Redamancy | Harry Styles Fanfiction (ongoing)

Chapter Thirty-five

"With open, open, open, open arms (ooh)
Open arms, you keep me open
I'm so devoted
You keep me open, open arms
I'm so devoted to you, to you, to you"

Aurora Brown

The restaurant is small, cozy. Checkered floors, outdated furnishings and small chairs. It's like one of those restaurants that may not look all that great on the outside but you can just tell the food is good.

I can tell she works very hard and devotes all her time to this restaurant, because albeit small, it's extremely well maintained, clean, spotless even and uniform. Efficient.

As I look around and he speaks of her, I see a small woman walk towards us and she walk-sprints towards us, in khaki trousers, a flannel shirt and sport shoes. She calls out, loudly "Ài!" and only Harry responds. He opens his arms open "Lucy!" gives her a big hug.

She's beautiful, she has the looks of a gracefully aging woman, smile lines at the ends of her mouth and almond eyes. She slim and frail. Her hair is just past her shoulders— a beautiful array of white, gray and black—with the lightest colours framing her face.

Her eyebrows have thinned and cheeks sunken, loose skin drapes her neck in a way that it depicts the years of life that has passed her. She still looks calm, like she's made her peace with God and nature.

He's forced to bend quite low, any lower and his knees would hit the floor. She enthusiastically pats his back as he hugs her.

It's adorable to see Harry with the people he loves, even when unexpressive, his eyes give it away, they twinkle for the people he loves.

She scolds him once the hug is over, "don't call me that! I've told you that one hundred times" Years of living in England has thrown off her accent, but a scent of still lingers when she says certain words.

He looks at me, "when I first saw her I was sure she was an actress. People don't come here because the food is good, if you were wondering, that's just a bonus, if you don't believe me, you should ask the regulars.

He makes banter and she whacks his arm, simultaneously she takes my hand and pulls me to the nearest table.

"You his G.F?" she asks me and I'm not sure if I should answer the question or be mesmerized by the fact that she uses abbreviations for words.

I cover my mouth, my eyes widen and I look at Harry. He continues to look at me, "tell me?" she asks again.

"Y-yes"

"Ah, good. You are pretty. Nice eyes. Good hair. Polite. Harry she's good" She makes her report to him, Her evaluation of me makes me feel like I can now accomplish anything I want.

"Anne told me. You both will come to see me, I'm happy. Now come lets eat" She drags me out to one of the benches, I assume she'd saved for Harry and us, it's the only table with a rose in the vase, every other table has an empty vase.

She goes around the table, hugging Gemma and Michal, as casual as ever, like they know everything about each other. It warms my heart to watch them all just function.

Slowly, but promptly Harry's friend's all filter in to the restaurant, each one hugging Mrs. Xiu like they've all known her for ages, which they have.

And she seems to know all of their orders, because magically, food appears on our table without anyone ordering anything.

Unsurprisingly, it's the best Chinese food I've ever eaten.

and that's saying something,

because I've eaten a lot of Chinese food.