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“Kids, have I ever told you the story of how I met your mother?” Andy asked, smiling at his two gorgeous children.
They reminded him so much of Harley. Nora had her same beautiful blue eyes and blinding smile, the long black hair that fell to her waist the only thing she’d gotten from her dad. Ryder was completely the opposite: he was Andy in miniature, but his sense of humor and natural charisma was all Harley.
“The year was 2019, and I was just entering my first year of vet school…”
Nervously, Andy tugged at the straps of his backpack. This was it, the first day of the rest of his life.
He'd always known he wanted to be a veterinarian. Cats and dogs just came easier than people. Not to say he wasn't friendly, but you never had to second guess what animals were thinking. The process to even get into this program was grueling: an unforgiving series of essays, interviews, and maintenance of grades.
But somehow, out of hundreds of candidates and limited spots, Andy had been chosen. And there was no way he was going to blow it.
Taking a deep breath, Andy strode towards the lecture hall. He was halfway there when a girl came sprinting past, trying to shove some papers into her unzipped bag. A leather-bound book fell to the ground with a thud, sliding until it landed at Andy's feet.
"Wait! You dropped your-" Andy called, but it was no use, she was gone.
"But why was mum running?" Nora asked innocently.
Ryder snickered. "Isn't it obvious? She was late for class."
"Mum?! Our mum?"
"Uh, maybe don't tell her I told you that," Andy said nervously.
"Sorry, Dad. I am so using this the next time she gets on me for being late." Ryder fell silent under his father's stern gaze.
" Anyways, your mom had written her name and number in the book, so naturally I texted her right after class to let her know I had found it…"
“Hamish, you cannot pick up a girl using only bacon puns,” the girl whined.
She had invited Andy to meet her and some friends at a pub close to the university. Even from across the room, he’d been able to pick out her long blonde hair and charismatic smile.
A guy dressed in a snappy suit carefully adjusted his tie. “Challenge. Accepted.”
“Please,” a girl with bright turquoise hair scoffed, “there is no way anyone here would actually go home with you.”
“Bella, Bella, Bella, you’re bacon my heart here,” the suited guy, Hamish apparently, bemoaned.
“You don’t have a heart to break.”
Andy walked up to the group a little anxiously. In addition to Bella, Hamish, and blonde notebook girl there was a hippy looking guy with his arm around Bella who was carefully trying to mediate the conversation.
“Uh, sorry to interrupt. But you’re Harley, right?” he asked, handing the book back to its owner.
“Yes! Thank you so much for returning this! I’d be lost without it.”
His curiosity got the better of him. “What is it?”
“You mean you didn’t look?” Hamish said, his eyes bugging out of his head. “I totally would’ve. A babe like Harley drops some mysterious book at your feet and all you do is return it?”
“I know this is a foreign concept to you mate, but there’s this little thing called privacy ,” the hippy said. “Nice to meet you, name’s Francis.”
“Andy.”
“That’s Harley, obviously. The tool next to you is Hamish, this is my girlfriend Bella, and…” he scanned the bartop for a second before gesturing to a heavily tattooed guy with a manbun. “That’s Marshall.”
Bella giggled. “Babe, I know you’re too nice to sneak a peek, but you have to admit, the curiosity would’ve killed you.”
“No way! I’d be fine just knowing I put a little bit of good karma back into the world.”
Harley ignored them both, gesturing to the seat next to her. “It’s okay, you can look,” she said, flipping open the book, “it’s just my sketchbook.”
Letting out a low whistle, Andy thumbed through the pages. Each page was covered in doodles and sketches; someone walking their dog, a bouquet of flowers, Bella laughing, an inexplicable picture of Hamish in superhero gear with the words bacon boy emblazoned on his chest… page after page was filled with amazing images. Somehow, she’d managed to capture the beauty in the most mundane things: an old woman waiting for the bus, the way the light filtered through a window at a shop.
“Wow, you’re really good,” he admitted.
She blushed. “Thanks, I just started graphic design school here.”
Marshall slid into the seat next to her, dropping two pitchers of beer onto the table and giving her a quick kiss on the cheek. “And she’s going to be amazing at it.” He held out a hand for Andy to shake. “I’m Marshall, Harley’s boyfriend.”
Something about the way Marshall was posturing made Andy want to roll his eyes. It was ridiculous, he knew next to nothing about these people and already Marshall was trying to mark Harley as his territory like a dog. Andy would know, animal behavior was his specialty after all.
“Ohhhh, Dad was jealous ,” Nora said in a sing-song voice.
“What? No I wasn’t, I didn’t even know I even liked your mom until much later.”
Ryder started to stand up from the couch. “Great story, Dad. You met Mum at school. Thanks for telling us.”
“Oh, I’m nowhere near finished.”
Groaning, his kids settled in for more of the story.
“Dad, please tell me this story will be over by the time I’m ready for uni?” Ryder teased.
There was no way Andy would be talking for four years straight. Although if they gave him the chance he probably could.
“By the time our first semester was almost over, I had become a part of the group. And your Uncle Hamish had taken it upon himself to get me… uh, let’s just say he really wanted someone to cuddle me.”
“Yeah, Hamish, I’m not doing that,” Andy said with an eye roll.
Hamish wolf-whistled to get his attention. “ Andy .” He made a look-at-me gesture with his fingers. “ Andy. Okay. Listen , the ‘pretending you're a bad kisser’ always works.”
“Who in their right mind would want to kiss someone who was terrible at it?”
“Girls who think they can teach you, obviously. Or, even better, girls with low standards.”
He nodded to a girl sitting alone at the bar absentmindedly stirring the ice in her empty glass and staring morosely at her phone.
“She looks so sad,” Andy remarked, “I wonder if there’s anything I can do to cheer her up.”
“I know something that’ll be going up.”
“That’s disgusting, Hamish.”
Ignoring Andy completely, he tapped the girl on the shoulder. “Hey! Haaaaaaaaaave you met Andy?”
The girl shook her head. “Hi. I’m Grace.”
“Sorry to bother you, Grace, my friend here doesn’t seem to have much respect for boundaries,” Andy said with a glare at Hamish.
“No, your friend can’t stand to see a pretty girl drinking alone. Can I buy you a drink? Let me guess vodka cran?”
“How did you know?”
Hamish slapped Andy on the back, whispering, “ It’s always vodka crans .” He gave Grace a megawatt smile. “I just had a feeling,” he crooned.
From across the bar, Harley caught Andy’s eye, stifling a giggle when he mimed gagging at Hamish’s display. Then her eyes went wide.
Andy spun around to see Hamish and Grace sucking face. Well, Grace was sucking his face, he was kissing her with his eyes wide open and purposely being as sloppy as possible.
“Oh, Hamish, you’re such a good kisser,” Grace moaned.
Damn, whatever Grace was so upset about must have been really bad for her to be wrapping herself around Hamish like that. Oh well, it wasn’t his place to say anything.
“It’s official, I’ve seen it all,” Andy said, sliding into the booth with another round of drinks for everyone.
Bella gleefully pounced on the offered pint. “I knew we kept you around for a reason.”
“So I’d keep supporting your drinking habits?”
“Obviously.”
Laughing, Harley nudged Andy in the side. “So, I take it Hamish being your wingman isn’t going so great?” she asked.
“If you call Hamish going home with every girl he tries to set me up with ‘wingmanning’, then it’s going fantastic.”
“Don’t worry, you’re a great guy, Andy. You’ll find someone perfect for you.”
“Like you and Marshall?” Francis interjected.
As often happened when Francis started speaking, Bella immediately backed him up. “Harls, babes, he’s awful .”
“Hey! That’s my boyfriend!” Harley protested.
“And we’re here to celebrate you getting singled out to create album art for the Zeph and Marshall is nowhere to be found.”
“You know how Marshall is, he had an event he had to be at. You know, for work . That thing where you actually earn a living”
Bella pouted. “I work! The campus radio station is great experience for me.”
“I was talking about your boyfriend,” Harley snickered. “Considering his official address is Hamish’s couch. Although I swear he’s at our place more than I am.”
Francis just smiled, giving Bella a loving kiss. “Guilty, I can’t keep my hands off her.”
“Babe!” Bella squealed as he pinched her ass.
“Ugh, I don’t want to hear about the crazy monkey sex you two have,” Harley groaned. “Forget I said anything. At least Andy doesn’t hate Marshall, does he?”
Andy grimaced. “Well, in the spirit of honesty…”
“Ugh! Not you too!” she exclaimed, playfully swatting him away. “And I thought we were friends!”
“We are your friends,” Bella said, suddenly serious. “That’s why we’re being honest with you.”
“Wait a second,” Ryder said, understanding alighting in his eyes, “is Marshall the one who…?”
Nora snapped to attention. “Oh shit, he’s the asshole ex?”
“Language, Nora,” Andy scolded.
“Sorry, Dad.”
“But yes, Marshall is the asshole ex. And I was there when your mom found out about some of the things he’d said.”
“I can’t believe it! Ugh, after all the shit he said to me!” Harley screamed.
From the moment Andy had first seen her, he’d known she was pretty. It was just a fact. But looking at her now, her baby blue eyes rimmed with red and tear tracks down her face, he was almost left breathless by how beautiful she was.
It sounded like such a cliche, no one was pretty when they cried. And a part of that was true for Harley: she still possessed that wild, sloppy nature of someone desperately trying to channel their hurt into something . But there was a different edge to her too, an edge of steel that stubbornly refused to give in.
Something stirred in his chest as Harley stormed around his apartment. For the first time since meeting her, a part of him wanted to wrap her in his arms and never let go.
“He had the gall to say I was just ‘a placeholder’?!? Like he could just sit there and say all these nice things knowing he’d get some action while he already had one foot out the door.”
With a gentle tug on her wrist, Andy pulled Harley down onto the couch. For some reason, he couldn’t quite find it in him to release her, so he settled for rubbing soothing circles on the back of her hand.
“I don’t know why you stuck with him for so long,” Andy admitted.
She sighed, rearranging on the couch until she was lying with her head in his lap. “Don’t laugh at me, okay?”
“Cross my heart.”
“I always kinda thought I’d be engaged by the time I left uni. I know I’ve still got two years, but it’s like… nothing is going to plan, you know?”
Andy’s heart ached at the sadness in her voice. “Don’t say that, Halrs, you’ve got plenty of time to achieve everything you’ve always wanted.”
“But everything I’ve always wanted is so basic . I just want the white-picket fence and the dog, a loving husband and a couple of kids running around. And after something like this… it just feels so far away.”
“Tell me one thing you want to do that has nothing to do with getting married or having a family.”
“It’s kind of silly, but I always kinda wanted to make a comic book. Not one of the super dark ones, but a light and funny one.”
“Ah, so that explains bacon boy.”
Giggling despite herself, Harley’s eyes gleamed with something close to humor. “Oh, don’t worry, you’ve all made an appearance,” she teased. “There’s Francis, who’s third eye grants him the power of clairvoyance...”
“Oh, I bet he would love that.”
“And Bella defeats super villains with her sonic beats.”
“What about me?”
She could barely contain her giggles now, the tears in her eyes forming from laughing too hard instead of overwhelming sadness. “You’re the pussycat whisperer.”
“ The pussycat whisperer ?!” he asked, feigning disgust.
“Oh yeah, you have the power to talk to animals.”
“If only I could do that in real life. Most cats are not happy to be at the vet.”
Turning around so she was on her stomach, Harley propped her head up on her hands. “Don’t you feed me lies, Andy Kim, I saw you at that cat cafe you dragged us all too. You had every cat in the place purring in your lap in no time.”
How could he not blush a little at that?
“So where are you in this comic?”
“Oh, I’m not in it. There’s nothing special about me.”
Nothing special ?! How could she not see what he saw? Someone bright, funny and so genuinely nice that it almost hurt. No matter how bad he was feeling, Harley could always put a smile on his face. When he was freaking out about school, buried behind stacks of textbooks in the library, she was the one who always stopped by to drop off snacks or help quiz him whenever he asked.
And her art… that was something special.
He’d known it from that very first time flipping through her sketchbook. Even her quick doodles held talent that Andy would never be able to possess.
“Can I show you something?” Andy asked hesitantly.
Wide-eyed, Harley nodded, uncharacteristically quiet. She was always bubbling over with curiosity, unable to stand being left out of a secret, but this time, she didn’t question him. Quickly, before he could chicken out, Andy ran to grab the shoebox from underneath his bed.
“Go on, open it,” he prodded.
Harley gasped as she lifted off the lid to see piles of napkins from the pub, each covered with her drawings. “Are these-?”
“Don’t tell me you don’t recognize your own work,” he teased.
“But these are nothing, just dumb little doodles.”
Andy shook his head firmly. “These are going to be worth a lot of money once you make it big.” He stopped her before he could protest. “Besides, these are memories. Do you know what I think of when I see this one?” Andy asked, holding up a cartoon sketch of a lizard. “I think of the time we stayed up all night watching the godzilla movies because Francis hadn’t seen them before. And this one…” he showed a much more detailed sketch of some unidentifiable figures ice skating on a frozen pond, “... reminds me of my first Christmas with you guys when all of you refused to let Hamish spend the holidays alone. This one’s my favorite though,” he admitted. When they’d gone to the cat cafe, Harley had spent the whole time sketching on whatever scrap paper she could find before crumpling them up and letting the cats play with them. But when she wasn’t looking, he’d carefully smoothed one out to see an image of himself with a wide smile on his face as he played with one of the kittens. “Can you sign it?”
“Why? It’s junk?”
He shook his head stubbornly. “No, it’s art. And I’d love an autograph from the artist.”
Blushing, she took the pen from him, unable to hide her giggle as she signed her name in big loopy letters.
“Thank you, I promise that no matter what, I’ll keep this one for myself.”
“Oh my god, Dad, that is so cheesy!” Nora squealed.
Andy shrugged. “You both know that I still have that drawing framed on the mantle. In fact, it was the very first thing I unpacked when we moved into this house.”
“That’s worse!” Ryder gagged. “God, my parents are nauseating.”
“Anyways, that night was a shift for me, and as time went on, I started to realize that maybe my feelings weren’t as platonic as I thought…”
“Mate! Are you even listening to me?!” Hamish demanded, snapping his fingers in front of Andy’s face. “Come on, me, you, plenty of single girls! Suit up!” He hopped out of the booth, grabbing his suit jacket and heading towards the door. “Andy, why aren’t you following me? Did you not hear? This party is going to be full of hot women who want us to help them make bad decisions. Why are you not getting up?”
“Sorry, it’s hard to take you seriously when you’re wearing that tie,” Andy snickered.
Scowling, Hamish fiddled with the neon blue tie decorated with cartoon strips of bacon. “You know I don’t have a choice. Stupid Francis and his stupid bets.”
“Hey, no one made you tell him you could list your folks' place without them finding out.”
“Come on,” Hamish scoffed, “I can do anything . Not my fault Francis put an ad in the stupid newspaper, who even reads those anymore?”
“Your dad apparently.”
Laughing, Francis and Bella made their way over to the booth. “Nice tie, Hamish,” Francis teased.
“Thanks! You know, now that I’ve been wearing it every day for three months, it’s really not that bad…”
“Glad you think so, I’m still not going to let you out of this deal though.”
“ Why not ?” Hamish whined.
Bella stared at Andy, tapping her nails on the table. “Something’s off with you,” she mused.
“What? No. Everything’s fine!” he insisted, nervous sweat beading on his forehead as he tried not to look her in the eye.
In truth, he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about Harley since that night at his place. He’d be studying and then get the sudden urge to text her about his day. Or they’d be sitting here at the pub, and he’d find himself mesmerized by the gentle curve of her neck or the lilting melody of her laugh. And, as much as he didn’t want to admit it to himself, he was starting to wonder if he wanted something more .
“You know,” Hamish said, narrowing his eyes in suspicion, “he didn’t want to go to the club with me…”
Bella waved a hand. “That’s not strange. Why won’t you look at me, Andy?”
Oh god, he couldn’t do this. Not with the three of them putting him under a microscope like this. At the end of the day, they were Harley’s friends first. Could he really expect Bella not to tell her that Andy had developed feelings for her? And then things would be weird because there was no way in hell she felt the same, and then he’d lose his best friends here and…
“Oh my god, he’s in love with Harley!” Francis shouted, slapping his hand on the table dramatically.
“What?! No, I’m not! I mean- what gave you that idea?” Andy stammered.
“Well, you can’t stop looking at your phone and the only person you text that isn’t sitting at this table or one of your sisters is Harley. And you’re wayyyy too uptight to be waiting on a text from family.”
Bella giggled. “That and you can’t stop smiling when she’s around.”
Slumping forward, Andy hid his head in his arms. “Am I really that obvious?” he asked.
Of course he was. Harley probably already knew. That’s why she wasn’t answering his text and decided to stay in tonight. He was being weird, and it was creeping her out, and she was too nice to say anything about it.
“Only to the people who know you best,” Bella said, squeezing his forearm lightly.
“Does Harley know?” he begged.
“God no. Listen, I love that girl, but she wouldn’t know a good thing if it smacked her in the face.”
“A good thing? Bella, this is terrible! What if she doesn’t want anything to do with me anymore? Or what if, by some miracle, she doesn’t completely cut me off and we can’t go back to the way things were? Or what if-?”
“What if it worked?” Francis suggested.
Andy let out a self-deprecating groan. “There’s no way a girl like Harley could go for a guy like me. And even if she did , she’d get bored and then our whole group would break up!”
“Can you stop catastrophizing for one second ? Honestly, mate, you won’t be able to hold this inside forever, it’s not healthy.”
“And risk losing her as a friend? I can’t do that.”
Hamish slid in, nudging Andy with his shoulder. “You know what they say, the best way to get over someone is to let your best friend Hamish get you a date with someone else.”
“I’m not going to that party, Hamish.”
“Ugh, fine. But can you be less mopey? It’s ruining my vibe.”
“Hamish…” Francis warned.
“What? I just don’t like seeing him upset!”
Bless them, they were all trying in their own ways. And he knew that it would be like this until he got over Harley: Bella would drop little hints and nudges, purposely leaving him alone with Harley so he could tell her; Francis would advise him to say something, encouraging him to meditate and follow his heart; and Hamish… well, Hamish would do what Hamish always did and try to throw random girls at Andy.
His kids stared at him in shock.
“You mean Uncle Francis was able to figure it out?” Ryder asked. “Damn, you must have been really obvious.”
Nora nodded. “Yeah. Remember that time he thought Aunt Bella was upset because she didn’t get that one gig, but really she was angry ‘cause he forgot to pack up the food for their camping trip?”
“Or the time he bought Mum that horrid scarf ‘cause she’d said it was ‘interesting’ and he thought that meant she liked it?”
Shaking his head in fond exasperation, Andy sighed. “Your Uncle Francis is actually pretty smart when it comes to these things, you’d be wise to listen to him.”
Both kids fell back against the couch, grasping their sides as they erupted into laughter.
“I’m serious! He was the one who told me things wouldn’t be the same if I agreed to go to Aunt Amelia’s wedding as your mum’s date. She was pretty upset about her twin sister getting married when she wasn’t even seeing anyone and she’d drank a lot of…er...apple juice…”
Andy held Harley close as they swayed together on the dance floor. Her beautiful blue eyes fluttered shut as she rested her head against his chest, the combination of the long day and alcohol making it hard for her to keep her eyes open.
In this moment, Andy could almost picture them in another life, dancing in the living room after a long day, becoming too wrapped up in each other to even remember what they were stressed about. Before he could stop himself, another image popped into his mind: Harley dressed all in white as they shared their first dance as a couple.
Oh god, what was wrong with him? He couldn’t even tell her how he felt and he was daydreaming about some future that would never come to be.
“Thank you, Andy,” Harley murmured.
He laughed. “For what?”
“For not letting me do this alone.”
“Hamish would’ve gone with you if you asked.”
“Yeah, so he could ditch me the first chance he got to hit on the other bridesmaids.”
Andy allowed himself the small liberty of tightening his hold on her waist. She was so warm, so soft, and oh so melancholy. He could feel it in the way she was carrying herself, practically dissolving into his arms as they danced.
And God, all he wanted was to take just a little bit of that load off her shoulders.
“Bella would’ve been happy to come too,” he admitted.
She stared up at him, gently running her hands through the hair at the nape of his neck. “Maybe, but I wanted you here, I-”
Breath escaped him. Harley was looking at him with so much open affection that it made his heart swell in his chest. Was it possible that she felt the same way he did? When she was looking at him like that it was easy to imagine that she did, even if he knew that it wasn’t possible.
“Harls-”
Maybe he was going to tell her, maybe he wasn’t. All he knew is that he never got the chance to finish.
There, in front of her entire family and all her sister’s friends, Harley kissed him. Just a fleeting kiss really, her soft lips pressed gently against his. Strawberry had never been Andy’s favorite flavor, but on her lips it was the sweetest thing he’d ever tasted. Instinctively, he found himself leaning in, desperate for more.
But Harley pulled away.
Panicked, she hastily pushed himself out of his arms. “Shit. I didn’t mean- I shouldn’t have-”
“Harley, wait-”
It was no use, she was already gone.
Nora actually hit her father on the arm. “And you didn’t go after her?!”
“I was young. And I knew that I was massively punching with your Mum.”
“God, Dad, you’re an idiot,” Ryder moaned. “I’m fourteen and even I know that you should’ve gone after her.”
Maybe they were right, but Andy hadn’t been able to see it like that at the time. In his mind, she regretted it instantly, and nothing would ever be the same.
“Well, I didn’t. I stood there on the dance floor in disbelief, eventually leaving on my own to take the train back home. I didn’t even see your mother again until a week later…”
Andy was miserable. Not seeing Harley meant that he hadn’t seen any of his friends. There was no one to talk to about what had happened between them, no shoulder to cry on. It was just him and an empty flat.
Something pinged off his window, louder than the steady patter of raindrops.
Then there was another ping, followed by another.
Confused, he ran to open it, sticking his head outside.
“Harley?” he asked.
She was standing on the pavement, huddled underneath a yellow umbrella and absolutely beaming at him.
“Andy! We need to talk!”
“Huh?”
She threw her head back and laughed, “I love you, Andy Kim!”
For the life of him, Andy would never be able to explain why he came rushing down to her instead of inviting her up. But that’s exactly what he did.
Taking the stairs two at a time, he flew down the steps and burst out into the rain.
“Really?!” he exclaimed, scooping Harley up and spinning her around.
Their combined laughter rose above the pitter-patter of the raindrops on the umbrella and the sounds of traffic.
“I’ve loved you since that first night at the bar, I just didn’t realize it. I love the way your forehead wrinkles when you’re studying, I love the way you can make any animal fall in love with you. I love the way you support me and the way you make me laugh. I love that you take your tea with exactly two sugars and the way you trip over your words when you get nervous. I love you .”
There were no words to say after something like that.
All he could do was kiss her. Harley dropped the umbrella in her surprise, water streaming down their faces and soaking them to the bone. But neither of them cared.
Andy brought his hands up to cup her face, gently brushing away the damp hair that was clinging to her skin. He needed the contact, needed to reassure himself that this wasn’t all a dream.
But dreams didn’t feel like this.
In his dreams, Andy didn’t feel the chill in the air. There were no honking cars or the faint smell of soot in the air. But it was still better than anything he ever could’ve imagined.
Harley kissed him back eagerly, fitting against him like she was made to be in his arms. Every motion of her lips against his filled him with joy. Somehow she still tasted like strawberries, a sweet, addictive taste that he’d never be able to get enough of.
“I love you too,” he murmured.
“Is he still telling this story?” Harley said with a fond chuckle, leaning down to press a soft kiss against the top of Andy’s head.
“Well, he just got to the part where you guys said ‘I love you’, so I’m hoping that’s the end…?” Ryder begged.
Nora giggled. “I didn’t realize Dad was such a melt.”
“Hey!” Andy protested.
Harley ruffled his hair fondly “The meltiest ,” she chuckled. “In fact, have I ever told you two about how your Dad proposed? The year was 2023…”