Chapter 21

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HARRY STYLES

I've never said it out loud to anyone, but one of the things that freaked me out about being in a relationship was that I didn't know what kind of person I was when I technically belonged to someone else. Truthfully, I liked who I was on my own, and I liked having the freedom to do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted.

But now I could already feel my mentality start to change, and Camden and I were just barely venturing into this new phase of our relationship. When she wasn't with me or texting me, I wondered why. When she wasn't speaking when we were in the same room or the car together, I wanted to know everything she was thinking.

I wasn't used to the vulnerability and the newfound insecurity I was feeling now, and I guess it was just hard for me to express how much I liked her when I hadn't done this before. I knew how to tell her I liked all the things we did in bed, but I struggled to find the words to tell her that I liked how she held her cigarette, or how she looked when she was sleeping, how she would get so easily frustrated, and how her eyes crinkled at the corners when she laughed.

I also liked spending all of my time with her, and that's why we were now in the countryside, where she had never been. I thought it would be nice for her to get out of London when all she ever did was go to work and stay at either of our places. Selfishly, it also meant that I got to have her all to myself.

"God, I can't even begin to tell you how different this is from Phoenix," she laughed to herself from the passenger seat, leaning over to see through my window.

I glanced at her profile as she tucked her hair behind her ear, resisting the urge to lean in and kiss her while I was still very much behind the wheel. "Is it?"

"I mean, yeah," she scoffed. "I thought shit like this only existed in movies."

I suppose even if she was somewhat used to London by now, this was still a culture shock for her. The town we were in was incredibly small, the buildings were ridiculously old, and the streets were narrow and mostly empty. It didn't occur to me that she might think it was boring until I was seeing it again for myself now, but she was smiling and pulling her phone out to take a picture through the windshield.

"Are we staying in a hotel or something?" She asked.

"Uh, not exactly," I chuckled, turning down a gravel road.

The drive from the main street to the cabin I rented out for us took roughly five minutes, and by then we were surrounded by the thick forest and nothing else but the way back to the small town. It was a charming little house, but even though it looked old and worn on the outside with the ivy vines growing up through the stone walls, the inside was renovated and nicer than anyone would expect.

"We're staying here?" She smiled, so that seemed like a good sign.

"This is it, yeah."

"It's so cute," she laughed, hopping out of the car as soon as I shifted the gear into park.

I stepped out with her, watching our breath puff out in front of us as we inspected the front of the cabin. "You think we'll get murdered here?"

"Maybe," she glanced back at the road, then to the forest behind the house. "I feel like I've seen this in a horror movie before."

I only laughed when her shoulders jolted at the sound of a twig snapping in the woods nearby. She slapped my chest with a smile on her face as she started grabbing our grocery bags from the backseat. Meanwhile, I used the PIN that the owner texted me to retrieve the key from the lockbox, using it to get the front door open so I could take the bags from her.

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