Strings of Fate

Strings of Fate Cam 35- Boundaries and bragging I'm lying in bed and theoretically I'm relaxing but | just can’t sleep. I find myself just scrolling through the messages my mother sentearlier. | sort of want to ignore them, but that doesn’t line up all that well with my whole ‘setting boundaries’ thing. | can’t expect my family to pull their heads out of their asses if | don’t make it clear when they're doing things that makeuncomfortable. If I'm not willing to completely cut ties then | need to try to stand up for myself, right? | take almost an hour to compose the text | send to my mother.

Cam- | would like to start by pointing out that | am an adult and | in no way ‘owe’ you an explanation however as you are my mother and did raise| respect you enough to provide one regardless. | understand that you do not agree with my decision, however | have made it clear several times now that | have no interest in meeting with Simon. | will not ever develop a relationship with him and | find it very disturbing that you consider a man who is literally. stalkingas a viable option. The Incubus in that photo is a good person and | am disappointed with your judgemental attitude considering that you have not even met him. He and | are in a relationship and | have no intention of cutting ties with him so | suggest you get over whatever your problem is. | want to make something very clear to you. You have no say at all in my relationships and | will spend twith whoever | choose, with or without your approval. This message isn’t intended as an explanation, a justification of my behaviour or an attempt to gain your approval. Rather it is the opposite. This is the last t| will explain or justify my behaviour to you and while | would love to have your approval, | will not let a lack of it stopfrom living life as | see fit. My life is good and | am happy with it. | love my job and | am happy with my relationship. If you can’t accept that... well that’s your problem so stop trying to make it mine because | am done with your attitude. Unless you intend to apologise and are ready to move on from this, don’t bother answering this message. You will always be my mother and | will always love you but | can’t keep having this conversation.

I hold my breath as | hit send, then within moments the exhaustion that has been trying to claimfor hours finally wins. | wake up to my alarm, feeling groggy and trying to work out why I set it so early. Oh, right. | have a date with Harry. | might not be expecting this to go especially well, but he always looks so much better than me, | want to put in seffort. | don’t want to look like sIncubi fangirl that he’s using. | want to look like someone an Incubus would want. Feeling motivated, | turn off the alarm and roll out of bed. | check my phone. | have two messages. One from my mum and one from Harry. | figure I'll start with the more difficult one first.

1/4 Cam 35- Boundaries and bragging Mum - Your grandmother is heartbroken, | can’t believe you would speak to us this way. | then thought | raised you better than this. Give it a few weeks, the Incubus will screw you screw you over and you'll ccrying back to us. We will be waiting.

Yep, that’s about what | expected. | fight back tears as | open my messages from Harry, hopefully this cheersup and so helpif he is cancelling on| might have to kill him.

Test Subject 01-Good morning beautiful, | can’t wait to see you today. I'll be on your doorstep at 12 on the dot! [J I shouldn't have worried. | can always count on Harry to provide a well timed, if sometimes inappropriate, distraction. With that in mind, | change his nin my contacts.” Cam- Good morning, I'll be ready. Are you sure you won't tellwhere we're going? Distraction- Not telling, if nothing else I figure that your curiosity will stop you from cancelling on me. ;) Cam- | already told you that I'm not cancelling.

Distraction- I'll believe it when | see it.

Cam- Eye roll. Whatever.

Cam-... | messaged my mum. | tried to set sboundaries. | don’t think it worked though.

She didn’t react well. | think it might have made things worse.

Distraction- I'm sorry it didn’t go well but I'm proud of you for standing up for yourself! If she can’t see how perfect you are, that’s her loss. You are intelligent, capable, beautiful, kind, sexy, gorgeous, attractive, hot...

Wait, what was my point again? Cam-You're ridiculous.

Distraction- Ridiculously handsome.

Cam- And oh so humble.

214 Cam 35- Boundaries and bragging Distraction- Hey | know what I look like, I'm cocky not blind.

Laughing to myself, | throw my phone onto my bed. | think a hot bath is in order. Ill need to get moving if | want tfor my hair to dry properly. | prefer not to use hair dryers, they make my hair go frizzy. It looks so much better if it has tto air dry.

At five minutes to twelve, I'm pacing the living room wearing my new green sundress and a cute pair of black flats that do nothing to maketaller but at least they're comfortable. It’s not like the couple of inches of height a pair of heels might givewould make all that much difference. Harry is so much taller than me.

Unless | walk around in a pair of stilts | have no chance of balancing out our heights. | could cut him off at the knees but that just sounds messy. | wonder if | could make a potion that could temporarily change someone’s height? | suppose it would be theoretically possible but | suspect it would be super painful to use. | doubt it would be worth the effort. | take a moment to double check my reflection in the little mirror | keep hanging by the front door. My hair is sitting in perfect waves, my eye makeup is natural but pretty and the green of my dress really brings out my eyes. I'm fairly satisfied with my appearance, although I'm also annoyingly nervous. This is stupid, Harry hast seenin my comfy, lazy clothes and he still askedout. | check the time, three minutes. to go. | rush to the bathroom, | suddenly need to pee and I just know that he’s going to knock on the door and I'll be stuck in the bathroom. | rush to empty my bladder feeling paranoid and wash my hands, drying them on my skirt as | dash back to the living room to wait. | check the tagain. Still two minutes to twelve, | probably didn’t need to hurry so much. But what if he was early? Ugh, this is stressful, although | guess sort of exciting too. It's been ages since I've been on a proper date. Finally Harry knocks. | make myself count to three before answering the door so that it isn’t completely obvious that I've just been standing around waiting for him. Harry's eyes practically glow with approval as he looksover.

“If | expressed how stunning you are and how it makesfeel I'm pretty sure you would shovedown these stairs, lock the door and refuse to go anywhere withso I'm just going to say you look lovely.” He says with a charming smile and | can’t help but roll my eyes.

“You look good too.” I tell him grudgingly. He handsa bouquet. | expect it to be flowers. so I'm surprised to find it’s a collection of individually sealed little bottles of different alcohols and mixers strategically wrapped and placed to make them look like flowers. It’s actually adorable.

“Thanks, | guess | don’t need to put these in water, but I will put them away.” | joke.

3/4 Cam 35- Boundaries and bragging “Yeah, that’s probably for the best.” He agrees. Five minutes later I'm sitting in the passenger seat of his car. It's weird, I've never seen his car before.

“If you have a car, why do you always walk to my work, and why always walkhwhen you could drive?” | question. Harry grins.

“Well, I don’t drive because | never know what your drinks are going to do toso | figure it's better not to risk it. As for driving you home... That would make the night end faster.” He answers. Oh. That's actually kind of sweet. | blush and clear my throat, looking out the window as he drives.

“So where are we going?” | ask again. Harry just grins.

“To test a theory | have.” He answers vaguely. | cross my fingers and hope for the best.

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