In This World (Harry Styles)

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(DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. It's important to remember this is all totally fabricated, embellished, and exaggerated for entertainment purposes.)

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Baby, you don't know what it's like

Baby, you don't know what it's like

To love somebody

To love somebody

The way I love you

To Love Somebody - Ray LaMontagne

I'd attended so many weddings since my career began that I'd actually lost count a long time ago. Most of them in person, but a few via Facetime and pre-recorded videos as well, which people paid handsomely for. Seemed to me a great number of folks thought the best way to elevate their ceremony and make it a night to remember was to pretend to be close friends with a celeb, for all the wrong reasons. Mainly validation-seeking. Like it cemented their status as a major player, or somehow made their lives appear more enviable when it came to impressing everyone they'd ever known. Sort of like humble bragging at a school reunion. It was shallow, petty, and a glaring indicator of how much stock people still put into appearances, despite many pretending not to these days.

Through the years, I'd been that celeb for far too many insufferable couples, but this one was very, very different. There was nothing I could lend them that they hadn't already acquired for themselves. Be that clout, global prestige, wealth, high-level networking, you name it. It was an honor to be among them now, attending one of the largest, most ostentatious weddings of the century. Well over 200 invitees in counting, including many other celebs, influencers, and politicians, which certainly made for an exhilarating time. Yep, this ceremony took the cake; and it ate it too.

While Gray and I waited for the boys to return from Tokyo the following morning, he and I went out shopping for hair fiber spray to patch up our bald spots, particularly because Archie had threatened to kick Gray out of the wedding party if he didn't do something about his, and he also demanded that we shave our mustaches. When we returned home, we shaved one another's and promised we'd regrow them as soon as we left the ceremony. The next morning, we were all packed and reunited with the boys and good to go. They were now all awaiting me in the hired Escalade, which would take us to the airport to catch the private jet directly into Melbourne nonstop. It was early and I'd battled an upset stomach when I woke, so I was only just now feeling up to leaving the house. The flight had been rescheduled on my behalf for 11AM, whereas it had originally been set for 7AM. That meant we'd be touching down in Melbourne around 10PM, depending on how well things went in the sky.

I hurried out now with my overstuffed tote and crossbody bag, as Gray carried our larger luggage out and helped the driver load the trunk. Archie told me I was a little diva, trying to sabotage his wedding because I was in love with him. I told him he was exactly right, and slid my shades into place. That left him so stunned he couldn't even think of a response. When we were securely onboard the enormous aircraft, the boys all ate breakfast, but I called dibs on one of the staterooms and laid down in the bed from the second we took off until the second we landed, only waking occasionally to take a piss, read a little Ralph Waldo Emerson, and make-out with Gray beneath the sheets midflight. When things got hot and heavy, I nearly inducted him into the mile-high club, but was ultimately too exhausted to show him a good time. He said maybe we could try again on the flight back, and I told him I was looking forward to it.