Honest Illusions [niall horan]

Chapter 36

Aubrey's P.O.V.

Nearly every cleaning product to ever exist sat atop my kitchen table as I switched off between the different disinfectants whenever I moved to a different section of the apartment. Hands clad in yellow latex gloves, hair tied up in a high pony tail, a raggy T- shirt, and a pair of over worn leggings. I had every essential to be a super clean freak today, more than I usually was. With Liam and Sophia's arrival being tomorrow afternoon, I needed to squeeze in time to carry out "fall cleaning" before they flew in to New York. Despite the fact that they were staying at a nearby hotel, I wanted their stay here in my apartment, well mine and Niall's apartment now, to be as comfortable here. Being paranoid about cleanliness, I needed to insure every room and corner was spotless.

Since I woke up this morning, I turned the entire place upside down. Luckily, today is Saturday, which meant no work and no major responsibilities to tend to, besides make sure Niall and Adam were fed. Aside from that, I had the day all to myself up until later in the afternoon. Niall promised me that we would go peruse a few houses we came across while house hunting online the other night. Our original plan was to go yesterday, but I got too caught up with responding to my enormous amount of emails, and by the time I had finished, Niall got called in by city hall to confirm something about the studio. With both of our unexpected calls, we ended up almost three hours behind schedule, so house hunting was a no go.

Instead, though, Niall took me out on a nice date, nothing too fancy, and the two of us just hung out like we used when we were first getting to know each other. The entire time the most idiotic of smiles plastered itself across my face. Even after months of being back together with Niall, I still felt myself frozen in a permanent state of shock. I couldn't wrap my mind around the fact that someone as genuine, caring, understanding, and perfect as Niall waited all these years for me. In a sense, we crossed paths by total coincidence; nonetheless, it brought us back together, and I could never be thankful enough.

He held on to my hand as if I were going to blow away with the cool summer breeze. His arm would tightly squeeze around my waist, ensuring I wouldn't sway not even inch away from him. Niall sent me into multiple fits of laughter with his ridiculous observations or overly corny jokes; he never changed that habit of stealing Harry's jokes. Whenever he stared at me, I noticed a certain glint of happiness mixed in with admiration that his eyes held, and my heart only continued to swell at his sweetness. All throughout the night, he made sure I was having a good time, whether it be from him asking me what I wanted to eat to if I was getting cold during our walk through Central Park. Simply said, Niall Horan is perfect.

Over the past couple days, Niall had been immersed in not only finalizing everything for his and Liam's studio, but readying himself for the arrival of his best friend, and of course that included Sophia. The two of us were both preoccupied with our own life responsibilities that we spent so much less time together. I looked forward to bed time because that was honestly the only time I got the chance to see Niall for longer than a couple minutes. Not that I was complaining, but I just wanted things to calm down a bit. On top of that, Niall's birthday was coming up; two weeks to be exact. I still had yet to come up with a nice surprise, let alone think of a gift. Things became ten times more frustrating when I had no one close to Niall around to ask them for ideas or suggestions.

My phone's loud blare sounded out through the apartment, signaling me to quickly wash my hands before I jogged out of the bathroom and headed towards my room. Unplugging my phone from the charger, I looked at the caller I.D., only to see it was an unknown caller. I internally prayed it wasn't Pete trying to reach me because he was the last person I wanted to talk to, especially with Niall's crazy and unpredictable jealousy. I inhaled a deep breath, let it out, and swiped my thumb over the green answer button.