Strings of Fate

Strings of Fate Cam 27- Clothes and convenience Twelve minutes and forty six seconds later, Harry bursts in through the automatic doors of the grocery shop, barely even waiting for them to open enough for him to get through.

“Cam? Are you still here?” He yells, drawing the attention of literally everyone in the store. He is completely breathless.

“Over here.” | call out with a half laugh. | don’t think he could have drawn more attention to himself if he tried. | guess Simon will definitely guess I'm here. But hopefully seeing Harry will scare him off. If nothing else, I'll have backup if he approachesand being seen outside of work with Harry will work to support our lie of being in a serious relationship.

Harry's face lights up when he seesand he dashes to my side.

“Cam! | missed you!” He tells me. Up close | can see that he’s not just breathless, but sweaty too. He clearly ran here. He's dressed differently to usual too. In comfortable looking grey track pants and a black t-shirt. It sort of pissesoff that he looks really good in his comfortable lounging clothes. I'm not the only one noticing based on the expression of the cashier who seems to think that Harry running to meetis the cutest thing ever.

She’s watchingwith envy, which is completely different to the judgemental expression she’s been givingfor the last ten minutes or so while I've been sitting here awkwardly hovering waiting for him to turn up.The point is, Harry looks annoyingly hot. I try not to think how much of a mess | am. | don’t need him to be attracted to me, so I shouldn't care that I'm wearing such slouchy clothes and no makeup.

Harry slings an arm over my shoulder and hugsto his side. | immediately shrug him off.

“Oh, sorry. I'm probably all sweaty and gross. My bad.” He apologises but he doesn’t actually sound remotely sorry. In fact he’s super cheerful.

“You're fine. Just keep your hands to yourself. It's weird seeing you in casual clothes.” | observe. Harry grins at me...

“Back atcha. You look so adorable in your giant t-shirt. It’s almost like a dress on you. | can imagine you curled up on your couch watching a movie like that. Or curled up my lap. preferably.” He winks atand | roll my eyes.

on 1/5 Cam 27- Clothes and convenience “In your dreams.” | sass back.

“Every night darling.” He immediately answers. | sigh. He holds out a hand and I stare dumbly for a second until he reaches down and takes my shopping bags from me.

“Oh, thanks.” | answer absently.

“Ready to go?” He prompts me.

“You don’t need to get anything?” | ask.

“Nope. | just chere to see you.” He smiles happily and | feel a rush of his magic which. sends shivers down my spine which | do my best to ignore.

“lI can’t believe you actually ran here.” | comment. Harry stares atincredulously.

“Of course | did! It was an excuse to cand see you. | didn’t think that you would actually wait for me!” “If you didn’t think | would still be here, why did you run all this way?” | demand. Harry shrugs.

“Just in case you did wait. Plus | thought maybe | could get here before you finished. shopping. Or maybe | could catch you on the way home. But you did wait!” He answers gleefully. | try not to blush. He doesn’t need to know why | waited.

“I didn’t want to carry everything home. It seemed worth the delay.” | lie. Harry laughs.

“I will carry your bags for you whenever you want.” He promises.

We head out and | do my best not to look awkward or nervous. | can’t see Simon anywhere and when he doesn’t appear after a minute of walking | start to relax. Seems like Harry really did have good timing deciding to turn up here. Still, | can’t resist the desire to tease him a little.

“You are really milking this ‘walkinghome’ thing. I'm fairly sure it was only meant to mean walkinghfrom work.” | point out. Harry shakes his head.

2/5 Cam 27-Clothes and convenience “Nope, that’s not what we agreed. You said | could walk you home, you never said where from.” He winks atand | roll my eyes.

“You're ridiculous, but since it’s convenient toright now and you're carrying all my stuff, | won’t complain.” | tell him with a smirk.

“Very gracious of you.” He nods and | can’t help but giggle.

The walk hsomehow feels a lot faster than the walk to the shops did. Although | becincreasingly grateful for Harry's presence as | watch him lug around my heavy shopping bags. He chatters away about his most recent project for work and I'm surprised to find that | am genuinely interested although I refrain from asking too many questions. I'm sure he would interpret any sign of interest fromas a sign of interest in something else and | don’t want to lead him on. It’s not like I'm actually going to go out with him. He might be good at keepingdistracted, and he might be okay as a friend, he might even be pretty good at coming up with business ideas. But he’s an Incubus. There's no way he could actually be a decent boyfriend. Right? We arrive at my front door and | go to take my bags from Harry but he pulls them away from me.

“Cam, don’t take this astrying something. But would you please just letcarry your bags inside for you? | promise to behave myself.” He tellsseriously, then ruins the atmosphere by winking at me. | narrow my eyes at him and Harry straightens up.

“I mean it. I'd give you a scouts salute but my hands are full. plus | was never a scout.” He concludes.

“That's hardly reassuring.” | respond and he just stares atwith the most pathetic puppy dog expression. | sigh.

“Oh fine. But if you misbehave | will seriously never talk to you ever again. And I'll tell Ryann on you.” | warn.

Harry beams a huge smile atand nods eagerly.

“I'd expect nothing less. You gonna unlock the door?” He prompts and | roll my eyes.

“Yeah, yeah. I'm on it.” When we get inside, Harry takes my bags through to the kitchen and starts unpacking my Bil) Cam 27-Clothes and convenience groceries and putting them away.

“You don’t have to do that.” | object half heartedly. To be honest, | hate putting groce away and if he wants to do it forI'm not sure | can be bothered arguing “I don’t mind. Besides, it's a great excuse to go through your stuff. He jokes and | cross my arms over my cifest.

“Excuse me?” | demand. Harry shrugs.

“You heard me.” He responds unapologetically.

“This is your version of behavingTM” | ask.

“Sure. I'm only looking through your kitchen, it’s not like I'm rifing through your underwear drawer, although if you want help putting away that pile of laundry | would be more them happy to assist.” he smirks and | buff at him. Okay, so | dumped my restity cleaned laundry onto a pile on my couch earlier when | lost ocovacion to dean. What can | say, folding and putting away laundry is the worst. With a silent place. | grab the amul of landry, CESTY into my room, throw it onto my bed and return to the itchen, closing my bedroom door behind me.

“Oh look, no more laundry. | comment “You're so organised at work. It’s kind of nice to see yoxmot so perfect all the time.

observes.

“Thanks?” | say doubtfully “You're welcome. So, what do you want for dinner?” Barry 2933 cheerful Bub