ink. (haylor)

xii. flutters

a/n:

i'm on a roll, if i do say so myself

this is like a surprise unexpected update, really - since a lot of you are on vacation/holiday and really i'm the only one stuck in school

i got really excited about this in my physics class so i knew i would be udating tonight :)

love y'all

-kay

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[Taylor's POV]

As promised, Harry's mother took all three of us to her favourite restaurant for some late-morning brunch and once again, the question of how Harry came out the way he did surfaced to the top of my mind.

Anne Styles was delightful.

She made the best jokes, a lot of the time at the expense of her son, but most importantly, she was real.

She was painfully honest from the beginning and told amusing anecdotes. While we ate lunch, she engaged in light-hearted conversation with Harry and me, barely mentioning our relationship at all.

It was intriguing to see the person who gave Harry half of his DNA up close, since his father seemed to be such an asshole, I could see where he had gotten the wonderful Harry who had been shining through the seams of normal uptight Harry.

I had been expecting her to bombard the two of us with questions in hopes of getting information like my own mother had tried to do, but she was respectfully polite about our private life, not once mentioning the fact that she'd first met me in a bed with her son.

After lunch, Harry courteously excused himself from the table as his mother and I made plans to go shopping, telling the both of us of a work commitment he had, and bidding us a farewell with a kiss on his mother's cheek and one on the side of my mouth.

To anyone else, it looked like her had quickly and affectionately kissed me full on the lips, but it was a clever angle he had somehow perfected. He whispered something short in my ear and Anne must have thought it was something sweet like 'I love you'  but in actual fact, he had said, "Good luck with her,"  and had hurried off, immediately calling his driver to pull around to the front of the café.

The whole incident left my breathing hitched and I had to ask his mother to repeat herself as I hadn't heard what she had said on account of all the blood roaring in my ears.

The entire day as we trawled the shop-lined avenues of New York, I'd so desperately wanted Karlie to be wrong about me still liking Harry. Unfortunately being in the presence of his mother only made me realise I had some pretty deep-lying feelings for him.

Anne was so alike to him. She had the same smile and the same enthusiasm and even cracked terrible jokes, even though hers weren't as bad as his. By a long shot.

As we walked past a few stores near the end of a road, loaded-down with shopping bags, Anne suddenly stopped in front of one of them. It took me a while to register this as I had been a bit pre-occupied.

"Taylor we need to go in," she breathed, tugging at my arm gently.

I followed her inside, only catching the name on the sign outside when it was too late.

Victoria's Secret

If I had known earlier, I would have made an excuse. Never would I have thought of shopping for lingerie with my sort-of-crush's mother. It was absolutely absurd.

I walked us over to the section where they had sports wear and hoodies, hoping I could keep her away from the lace panties a few feet away. The thought of that made the blood begin to rush into my cheeks.