"I'm sorry, what?" Claudia leaned over the table. "Another baby? Another?"
I laughed into my wine glass before I had a sip. "Mhm. I want one, and he was sitting on the idea for a minute, but he told me the other night that he made up his mind. He wants one."
"But what the hell happened with Nick? I thought you were exploring that?"
"I was, but...I mean, how long was I really supposed to pretend and convince myself that I want to spend my life with anyone but Harry? I love him and he means too much to me."
"Oh my God, wait," she laughed with her fingers to her temples. "Why do I feel like I'm gonna cry and you're not even pregnant?"
My nose scrunched up with my smile as I stole another piece of French bread from the basket between us. "Yeah, I'm off the pill now and trying to navigate this app about ovulation and all that shit. It's weird like, actually trying."
"Well Nora came around so easily I don't think you'll have a problem," she scoffed. "Harry's boys can obviously swim and you're apparently fertile as fuck."
"I hope so," I nodded. "I just hope that I don't psych myself out by thinking about it so much, and I don't want Harry to feel like we're just having sex to make a baby and not just doing it for fun anymore."
Rightfully so, Claudia gave me a look. "Are you kidding me? If Harry could make fucking you his full time job, he would. He's obsessed with you."
"Mm," I smirked to myself as I had a bite from my pasta. It was nothing I didn't know, but God did I like to hear it from someone else just the same. "Well, how are you and Zayn doing?"
She nodded as she chewed with her fingers covering her mouth. "We're good. We had kind of a weird rough patch of just arguing about nothing, but the makeup sex was amazing and he's been really sweet to me since. He's been working a lot though, lots of really late nights."
"Yeah, Harry too," I confessed, then went on to explain everything that was going on with Lisa and John. She also had a hard time believing my dad wanted to do anything but get high.
For the next hour, even when we were long since finished with our meals, we drank more wine and caught up about what Claudia potentially wanted in her future now that we were done talking about me.
I was surprised to hear that she wanted to marry Zayn, and that they had been discussing it over the last few days. She said she understood why it wasn't that great of an idea, but he also apparently said it wasn't the same as Harry marrying me because he wasn't the boss. He could afford to stay more under the radar than Harry can.
"So do you think you'll do it? Get married?" I asked.
"I don't know," she rested her chin in her palm. "I never thought I'd want to get married before, but I love him so much and we've been together for so long."
"Basically as long as me and Harry," I added.
"Exactly! He just makes me so happy and I feel so safe around him, y'know? Marriage seems like a stupid idea when you consider the fact that it's just a legally binding thing, but sometimes I just look at him and I get all sentimental thinking about the emotions of marriage. Like, committing to spend the rest of your lives together. Is that stupid?"
"No," I answered softly, and immediately. "I feel exactly the same way. Sometimes I swear I almost slip up and refer to Harry as my husband because that's what it feels like. We've been through so much together that I can't imagine anything could tear us apart now, but I'd love for him to call me his wife and to take that next step."
"Have you guys talked about it?"
"Honestly?" I laughed. "No. We've only talked about it one time, and that was when I first asked him how he feels about kids. He said marriage was pointless, but he's always using the word 'forever' with me. Like, I'll always be his and he'll always be mine."
