A friendly reminder that all names except my own are changed for anonymity.
Ah well well well, I am back.
Out of retirement.
Back on the job.
Twas a nice hiatus.
But my time is up.
Duty calls and thus, there is a story to write.
Harry. Harry. Harry.
This is the story of Harry.
What a wild time.
Now listen I thought I had experienced it all.
But this story stopped me in my tracks.
It has caused jaws to hit the floor.
Screams from across the room.
Heads to shake in disbelief.
No one saw it coming.
So you best believe it is coming in two parts.
Don’t you dare get shitty at me for making you wait.
You get this content for free.
Though if you want to rebate my time on these dates you can donate to: 06-0705-0432313-00
I met Harry in real life.
Yup, not on a dating app.
Goes against my normal narrative but listen when I tell you that I am honestly out here looking for love.
Ask Laura my best friend. She will vouch for me that I always approach these dates with true optimism of a relationship.
Meeting Harry was no different.
We met at a festival. I was playing around with my light whip. If you don’t know what that is, go and google it. It is quite literally a light whip.
However, at festivals they look incredible and I can bewitch you if you’re not careful.
You too can succumb to my moves.
It takes but a moment.
Harry was stopped in his tracks when he stumbled upon me.
Sitting down he barely blinked and all he asked was “who is she?” to my friends.
They threw back their heads laughing and said “this is Seren.”
“I would like to very much meet Seren, shes fucking magical”.
As I was snaking LED lights round my body practically in my own world he looked at me like I was the only person on the entire earth.
My friends asked him how he was finding the festival and if he was single.
“Its just gotten a whole lot better, I was about to leave but I don’t think I can now. Yeah, I am single. Please tell me she is too?”
They told Harry that I was in fact somehow still single. Waiting for someone to keep up.
“Look at her, she can’t have an average man.”
To say that my friends are my biggest fans would be an understatement. They have reminded me time and time again what relationships can do for you.
They are the reason I won’t settle among many other things.
After a while I sat down on the grass next to Harry and introduced myself.
He took a deep breath and said “I am not sure what just happened, but I really would like to get to know you, if thats okay?”
Now it could have been many things that influenced him to say those words but it was the look he gave me.
A look I know I have given to past lovers. One where the world comes into focus and the volume gets turned down.
He sat there and as I told him about myself he gently cocked his head to the side and smiled.
He confessed he had a child and if that was a red flag he would leave.
Now I would normally leave this sort of detail out. Alas, this story needs this minor detail.
I asked what the relationship with the childs mother is like. So much can be said about the way co-parents talk about each other.
He spoke of her in an incredibly positive light. How he loved being a father and that their arrangement worked really well for the two of them.
He went on to tell me so much about his life, that he owns a home he rents out, in a past life he was a real estate agent. I said that was more of a red flag than having a child.
Our conversation didn’t stop. I was so in the conversation I hadn’t noticed my friends all drifted back to the dance floor. We had been telling stories like a game of tennis at Wimbledon. It was relentless and I couldn’t step away.
And when we came out of the conversational haze he asked me if he could kiss me.
Id like to note for the record that this sort of thing practically makes me feral.
Like melt into the ground screaming ROMANCE ISN’T DEAD.
I think it is so incredibly sweet to be asked if someone can kiss you.
Its always such a vulnerable moment where the air is electric but knowing someone wants you in that moment is intangible.
So Harry kissed me and in that moment I swear I couldn’t hear the music play.
The world was silent as he held the back of my head.
He was smiling inches away from my face and all I could do was giggle.
There was something about this man, unmatched, unfaltering, and all consuming.
He held my hand and continued asking me questions so willing to listen to every single detail I had to offer. We laughed, confessed, even spilled some fears.
Harry had just stopped snorting at something I had said when his gaze dropped.
“I need to leave.”
“Oh really?”
“Yeah, I was actually trying to find my ride when I stumbled upon your magical self and well I still need to get home because I am working in the morning.”
Turns out he was helping a friend at one of the coffee carts at the festival.
What we had not realised, was that it had been hours. We had been sitting in the same spot exchanging stories. His original quest was long gone but somehow he had to get back to where he was staying.
We had to say our goodbyes and it felt stupid.
He said “I don’t want to leave you, god I just want to keep talking to you, but I truely have to go otherwise I’ll let down my friend”.
I said I completely understand, I too had to go and track my friends down.
So he asked me if I would like to see him again for the second day of the festival.
I gave him my phone number and name with a small wish the universe that I would really like this to work out.
But there it hit us. There was no reception, we were at a festival guys. So we had to go old school.
A time and a place and a collective agreement.
He was helping a friend make coffee during the day and I would meet him at the end of his shift.
If this was going to work out, then it was going to work out.
The next day rolls around, I see him in the morning making coffee. He melts when we lock eyes and all the feeling we had from the previous night come rushing back.
“I’ll see you at 2pm”
“I cannot wait but will have to” he said.
So off I went with my coffee and my friends. Deeply hungover yes, but absolutely giddy.
Circling back many hours later to the coffee cart, Harry isn’t there. Its 2pm and I have to ask “is Harry around?”
“No sorry love, he left, he stayed out too late and could barely stand straight by midday.”
“Oh, okay. Do you know if hes working tomorrow?”
“Ahhhh not sure, don’t think so. If I see him do you want me to tell him you dropped by?”
“Yeah if you see him”
“How great is Harry? I met him for the first time today and he’s just fantastic”
“Couldn’t agree with you more”
“What was your name?”
“I’m Seren.”
“Lovely to meet you Seren. I’ll let him know you dropped by.”
But I never saw Harry again.
The End.
Ha.
No.
The festival finished, we drove back into reception and my phone started blowing up.
Friend request from: Harry
Harry sent you a message:
“Hey pretty lady, I am sorry but I couldn’t hack it through to the end of the festival. Hope you had a great time. I would love to take you out to dinner next week. Let me know what night works for you.”
Guys I can’t tell you just how excited I was.
Reflecting upon our first night all I could think was he was absolutely everything I wanted in a partner.
Harry did in deed take me out to dinner for our first proper date.
He was running late due to traffic and when I offered to catch an uber and meet him he said “Seren, I would do more than fight traffic to go on a date with you”.
Are. You. Fucking. Kidding. Me.
So I sat on my bed smiling at my screen like an absolute buffoon.
The date was electric, we were those people who didn’t order dinner for 45 minutes because neither of us had the thought of looking at a menu.
He sat across the table from me and truely saw me for who I was.
We covered so much ground it felt like we had known each other for years.
This is what dating is meant to feel like. This is why I refuse to settle.
This feeling.
All those shit dates. All those dry conversations. All for Harry.
But I had fucking made it.
There in front of me was Harry telling me just how beautifully I hold a conversation and tell stories. How he loved seeing me light up when I spoke of people I admired.
“I just can’t get over you” he said.
I don’t know how to explain the sense of relief I felt knowing we were both so fucking excited to be seeing each other again.
Our second date was a spontaneous trip to watch his friend perform up on K Road. We stood on the street his arm around my waist like we had never been apart.
Some people feel like home. He was beginning to feel like one of them.
After introductions to his friends who we bumped into, we went for a drink and some small bites.
It was lovely. In fact it was just what I needed after a 14 hour working day.
We made out on a side street and I hated saying I had to go home because I didn’t want to leave his arms.
How soppy right?
He confessed he didn’t want me to go home but that he was so glad I said yes to seeing him tonight.
Communication. Is. The. Shit.
My confession is that I drove home with the windows down screaming Frank Ocean because I felt like I was on fire.
He was what I had been looking for.
But listen I felt like I was in a loved up bubble and I was terrified I was overlooking things.
When it all feels so right, part of me thought that this was too good to be true. After all, that has always been my experience.
And if all of your experiences end in a twisted, unpredictable ending – you would fear when dating seems to be working out.
So how to fix that??
Friend vett.
Ask him to come to a house party my best friend was throwing and stay the night.
If he is the man who I think he is – my friends will be able to tell.
Thats because my friends are my family. The people I turn to through the good and the very bad.
They also tell the truth. Blunt and painful truths if needed.
Harry needed to meet the friends.
After all, I had just met his.
Now this was no ordinary house party.
It was a dress up party.
A saloon party.
Come as any character you may find in a Wild West saloon.
So I ask Harry if he’s up for staying the night and coming to this party with me.
Its an easy yes as he tells me he owns his own cowboy hat and harmonica.
The Saturday sneaks up on us quickly and before we climb in the back of the Uber he asks me who is going to be at this party.
“Some of my closest friends, you met some of them at the festival”
“Ah right, I am not going to lie, I feel a bit nervous to meet your friends.”
And in that moment I saw it all from his point of view.
He was about to meet all my closest friends, at a dress up party and then come home with me.
So I turned around whilst shoving my foot in to a boot and said “I promise you my friends wont make you feel uncomfortable, but if you are feeling uncomfortable for whatever reason, just double pat me on the lower back and I will step in. You look fantastic and I know they are going to think you are amazing.”
We arrived at the party and everyone gave out hugs to Harry and welcomed him in. Some said it was nice to see him again and others said how nice it was to meet the man Seren had bewitched with her lightwhip.
Harry was deep in conversation with someone he shared the same job as when my friend Cherry turned up.
I left Harry and took Cherry to find a cowboy hat and grab her a drink.
As I was helping to put her hair into plaits she said how Harry looked so comfortable talking with our friends.
And she wasn’t wrong.
When we went back out there were phone numbers being exchanged so the boys could go and get beers together later in the week.
I introduced Cherry to Harry and he popped his arm around my waist.
Mid conversation Cherry looked at me and simply nodded.
I looked at my other friend and they also gave their approval smile.
And if you know anything about women is that in that moment, I knew Harry was the real deal.
As the night progressed I had other friends find me in the kitchen whilst I was grabbing and say “you two together just makes sense, hes wonderful”.
We were in the middle of a dance party when Harry spun me around and pulled me close.
“Hey pretty lady, I have some good news and bad news, what do you want first?”
“Oh the bad news.”
Because bad news can always feel less bad when good news follows.
“No, I will give you the good news first.”
“Okay”
“You were right, your friends are amazing, I feel so welcome”
“I told you. They really like you by the way”
“The bad news is, I need to be a Dad in the morning and need to go home.”
Ah yes, that detail of him having a child. This is the reality of his life.
He had asked his mother to babysit overnight. He had popped his child to bed and wanted to be there for the end of breakfast.
He loved being a father, he confessed that he loves seeing the world through the eyes of his child.
I had worked maybe 60 hours and whilst I am an extrovert and could have easily kept going, this was our cue to leave.
Hugging him I said “then lets go”.
Harry was worried I wanted to stay and be with my friends. That they would frown upon him because none of them have children.
Which I laughed at because if you say you need to go home – you go home with no judgement.
So I swivelled on my heels, said we were going as I needed to sleep and Harry needed to be a dad in the AM.
Ordered an Uber and off we toddled to my house.
We woke up in the morning, grabbed breakfast at my local cafe and spoke about his challenges co parenting and just what him and his child would be up to for the day.
He told me that he would like me to come round to his house on Tuesday night for dinner and to stay the night.
To which I agreed.
Obviously.
Booking the next date whilst on the date – big green flag.
I kissed Harry goodbye and watched him drive off and be a dad.
As I drove home I thought about how well this was going and that for once and I didn’t feel panicked about dating someone.
In fact I felt really secure.
No negative intrusive thoughts.
Just quiet bliss.
This is what it is meant to feel like.
So I went about my day, catching up on laundry, doing my groceries and mentally preparing to come back to hundreds of emails due to my out of office.
I fell asleep about 8pm trying to catch up on the early mornings that had haunted me when I woke up about an hour later to a missed call from Harry.
Firing back a messaged I asked if he wanted me to call him back.
No response and I could hardly keep my eyes open so I fell back into a deep slumber.
Join me for part two and find out why Harry had called.
Hidden Under The Covers 