OLIVIA'S POV

The doorbell rings and I rush out of my bedroom into the hallway, skipping past Harry's room, still delighted that he is home, even days later.

"Wait!" He yells and I squeal as he ducks out from his door, grabbing my waist and swinging me into his room.

He is laughing at the reaction he caused as I try to catch my breath.

"Listen, before you answer the door, anything I say today that I haven't already told you, isn't true ok?" He says to my confused face.

"What?"

"I'm going to conduct a little test. When I'm lying I'll use our signals ok?"

"Harry, I really don't think that's a good idea, maybe just talk-" I'm interrupted by the doorbell ringing again.

"Have faith, Toots! I'm sure it won't be them." He yells behind him as he goes to let our friends in.

Frankie bursts into tears at the first sight of Harry and he laughs as he tries to console her.


"I'm sorry, love, I'm fine." He assures her pulling her into a hug as I greet Bec and Nathan.

"I'm not concerned about you, do you know how unproductive she was at work?" Frankie laughs pointing at me to try and make light of the situation but hugs Harry again like she may never let go.

"Hey Bec," he smiles moving away from Frankie. "Sorry for missing dinner that night, I know it was important to you," he says in her ear as she rubs his back.

"Please, don't even think about it. We were so worried, we're just so happy you're home. But speaking of that dinner, Harry this is my boyfriend Nathan." She announces proudly.

"Nice to meet you, mate," the men say at the same time as they shake hands.

"I appreciate you inviting me round." Nathan says genuinely and I know Bec has told him how rare it is for Harry to invite people into his circle of trust.

Just as Harry is telling Nathan not to worry about it the door bell rings and I turn to open it.

Harry and Xander stop and stare at each other and the rest of us hold our breaths as they quickly close the distance between them and both break down in tears.

"I'm so sorry you had to see that." Harry sniffles.

"Jesus you had us worried. I'm so proud of you for going Harry." Xander sobs back.

Harry breaks away only to pull Will into his hug with Xander. 

"Thank you being there. For me and for her." He says to both of them as they embrace him.

I look around at the tear stained faces of our friends and I am one hundred percent convinced in that moment that no one has been disloyal to Harry when it comes to his privacy. It has to be someone else.

"You're welcome mate," I hear Xander tell him. "Poor girl got a beating in the press while you were gone. I don't know how they decided she was controlling, fuck if she was any more accepting of your bullshit I would check her pulse!" He laughs and Harry looks apologetically at me.

Our natural banter is at all time high as everyone celebrates Harry's return, not just from California, but to life.  We sit around the living room, joking and laughing, telling Harry stories he may have missed in the last few months.

I catch Xander's eye a couple of times and I know he is thinking how different things are to last time we were together in this room with Harry.

Nathan fits in easily with our group, having met most of us a couple of times by now and he and Harry are getting along well as they speak in depth about some sort of team strategy to do with football that I have absolutely no idea about.

"Isn't that right Liv?" Harry mocks as he sees my confused face, throwing his arm around my shoulders and pulling me into his body as he chuckles.

"Um yeah of course, trades and defence and off-side!" I shout into his chest making him laugh harder.

I pull away slightly, Harry's arm is still around my shoulder and I look into the eyes of the beautiful man beside me, so grateful he is here and happy and healthy.  He looks back at me, his eyes filled with the love I had missed seeing in them so much.

He smiles softly and I want to ask him what he is thinking about when our heads snap forward at the clicking sound of Frankie's polaroid camera.

"Gotcha!" She smiles knowingly at us and Harry rolls his eyes playfully at her.

I see his face change all of a sudden and he takes his arm from around me and scratches his shoulder. I groan quietly at the signal, trying to make him stop whatever he is about to say.

He glances at me to make sure I've seen it before he starts.

"So, I bumped into Kristie Simms when I was leaving LA." He tells the group casually.

Bec and Frankie groan mockingly at the same time and I join them in their giggles.

"We had dinner together, it was actually nice, she was good to talk to about a lot of this stuff." He says seriously.

Everyone looks between Harry and I, wondering if he has lost his mind worse than before but when I notice even the quick glance he sends me is filled with love I know there is no way our friends are buying this.

Everyone, except Nathan who doesn't understand what is going on, starts laughing at the same time, taking what Harry is saying as a complete joke.  A cushion gets thrown at his head and Xander changes the topic to what we should order from Chinese takeaway.

---

"Can you please play us a new song?" Frankie begs Harry, shoving a dumpling in her mouth and already knowing the answer.

"Yeah right!" Harry grunts, throwing the cushion missile at her this time.

"It's great you've got new stuff mate," Xander tells him, "You recording next week?"



"Yeah, if all goes well. Meeting with the producers tomorrow to go through everything and hopefully they are on board and we can work together." He says into his rice.

He hates talking about his work, he almost never plays anything for us and I always forget to ask him why but I don't want to do it now in front of everyone.

He looks at me for help, silently asking me to change the subject.

"So, Harry and I were thinking about going on a holiday next month to celebrate the one year anniversary of me dodging the biggest bullet ever and we think you should all come!" I announce.


"Oh, if my boss lets me," I bare my teeth to Frankie in a fake smile.  Harry puts his cheek to mine and makes the same cheesy face at her and she laughs throwing the rogue cushion back at us

"What was the bullet?" Nathan asks innocently.

"Oh, Liv caught her ridiculously boring, egotistical, up-tight, loser of a fiancé banging another girl in their bed and now she has massive trust issues." Bec says casually from where she sits on the floor next to him, digging into her food.

Harry throws his head back in laughter and the others try to cover their grins.

"Fuck, tell us what you really think Bec." I huff and the cushion finds her head before she shrugs and sits on it.

Harry snakes his arm around my waist as a way of letting me know they don't mean to gang up on me.

"Honey, you're lucky we liked you so much because he was sooooo dull." Xander exaggerates.

Harry nods in agreement and I elbow him jokingly in the side of the ribs before he chuckles and kisses me playfully on the temple.

"Wait you were engaged last year?" Nathan asks looking mainly at Harry and trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together.

"I know it looks like it sweetie," Bec leans over to fake whisper but speaks loud enough for us all to hear. "But these two aren't married, not even together, never even kissed! Don't worry, we're all trying to figure it out too."

The room erupts into laughter and I can feel my face burning.  Harry smiles and pulls me into his chest so I can escape the eyes on me and holds his middle finger up at our friends.

He looks down at me sweetly and we both use our secret signals at the same time only to hear our friends scream with laughter again this time with us joining in, realising our signals might not be so secret after all.

"Anyway arseholes, are you in for Greece or not? I'm paying." He exclaims.

"IN!" The group shouts in unison and Harry grins and shakes his head before shooting me a little wink and getting back to his chinese food.

A/N:  Hope you are all having a great weekend! 

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RS xx