For Your Eyes Only [h.s.]

Ch. 61 - The Present

Adelaide Young
March 1, 2022
~2:00 am

"I'm fine, really! Ads, please, stop touching me!" Macey tells me, as she frantically pushes away my ever-moving hands. 

"I'm just checking for bruises!" I explain, although I know deep down it's unnecessary. It's chaos around me, but nothing matters besides my best friend and that she's ok. There are officers all over the house; both Ella and J.T. got here before Harry and I could get back into town. They've been with Macey all night, so now they're both resting after having given statements a bit ago. They're currently on the couch ogling at all of Harry's awards decorating the shelves of the main living room. While I already miss my weekend away with Harry, it does feel good to have them here. The feeling of having your family around you.

I've missed that feeling I'm afraid to admit. 

Macey, through all of this, still manages to have her strong sense of humor. She told me that "River and Dylan couldn't make it since they were on retreat for their newfound 'therapy' technique." Some nonsense of a new style of group therapy that would mean they're leaving the Harbor Institute. Which honestly, I think we would all welcome at this point. This new place is some strange name, something about adults or people... something that has us all rolling our eyes together. I fear their marketing team is better than their hired everyday staff deserves. 

"If anything had happened to you Macey I swear-"

"Oy, nothing happened to her. Yeah?" Ella chimes in as she gets up from the couch and makes her way over to us. "Come here, you two. If something happened to either of you I would personally track down the fucker who hurt you and hurt them myself, you hear?" The three of us hug, much to Macey's dismay; she's never been a physical touch kind of gal, but we both know Ella loves a good hug. 

"Excuse me! I know you aren't leaving me out of this very important moment in our friendship history!" I hear JT chime in with from the couch. Being so much bigger than the three of us, we're all relatively short, he manages to get his arms around the small circle we've formed in the middle of the living room. 

"I love you guys you know." I tell them, choking back tears. There's a few moments of a natural feeling quiet that finally comes over the whole place. Harry is upstairs still ensuring nothing was taken from our personal things. Jeff is with security in their office going through tapes. Finally, the main part of the house seems to be emptying out. 

Griff, unlike everyone else, is still close-by currently making us all a midnight snack. Well, it started as what he said would be a simple midnight snack, and now he's made everyone here a breakfast spread like I've never seen. The entire full time staff, plus the officers on site will all be perfectly fed before leaving. The exhaustion of the last few hours just starts to hit me when Macey breaks the silence.

"We know, we know, and we love you too, so..." Macey begins, pulling back from the hug so we're all staring at one another in each other's arms. "Show us the ring." She says, smiling at us with the biggest grin I think I've ever seen. 

I can't help the blush, but I manage to wiggle my arm out of the human knot we've accidentally made and show them the perfect ring Harry picked out for me. I show them the little starburst of diamonds that sits on my ring finger so delicately. 

"Oh he did good." Ella emphasizes. 

I smile and nod, not really sure how to handle this kind of thing, as I play with the ring between my fingers. It's a weird reality check of just how much my life has changed. I'm wearing what I know is a very expensive ring, from my very rich and famous fiancé, and it was only a bit more than a year ago that I was still living in my shabby Philadelphia apartment trying to figure out how to work my way up the ladder at my very normal person job.