Lie To Me

Lie To Me-Chapter 102

A pessimistic friend once told me, "True happiness doesn't last... Just when you think everything is going to be okay, life finds a way to fuck it up..." At the time, I'd just laughed him off, but looking back, I should have listened.

I was floating on cloud nine as we walked through the grocery store picking out our meals for the week, hand in hand, both Harry and I smiling like idiots and not caring one bit.

He made me laugh as he picked out his "ingredients" for my birthday cake; strawberries, melting chocolate, and whipped cream. As if I didn't know what he was planning... He teased me as I placed a couple packs of Diet Coke in the cart, asking a nearby employee if they had a crate of the carbonated beverage in the back that we could just tow back to the house. And we had a "deep" conversation about the proper way to eat a banana in the produce isle.

We checked out once we were both satisfied with our choices, bickering about who would pay for what, which ended with Harry paying for all of it, and headed back out to the car.

Aside from a few girls going a little crazy with seeing Harry at their grocery store, and one over zealous checkout boy, the whole outing went very well. Of course we were followed out of the parking lot by what I could only assume was two paparazzi, but thanks to Harry's growing familiarity with the area, we were able to lose them before we got back home.

We spent the rest of the night watching Friends reruns, eating ice cream, and snuggling up on the couch with Max. The whole thing was perfect, and for a while I was able to live happily inside the little love-bubble we'd created.

That was, unfortunately, until my birthday...

Thanks to Harry's inability to keep his hands to himself the night before, and my inability to say no to him, we both slept through our alarms, not waking up until well after ten.

Because of our laziness, Max had made a bit of a mess in his pen, so after we drug our thoroughly used bodies out of bed, I focused on getting everything cleaned up while Harry made me a special French toast birthday brunch.

Although we were able to enjoy the meal together, Harry received a call shorty thereafter from the boys' management company. Realizing that he was in LA, they'd set him up with a meeting with John Legend to work on something for the next album, and he was expected to be there in an hour and a half.

Great...

No matter how many times I told him it was okay, no matter how much I understood his having to work, Harry would not stop kicking himself and apologizing for "ruining my birthday..."

Honestly, yes, I was really bummed that I'd be spending a decent part of my birthday alone, but I understood. This was his job, and working with John Legend was a huge opportunity!

"Riley, are you sure you're okay with this? Honestly, I didn't know..." He shook his head for the umpteenth time in the last twenty minutes.

"Really, Harry! I'm fine! I'm just going to hang out here with Max, maybe go for a swim, and then watch a movie or something. Let me know when you're on your way home, and we can celebrate tonight, okay?"

Though he still felt incredibly guilty for leaving me there alone, after a pretty steamy goodbye kiss, if I do say so myself, I watched a smiling Harry back out of the driveway. At his final wave, I shut the door wondering just what I was going to do to pass the time... Turning the lock, I headed for the kitchen.

"So, Max... It looks like it's just you and me for a while. What do you think we should do?"

He yelped in response, his little body shaking from side to side with each wag of his tail.