Harry called me this afternoon and asked if he could take me on a date tonight, and after the morning I had with those girls I can't believe I used to call my friends, a date with Harry is exactly what I need. Those few minutes I had wasted with them, made me realize just how fake people can be, and it just made me see how real Harry is to me.

"I don't understand if he is taking you on a date, why he can't ring the doorbell like a proper gentleman," Dad argues. We've been standing in the front foyer of the house for the last ten minutes discussing this, and he's already asked this same question four times, apparently unable to process any of the answers I've given him so far. His arms have flown through the air one too many times in disbelief, he's rubbed circles over his temples and crossed his arms at everything I've said in the last few minutes, clearly unhappy with me—and Harry— right now.

"Maybe because you're standing in the doorway waiting to pounce on him," I laugh. "I told you already, he isn't ready for the whole meeting the parents thing. And with the way you're acting the crazy dad role right now, can you really blame him? I wouldn't want to meet you either."

"Can you blame me for wanting to meet a guy who's taking my daughter on a date?" he asks, raising his eyebrows at me. "Do I need to remind you what happened to you? I need to make sure you're going to be safe."

My eyebrows pinch together at his reminder, as I glare at him, knowing for sure I never need reminding of this. "As if you have to bring that up right now! I've known Harry for months, Dad. We've been on dates before. He's not a bad guy, I promise. I trust him. And I really don't want you to scare him off. Because if I'm being honest, if I was Harry, I'd be scared of you right now."

Dad sighs as he hears a car drive into the driveway and the sound of a car honking soon following. We had discussed that to be our plan when he arrived to pick me up, and watching Dad sigh his disapproving sigh, just makes me roll my eyes at him. "I want you home by eleven."

"You can't be serious?" I ask, my mouth dropping to the floor.

"I want to make sure you get home safe before I go to bed," he says. The humorless look on his face tells me he isn't joking, although I wish that he was more than anything. "I can't trust this guy if he doesn't even have the decency to meet me before taking the only girl in the world that matters to me, out on a date."

"I trust him though, and that should tell you everything."

"Eleven, Paisley."

I guess I can understand where he's coming from. To him, this is the first time he's really seen me go out with anyone, since everything with Ryan ended. He's heard plenty about Harry, but it's all been from afar, making it not seem real to him because he hasn't gotten to see it with his own eyes. And with having to watch me go through what I went through for so long, it makes sense he'd be over protective about this. But it still seems a bit ridiculous, and I hate to think of how embarrassing it's going to be, to tell Harry I have a curfew.

I decide it's not really the time to argue about this. The last thing I want to do, is fight with my Dad about a guy. I suppose coming home at eleven to keep him happy, isn't the end of the world. When we get back to school, things will go back to normal and Harry will be back sleeping in my bed again. I'm sure if Dad knew that, he'd probably have a heart attack. And so tonight, eleven it is.

I give Dad a kiss on the cheek and smile up at him before opening the front door. "I'll see you at eleven."

"Be safe, kiddo," he calls out to me, as he watches me walk down the cobblestone driveway. I send him a small wave as I get into Harry's car.

"Your dad looks scary," Harry says, watching as I pull the strap of the seat belt over my body to buckle it up. I laugh when I notice the look on his face, as he resembles a scared child. "It's probably a good thing I waited in the car for you."

I lean over to give him a quick kiss. "The only reason he looks like that is because you waited in the car," I tell him. "He wouldn't have that look on his face if you just came to greet me at the door."

Harry and I look to the front door, to see Dad still standing there, watching us with his arms crossed. The outside lights casting a glow on him, that actually does make him look a little scary. "Hey now, you know I'm usually better than this—"

"I know, babe." I giggle at his way of trying to defend himself to me. "Let's go. I have to be home at eleven. We're wasting time here."

"Eleven?" he asks, putting the car into reverse. "Is your scary Dad trying to make things difficult for me? How can I show you a good time in three hours?"

"Well, if you had just came to the door, he'd know you're trustworthy enough to take me out. But you're stubborn, so at the moment, he doesn't want you to show me a good time. He wants you to be miserable, like he is right now."

He lets out a small laugh, keeping his eyes on the dark road in front of him, as we start to make our way to dinner. He looks really good tonight, which I know for him, doesn't take any effort at all. But the fact that he's wearing blue skinny jeans instead of his usual black ones, astounds me.

"So, where are we going?" I ask, as he takes my hand. I know we're driving in the direction of downtown Victoria, so I can just imagine it's some place nice. But he didn't tell me to dress up, so I know his idea to reenact some romantic movie isn't in the cards for tonight. 

"Just Milestone's," he answers, glancing over at me. "My Mom says that the buskers are all still down at the harbor because of the warmer weather, so I figured we could go check them out afterwards."

The Victoria Harbor is one of the biggest tourist attractions here. I used to love going there just to people watch. There was always something going on, people selling random things, some random entertainment by people trying to make some quick change. Knowing that's where we're headed, makes me excited.

People are piled into the waiting area of the restaurant when we walk in, and we're greeted by a host that tells us the wait for a table is twenty-five minutes. Harry looks at me, clearly questioning if we should wait or not. "It's fine. We'll wait for a table," I answer, giving him a reassuring smile.

"Are you sure?" he asks. "We don't really have a lot of time. Do you really want to waste it, waiting?"

"We'll wait," I tell the host.

As people start leaving, the people in front of us are seated, leaving more room in the waiting room for us to sit down on the bench along the wall. Harry puts his arm around me as we sit and pulls me in close to him. I don't hesitate to lean in to kiss him. He smells so good and he tastes like mint and he looks amazing wearing his black beanie and although hes wearing far too many shirts, I don't think he's ever looked better than he does at this very moment. 

My eyes look away from his for a second, peering into the restaurant where people are eating, and they fall upon a table with three girls at it. Jenny, Ava and Lexi. Only this time, they aren't staring at their cell phones, they're looking right at us. 

What the actual fuck?

"We need to leave," I say, abruptly standing up. Panic sets in at the sight of them. They're the last thing I need right now. Apparently, I can't go anywhere in this damn city without them being there.

Harry stays seated, staring at me with his mouth dropped open at my sudden strange behavior. "What? We've already been waiting fifteen minutes."

I pull him up and out the door, without another word. The fresh air allows me to breathe again as I pull him along, down the stairs in the direction of the harbor, to get as far away from that restaurant as possible. 

"Paisley, what the hell?" Harry asks, pulling me back to stop me from going any farther. "Why did we leave? We were next to be seated." He's looking at me like I did the most absurd thing he's ever seen me do, which I know it isn't so I don't know why he has to look at me this way.

I take a deep breath and look around me. Christmas lights are lighting up the Parliament Building across the harbor from where we are, the same way they always did, the street lamps lit beautifully along the cobblestone walkway, tourists scattered in every direction imaginable and the world around me is breathtaking. I take a minute before answering him to take it all in the same way I used to, remembering again, this once used to be my home and I loved it.

"Paisley?" Harry interrupts my thoughts.

"Yeah, sorry," I say, snapping back to reality and looking at him. "Sorry. Did I ever tell you about my bitchy friends?"

"Who?" he asks, furrowing his eyebrows.

"I used to hang out with these girls in high school," I explain, tugging on his jacket, to start walking. "Jenny, Ava and Lexi." I cringe even saying their names. "Anyways, I ran into them this morning."

His eyes widen as he raises his eyebrows at me, before he clears his throat and scratches the back of his neck. "Oh—And?"

"And they were in there," I tell him. "The last thing I want is to be near them. Like I want you to ever meet them, and knowing them, they'd follow their nosiness over to our table and snobbishly introduce themselves to you and probably try to steal you away from me because you're so hot!" I try to make light of the situation by making a joke, but I know that's exactly what they would have done. At least Jenny would have anyways. She always liked the same guys I did, which is why I only ever had one boyfriend. She always ended up with the boys I liked. There's no way she'll ever meet Harry. Not if I have anything to do with it!

"And you ran into them this morning?" he asks. "How did that go?"

"It was the worst ten minutes of my life," I roll my eyes. "I couldn't get out of there fast enough."

"Where?"

"The Cafe."

"Why was it so bad?"

"Because—they're just—ugh, they're rich bitches, and just being in the same vicinity as them makes me want to kill myself. I can't believe I ever associated myself with them and called them my friends! People who think they're better than everyone else are—they're so snobby and you should have heard them talk. So ditzy. Like We hang out," I mock Lexi's ditzy voice. "Who just spends their life just hanging out? They probably just shop with their Daddy's credit cards and go home and bathe in all their new things that they already have ten of—"

"Okay, okay," Harry says, placing his hands on my shoulders, gazing into my eyes. "Just calm down."

"Sorry," I breathe out. "They just bother me." The way I just spoke my mind about them, doesn't surprise me. I probably could have bitched about them for hours, never having done so before. All those years of keeping thoughts to myself about them and being reminded of it all, makes it easy to just go off the deep end with my pent up anger.

"Let's just get something to eat." Harry starts looking around in every direction, trying to figure out where to go for dinner now that his idea has been abolished. "Forget about them. They're apparently not worth your thoughts, and I'm not letting those rich bitches ruin our evening, since I now only have two hours with you, which is definitely not enough after not seeing you for days."

Harry takes my hand, lacing our fingers together as we start walking down the street, in hopes of finding a place to eat.

"I smell hot dogs," I say, looking around to find the source.

"We're not eating hot dogs from a cart," Harry interjects. "I'm trying to impress you, not kill you with hot dogs from the street." He pulls me in close to him and kisses me quickly. "What would your scary dad say if he knew I took you to a hot dog stand for dinner? He'd be horrified, Paisley!"

"We're eating hot dogs, Harry," I laugh. "We'll kill two birds with one stone. We can eat and check out the harbor at the same time. No time wasted."

He groans, leaning into kiss me again. "Fine."

I could never express how doing something so simple could mean so much. Even though Harry is from here and has experienced where we are and what we're doing at this very moment, as we walk down the cobblestone walkway of the harbor, the sense that we're experiencing home together makes everything about this night seem magical. This place will always be my home, but having him next to me and the comfort he brings, allows me to soak in the fact that he makes it feel like home even more than I already believed it to be.

We've watched the fire jugglers, donated to charity at the Christmas tree, saw the making of painting with spray paint on canvas, got our picture taken together as if we were tourists and paid for someone to draw us as cartoons with giant heads. The amount of times we have laughed, makes me never want this night to end. Everything about it has been wonderful and memorable and perfect. I could never ask for more than what he's just given me, and I don't think he could even understand the meaning of it all. He changed the meaning behind what home is to me. I know now, that even though we're home, in the sense of the place, I know that when we go back to school, I'll still have home with me, because he'll be there.

"This has been the perfect date," I tell him, as we make our way back home for him to drop me off.

"Oh yeah, hot dogs for dinner definitely did the trick." He rolls his eyes, but looks over at me and smiles, knowing that the hot dogs really weren't all that bad and didn't ruin the night whatsoever, but added to the charm of it all, somehow. 

"Now tell me what's in the bag," I battle, looking to the backseat of the car. He had left me alone while I was getting my cartoon picture drawn, but wouldn't tell me where he was off to, and came back with a white paper bag with something secret inside.

"Ya know, there's nothing in there. It's just a bag. Stop being nosy," he laughs.

"If it's just a bag, then I guess I can see," I say, pretending to reach for the bag, but my eyes stay on him. Watching him laugh with a worried look on his face, just makes it funnier. Despite how curious I am about the bag's contents and how defensive he's been about it, I know I wont actually look, even though I want to.

"Paisley, come on," he pleads.

"I'm just playing."

He pulls into my Aunt's driveway and shuts the car off. I look at the clock, to see that we're fifteen minutes early and all I want to do is finish this night off perfectly by doing the one thing that has easily become one of my favorite things. And that is to kiss him.

"Your dad is going to see that he can trust me, seeing that I brought you home ear—"

I interrupt him by crashing my lips into his, not wanting to waste another second, knowing we have very little time left to be together tonight. All night, I wanted his lips pressed against mine, to feel his soft lips and his tongue work it's magic, and I finally have that relief. I finally get to feel the warmth that I could only ever get from Harry, and how quick I am to be as close to him as I can, doesn't go unnoticed. He pulls me over the console, making me bump my head on the ceiling and awkwardly laugh. But we stable ourselves without effort, as I straddle him in the front seat of his car as he moves his seat back as far as it can go.

I suddenly wish he wasn't wearing so many clothes, but the only thing I can tear from him, is his beanie, as I run my hands through his soft curls. The way he kisses me so quickly, full of excitement and passion and intensity, only has me wanting for more. My need to be closer to him grows, as he kisses along my jaw and down my neck, before his lips meet mine again.

"Why do we have to be in a car?" I breathe out, as he gently pulls on my earlobe with his teeth. I can hear him breathing heavily into my ear.

"I want you, Paise," he whispers. "I want to make you feel good."

My lips meet his again, but this time not so rough, not so quick. His hands cup my face. His thumbs caressing my cheeks and his fingers in my hair. And when he pulls away from me, he's looking at me with lust in his eyes. The way his curls have now fallen into his face, seriousness in his every feature, I want to savor this moment. This moment, he's so attractive and my need for him turns to wanting, and the only thing that matters in the world is him and I never want this feeling to end.

"You're the only girl that's ever meant anything to me," he whispers, still keeping his eyes on mine. "The only one who ever will."

His hands move from my face, moving slowly down my body, making me wish now, that I wasn't wearing so many clothes so I can feel his hands on me the way I need to. When his hands reach my backside, he squeezes, pushing me closer into him. All the while our eyes never losing focus of each other's.

"Trust me, Paisley."

Those words have always had an effect of me. And this time, I respond the only way I know how to. To show him that I trust him, even in the smallest of ways, is to kiss him. To let my actions say everything for me, because I do trust him.

I know that my actions have spoken, when he moves one of his hands to my front and puts pressure between my legs over top of my jeans.

A loud banging startles us both, and my head hits the ceiling as I jump. When I look out the window to see who's interrupted our steamy moment, my heart pounds deep in my chest, knowing this isn't going to end well.

Because there, outside the car, stands Dad, with nothing but fury in his eyes.

A/N: I'm happy that I've had quite a bit of time to write over the last couple weeks, and I should have a good amount of time over the holidays as well. 

Thank you so much for 11.9K reads! Keep voting and commenting! And please, if you could share this book with your friends, that would mean so much to me! :)

Hope everyone is enjoying the beginning of their holidays! 5 days till Christmas!!!

Much love,
amberlove

xo