Illusion

Chapter 22 : Harry's King, Hollywood Rom Com's and Unwavering Trust

“Harry, please. For the love of all that is good and gay, please, stop bouncing your leg,” Tay whined, rubbing at the bridge of her nose, her tone filled with impatience.

“I’m sorry, Tay. I can’t help it. It’s just, this flight has been the longest fourteen hours of my entire life. I’m going crazy.”

“I know Harry, I know,” Tay said patting Harry’s knee, effectively stopping the motion of his leg. “We will be there soon, I promise. We should be getting ready to land anyway. Look, I can see the city from here.”

Harry looked out of the window to where Tay was pointing, the Melbourne Skyline shimmering in the distance, before he sat back in his seat letting out a sigh, squished between Tay and a lovely old woman named Agnes. Harry had been so desperate to get home to Louis, to see him, to hold him, that he had asked Tay to book them on the first flight out of LAX, no matter which section of the plane they’d be seated in.

Agnes, as it turns out, was a lovely woman who lived in Rosebud, a small town about half an hour from where Louis lived, and it wasn’t long before they had struck up a conversation.
They’d spent a few hours of the initial leg of the flight discussing lots of seemingly mundane topics including house plants. Agnes had told Harry all about her Japanese Peace Lily, affectionately named, Lily, who was her favourite. Harry had listened intently as she’d told him all about Lily, and how she cared for her. Agnes clearly had no idea who he was, and it was nice to feel like a normal person for a change.

Agnes then showed him pictures of her three cats. One was a large orange tabby named Bosco, who looked as though he'd seen his fair share of fights. The second, was a pretty little Tortoiseshell Tabby named Possum, who apparently was the Queen of her domain and loved to perch herself on the highest possible surface to survey her minions. And last but not least, was Smokey, a stunning Russian Blue cross, who was simply the most beautiful cat Harry had ever seen, besides his own cat of course.

After much discussion about cats, Harry telling her all about his girl Evie, who lived back in England with his mum, Anne, they had a heated debate about which Peninsula fish and chip shop had the best potato cakes. Ultimately they’d decided that it was Tyabb Cafe who had the best ones, before a kind woman had come along with the drinks cart effectively ending their conversation.

Harry had enjoyed talking to Agnes and hadn’t tried to move or complain when about half an hour later she’d fallen asleep, her head resting lightly against his shoulder. He had tried reading to distract himself after Agnes had fallen asleep, although he had just ended up staring at his watch feeling as though hours had passed, when in reality it was nothing more than a few minutes. He had given up on it entirely after he’d read the same three lines of the first chapter of his book four times, not retaining a single thing word on the page in front of him and packed his book back into his bag with Tay’s help, not wanting to disturb Agnes.

He’d tried listening to music after that, but it was a sore point for Harry at the moment. He’d yet to come to terms with the fact that he was currently an unsigned artist, and so writing, recording and performing music weren’t really an option for him. Not right now anyway. He’d talked to Tay for a little while, catching up with her on what she’d been up to since he’d seen her last. Tay had filled him in on her holiday, that Harry had so graciously sent her on as a thank you for working harder than was normal or safe. She’d waxed lyrical about the hot poolside bartender, Darcy, for over an hour and they had both oohed and ahhed and swooned over a few sneaky pictures of him she’d managed to take. He was a tall, handsome blonde, with piercing blue eyes and Harry had the feeling Tay’s holiday was hot in more ways than one.

Despite all of this, Harry had remained restless for the majority of the flight, and it was starting to take its toll on him, and Tay’s sanity. The only thing he wanted was to be wrapped up in Louis. In his arms, his scent, his warmth, as well a few other parts of him and Harry didn’t know how much longer he could stand to be apart from him. As if on cue, a loud voice echoed around the cabin prompting Agnes to sit up abruptly in her seat, a blush creeping up her cheeks when she noticed the wet patch she’d made on Harry’s shirt sleeve. Harry gave her a warm smile, trying to convey to her that he didn’t mind, and he wasn’t upset as the voice continued to ring out around them.