The Timeline

18.

October 29th, 2014:

In the end, Claire didn't manage to go to the music video shootings on October 28th, for a very simple reason: Anna and Richard had asked her to watch over the twins while they went out on their very first date night since the twins had been born. She couldn't have just said 'No' to that. Anna and Richard deserved the time together, and Claire didn't mind spending a full night with her little Alice and Elsa, who were now about to turn 4 months old and were starting to gain little humans' qualities. They surely recognised her voice, by now, and appreciated Taylor Swift's music - they stopped crying whenever she played her. And they also always smiled whenever Claire would read to them.

One thing she hadn't told either Anna nor Richard was that she had moved on from simply reading children's books to the twins, and was now actively purchasing cheap books in kiosks and bookstores so she could practice her audiobooks voice - in the event that she was actually contacted by a publishing house. So, Claire had been reading those to her twins. The good news was that she was very good, and the twins enjoyed it a whole lot. The bad news was that the cheapest books she could find were Harlequin books, that contained some very steamy chapters. She still read them, although her ears turned pink and her cheeks grew hot; she figured the twins didn't exactly understand what she was saying, so as long as Anna and Richard didn't know she wouldn't be in any trouble.

Of course, she had to smuggle the books both inside and outside of the house. And she wasn't exactly keen on her Core Four friends finding out the fact she was actively spending money on such books, so she also had to smuggle them outside and inside of her own house. She had set a very stern limit of only buying two of said books a week, because she didn't have a steady income of money anymore - she babysat Leo and Noah when she could, but due to her very busy schedule she couldn't do it as often as she would've liked. So sometimes she would reread the ones she already owned, perfecting her accent and quelling down the faint embarrassment she felt when she read smut scenes.

Anyways, that was the reason she hadn't been able to go and hang out on the music video set, as Harry had invited her. She knew he had returned to the UK a couple days prior, and up until the morning of the 28th she had been sure she would've been reunited with him that very night; but then the news had come and she had had to contact him and cancel the meeting, telling him she was being held back by unforseeable circumstances; then she had had to rectify her words, because she had made it seem like she had befallen victim of an incident - which she hadn't. And, to his credit, Harry hadn't been disappointed. The conversation with him had gone, more or less, like this:

"Can you blame them? They want some time to themselves!" - that was Claire.

"Sounds fair." - Harry had said.

"Just think! When you have a kid, won't you want some alone time with your baby momma. Or whoever your partner is by then." - Claire had went on.

"Well, that sounds very much in the future, but I guess so." - Harry had replied, trying to not laugh at her words.

"Exactly. So you aren't mad at me, are you?"

He wasn't. He had said he wouldn't have been mad even if she had canceled for less valid reasons. Then he had confessed that it was probably for the best if Claire didn't go to the music video shooting. There would've been onlookers and paparazzi, pictures would've been posted on the internet, and Harry knew just how much Claire hated the idea of people she didn't know trying to find out exactly who she was and make up stories about her. And, on top of all of that, he had an event to attend right after the shooting would've wrapped up. Something with Kate Moss, apparently, but Claire had tuned all those informations out of her brain, for she didn't really care about Kate Moss. Harry had simply said she owed him her attendance at one of his famous person duties, somewhere in the future.