The Timeline [h.s.]

73.

September 3rd, 2018:

Claire and Harry hadn't seen each other since the day after Claire's audition, when they had boarded the same plane back to London, together in the first class.

The both of them had had pre-made plans for their summers, and sadly, none of them held any space for the other. In Harry's defence, when he had made those plans and accepted those invitations and whatever else, he hadn't known that things with Claire would be going so well, and that the two of them would be, once again, growing closer than they had ever been, in a more mature and adult way.

He had a trip to Northern Italy - more precisely, in the cities of Bologna and Modena - together with Jeff and his family in the following days, just so they could spend some time together and he could be in a more relaxed and laid back environment after months of hectic traveling due to the touring schedule. He had, of course, invited Claire to tag along, knowing that no one would've minded her presence - especially him.

She had had to refuse, for she had a pre-planned vacation with David, Jack and Fabian in a little seaside English village, inside of an Airbnb and they had already paid for and booked for a full week, until the beginning of August, when Fabian was supposed to get back to Liverpool and begin his third year of internship at the restaurant. She had communicated that to Harry with a very pouty face, and he had accepted the news with an equally somber face, but he knew that he couldn't exactly always have Claire all to himself, and that she valued her time with her lifelong friends, especially in the wake of what had happened with Jacopo after her trip to New York. He had kept his mouth shut.

As for the month of August, Harry had plans to visit the Gerbers in Canada and spend some time there - he didn't ask Claire to join him in that trip, for it'd be filled with other people, and it wasn't his house and things were a tad bit more complicated; she didn't ask him to join either, but he knew she would've never done that, always feeling like she was intruding in his private life and free time, being unfairly afraid of freeloading or whatever other lie she might be under the impression of.

He did, however, ask her if she wanted to tag along on the trip to Mexico for James Corden's birthday party, but Claire had said she'd be passing that invitation as well. There'd been talks of joining Anna and Richard and the twins for a vacation in August, somewhere, for some quality family time - there had also been talks about Natasha and Ben (the Australian-emigrated siblings) joining the whole thing, just to see their family on occasions that weren't simply connected to Christmas and Easter and other national mandatory holidays. She wasn't sure about the dates, but she had already made herself available for that. Again, both had nodded their heads somberly - although Claire wasn't that gutted about missing James Corden's birthday, for she had never been very fond of the man. She'd very well survive the entire thing.

What she was sad about was the fact that Harry would be going straight to LA after his vacations were over: he would be spending at least a couple of months there, starting to work immediately on his sophomore album. He had told her that as Theodore slept and they were a couple of house away from Heathrow Airport: he intended to start jotting down songs and concepts immediately, because he didn't want to lose time; he had a 3-album contract with Columbia Records to fulfill before a certain date and he didn't want to slack or sit around and wait for the inspiration to struck him.

He would be striking while the iron was still hot, riding on the adrenaline and the little bits and pieces he had hummed and thought about while on the road, trying to lay the foundations of the album and also work on other side projects he had floating around, finalizing those. He'd be back in London later in the year, so him and Claire wouldn't be seeing each other for some time - which was also the reason he had been so keen on Claire attending the shows at MSG and the final ones (and why he had wanted her to tag along for those vacations he had planned, but alas, she had other plans).