British Rose

10. Will We Talk?

Charlotte's apartment – Saturday, 14th of September

Charlotte was woken up by the sound of laughter from the kitchen. Rubbing her eyes, she slowly rolled around in bed to check the time on her alarm clock. 9.30 am. Hadn't Harry been the exhausted one last night and now she had slept in instead. Where was he, anyway?

Opening her eyes fully, she looked around to find no Harry. Deciding it was a good time to get up anyway, Charlotte put on a hoodie and some sweatpants to go searching for her guest. The fuzzy socks on her feet barely made a sound on the wooden floor as she shuffled through the corridor, sleep still weighing on her body. The fog on her mind and body lifted the second she walked through the kitchen door to find Harry sitting at the table, cup of tea in front of him and his phone balanced against the mug. He seemed to be on FaceTime with Aria.

Harry hadn't taken notice of her presence, so Charlotte stood in the doorframe quietly and watched him play peekaboo with his daughter. The eruption of giggles coming from his chest and through the speakers of the phone was the perfect soundtrack to this Saturday morning. When it quieted down a few moments later, Charlotte decided to make Harry aware of her presence finally with a softly spoken "Good Morning you two."

The sparkle in his eyes went up another notch from seeing his lady. Charlotte walked over to where he was sitting, bent down to hug him from behind and pressed a kiss to the top of his head.

"Good morning, Aria. How are you today?", she asked the little lady on the other end of the line.

Harry grasped her hand lying on his chest with his own and gently caressed it. Lifting his head slightly to look Charlotte in the eyes, he said "Morning, love." Before Charlotte could reply, they were interrupted by the whirlwind on FaceTime.

"HI CHA-CHA!" Aria almost screamed from excitement, completely ignoring the question she had been asked.

"Hey princess", Charlotte chuckled. "What are you doing up so early on the weekend?"

"It's almost 10", Harry commented.

"'m an early riser, like Daddy. And Nana promised we would go to the petting zoo later."

"Where is Nana, princess? Can you go get her for me?" Harry wanted to briefly check in with his mom about Aria's general wellbeing. When he saw Aria run off to the kitchen to get Anne on the phone, Harry turned to Charlotte preparing her tea at the kitchen counter.

"Sorry for leaving you alone this morning. I woke up early and knowing Aria would be up too, I went here to not disturb you with the phone noise." Having set up the kettle and put a teabag in her favorite morning cup, the one she had bought in Los Angeles, Charlotte turned around again to face him.

"It's alright, baby. I figured you wouldn't want to wait any longer to talk to your daughter after the situation yesterday."

She walked over to him and pulled herself a chair from the table. Harry reached for her hand and gently caressed it.

"You have never called me baby before," he noticed, a tiny smile on his lips.

"Oh, I have. Don't you remember? I believe it was a text message." Charlotte tried to not make a big deal out of it. It had just came to her naturally.

"Well –" Harry corrected himself – "not to my face."

Peeking at the phone, he saw his mother was already waiting to talk to him.

"Oh my god, sorry Mum."

Anne laughed quietly. "It's fine, I didn't want to interrupt your conversation." Witnessing the moment between the two of them while knowing about the early stage of their relationship they were in had been quite sweet, an observation she kept to herself; for the moment.