When you tell the world you're mine

Chapter 31: Ice, ice baby

Carol tried to find out where she was going. She read some of her mom's texts to see if Harry had sent something, she asked everyone about it, she tried to see if she needed a visa to visit the place but no one told her where it was. She was frustrated, being a very curious person was one of her strongest traits and she didn't like to be kept in the dark. She didn't know how this trip would work out. Harry had said "see you on the 27th" but he was in London and she was in São Paulo. He asked her to pack for a cold winter, so it was an international trip to the north hemisphere. Hailey had packed her clothes and locked her bag. She said Carol didn't need to see what was in there, but it surely was heavy. She was growing frustrated with all the secrecy behind her until the morning of the 27th.

She had woken up early and she got ready not really knowing what to do. Her family were asleep when she went downstairs and fixed herself breakfast. Everything was ready to go, she just needed to know when and where. She paced the kitchen for a while and thought about waking her mom up to ask if she was on time but Harry soon texted her. He was making fun of her, of course, saying that she was probably nervous and wanting to kill him. He only said, on the second text, that she needed to open her front door.

She ran there and opened the front door. Nothing was there and she let out a frustrated sigh. She then walked the path and opened the front gate and there he was. Holding a lilies bouquet and with that mischievous smile that was so characteristic of him. She looked from the flowers to him before hugging him tight. She had missed her friend and he was going out of his way to surprise her and ask for her forgiveness. He gave her the flowers when they parted and she invited him inside. This was the first time he went to her new house and when he was inside, he noticed how they had already made it a home. He asked her if she was ready and she said she was.

"Then, let's go. We've got a long road to go." he said grabbing her luggage and waiting for her while she said goodbye to her family upstairs. She woke them up quickly and said they didn't need to come down, Harry'd understand. After all he did appeared at their door at 7:00am.

She was surprised to see he had no bodyguards with him.

"I told you it was going to be just the two of us." he said while driving the rented car to the airport.

"But is it safe for you to be travelling without security?" she asked looking at him concerned.

"To where we're going, yes. Besides, I've fed the press with false but believable tips that I'd be going to Africa for the new years. So all paps might have headed there." he said with a smile. "I even booked a couple of different hotels in there."

She laughed at him and then looked at the road.

"You do know you didn't have to do all of this, don't you?" she said.

"I know. But I wanted to. I was an ass to you, again. And we do need to talk."

"We do." she agreed putting on her sunglasses.

"But not now. We'll talk, but first, we have a flight to catch." he said speeding up and following the GPS commands.

(...)

She didn't expect he'd actually give her ear plugs when they arrived at the airport. He asked her to stay inside a bookstore while he checked them in and sent away their baggage. She waited there only because she found some interesting titles and ended up buying a couple of books. He gave her the earplugs so she didn't listen when they were called to the gates. She learned now that Harry had a passport issued with his names scrambled around so no one would know it was him. He had booked them executive seats. She was uncomfortable because that was for sure a splurge of money, but before she commented on it, he stopped her. He was using his private money and he would use it the way he thought was best. They were sat side by side on the two seats row in the right side of the plane. They chatted for a while and she didn't listen when the commander talked to the crew. He let her hold his hands on the take off and discovered she was afraid of flying. He thought his plan had gone wrong because of that, but as soon as the plane had stabilized in the air, she was calm again. He let her take off the earplugs and they stared awkwardly to each other.