I absolutely hate packing for trips. There is nothing worse than choosing between everything you own to put into a tiny suitcase for the whole trip. I always forget something and I never know where to start. I think someone needs to invent a service where someone comes and packs for you. I would call my mom to complain and help me pack but she flew out three days earlier than us to South Africa and I know she would reprimand me for leaving my packing until the last minute. The flight is tomorrow evening and I have is my dress for the wedding waiting.

Henry knocks on my door, giving me the perfect excuse to avoid packing for just a little longer. I open the door and he walks in, closing the door behind him. He is black tracksuit bottoms and a grey hoodie. His hands are in his pockets, and he mumbles, "You took long to open the door."

"I'll leave you outside for longer next time." I roll my eyes, going to the kitchen. I open my cupboards, looking for something. I should probably pay more attention when I pack my things. However, I feel a bit all over the show since time is ticking anf I just don't feel like packing.

"Don't say that baby," Henry complains, stretching out the word baby. He watches me, waiting for my reaction to it all. He loves to casually call me baby since dinner with my parents. I am not sure how I feel about it.

"Henry." I stop what I'm doing and look at him. He gives me a teasing smile, doing whatever he's doing on purpose to annoy me. It's working a little too well. Maybe I should kick him out and return to packing. Actually no, I hate packing more.

"Is this the start of our first fight? Should I write down the date?"

"In your little black book, you keep under your pillow right?" I return to my search and eventually find what I was looking for.

"You're not supposed to know about that book!" Now I am sure my neighbour is invested in this conversation of how loud he said it.

"Shut up, Henry," I joke, handing him the lollipops I found at the newsagent this morning. They were the super sours on the outside and sweet on the inside. I got four of them, a red one, a green one and two blue ones. They used to cost five pence back in the day but shout out to the economy, they cost like twenty-five pence now.

Henry unwraps the lollipop and puts it in his mouth, wincing at the bitter taste. He doesn't take it out, "Where did you find these? I used to love getting them after school before I upgraded to something else."

"I spotted them at the newsagent after ages." I don't usually look in the sweets section, however, the queue was long today for some reason. The person in front was taking forever to top-up their oyster card on top of the long queue. At some point, I started browsing the sweets and spotted the lollipops and thought of Henry.

"Have you packed yet?" It is the dreaded question. Henry is packed and ready as he mentioned in a message earlier today. Some people are good at packing, some people enjoy packing and some people are just me. If packing came easy to me, I would be ready by now. It's not too late for a professional packing service to fall out of the sky.

"Sort of," I reply with a shrug. I avoid eye contact, suddenly very interested in checking how many coasters I have. I have six and they are together in the stand that came with them. Henry is having none of my fake busyness. When I look at him, he is pointing in the direction of my bedroom and I already know what is coming.

"Let's see," he demands, following me to my room. He leans against the doorway, assessing the situation. It is exactly how it looks. An absolute disaster. I have clothes everywhere and nothing but the dress on the pile to be packed inside my suitcase, "this is worse than I expected."

"The door is that way." I point to the door and roll my eyes. I know I have not done anything but this time tomorrow I will be packed and on a plane with Henry. I always pulled through in the end. I mean I might forget half my things but as long as my wedding outfit is packed, I will figure out the rest of the week.

"Or I can help you," Henry replies, rolling his eyes at my defensive response and not rising to my bait. He makes himself at home on my double bed where there is no clothes sitting at the moment while I still try to make sense of the pile that I was looking at before Henry knocked on the door.

"Since you have the wedding outfit, let's start with the shoes and everything else you'll need with it and then we get to go according to the activities on the list." With Henry's guidance, I manage to get the majority of my packing done. There are just a few things I won't be packing in front of him. He even convinces me to ditch my coat since he is super sure it won't snow while we are there. With global warming, I can never be too prepared in my defence.

"I can finish the rest, you should go home." I pull him by his arm to kick him out. He finished the lollipop ages ago and is still chewing on the stick. His tongue was probably blue too. Most of my clothes are inside my suitcase while the rest are all over my bed. I needed to clean up too before I leave as well so that's another thing to do before my flight.

"I can pack your skincare routine, you taught it to me that one day." He doesn't budge an inch. Instead, making himself more comfortable. I did teach him my skincare routine because I had to tell someone about it and he was the closest person at the time. I am surprised he remembers it. I should test him one of these days.

"That's not it." I didn't want to spell it out for him. It is an innocent guess though. Henry's obtuseness works in my favour sometimes. Other times I wish he would just get it.

"I need to make sure you are 100% packed. What's is it then?" Henry questions. He does not get a hint sometimes. This guy is too much. I am grateful for his help since I probably would've forgotten more things if we hadn't followed his approach.

"You can do your inspection tomorrow," I negotiate, tugging at his arm again. I am still motivated to pack. I draw the line of choosing underwear in front of Henry, whether he is my fake boyfriend or not. I don't think I will even do it with a real boyfriend. Boundaries are cool. Boundaries are important.

"Not good enough. You had your chance, baby," he replies, pulling his arm from me. I did not let go in time, or maybe he pulled harder than he expected. I fall onto him. My one hand is still on his arm while the other is on his chest. It took a few moments for us to register of position before we both scramble away from each other.

I should be used to being this close to Henry after the dance lessons.

I should not be feeling this hot.

Henry gets up from my bed, runs his fingers through his hair, and clears his throat, "I'll get going."

And then he lets himself out of my place. I don't bother following him. Instead, I suddenly find it in me to obsess over the minor details of my packing. I even find the chance to make a list of the things I need to remember as last-minute items like toothbrush.

When I get into bed. I don't think of Henry. I really don't. Not at all, even for a second. I just need to count sheep and everything will be okay. Soon we will be in South Africa and we will enjoy the sun and vineyard and all the other million of things of the list. This is fine. 

~*~

I have not written the next chapter after this so don't be surprised if I don't update tomorrow lol

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