"Damn you, Harry," I playfully grumbled as my body trembled. He was doing this yoga thing called the tree pose and try as I might, I couldn't stand still like he was. He had his hands pushed together in front of his torso and his left leg bent with the foot pressing sideways against his right knee. After that, he pushed his hands towards the ceiling, keeping them pressed palm to palm. I kept losing my balance and falling over. Besides that, it was only eight on a Saturday morning, a time which usually found me very sound asleep under my fluffy comforter.

"Come on," he laughed. "Yoga is the easiest exercise there is. And you promised you'd give it a chance."

It's true. He once asked if I would exercise with him if he proposed a "fun" way to exercise. Bending is not fun, if you ask me; balancing is not fun. But I couldn't argue that watching him do it was kind of entertaining. After all, he had a terrific body and he was wearing rather snug shorts. I had made the mistake of calling them yoga shorts and he had corrected me saying, "Excuse me, they're bike shorts. Sheesh. Do I have to teach you everything?" Of course, it was all in jest, but I did agree to let him show me some beginner's yoga. How hard could it be, right? Ha! The man was evil.

"I could think of other fun ways to exercise," I quipped while attempting to bend my body sideways, "like a willow tree," Harry had told me. He glanced at me for further explanation so I raised my eyebrows at the same time that I stuck out my tongue in a silly gesture. He got my meaning.

"I've turned you into a little vixen, haven't I?"

I scoffed as he did a backbend stretch. What the hell? Was he made of rubber? "Oh, I think she was there all along. Maybe you just unleashed her." 

Without warning, he came to me and grabbed me out of mockery of his backbend. "Well then, Ms. Flannery, I think I need to make an honest woman out of you. Shameful the way you lust after me when we're not properly married."

A giggle crept up my throat at his unexpected gesture. "Whose fault is that? Hmm?" I waited a moment for his answer. "I guess we can share the blame," I said, kissing him fully on the lips. 

We reveled in the kiss for longer than we should have, considering our workout was barely started. Finally, he leaned his head against mine and whispered. "Still, you know I want to marry you, right?"

He hadn't been so blunt about it before now, but I knew. Of course I knew. "Yes," I whispered back. "I want that, too."

Then, keeping his arms around my waist, he lifted me a little and then wiggled me a little like a rag doll. Laughter burst out of my already-tired body as I exclaimed, "What are you doing?"

He set me down a few moments later, laughing and out of breath. "Just loosening you up. Now quit complaining and let's get to work."

All in all, yoga wasn't that bad. Of course, he hadn't attempted to turn me into a pretzel yet, which was a very real fear that I had. But it was somewhat fun, especially considering my workout companion. Harry promised to find a fun cardio exercise for us as well, but I just wiggled my eyebrows at him again.

Later in the afternoon, while Harry went to his house to get a few things and to run some errands, I called Ginger. I was excited to tell her about our mutual friend.

"Hey girl," I said upon hearing her southern-tinted accent.

"Regan!? What's up? Haven't heard from you in forever!"

"I'm seeing someone!" It burst out of me before I could even work up to it. "And you'll never guess who it is."

"Philip," she deadpanned.

"No, Philip and I were never meant to be more than friends. Is Gordon still friends with that Harry guy?"

"You mean the one who lost his wife?" She asked. "Yeah, why?"

"It's Harry."

"Yeah, his name is Harry....oh wait, wow! Harry  is the guy you're going out with? He's really hot."

"Darn right, he is," I giggled.

"Oh wow," she said again. "You're actually dating him? I thought his wife just died a few months ago." 

"No, it was a year in September. That was around the time I met him and let me say, he wasn't doing very well," I told her.

"How so?" Ginger inquired. 

"It's a long story but suffice it to say he was in pretty rough shape. But when we started to get to know each other, things changed, obviously. He said he felt kind of cut off from all his friends except for your brother. Gordon kept in touch with him on a regular basis. I'm very thankful for that."

"Wow," she said for the third time. "Well I'm happy for you. I just don't want you to get ahead of yourself if he's not over Cathryn yet.

"Did you know her?" I asked, suddenly very interested to hear about her from a different perspective.

"We met a few times, I wouldn't say I knew her very well. They were obviously very much in love." My heart shifted a little but then I chided myself. Of course they were in love - I already knew that. Ginger continued, "She just seemed...I don't know...."

"Come on," I begged. "I know nothing about her except what Harry has told me and it's pretty one-sided so far."

"She just seemed very dominating, maybe? Or maybe intimidating is a better word. I mean, Harry wasn't henpecked by any means, but she definitely had a strong personality and she had a way of making everyone else in the room feel like she was right about everything. Gosh, I'm sorry, that sounds so bad. I don't mean to speak ill of the dead, heaven forbid. But yeah, strong is a good word for her personality." 

I processed that information for a few moments.

"You okay?" Ginger asked.

"Am I different than her?" I asked in response.

"Are you kidding? It's like night and day. I mean, you're a strong girl, Regan, don't get me wrong but you and Cathryn are polar opposites. She was definitely an extrovert and she was very high-energy, very outgoing. You're much more relaxed, calm, peaceful. And you're not intimidating by any means."

"So, it's not a good-bad comparison? Just different?" I asked, wondering where my thoughts were leading me.

"Yeah, of course. Honey, you know I love you. Cathryn was just a bit too much. She was beautiful and she had a commanding presence, but she wasn't my cup of tea. It's not hard to see how Harry fell in love with her." Again she paused and eventually had to pry open my thoughts. "What's wrong? Is this upsetting you, hearing about her?" 

"I...I don't know. When we were first together, I compared myself with her, wondering how I measured up against her. And obviously because she was gone, I was worried that Harry would keep her on a pedestal and I would always be second best." 

"Yeah, I get that. Certainly some valid thoughts," she agreed.

"And gosh, I kept psyching myself out because I was sleeping with another woman's husband."

"Sleeping with him." It was half-question, half-statement.

"Well, yeah," I said. "We're pretty serious, actually."

"Lucky girl," she muttered.

"Ginger!" 

"I'm just messing with you," she said. "I mean, you are  lucky because he's hot but definitely not my type. Does Gordon know?" 

"I bet he does by now," I told her. "Harry and I just realized it last week. We're going to have a Christmas party with our friends so they can get to know each other, in a week or two. Any chance you'll be visiting your bro around the holidays?"

She skirted my question. "I thought you said you were serious. But you're still at that stage of getting to know each other's friends?"

"Yeah, it was kind of a whirlwind thing, but we knew pretty quickly." That was when I told her everything about finding Harry in the library and how we got along so well right away. And how he literally cleaned himself up after we became friends.

"Dude," she said in awe. "That's pretty awesome. But I'm just a little concerned for you, honey." I had always liked the way she called me pet names like that.

"Why are you concerned?" I asked with a nervous laugh.

"I don't mean anything against Harry by saying this, but I just want you to be sure that he's really ready to move on and not just looking for someone to fill the loneliness."

"Wow." The word came out of my mouth much less enthusiastically than it had come out of hers. 

"See? I'm not saying you have bad judgment or that Harry isn't being honest, I just want you to be careful." 

"Okay," I said, eager to change the subject. "I can't wait til your brother's wedding!" From there our conversation evolved into wedding talk and Ginger's career and her possible significant other, whom she promised to introduce to me at the wedding, if not before.

All in all, I was glad to have talked to her and quite thankful for the new perspective she gave me on Harry's relationship with Cathryn. It threw me off just a little, making me wonder if maybe we really were moving too fast or if Harry was just trying to fill the void. Worse, what if that's what he was doing and he didn't even realize it yet?

When Harry returned later that evening, he asked me something that made me even more uneasy. "Will you come with me to talk to Mr. Metler?"

"Wh...why?" I wondered nervously.

"The Metlers really want to meet you. I mean, I totally understand if you don't want to, but I'd like for them to meet you, too."

I swallowed the lump of anxiety in my throat. "They know about me?"

"Well, yeah," Harry chuckled. "I haven't been keeping you a secret or something. Besides, Liz met you, remember?"

"Oh, right," I said, recalling that very awkward encounter. "Okay." My throat went dry as I said it. It just seemed such an odd request, but I knew he wouldn't have asked me to go if he didn't think it would be a good idea. "When exactly do you want to go?" 

"Tomorrow?" He said, clearly hoping I wouldn't be too thrown off by the immediacy of the meeting.

"Sure," I smiled. "Of course, Harry. I'd love to come with you."

"They think of me as family, Regan," he reasoned. "It makes sense for me to have you meet them." 

"Okay," I said, giving him a half smile and hoping it was convincing enough because I didn't feel okay about it at all.

* * * * *

So, some new information in this chapter and the next chapter will probably just leave you with your mouths hanging open, so hang on for this DOUBLE UPDATE! (and please don't ask me to update again right away after the next chapter because these two were very hard to write! :D )

BTW, I know they weren't doing "hot yoga," but my reasoning for the chapter title was that any yoga with Harry Styles would be hot yoga! lol