okay. i think i may have a valid reason for why this one took so long...

i needed recovery time, okay?

yeah. so i saw harry. in concert! no, i'm still not over it! that's about all i can say right now!

in all seriousness though thank you for your patience!! <3

MADDIE'S POV

How did I wake up today? No, it wasn't the soft sunlight peering through the window, or the mouth-watering smell of breakfast cooking, or the safe warmth of Harry's sleeping body next to mine. In fact, Harry wasn't even in bed when I opened my eyes.

It was the atrociously loud sound of the vacuum whirring and 'The Chain' by Fleetwood Mac absolutely blasting through the flat and Harry singing along at the goddamn top of his lungs.

"And if you don't love me now, you will never love me again..." Harry belts, and even though I'm all the way in the bedroom with the door closed and a pillow over my head, I can still make out the lyrics. It's not even nine. Happy Thursday.

I know why he's up and at 'em, though. Today is a pretty fun day. We both took off work and we've had today planned for a while. It was something that we were going to do about two weeks ago, but we had a slight- and abrupt- setback in plans.

Today our little duo becomes a trio. It's dog day. At least hopefully. We're going to hit a few shelters in the area and see if we can find a little one to bring home with us.

I think it's safe to assume Harry is...excited.

"Listen to the wind blow, down comes the night..." Sometimes I forget that he can actually sing.

I roll over on my back and stare at the ceiling, not paying mind to the messy hair in front of my eyes.

This is the first day I've woken up and actually not felt...terrible.

I don't love recalling the aforementioned 'setback' but the thought of it doesn't make me feel overwhelmingly nauseous anymore, so I guess that's progress.

The afternoon that Harry finally dragged me out of the hospital for good and we came home and I cried for an hour or two? Don't remind me.

It's been eleven days since then and any day that puts me further and further from it is a good day in my book.

The rest of that Sunday- the day after the wedding- I spent basically mute and asleep. Harry was an absolute angel the whole afternoon and I still feel terrible about him have to coddle me, but in the moment I definitely needed it. I was a complete mess and he was the only thing that kept me from spiraling into a panic attack about the whole situation, so without said coddling, it would have been ten times worse. So he held me for the rest of the day and I woke up pretty late on Monday stressing about work and things that I missed, but Harry had left a long note about how he told Louis to cancel my day, and how Harry wanted me to take the day to myself to recuperate after the entire weekend. I cried a few happy tears, texted him, and went straight back to sleep. Harry went to work like normal and I spent the day with myself, trying to regain an appetite and either napping or watching something.

It was really nice to have that time to myself, but I was really happy when Harry came home for the evening. He had a bag of food to make our favorite chicken noodle soup and it tasted magnificent, especially without all the congestion it's usually paired with.

We were in bed by ten that night. It was fabulous.

Tuesday I woke up and went to work. I was not feeling one hundred percent obviously, but I didn't want to just mope and sleep the day away again. So I went, luckily with a pretty light day, but the nice day was squashed when I got a text from James' mum around lunchtime.

Almost like the universe was watching over me, the upside to that text was that Harry was with me when I got it. He saw her name on my phone first and snatched the device before I could read it. He read it first and gave me a hesitant all-clear to read it myself.

She said that James had told her some "things" and that she wanted to meet with me for  "coffee or lunch" to "talk."

I should've expected it. She's not one to just let someone in her life just walk away like I walked out of that hospital. And at the time, I had no idea what James had told her. Was she going to apologize? Mangle me? Insult me? Yell at me? I didn't know, and I could picture every possibility in my head.

I met her last Wednesday.

It was...interesting. Awkward.

James had definitely told the truth, that much I gathered. I could tell by the way she was looking at me. Pity, sympathy. I didn't like it. I just wanted her to say what she had to say so I could get out of there and go cry in my car.

She definitely said a lot of things.

***

Harry offered to come with me, but for some reason, I felt like this was something I needed to do alone. I didn't want to make Harry sit through this. If I was meeting with James himself, yes, I would never come in without Harry by my side. But I can handle Laura. I can do this by myself.

This could go one of two ways.

It will either be awkward as fuck, she'll ask a ton of questions, and I'll be cornered into answering them. Or she'll start off by saying something slightly insensitive and we'll be done in five minutes. I think I know which way it's already leaning towards, but a girl can dream.

I really don't want to go inside.

I'm sitting in my car outside the cafe she texted me the address of. It's only been three days since the whole debacle and I'm not even close to being over it yet. I'm still in a semi-fragile state and if she says the right things she could very possibly send me out the door crying.

I took off the rest of the afternoon for this. See? I prepared for the worst. I can just feel it in my gut. Maybe it's the pessimist in me.

She texted me that she's already inside about four minutes ago. I haven't responded but I feel like I should just get this over with. I could tell her I'm five minutes away and just keeping sitting here, but that would just be five extra minutes of torture and banging my head against the wheel.

I turn off the car.

It's chilly today. Fall is coming fast here in London and I'm so ready for it. It's one of the best times of the year, period. Don't get me wrong, I love the summer feeling of the sun on my skin and driving with the windows down, but fall weather is cuddle weather. That's the bonus.

Yeah, I'm stalling and talking about the weather.

Ugh.

My feet move under me. I take slow steps up the door, holding nothing but my keys and my phone in my hand and wearing my work clothes with one of Harry's zip up jackets thrown over it, which definitely dresses it down.

The little bell dings when I open the door. I gaze around the room and spot Laura about three tables down from the front window, her hand clutching a hot coffee cup and her gaze already on me. She shifts in her seat as I walk towards her.

She's sitting on the booth side of the table, so my chair scrapes awkwardly against the floor as I pull it out from under the table.

"Hi." She says simply. "How are you?"

I nod once. "I'm okay. You?"

She clears her throat and musters a tiny smile. "Good."

I nod once again, waiting for her to continue with what she wanted to say.

"Are you going to get anything?" She asks awkwardly.

I shake my head. "I'm fine." I say, leaving out the part where I'm actually just too nauseous to eat or drink  anything.

She nods faintly and shifts in her seat again. I keep my eyes on her while her gaze shifts to the table and her lips roll into a line.

"What did you want to talk to me about?" I ask, crossing my arms in front of my chest and ignoring the way my leg is bouncing up and down relentlessly. If Harry were here, he would've already put his hand on my thigh to help calm me down and ground me.

She looks at me again. It's now when I notice how nervous she looks. "Um..." She begins. "I talked to James. Well, Hugh and I did."

I nod. "Great."

She coughs awkwardly. "We asked him a few questions. Most of them were about you." She says honestly.

I nod again.

"He told us that you guys broke up almost four months ago." She spits out.

"Yep." I say, popping the 'p' sound on the word.

She sighs. "I'm disappointed to say the least...that he didn't tell us. I had wondered why you were never with him when he would drive up to Manchester, or when he would call. He would tell me to not even bother calling you because you were busy, and I believed him. But obviously now I know it wasn't true. You guys had broken up."

Another 'yep' comes out of my mouth.

She clears her throat again. "Hugh was the one who asked why, but the doctor interrupted us before James could answer. When the doctor left Hugh asked again, continuing the conversation, and all James said," she swallows,"was that he hurt you."

My leg stops bouncing. "Did he say anything else?" I rasp out.

She shakes her head. "That's pretty much all he would give us. Then the doctor came back in with more test results and the conversation topic shifted pretty abruptly from you to...his issue."

Now I'm the one clearing my throat awkwardly. "Did you find out anything else?" I ask. "About his problem?"

She takes an extra long blink at the word 'problem.'

"Um, yeah...he told us that he's been drinking more than usual lately. Then the doctor emphasized the 'more' part by telling us all about his damaged liver." She chuckles dryly in pity and uncomfortableness.

I remember Dr. Young telling us about how his liver was working too hard and inflamed.

"The doctor made the suggestion that he never drink again. That's the safest option. If he were to drink again, it won't be for a long time, to say the least. But during the conversation was when I realized how obvious it was that someone had been wrong with my son...and I never paid any mind. How could a mother not realize when someone is wrong with their own child?"

Both of us go silent. The busy cafe fills the background as both of us look at each other.

"I had noticed that his texts had more typos than usual. Usually there's none, maybe one, but they were really frequent. I just associated it with him being busy and running around, you know how he's always doing something for work."

Ha.

"And when he would come home, the first thing he always did when he walked through the door was crack open a beer with Aiden. And he'd have that one finished by the time Hugh got home from work, have another with him, and another at dinner. Again, I just...I didn't think it was something to be worried about. And then add on the fact that all communication from you was basically cut and he never ever talked about you all of a sudden. Only when we would bring you up would he harshly brush off the topic and move on to something work-related."

She stops. I'm not sure if I should say something or just wait for her to continue. When she doesn't say anything else for a few seconds, I speak up.

"For a while...probably, like, a month, before we broke up...I rarely saw him without a beer within an arm's reach. In the evenings at least. I didn't think anything of it either because he was always drinking when he was working on stuff, so I just assumed he just needed something to take the edge off. That's what he always said, at least. That he was 'stressed.'" I chuckle dryly.

She's listening intently. I know she's trying to grasp onto something that tells her it's okay that she didn't realize that something was wrong with her son until he almost died. But I keep going.

"He always seemed to be working, which meant he always seemed to be drinking. I pretended it was nothing. I had enough things to distract me from it. I got to the point where I never ever saw him without a drink in his hand."

I stop there because if I keep on this track it'll slip out that he was cheating and I don't want to further tarnish the already tainted image she has of her son.

"Did he tell you he lost his job?" I ask, changing the subject.

She nods faintly.

"Did he tell you how?"

She looks at me intently, and I know the answer is no. I figured as much.

"He showed up to work drunk."

Her face falls. I feel terrible that she's hearing this from me instead of James. I feel bad for myself that I'm having to tell her. But who else is going to?

"I'm not sure exactly when he got fired, but I assume it was fairly recent."

Laura leans back against the booth and her gaze turns out the window, exhaling.

"I'm sorry I'm the one who has to tell you this but I think you should know what really happened." I say softly and she nods weakly.

She looks back at me. "Will you tell me what he meant when he said he hurt you?" She asks.

I gulp.

"Which time?" I chuckle dryly to myself, only realizing I mumbled that sort of loudly and now Laura's looking at me with concern wiped across her face.

I can tell she genuinely doesn't know what to think of the situation. She of course wants to support her son but with how I just responded, she knows it's going to be difficult to ignore what James did to the person he claimed to love.

I take a deep breath, wishing Harry was next to me right now because he would know exactly what to do.

"Um..." No words come out next. My head is scrambled right now. I think I knew in the back of my head that James would leave out this part but I didn't know I would have to tell her.

Again, everything falls to me.

The cafe is bustling but I tune everything out. Suddenly I feel hot.

Laura looks really concerned at my silence. I know the gears are turning in her head. She's not dumb, she knows the realistic possibilities in this situation. She knows what could very well have happened.

I really really really wanna go home.

I really really really hate this.

I hate that he cheated for eight months, that he lied to me, that he took out his anger and stress on me, that he embarrassed me, humiliated me, ruined things for me, almost damaged my relationships with the most important people in my life, lied to his own mother, bruised me-

I feel dizzy.

"It doesn't matter." Is what I fumble out of my mouth. "It was over long before it actually ended. Longer than you think. I'd really like it to stay that way. What's done is done." I shrug, sadly.

It was a long time coming.

"I understand." She whispers quietly, swallowing. "But on behalf of James, of my own son who I barely even recognize anymore, I'm so sorry. I'm sorry he did...whatever...he did and I'm sorry all of this fell on your shoulders. It shouldn't have. He's a grown man but clearly he needs to be pointed in the right direction." She says, shaking her head as she speaks and looking down at the table.

"And I can assure you, Maddie...none of us knew."

"I know." I reply solemnly. "He was good at keeping secrets."

She sighs sadly, nodding.

"Don't get me wrong...we did love you. We might not have always been the best at showing it but we had the best time when James would bring you along. I can assure you I'm not happy about any of this at all..." She pauses. "I'm just really sorry."

I'm surprised at this. I thought all she wanted to do was pry information about me and try to find some kind of leverage on her son. I had this horrible motivation painted in my head but...this...isn't it.

"It's not your fault." I sit up slightly in my chair. "Please don't think you're to blame here." Because she's not. Yes, there's always going to be something she could've done, but no matter what, everything falls back to James. She was lied to here too.

"But I-"

I shake my head and she stops talking.

Again, nobody can change what happened. I just want everyone to move forward.

"Like I said, what's done is done. I really want to put this behind me and I think you should too. The first step is talking to your son- candidly and bluntly- and helping him. None of this will improve if he doesn't commit to improving himself." I say quietly, sitting up in my seat and uncrossing my arms to stick my hand in the pockets of Harry's jacket.

Laura nods, finally, like she knows what I just said is the right thing to do. Like it's what we have to do.

To my surprise, she shifts the subject a little bit. "Besides all of...this...you've been good, I hope? How are you, truly?"

"I...yeah, I've been doing pretty well, actually. My, uh, best friend just got married actually." I smile lightly. "Definitely a weekend worth all the strenuous planning."

Laura smiles. "And...Harry? He's your..."

"Boyfriend." I finish her sentence softly. "We've been together for a couple months now."

"How did you two meet?"

I'm curious as to why she wants to know about Harry... but anything to get the topic of conversation switched around.

I laugh internally at the question. "Well, we met when we were eleven, in school actually." Her eyes light up in surprise. "Yeah, we were best friends in school and then kind of fell off, but early this summer we ran into each other and...a very, very, very long story short, I guess...here we are." I shrug.

"He seems like he really cares for you." She smiles.

"He does."

"I'm glad."

She looks solemn, like this is bittersweet for her. Part of me feels weird talking about Harry but if she's comfortable bringing it up, I'll answer her questions.

Laura reaches into her purse and pulls her phone out, flashing me her lit up screen.

"It's Hugh...I should probably get going. I'm glad...I'm glad we got to talk." She says, smiling lightly and slowly standing up from her seat.

"Me too."

She grabs her drink and I stand as well, following a few steps behind her. The bell dings about the door and she holds the door open for me, stopping on the sidewalk and turning to me fully.

"Don't be a stranger." She smiles lightly, clutching her purse. Her short brown hair blows in the wind as she looks at me.

"I hope everything goes okay." I say, truthfully. I truly don't have any ill wishes on anyone. I just want everyone to move on. Healthily.

With that, she nods, and turns away. I stand for a few seconds as she walks away from me and disappears around the corner of the cafe.

The chilly breeze continues to blow as I make my way to my car.

That didn't go...nearly as bad as I thought it would.

Sometimes closure is a punch to the gut and sometimes it's bittersweet. In this case, it was surprisingly bittersweet.

***

"Harrrryyyyy!" I yell, still laying in bed as he continues to sing his heart out.  I highly doubt he can hear my own voice over his.

He's moved on from 'The Chain' and is now on 'Sledgehammer' by Peter Gabriel.

I call again. I yell until I run out of breath, and a few seconds later the music abruptly goes silent and I can hear his footsteps coming toward the bedroom.

"You called, m'lady?" He says, swinging the door open and sticking his head through the threshold.

"What are you doing?" I ask him. "It's nine in the morning."

"Right. Not a morning person. Sorry. My bad!" He says. Good god, he has a lot of energy.

"Where is all this energy coming from all of a sudden? I knew you were a morning person but...geez, we're gonna get a noise complaint."

He fully comes into the room and flails himself on the bed, laying on his side next to me and propping his head up in his hand.

"I don't really know, considering I didn't really sleep last night. I think I was too excited. I become a dad today!" He collapses on his back and assumes the position of a starfish, his hands up in the air in excitement.

I laugh, "Let's hope."

"I made breakfast. Come eat and then we can get going." He props himself up again and leans over me, giving me a quick kiss and jumping up onto his feet again. He moved so quickly I barely even registered the kiss.

"Okay, okay." I flip the covers off of me and swing my legs over the edge of the bed. "Can-"

"Too slow!" He exclaims, and I yelp in surprise when he leans down and throws me over his shoulder in a swift movement.

"What-"

"Time's a wastin'!"

"-are you doing?"

"Making you hurry up."

"I was literally getting up."

"Slowly."

"Oh...my god."

He sets me down so I'm sitting on the counter and then I'm getting a plate of eggs, toast, and fruit shoved in my face.

"Fuel up!"

"If I knew you were gonna be this excited to get a dog I would've suggested it a lot sooner."

"Eat!"

"Oh my god, okay!"

He watches and waits for me intently as I eat. Like, literally stands in front of me as I sit on the counter and scarf down my food under his antsy stare. The second I lift the last piece of fruit off the plate, he yanks the dish from my hand and drops it in the sink.

"Go change!"

"I'm going!"

I think it takes me all of seven minutes to make myself presentable. Needless to say, Harry's energy migrated over to me and now both of us are kind of bouncing off the walls. I don't even need coffee or any kind of caffeine for that matter because it would make me positively wild.

"I forgot my wallet." Harry states the second we're in the hallway and have shut the door. I groan as he unlocks the door and whips inside, doing his little jog over to the table and snatching his wallet up. "Okay."

"Wait, wait, wait." I slow us down as he locks the door again.

"What? Did you forget something? Oh, yeah, I see it, you didn't brush your hair-"

"Oh fuck off!" I laugh. "I wouldn't look like this if you weren't breathing down my neck while I was getting ready."

"I meant you look lovely. Did I not say that?"

I slap his arm. "We're absolutely sure about this, right? Like one hundred percent? No doubt in our minds?"

"Yes." He answers without skipping a beat. "Wait, do you wanna think about it some more?"

"No, no," I assure him, "I don't even know why I asked that. Let's go."

Harry grabs my hand and literally books it down the hallway. "Okay, no, not that. No sprinting."

"Sorry."

***

"I think I'm in heaven." Harry whispers in my ear. I think he's right.

We're in one of the biggest facilities I've ever seen and the only things surrounding us...is puppies. Tiny little barks and whimpers from every which way, all coming from adorable, heart clenching dogs that are the size of my forearm or smaller.

"I don't even know where to begin." I whisper back, and I can see him nod in my peripheral vision.

It's barely ten am so we're the only ones here at the shelter. An employee led us back here and told us a couple general rules- don't pick up the dogs, don't feed them anything- and then literally just said go for it and left us to our own devices. We haven't moved since.

"That white one on the end is cute." Harry says again and I nod, and we both agree- telepathically- to start there.

I reach the cage first and carefully squat down to be eye level with the dog.

"Clara, age two, house broken, vaccines up to date." I read the sign hung up on the cage door. "Sounds good to me."

The little white fluff ball- Clara- stays cowered in the corner. I don't blame her- two humans staring you down cannot be a calming experience.

Harry puts the back of his hand against the cage door and signals for her to come closer, but she doesn't move.

"She's a shy one, isn't she?" Harry mumbles, and I nod.

"She looks terrified. Maybe we should come back."

"Agreed."

We continue to browse through some of the other cages. Most of the dogs here are medium sized, which is pretty much what we're looking for, but every cage we crouch in front of and every dog's attention that we try to grab, we don't have any luck.

"I didn't think it would be this difficult." I say after about the eighth cage where the dog stayed tucked away in his corner.

"I just want to take them all home. I feel so terrible seeing them locked up in these cages."

"They're not locked up all day, though, remember? This shelter has raving reviews. They take care of their animals." I assure him, even though I can understand how he's feeling because I feel it too.

"You're right. But I still feel bad." He mumbles, and I grab his hand to move to the next few cages.

"Here. Let's go over where the smaller dogs are, maybe they'll be more interactive." I recommend, and Harry nods. The small and medium sized dogs are all kept in this massive room we're in, although it more resembles a warehouse, but not quite that big. It's also not that dark because there are plenty of windows letting in all the natural light.

"He's cute- oh, nope." Harry says, jumping back a bit from one of the cages. "He just growled at me."

I snort. "That's chihuahuas for you."

"I'll kindly pass." Harry whispers and I laugh again.

We pass rows and rows of more cages, neither of us feeling that pull to any of them.

Until we reach the very last cage of the very last row.

I gasp a little at the sight of the teeny-tiny white and brown spotted puppy playing with his squeaky toy in his tiny little cage, all by himself. Harry stops too, crouching down to get a better look.

"Arlo, Beagle, eight months old, vaccines up to date..." Harry reads off the sign on the front of Arlo's cage. "My god, he is fucking adorable."

I bend down next to Harry and cover my mouth with my hand at the sight of this incredibly tiny little beagle pup with floppy ears that are way too big for his head.

"He looks so tiny for eight months." Harry says, and I nod my head.

"He was the runt of the litter." An unfamiliar voice chimes in behind us. Both of our heads whip around to see the woman who brought us back here now standing behind us. "Sorry to startle, I just wanted to check in. Do we think we found someone?" She smiles.

"Quite possibly, yes." Harry laughs. "He was the runt?"

She nods. "He and the rest of his brothers and sisters were left here in a box the day they were born. It was so obvious they were newborns because of their size and color. We got them situated here with us and this little guy was the smallest of them all, so he's a little behind on his growth chart. He'll catch up, but he just takes his time. The rest of the litter was adopted fairly quickly, but Arlo here has lived with us since the day he was born."

I think my heart cracks a little.

I turn around to look back at Arlo, and I think a tear almost slips out when I see him sitting up against the cage looking straight at Harry, toy abandoned and little tail wagging relentlessly. I look back at the sheet of paper on the cage with all his information, my eyes scanning the words quickly. My heart picks up when I see his birth date, which definitely checks out to eight months ago.

"Harry. His birthday is February first." I smile widely, Harry whipping around to me and the paper. Harry looks at me, then back at the employee.

"Can we hold him?" The question comes out of both Harry and I's mouth at the same time.

"Of course." The employee says.

She explains to us that we can either go outside and play around with him or go into a small room and do the same, so Harry and I both agree to go outside for Arlo to get some fresh air.

We go out first, waiting for Arlo to be brought out to us. There's dog toys everywhere you step and bags of treats all lined up on a wood shelf against the fence of the small grassy area.

"This is so exciting." Harry says, rubbing his hands together and jumping up and down like he's warming up for a race. "I'm so excited."

"Me too. Did you see Arlo looking right at you? I think he already loves you."

"Do you think I can give him a treat? Would they let me?"

"I would think so, at least I hope so."

"Ah- look." Harry points to the doors and Arlo is on a leash held by the same employee. He's jumpy and chasing his tail in circles and I think I'm already in love with him.

The second he gets close enough, Arlo is jumping up on Harry's leg.

"You guys are free to hang out for as long as you'd like. I'll leave you to it but if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask, I'll be right inside."

She hands me the leash and I thank her, focusing back on Harry and Arlo- aka the newest pair of best friends.

"I think he likes you." I sit down on the grass, letting the leash fall because I think it's safe to assume that the dog won't go anywhere.

"He has so much energy, the poor guy needs more time outside." Harry says, scooping the tiny puppy up in one hand and pulling him against his chest. Arlo lets out a little bark and starts licking Harry's face like crazy, making Harry squeeze his eyes shut and laugh.

"Told you he likes you."

"Here." Harry says, lifting Arlo up and placing him in my lap. He cuddles up against me just like he did with Harry and places in front paws on my stomach, standing on his back legs. "I'm not the only one he likes."

Harry and I look at each other for a few seconds, almost like we're communicating telepathically. Even though that's impossible because I know for a fact we're definitely on the same page.

We spend probably the next half hour playing with Arlo, chucking tiny tennis balls across the grass and letting him chase after them to get all his energy out. Harry did end up giving him a few treats which only spurred Arlo on more, and at one point he was trying to chase after a ball and tug on a toy rope at the same time. The little guy was running so fast I think I saw him trip a on his own feet once or twice.

"Does he ever get tired?" Harry asks, hands on his hips after he throws the tennis ball for the hundredth time.

"Maybe he has an off button? Behind his ear maybe?" I joke, and we both chuckle. "The only thing that worries me is how much space he seems to need. And we don't really...have that. I know there's dog parks and all, but we can only go so much. I would hate keeping him cooped up in the tiny flat while we're gone, you know?"

Harry nods. "Good thing my lease is up in a month."

"Huh?"

"My lease is up on November first."

"Wait, what?"

"My lease-"

"Okay, yeah, I get that part, but like why didn't you tell me?"

"Well, I figured it out this morning and was obviously going to bring it up, but I assumed we would just add your name to the lease. But maybe now that's not...the plan."

Arlo comes back with the tennis ball and drops it at Harry's feet. Harry picks it up and throws it again, chuckling as Arlo barks at it flies through the air.

"What...are you saying?" My eyebrows furrow and I cross my arms.

"I'm saying that legally, where we live has never been ours. My name is on the lease. Of course it's still ours, but, again, not legally. I'm saying that let's find a place that's actually ours and big enough..." Arlo is back at Harry's feet already, and Harry scoops him up in his hand, "...for this one." He smiles.

I smile. "You want to move?"

"I think if we're ever going to, this would be the perfect time to." He says calmly, still holding Arlo who's squirming in his hold.

Before I can give a proper answer, we're interrupted by the employee who brought Arlo out to us ages ago.

"So how are we feeling?" She says, smiling.

The telepathy continues because Harry and I both spit out the next words at the same time.

"Where do we sign?"

***

"Okay, don't get too excited because you won't be here for too long. But for now...here's home."

Harry's talking to Arlo.

We signed the papers two hours ago, got our information processed, spent an hour in the pet store buying everything we needed- although, the four shirts that Harry grabbed were more of a want- and now we're finally home.

"So this is the kitchen, you can't really do much in here since you're so tiny, but you can run around as much as you like. And this is the couch, you can lay on it but you cannot pee on it. Don't even think about it. Or the rug. If you absolutely cannot wait, go on the hardwood. At least that's easier to clean up. But try to hold it. Wait, Lainey do you think we could potty train him?"

I raise my eyebrows, waiting for him to laugh it off or for the punchline, but he never does. He genuinely looks and sounds like he's serious.

"Um...no." I say. "I don't...think so."

"Hm." Harry hums. "Oh well. Okay, moving on, down this hallway, this is where mum and dad sleep..." He trails off.

I dump the ungodly amount of toys we bought onto the table, grabbing a pair of scissors and beginning to cut off all the tags on the ropes, tennis balls, and shirts.

I feel bad bringing Arlo home now because in a short amount of time he'll have to readjust to a whole new space.

Harry and I agreed with no qualms that we should move.

He's right, this place isn't legally ours. It's always been his, even when we were still strangers and our lives were completely different. We both agreed that we want to do this. We want somewhere that's ours in more eyes than our own, and now that we're a little family, what are the cons?

So Harry's going to tell the landlord he won't be renewing his lease and we're going to start hunting for a bigger place soon. Maybe with a couple more bedrooms and way more open floors for Arlo, but we haven't talked logistics yet.

I think this will be just what we need. Something fresh, something new, something that we can do together and accomplish together. I'm excited. My gut is telling me that this decision was the right one.

"And don't forget this, no peeing on the couch." Harry's voice comes trailing back as he reenters the kitchen, Arlo following him hot on his heels. "Okay," Harry turns to me, "he's all caught up."

"Wonderful. Now don't let him see all these toys at once because I think he'd have a stroke."

"Right. Slow and steady. We'll start with this one." Harry grabs a tiny stuffed toy that's shaped like a little dinosaur and squeezes it a few times, the squeaker emitting a loud sound that sends Arlo into a frenzy. "He'll probably crash later no matter what so might as well get his adrenaline out- wait, the tag is still on."

He tosses the toy to me, causing Arlo to run after it and sit at my feet once he sees that I have it now.

"Bud, it's not going anywhere, I swear." I laugh at the dog, cutting the tag off and tossing it back over to Harry. Arlo does the same thing again, running and watching it fly though the air and barking as Harry catches it.

"It's like he's never seen a toy in his life." Harry laughs, tossing the dinosaur back to me once again so Arlo goes crazy.

We keep doing this, not to torture Arlo on purpose, but becasue each time the toy is in the air and Arlo runs to try to catch it, he slips on the hardwood a little and it's so fucking cute.

I eventually abandon the rest of the toys on the table and Harry and I sit down in the living room, continuing to just toss the toy back and forth. We don't keep it from Arlo forever and let him play with it, of course, because that would be evil.

"This is so weird." Harry says, leaning against the couch and letting Arlo tug on the toy.

"That we have a dog now?" I say, smiling.

He nods. "I mean he's basically a mini person. He needs attention, food, exercise, vaccines, the only thing separating him from being human is..well, the anatomy, I guess...I'm not second guessing or anything, but it's just weird to think that it's not just the two of us anymore."

I catch the toy when he throws it. "I agree. We also should probably let people know that there are in fact three of us now."

He chuckles. "Do you remember when...I think we were maybe thirteen? When you and I both really wanted dogs, and we got the rest of our siblings on board, and then we all strategically planned out that one conversation-"

"Oh my god, the one where we made that whole powerpoint? And each of us had our own slides that we had practiced?" I laugh at the memory. "We even gave Hayden one but he could barely read so he just kinda stood there while you whispered what to say to him. Our parents pretty much just sat there nodding and trying not to laugh."

"It's easy to see now why that plan didn't really work." Harry laughs, Arlo tugging on the stuffed toy.

"Hey, we had good reasoning! Technically it was all me and you, though. We volunteered to go on walks and pick up the shit."

"Even though we both knew we weren't gonna touch the shit with a ten foot pole."

"Well then who's gonna do it now?"

I go quiet with a 'did you ever think of that?' look on face and he goes quiet with an 'oh damn' look on his face.

"Rock, paper, scissors." He says, scooting towards me on the floor and holding out his fist on his palm, completely serious.

"Uh, no. Not a chance. Too risky." I wave him off.

"So I assume you wanna, I don't know, take turns then?"

"...No."

"Then..."

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it?"

"Meaning you'll make me do it?"

"Hell yeah."

"Mmmm. Love you too."

"The reason I know that is because you didn't fight me on that just now."

Harry rolls his eyes teasingly, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his phone while simultaneously holding Arlo in his lap.

"For the future, now we know kids just want a dog for the fun of it. Not for the gross part."

"Of course they don't. The fun comes with a price. That price will fall to us. Would you actually make your own kids pick up dog shit?" He deadpans and laughs at the same time.

"No, obviously not. You'll be doing it. Isn't that what we just agreed to?" I tease him.

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it." He mocks my words from earlier, tossing the dinosaur across the room and Arlo chases after it. "Our kids don't even exist yet and you're already on their side. How comforting."

"Just wait, the second they're able to flash their puppy dog eyes at you you'll be at their beck and call. Mark my words."

"I'm not that weak."

"Uh, yeah you are." I shake my head.

"Whatever." He rolls his eyes, brushing off the topic and I laugh. "Caroline texted me."

"What'd she say?"

"They want us to come over tonight."

"Why?"

"Don't know. She just asked if we could go over for dinner." He looks up at me, eyebrows raised like he's waiting for my 'yes'.

I nod and shrug. "We're not doing anything else. Think we could bring him?" I motion to Arlo currently wrestling with his dinosaur on his own.

"Why not? The twins will go crazy."

"I wonder why it's so last minute." I think out loud, standing up and helping Harry up when he holds out his hands.

We leave Arlo completely occupied by himself and stroll back into the kitchen, resuming our position at the table amongst the pile of toys.

"I mean, it's been a bit since we've seen them. Maybe the twins mentioned something?"

"Is everyone else coming?"

"Probably? She didn't say."

"Then I guess there's some surprises in store for all of us tonight."

"I guess so."