Female Novel
Chapter 278
Strings of FateCam 35- Boundaries and bragging
I'm lying in bed and theoretically I’m relaxing but | just can’t sleep. | find myself just scrolling through the messages my mothersent me earlier. | sort of want to ignore them, but that doesn’t line up all that well with my whole ‘setting boundaries‘ thing. | can’texpect my family to pull their heads out of their asses if | don’t make it clear when they're doing things that make meuncomfortable. If I’m not willing to completely cut ties then | need to try to stand up for myself, right? | take almost an hour tocompose the text | send to my mother.
Cam- | would like to start by pointing out that | am an adult and | in no way ‘owe’ you an explanation however as you are mymother and did raise me | respect you enough to provide one regardless. | understand that you do not agree with my decision,however | have made it clear several times now that | have no interest in meeting with Simon. | will not ever develop arelationship with him and | find it very disturbing that you consider a man who is literally. stalking me as a viable option. TheIncubus in that photo is a good person and | am disappointed with your judgemental attitude considering that you have not evenmet him. He and | are in a relationship and | have no intention of cutting ties with him so | suggest you get over whatever yourproblem is. | want to make something very clear to you. You have no say at all in my relationships and | will spend time withwhoever | choose, with or without your approval. This message isn’t intended as an explanation, a justification of my behaviouror an attempt to gain your approval. Rather it is the opposite. This is the last time | will explain or justify my behaviour to you andwhile | would love to have your approval, | will not let a lack of it stop me from living life as | see fit. My life is good and | amhappy with it. | love my job and | am happy with my relationship. If you can’t accept that... well that's your problem so stop tryingto make it mine because | am done with your attitude. Unless you intend to apologise and are ready to move on from this, don’tbother answering this message. You will always be my mother and | will always love you but | can’t keep having thisnovelbin
conversation.
| hold my breath as | hit send, then within moments the exhaustion that has been trying to claim me for hours finally wins. | wakeup to my alarm, feeling groggy and trying to work out why | set it so early. Oh, right. | have a date with Harry. | might not beexpecting this to go especially well, but he always looks so much better than me, | want to put in some effort. | don’t want to looklike some Incubi fangirl that he’s using. | want to look like someone an Incubus would want. Feeling motivated, | turn off thealarm and roll out of bed. | check my phone. | have two messages. One from my mum and one from Harry. | figure I'll start with
the more difficult one first.
4/4
Cam 35- Boundaries and bragging
Mum — Your grandmother is heartbroken, | can’t believe you would speak to us this way. |
then thought | raised you better than this. Give it a few weeks, the Incubus will screw you screw you over and you'll come cryingback to us. We will be waiting.
Yep, that’s about what | expected. | fight back tears as | open my messages from Harry, hopefully this cheers me up and so helpme if he is cancelling on me | might have to kill him.
Test Subject 01-Good morning beautiful, | can’t wait to see you today. I'll be on your doorstepat 12 on the dot! ?
| shouldn't have worried. | can always count on Harry to provide a well timed, if sometimes inappropriate, distraction. With that inmind, | change his name in my contacts.”
Cam- Good morning, I'll be ready. Are you sure you won't tell me where we’re going?Distraction- Not telling, if nothing else | figure that your curiosity will stop you fromcancelling on me. ;)
Cam- | already told you that I’m not cancelling.
Distraction- I'll believe it when | see it.
Cam- Eye roll. Whatever.
Cam-... | messaged my
mum. | tried to set some boundaries. | don’t think it worked though.
She didn’t react well. | think it might have made things worse.
Distraction- I’m sorry it didn’t go well but I’m proud of you for standing up for yourself! If she can’t see how perfect you are, that’sher loss. You are intelligent, capable, beautiful, kind, sexy, gorgeous, attractive, hot... Wait, what was my point again?
Cam-—You'te ridiculous.
Distraction- Ridiculously handsome.
Cam- And oh so humble.
214
Cam 35- Boundaries and bragging
Distraction- Hey | know what | look like, I’m cocky not blind.
Laughing to myself, | throw my phone onto my bed. | think a hot bath is in order. I’ll need to get moving if | want time for my hairto dry properly. | prefer not to use hair dryers, they make my hair go frizzy. It looks so much better if it has time to air dry.
At five minutes to twelve, I’m pacing the living room wearing my new green sundress and a cute pair of black flats that do nothingto make me taller but at least they're comfortable. It’s not like the couple of inches of height a pair of heels might give me wouldmake all that much difference. Harry is so much taller than me. Unless | walk around in a pair of stilts | have no chance ofbalancing out our heights. | could cut him off at the knees but that just sounds messy. | wonder if | could make a potion that couldtemporarily change someone’s height? | suppose it would be theoretically possible but | suspect it would be super painful to use.| doubt it would be worth the effort. | take a moment to double check my reflection in the little mirror | keep hanging by the frontdoor. My hair is sitting in perfect waves, my eye makeup is natural but pretty and the green of my dress really brings out myeyes. I’m fairly satisfied with my appearance, although I’m also annoyingly nervous. This is stupid, Harry hast seen me in mycomfy, lazy clothes and he still asked me out. | check the time, three minutes. to go. | rush to the bathroom, | suddenly need topee and | just know that he’s going to knock on the door and I'll be stuck in the bathroom. | rush to empty my bladder feelingparanoid and wash my hands, drying them on my skirt as | dash back to the living room to wait. | check the time again. Still twominutes to twelve, | probably didn’t need to hurry so much. But what if he was early? Ugh, this is stressful, although | guess sortof exciting too. It’s been ages since I’ve been on a proper date. Finally Harry knocks. | make myself count to three beforeanswering the door so that it isn’t completely obvious that I’ve just been standing around waiting for him. Harry’s eyes practicallyglow with approval as he looks me over.
“If | expressed how stunning you are and how it makes me feel I’m pretty sure you would shove me down these stairs, lock thedoor and refuse to go anywhere with me so I’m just going to say you look lovely.” He says with a charming smile and | can’t helpbut roll my eyes.
“You look good too.” | tell him grudgingly. He hands me a bouquet. | expect it to be flowers. so I’m surprised to find it's acollection of individually sealed little bottles of different alcohols and mixers strategically wrapped and placed to make them looklike flowers. It’s actually adorable.
“Thanks, | guess | don’t need to put these in water, but | will put them away.” | joke.
3/4Cam 35- Boundaries and bragging
“Yeah, that’s probably for the best.”
He agrees. Five minutes laterer N} ‘Si
sitting iNtKe assenger The content
is on NovelDrama.Org! Read the latest
chapter there!
seat of his car. It’s weird, I’ve never seen his car before.“Ifyou
have a car, why do you always walkto my work, and w always walk me
wmttemysuroodld drive?” |question. Harry grins. The content ison NovelDrama.Org! Read the latestchapter there!
“Well, | don’t drive because | neverknow what your drinks are going todo to me so| figure i ‘egetternot tori it Astor ind home... That
Ould make the night end faster.” Heanswers. Oh. That's actually kind ofsweet. | blush and clear my throat,looking out the The content is onNovelDrama.Org! Read the latestchapter there!
window as he drives.“So where are we going?” | ask again. Harry just grins.“To test a theory | have.” He answers vaguely. | cross my fingers and hope for the best.
Chapter Comments.