Living in London

Epilogue

I walked along the sand, the cool air whipping my hair out behind me. The fabric of my dress sounded like bid wings as the breeze caused it to flutter with every step. Harry's hand felt strong and warm in mine and I never wanted to let him go.

I couldn't believe it. Today was our three year anniversary. We proved everyone wrong. They said we wouldn't last- the magazines, the blogs, the websites- but we did it. We're walking here, three years later, strong and happy as ever.

Only Harry would think to jet me to Bora Bora (Tahiti- for Christ's sake!) for our anniversary. But I am not complaining. The secluded beaches with white, soft sand and clear, blue water are the best places I've ever been. After all, Bora Bora hasn't been nicknamed 'The Romantic Island' for nothing.

We spent today diving in the neon-lit turquoise lagoon waters, hiking on Mount Otemanu trails (with the help of a guide of course. Harry and I probably would have been eaten by a lion if we'd gone alone. Are there even lions on the island?)

"Are there any lions here, Harry?" I asked as we sat down by the side of a hut. I think the hut was a massage place which was closed for the night. Part of the resort or something.

"I'm not sure. Why? Do you want a lion?" he asked, reaching for his phone in his pocket, no doubt to order me a lion. I put my hand on his to stop him.

"Are you psycho? No," I laughed.

"Then why the question?" Harry asked, laying back on the sand, one hand behind his head.

I shrugged. "I was just thinking that we probably would have gotten eaten on Mount Otemanu if there were any."

"Really?" Harry asked, squinting a little as the sun reached that awkward angle where it got in everyone's eyes and annoyed us to no end. "I was thinking something more along the lines of alligators. They would have found us first."

I shook my head quickly. "No way. If we die on this island, it's because of the lions."

"If there are no lions in Bora Bora then how will they eat us? It has to be the alligators."

"Because I said we're going to suffer death-by-lion-feasting, so we will die by lion feasting!" I insisted.

Harry and I stared at each other for a second. "Why the heck are we arguing over how we are going to die?" he asked and I shrugged, a cheeky grin on my face.

With my index finger, I wrote my ARIADNE + HARRY in the sand and then drew a love heart around it. Since it was too far up the beach to be washed away by the water and too hidden to be trampled by tourists, I hoped it would stay there for a while. I crawled back to Harry and layed down, my head resting on his chest. He wrapped his free arm around my shoulders and held me close to him, playing with strands of my hair.

The silence between Harry and I was getting too much. I didn't want it to turn into that awkward kind of silence where one of us feels that we have to make awkward small talk about the weather to avoid it getting awkward(er) but then it all gets awkward anyway. I've gotten my word-vomit under control but I still occasionally let random words slip when I felt the awkwardness rising too high. Generally, these random slips made everything much more awkward than they had previously been. And it's all thanks to my genius brain.

Oh God, I did not mean to say that.

Harry burst out laughing, used to my usual weirdness by now. It would sort of be a worry if he wasn't used to it as stuff like this happens on a daily basis with me.

After I'd gone on a couple of dates (one and a half, technically) with Harry, I'd moved back in to the apartment I used to share with Harry and Louis. In the time I was gone, nothing had changed, apartment-wise. It was all the same as I remembered and I liked it best like that. Something that had changed, however, was that the boys were seeing people. It kind of worried me, since I hadn't been there to give my approval. For all I knew, these girls could have been axe-wielding maniacs.