and we'll get Fred to take the photos. We'd like you to be in the pictures. Is that something you could have? A picture of you and the crazy boys who intruded on your vacation? Completely harmless."

I had to think about it for a moment. What would it mean to have a photo of me with the band, especially after tonight? If it was everyone, then why not? I just needed to avoid any of Harry and myself alone.

"Yes, of course. I'd love to have one."

I took a chance and stood next to Harry, Zayn on my other side. He smelled very good and the firelight made his remarkable lashes throw shadows like giant spiders on his eyelids.

There were a few outtakes, Louis and Niall hamming it up, but finally they settled down and we got one or two happy shots of the six of us, lit warmly by the dwindling flames, the bay and moon behind us. 

Harry and I stood, arm in arm, talking to the others for a little while. They would be leaving after breakfast the next morning, and had what sounded to me like a grueling schedule planned for the rest of forever. How these young men were going to survive life like that for much longer was a mystery to me.

As Sam came to douse the remaining embers, the group split up, four boys returning to their bungalows, Harry and I walking toward Big Beach. Sabir followed.

"I'm fine, Sabir. We're fine. You're off duty."

"We'll have rain before midnight, ma'am. Do you see the clouds rising behind us?"

The man had a serious aversion to rain and seemed to think that if I ever got wet he might lose his job.

"I won't melt if I get caught in a little rain. I'm relieving you of your duties for the night. Officially. Go." He knew my serious tone of voice and the futility of arguing when I used it.

As Harry and I came over the point and onto Big Beach, the moon disappeared behind a strip of clouds, then emerged again.

"Sabir's right, of course, it's going to rain soon. I want to stay on the beach for a bit in the rain, but you don't have to."

"I'm not afraid of getting wet."

We sat, pressed against one another on 'our' chair, watching as clouds, larger and more frequent, crossed before the moon. I talked about my family, growing up in DC's diplomatic circles. He told me the story of the band, full of side notes that hadn't made the accounts I had read in the press.

He was so warm against me, his fingers trailing heat wherever they slid on my skin. Arms, collar bones, neck, jawline. I traced the sparrows and butterfly exposed by his open shirt, then pushed the left shoulder off to examine the ink on his arm in the moonlight that broke through the clouds. But nothing more than the touch of our fingers. It was enough, for now.

Soon thunder growled inland as the first drops began to fall, and I knew we needed to get across the point before we lost all light save for the occasional lightning flash. The deluge was unleashed, along with a great fork of blue green that tore through the sky with an accompanying crack and deep throated rumble, just as we reached the neatly trimmed lawn of the Lodge.

We were thoroughly soaked by the time we reached my bungalow. Standing just inside the door, rivulets snaking across the tiles from our feet, our clothes had become transparent, clinging to our bodies. We might as well have been naked.