Beating For Two

Chapter 9

Monday, January 10th

Seventeen weeks

“It's kinda big, I know,” Harry said as he led me through the house. Maybe he'd noticed my incredulous expression as we walked through hallway after hallway in what seemed to be a never-ending maze.

“I- yeah, just a tad,” I said, my voice a little awestruck, “How many people live here?”

“Right now it's mum, dad and my two year-old twin brothers, Adrian and Connor, but my foster sister, Helen, and my foster brother, Carlos, used to live her as well. They're both in uni now, but we bought this house with the intention of seven people living in it, hence the size.”

“Sorry, but this house is big enough for at least fifteen people to live in it,” I said with a mild laugh.

“Probably, yeah,” he agreed with a smile over his shoulder, “Well, my room's here,” he added as he came to a stop in front of a white wooden door and opened it.

The first thought that hit me once I'd stepped inside was 'holy fuck' because the room was huge. It was probably the size of my bedroom, Owen's bedroom and our bathroom combined, but at the same time it was actually really cosy. The walls were painted in a comfortable, beige colour and numerous photographies were hanging all over the walls – some of them showed people, some showed nature and some showed random objects. The one thing that all the pictures had in common was that they were obviously shot for artistic reasons. I briefly wondered if it was Harry who was the photographer.

A king-sized bed was placed by the wall and the numerous pillows, blankets and comforters that were scattered all over it made it look incredibly comfortable, especially now when I felt exhausted in every way possible.

“Wanna sit down?” Harry's voice stopped my train of thoughts and I looked at him. He was gesturing towards his bed and I looked at him insecurely.

“Y-you want me to sit down on your... bed?” I asked uncertainly.

He shrugged nonchalantly, but I noticed the somewhat amused smirk that was tugging on his lips. “You can sit on the couch instead if you want to,” he said and motioned towards a black leather couch underneath a huge window, “but you were looking at my bed as if you wanted to have sex with it, so I assumed you thought it looked comfortable. Which it is by the way.”

I felt my cheeks flush pink at his choice of words. “It's okay, I can sit on the couch,” I said, even though my mind screamed at me to let my extremely tired body rest on the mountain of comfortability that was Harry's bed.

“But you wanna sit on the bed, don't you?” he asked, now with a hint of teasing to his voice.

“I said it's okay, I'll sit on the couch,” I said, my face growing warmer by the second.

He sighed in exasperation, though still smiling, before he suddenly lunched forward and grabbed my arm.

“What are you doing?” I asked as he dragged me over to the bed.

“Putting an end to the most stupid and unnecessary discussion I've ever participated in,” he said. Then he grinned at me and before I knew what was happening, I was lying on my back on the bed.

It was even more comfortable than it looked.

I sighed in content and couldn't resist the temptation of closing my eyes at the lovely, lovely feeling of my sore back resting against the softest mattress I'd ever been so fortunate to lie on.

“Your bed is amazing,” I mumbled before I could stop myself. The sound of my own voice woke me up a little and I clamped my mouth shut as I propped myself up on my elbows and looked at Harry who was standing next to the bed, eyeing me with a smile. “Sorry,” I said sheepishly, “It's just... really comfortable.”