Right Now

43. Doubts are running round her head

We dozed, entwined, for about half an hour. I woke to feel Harry easing me out of his arms, then sliding out of bed. He padded across the room to the bathroom and as the door closed, I opened my eyes and rolled over into the part of the bed he had just vacated. It was still warm, and smelled of him. I took a deep breath in, savouring his scent. Then, realising he might think I was weird if he came out of the bathroom to find me sniffing the sheets, I rolled back onto my side of the bed.

When he did emerge, I was casually propped up against the pillows, trying not to look like a psycho sheet sniffer.

He stood by the bed, and stretched his arms above this head, his T-shirt rising to give a tantalising glimpse of his laurel tattoos.

"God I'm stiff," he said, and before I could say anything, he got in first. "Not that kind of stiff, you dirty girl."

"Um excuse me, how do you know I was thinking dirty stuff?" I said, trying to sound indignant but failing.

"By the look on your face," he smiled. "I'm the kind of stiff you get from staying in bed for too long the day after sitting on a plane for 12 hours," he added. "I need to work out... and no, not that kind of workout. Stop giving me seductive looks, Emma."

"I'm not," I protested, secretly pleased that he considered the look I was giving to be seductive. Whenever I'd practiced it in the mirror I just looked like I was trying to hold in a fart.

"Let me be the judge of that," he said. He leaned back, and I heard a loud pop as his spine cracked.

"Ouch, that sounds awful," I said.

"Yeah, it's not great," he said. "My back is stuffed."

I had a thought. "Is there a gym in this hotel?"

"Yeah," he said, twisting carefully from side to side.

"Would you be doing a workout, if I wasn't here?"

He stopped twisting and looked at me.

"Uh, probably."

"Why don't you go and do a workout?"

"It wouldn't be rude, to leave you alone?" He looked genuinely concerned.

"Of course not. And actually, I wouldn't mind having a bit of a soak in the tub, I can do that while you're at the gym."

"OK, sounds like a plan," he said. "I'll be quick."

*****

Lying in the bath was just what I needed to help ease the pain I was still experiencing. I was holding off taking my next lot of painkillers until just before we were due to go back to the arena for tonight's show and hoping they would work better than they had last night. I scrolled through my social media accounts in the bath, looking at what my friends were doing for the weekend and wondering what they would say if they knew I was in Amsterdam with Harry Styles. I'd texted Kate on Friday to tell her I was having bad period pains, and ask if she could please email me her notes from that day's tutorial and lectures. No doubt she and my other friends would just presume I was in curled up in bed, as per usual. If only they knew that I had been curled up in bed with Harry.

As I scrolled through Twitter a post from one of the gossip websites jumped out at me. "1D romance over?" read the headline. I clicked on it and quickly read through the story.

Liam Payne's romance with girlfriend Sophia Smith appears to be on the rocks. The couple had a blazing row before the singer took to the stage with his band One Direction in Amsterdam yesterday and sources say it would be a miracle if the couple can survive given how nasty the argument became.