Ephemeral //H.S

The epilogue pt.1

-Harry Styles-

A year later, today.

You're sitting under the weeping willow again this morning, just like you do almost everyday. Harley is running around, enjoying the early summer sunshine he runs laps around the trees with his tongue out. I swear it almost looks like he's smiling from ear to ear. You're staring up at the leaves, lost in your own head. I wonder what you're thinking about. I know you could sit under that tree for an entire day, with just Harley if you could. But then you'd starve to death if I didn't remind you to eat something. I used to sit under that tree with you, I'd often read to you and your head would lay on my lap. That's what we used to do at first but then I realized that this needed to be your alone time. You're wearing that dress again, the yellow one, I know I told you already but you look so fucking beautiful today. Especially right now as Harley licks the back of your foot and you burst out laughing and roll on your back to welcome his kisses to your face. You're so pretty when you laugh, I wish I had my camera with me.

She looks up at me and smiles as she stands to her bare feet and walks back in my direction. I'm laying on the daybed I built a few months ago, I never really thought about putting this out here but she would always lay down on the small outdoors couch on the patio, and she'd always fall asleep there too so I thought maybe I should just put a bed there. And it's also really practical for when it gets too hot inside the house and it's almost impossible to sleep in our bedroom, we just sleep out here instead. If it's not raining, Lucy sits on this bed everyday to just spend some alone time with Harley or just watch as I mow the lawn or build or fix something. There is always something to fix in this house. We spend most of our time out here in the backyard, we have a huge patch of land without a single neighbor for miles, it's great for Harley that way he can run around as much as he wants. We go on walks together around the woods at the end of the backyard, along the small river that runs close to the trees where she likes to lay under.

She's never too far away, and I'm never out of her sight. Even though we've been here for a year, some things are still difficult to overcome. She gets scared whenever she can't see or hear me.

We go out every week, for groceries and other things we might need. It's the same every time, first the hardware store, then the bookstore, the supermarket and then the farmer's market if we need a lot. But usually it's only the farmer's market for food. We go together because I don't want to leave her here alone, and because I don't want to be alone either. We go on Tuesdays or Thursdays. It really depends on what we need.

For some reason the farmer's market was really crowded last Tuesday, I let go of her hand to buy something and the next thing I knew she wasn't next to me anymore. I turned around, it was barely a few seconds so she couldn't have been that far away so I wasn't really panicking. Someone must've gotten in her way, and because she's too polite she probably moved to let them walk by and was forced to move a little too far and in barely a few seconds she was on the other side of the market. I could see her looking for me, stuck on the spot in the centre of a small crowd, her eyes were watering and she was starting to panic.

It's better now, but when we first got here last year she always had to be able to see me. We were almost always in the same room. It's easier to reassure her now.

Walking over with Harley at her heels I place the leather bound journal to the side and uncross my legs when she comes over to sit on my lap, her knees on each side of my hips. I wrap my arms around her waist and groan in satisfaction at the warmth of her body and smell of her skin as she buries her face in my neck and wraps her arms around my shoulders.

"Hey, you alright?" Harley sits next to us and rests just his chin on top of the bed, watching us.

She nods before leaving a kiss right under my ear, I run my fingers through her hair and lean my head back to see her face. She smiles, resting her forehead against mine as my hands run up and down her soft thighs.