COCO'S

05

Harry Styles

The first time I talked with Marian, she spoke in English all the time, so I assumed that it was her mother language and this was going to be a nice dinner to meet the others neighbours.

Well, I was mistaken.

Marian is in fact Cloe's grandmother, so her mother language seems to be also Italian, I think. I truly don't know, the amount of languages I have heard Cloe spoke in is very confusing, but I don't care enough to ask.

Marian has a boyfriend, Salvador, but he isn't for sure Cloe's grandfather either. She seems to love him anyway, but she doesn't call him with some pet name like she does with, well, Nana.

The house is a bit smaller than mine, and full of things everywhere. It doesn't look like the typical grandma house, though. It surprises me how actually good and modern Marian's home or even her clothes are. If I didn't know already that she is Cloe's grandma, I would have thought that she was around her fifties.

She has a bunch of art hanging on her walls, bright colours on the canvas, doing contrast with the soft white colour of the walls or the light wooden floor. The paintings aren't signed by anyone, what concerns me, what type of artist doesn't want her signature on something that they created?

My favorite painting from here is the one thas has an uterus shape with a blank background, decorated with flowers and pink tones everywhere.

"So, Harry, what do you do for living?" Marian speaks to me in the language I know, the entire conversation they have going on the entire dinner has been in Italian, leaving me completely out of place.

Something that makes me actually smile is Cloe translating me some things at some points, or even the fact that she feels bad because I can't understand anything.

I dislike her with all of my motives, but that's something very nice of her.

She is sat right in front of me, which makes us do eye contact more than we like, our field of view being each other.

Lila, the other neighbour is also here, I think she has said that she has a little kid but he's with his father today. She seems to be very nice as well, she knows a bit of English so we made a bit of small talk earlier.

Salvador, Marian's boyfriend, is a great person. He laughs a bunch and make others laugh as well, all the time making Marian smile or feel confident with the dress she's wearing or how the house is decorated or how good this pasta with prawns is.

That's the kind of love that I have written about sometimes. One lyric that I wrote a few years back has been replaying on my brain this dinner everytime I acknowledge them.

Well, the idea of the song Velvet Elvis by Kacey Musgraves, and most of the lyrics, was originally made by me, back in 2018.

All I ever wanted was something classic,
the kind love song that goes on 'til the end of time.

"I'm a songwriter," I reply to Marian's question, "I work in London but I travel a lot, too."

Marian raises her eyebrows, "That's so nice! What kind of music do you write?"

"Pop, mostly. A bit rock, I'd say." I chuckle. I'm awkward with small talks.

"I love pop! I keep telling Cloe that she needs to listen to more new stuff and not that old Spanish music she likes," She rolls her eyes at her grandniece's behaviour, "Any popular song that I may know?"

I say the first popular thing that came to my mind, "Most of them aren't really popular but you know City of Stars from La La Land? I wrote it."

"Wow!" Lila exclaims while Marian looks shocked, her jaw dropped to the floor.