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prologue

Most twenty-two year old graduate students find themselves in one of three situations on a Friday night in November. Partying in some capacity out in Manhattan, studying either at home or in a library, or, the less desirable option, working. Not many can combine all three into one night, but not everyone is as ambitious as Nina.

When offered the chance to babysit at the last second for some really good family friends, she was quick to say yes, ditching plans with her roommate to people-watch at their favorite bar to spend the night with an energetic toddler. Sure, it's been a good couple of years since she's babysat, but as a scholar of early childhood education, she saw the offer as more of an opportunity to practice on a real life child. What better way to study than to use your friend's kid as a test subject? Plus, to be fair, three year olds are often the life of any party. At least in Nina's book.

From the moment she arrived to watch little Mabel for the night, she was kept busy. Tea parties, fashion shows, a quick stint playing mermaids during bathtime, and as always, a dance party were all on the agenda for the night, somehow squeezed into the almost three hours she had before bedtime. Spending one on one time with the little one offered Nina some better insight to what kids respond best to, which she took mental notes on so she could try it out come Monday when she's back to student teaching.

She still found time to put aside the educational stuff and have fun with Mabel though, blasting some music in the living room for a few extra minutes to put off bedtime for a little bit. Even though she was studying to be a teacher, she still knew when to have fun and turn the educator's brain off. They were having so much fun together, she almost missed the sound of the doorbell ringing. A sound that would change her life forever.

When she finally caught onto the incessant knocking and ringing of the doorbell, she shut off the music and rushed to check her phone, making sure that it wasn't Amanda or Nathan knocking because they forgot their key. Once she ruled that out, and let out a sigh of relief that she wasn't ignoring the people paying her to watch their kid, picked up Mabel, settled her on her hip, and went to the door to open it.

She expected it to be a neighbor, telling her to shut off the music since it was too loud. But instead she found herself face to face with a celebrity. It wasn't necessarily out of the ordinary, since she knew Nathan worked in the music industry and was friends with plenty of extremely famous musicians. But nothing quite prepares a person to open a door to Harry Styles.

"Oh! Wow, um, what?" Nina's words stumbled out of her mouth, sounding just as confused as she felt. What was he doing here?

Mabel on the other hand was unphased by the sudden arrival of the former One Direction heartthrob. "Uncle Harry!" She reached for him right away, the biggest smile crossing her little features.

Nina wasn't the only confused party though. Harry looked at her, brows knit together as he reluctantly took Mabel into his arms. "Hi, munchkin! I thought your mummy and daddy were home." He looked from Mabel to Nina, not quite sure what else to say. He was definitely intrigued though.

"Amanda and Nathan went to an event and asked me to babysit-"

"They asked me to babysit," Harry corrected, even more confused.

"It's nine pm..." Nina pointed out, letting him come into the house since Mabel was only in her pajamas and it was cold outside. With a kiss to the top of her head, Harry set the little girl down so she could play while he sorted this mix up out with Nina.

"Yeah, they told me before to come at nine because they wanted to go out, but they were gonna put Mabel to bed before they left. They didn't mention anyone else would be here, or that the plan changed..."