That night, Harry and I just watched TV and lay on the floor with our limbs tangled up in each other. He was tired so he fell asleep within an hour, his head resting in the crook between my shoulder and my head. His hot breath hit my skin each time he exhaled and he pulled me tighter each time he inhaled.

I couldn't sleep, thoughts about new victims racing through my mind. The perpetrator had changed his dumping location from the Pier to two new places that the news wouldn't release the names of.

As much as I hated it, I wanted Officer White to call back. He probably could reveal details to me that they couldn't release to everyone else even if it meant having to answer questions that I really didn't want to answer.

I watched the numbers on the clock fade into new ones for a few hours before Harry started sweating and flinching in his sleep. I shook him awake and he shot up, his eyes wide.

"Baby, it's just me," I said, running my fingers down his spine.

He pushed his fingers through his hair and laid back down on the blankets that we'd turned into a bed. He put his arms behind his head and stared up at the ceiling, taking deep and steady breaths. His jaw was clenched, causing it's line to look sharp through his cheek.

"Sorry," he mumbled.

"It's fine. I get bad dreams too."

He grinned and I put my head on his chest. I heard the sound of his heart still pounding, so I gently rubbed circles into his skin to calm him down.

"You wanna talk about it?" I asked.

He shook his head, "I don't remember it. I just know I was scared."

I nodded.

The faint sound of the TV filled the room and lulled him to sleep after a while.

The phone rang no more than five minutes after he drifted off, but it didn't wake him. I gently wriggled out of his arms and tiptoed to the phone.

"Hello?" I half-whispered.

"Marilyn! I'm so sorry I haven't called you back! I lost my phone on the tube and I just got it back!" Clara's perky voice blasted through the phone.

"Hold on."

I pressed the receiver into my chest as I lightly walked into the bedroom and closed the door. I didn't want to wake Harry up with my mindless chatter.

"Okay, sorry. Harry's asleep and I didn't want to wake him."

"Ah, speaking of beaus, guess who has a new guy?"

It was blatantly obvious that she was talking about herself. She was head over heels in love with a different man every month, each one breaking up with her after she got too clingy. Then, she'd come over and cry and eat ice cream and complain about everything that's ever existed. I love her, but she had serious issues.

"More details?" I said, trying my best to sound interested.

"He's a fitness trainer at a gym that David Beckham used to go to! He makes a ton of money because of how high profile the place is."

"It's good that he's financially stable, I guess."

I wedged the phone between my shoulder and my ear while I picked up some dirty clothes off the floor. I was only half listening as I moved around the shoes Harry had kicked off when he came in.

"But how are you holding up, doll?" she asked, genuine concern lining her voice.

"Alright. I mean it's obviously hard, but ya know."

"You should come over tonight! We can have a double date or just a girl's day or something!" she squealed into the phone.

I wanted Harry with me. My chest and head started aching while he was gone and I didn't know if I should really be without him for a long while. He was the only one who would know what was happening if I blacked out or something. Not that I planned to have a breakdown at Clara's, but it's better to take safety precautions than not to.

"How about dinner at Gingerman tonight for a double date? You can bring gym guy and I'll obviously bring H."

"Yes! Wonderful!"

"Text me or call me or whatever and let me know a time."

"Definitely."

The line cut off and I turned the phone off. When I went into the kitchen to put it back, Harry was making two cups of tea.

"Who was that?" he asked, handing me a mug.

"Clara. She wants us to go to dinner with her tonight. Is that okay?"

"Yeah, that's fine."

He loudly sipped his tea and leaned up against the granite kitchen counter. I put my tea down and walked up to him, pressing my front into his. I ran my hands up and down his bare chest until my fingers found his collarbones. I traced the prominent bones lightly while he cupped my cheeks with his hands. He lightly pressed his lips to mine, breathing affectionate words into my mouth.

"I love you," he breathed, the words melting on my tongue.

I wrapped my arms around his neck and he moved his hands from my face to my hips, pulling me closer even though we were as close as possible.

"I love you," he repeated.

He pulled away after what seemed like an eternity. I had no concept of time when Harry had his lips on mine. His affect on me probably should've been frightening, but it never was.

He stood there with his hands still on my waist and his eyes on my freshly kissed lips.

"You okay?" I asked.

"Grand," he said, pecking my lips.

He smiled brightly as I pressed my forehead to his chest. He giggled and ran his fingers through my knotty bed head.

"What time are our plans tonight?" he asked.

"Clara's going to text me or something when she decides."

He nodded, "I was thinking we could go out and pick up a couple Christmas presents, since we haven't done that yet."

I hadn't even remembered that it was Christmas. There had been so much going on since the season had begun that I hadn't even been paying attention to the tree in the corner of the living room.

"That sounds okay."

I went into the bedroom and grabbed a clean change of clothes before going into the bathroom to take a shower. The only real temperature setting we had was freezing because of the harsh England weather outside of our apartment, but I let the water run over my body anyways.

I dried and my hair with towel and pulled on my sweatshirt and jeans. Harry was ready when I got out of the bathroom. He was wearing a big trench coat over a black long-sleeved shirt. I always felt under dressed around him, not because he dressed up all the time, but because he somehow always managed to look absolutely stunning.

He wrapped his arm around me as we went outside to face the cold. Snowy sludge from the previous days coated everything and Harry and I had to push some off of the windshield of our car with our gloved hands.

I drove just because I liked driving in mall parking lots during Christmas. Every lamppost was lit up with lights and the fronts of the shops were decorated with Father Christmases and snowmen.

"Who all are we buying for today?" Harry asked as we pulled out of the driveway of our flat.

"Your mum, Gemma, Robin, Clara, a little something for her new boyfriend because that's the polite thing to do, and after we get those you need to go away and let me get yours."

"You don't have to get me anything."

We both told each other not to get anything for the other person every year, but we always ended up spending a pretty good bit of money on each other anyway.

"Whatever," I said turning the radio on.

I turned it to the station that played all Christmas music. It didn't feel right to be driving to the mall to buy presents without listening to jolly songs. I hummed along while Harry belted out the lyrics, taking pride in knowing every word.

I gripped his hand tightly as we walked into the crowded mall. There were people everywhere and the large corridor of the shopping center started to feel smaller and smaller. Harry noticed my change in demeanor and quickly pulled me into a random shop. It was a big department store that didn't look that full.

We shopped for a few hours, picking things out for the people we'd decided to buy for in the car, we went separate ways to buy for each other. I bought him a black leather record player, a few vinyls to go with it, a journal, two beanies, a string cross necklace, an old 80s band shirt, a few old copies of Rolling Stone magazine, a black and white painting, a workout outfit, and a new pair of boots.

We met back up in the car. I put the paper bags with Harry's presents in the backseat. It seemed like he had bought me about the same amount as I had him, which was good. I didn't want him to buy me more than I bought him.

We had just pulled out of the parking lot when Clara texted me. Her boyfriend was sick so we couldn't have date night.

"Maybe we should just have a festive night in," he said kissing my hand.

"That sounds better anyways."

He giggled as he drove down the road, turning the Christmas music up all the way.

When we got home, we put the bags of presents by the window. We changed into comfortable clothes before I pulled the Christmas wrapping paper out of the closet.

"You know what I think?" he asked after we'd finished horribly wrapping his family's presents.

"What do you think?"

"We should get to open one present from each other today."

"Why?"

"I just want you to see one of your presents."

"Well, let me go wrap one of yours real quick."

I scurried off into the bedroom, a paper bag hanging from one arm and a roll of wrapping paper propped under the other.

I wrapped the box with his cross necklace in blue wrapping paper. It looked rather messy, the tape obvious and the paper bulging at the ends, but I figured that it would do for him. Harry liked things to look a bit more messy, for reasons I never knew,

i handed him the messily wrapped box and he handed me a small bundle. He insisted on opening his first. His eyes lit up when he opened his present to see the silver cross on the metal string.

"Thank you!" he said, wrapping his arms around my neck.

I carefully pulled the gold string and unwrapped the present to find a black, velvet box. I carefully opened the lid of the box. My jaw dropped.

"Marilyn Lee, you are the love of my life and that I'm sure of. You are everything that I have ever loved combined into one marvelous being and I don't ever want to spend a day without you. Will you marry me?"