Bittersweet

6

"Esme, did you read my article? I left it in your mail box this morning." Calvin says when I pass by him. "Yeah, I read it when the models were in makeup. I love your take on the uselessness of over priced clothing, standing up for us middle class ladies!" I shoot him a smile wise I sign off on a few mandatory papers.

"Glad you got the idea unlike some snooty booties in this place." He rolls his eyes. "By the way girl, there's quite a yummy gift waiting in your office."

"Ooo, is it cookies? I was craving some nice soft baked cookies today and I was going to go to Lulu's after work." I tell him, already grueling over my favorite bakery. "I'm sure his cookies are soft baked." He winks, nodding at something behind me.

"Hey Esme!" A goofy Harry laughs, playing with Francine's post-its. "You look amazing."

Calvin hits his hip with mine and smirks as he walks by me, causing an eruption of laughter. "Dude, you can't just come here and wander around! It's only three and I get off at five."

"But you're going to lunch now, right? I wanted to take you to lunch." He says, fixing his grown out curls. They're more like waves now.

"That's sweet, but I have my lunch delivered to my office so I can eat and get some work done." I try not to sound annoyed. I'm all fun and smiles after work, but during, I'm the total opposite. "So I'll leave?" He says like a question, looking like a lost puppy.

I sigh and check my watch; 3:28. I didn't really have to get this stuff in till Friday and it's just Tuesday...it wouldn't take so long and next week I'll be in England, so I won't have work on my plate for awhile...

"Unless you want to stay in my office with me, but I'm not going to talk to you."

His face brightens up and he begins to follow me as I walk back to my office.

"Damn, if I'd knew you guys were planning on having spectacular jobs I'd just stay in New York. My office is the teachers lounge. It's the size of this room and it's shared with twenty other staff members." He chuckles, sitting in one of the chairs in front of my desk.

"What grade do you teach?" I ask, breaking my 'No Talking' rule, let's face it, I'm pretty good at triple-tasking. Hopefully.

"Seventh. I was a substitute until last August when they offered me the full deal. I was leaning towards high school English since it's more of my style, but it's the first full job I got, so I took it." He answers, touching everything from the picture of my family on my desk to the panda paper clip holder.

"I'm sure you're hard on them." I grin, looking through the rough draft of next month's issue. It was cool that I was one of the few who had the final say in the magazine, but it was a lot of work. A lot of editing and revising.

"Mhm." He mumbles, which shocks me. When I look up from my chicken wrap and magazine, Harry's scribbling away on a blank sheet of paper with his feet up on my desk and my apple in his free hand. He looked like a model for badly buttoned flannels, maybe a model for tattoos, but the way his forehead creased and with his bottom lip in his mouth, he looked amazing.

No Esme. Stop. Stop right now, that's the worst thing you could do. If Niall's still holding on to five years ago, I'm sure Harry is too. Why the hell was I the cause for hurting boys back then? I bet I'm still like that, and that's why I can't think of Harry in any other way but a friend. I forbid myself from getting caught up in his flirting and charm, totally forbid. Plus, he was only doing it because he wanted to make Niall jealous. Why? I still have yet to find out.

What would they have said that would make each other hate one another so much? Was I the reason? No duh I was, aren't I always.

"What? Is there apple on my face?" Harry asks, brushing his cheeks. I just laugh and shake my head "no" before going back to the draft. He's such a dork. A cute dork. Wait, no, I can't say that. He's an ugly dork. Hideous.

Hideously hot.

*

"Your place is like a smaller version of there's! How are you paying for this?" Harry says referring to my apartment and Fin's. Zayn doesn't count, he didn't think it was the one when we first saw it and it took time for him to love it as much as we did.

"Vogue, it was apart of the deal. I met the editor-in-chief of the Italian Vogue who viewed my portfolio, then she got me the job over here and said they needed to give me a business apartment. Kinda because I told her I didn't have anywhere to stay, which was sort of true, but hey, who's it bothering?"

"Ah, sneaky." He laughs, spreading out on my couch. "I was serious about you visiting me in Cali, maybe after the wedding?"

"Slow your rolls buddy, I have work and my baby Holden to worry about." I say as my dog jumps on top of him. "My rolls have been slow for years now! I actually have a chance with you, and I'm not letting anything stop me." He grins as he pat's Holden's stomach. At first I thought he was kidding, but I knew Harry and that boy was for real. But he can't. Taking a chance with me is like saying you're ready to sky dive off the Empire State Building with no equipment.

"Haven't you learned your lesson? No good comes to dating me." I joke, sitting next to him and handing him a beer.

"Yeah, but there's nothing in my way now and I meant everything I said and did yesterday." He says in a more serious tone, trying to catch my eyes in his. He knows they're my weakness, dammit. He learned how to work his suave personality to the best of it's abilities.

"I was a mess then and now I'm a bigger, lonelier mess." I try not to snort when I laugh. "Well," he sighs as though defeated. "you don't have to be a lonely mess."

I roll my eyes as he bursts into one of his Harry laughters and say, "When you move back to New York, we'll talk. For now I'm going to get us some of my left over Chinese food because I'm such an amazing host."

As I warm up my left overs, a soft melody fills my ears and out pops Harry with a flower in his hand. "Harry Edward Styles, is that one of my tulips?"

When I finally take it from him, he grabs me by the waist and takes my hand in his as he begins to dance us around my apartment with a twirl every ten seconds. Between the laughing and dips, we got short of breath and collapsed on the couch.

"I don't care if you're in another country, I've always been crushing on you since the first time I saw that smile of yours." He says, towering over me.

Don't do it Esme.

My hand wraps around his neck, bringing his face so close, our noses were mushing together.

I can't. Don't do it.

"You can trust me, Es." He whispers, softly braying his lips against mine.

No, I can't. No, no, no.

By I couldn't help it. As I'm ready to fulfill my cheesy moment, a loud British voice erupts.

"AYE ESME! I'm here to get you guys so we can go to our first actual group dinner!"

"Oh my Jesus, no." Fin groans causing me to shove Harry to the floor.

Great.

(A/N: Everyone's mixed with the ships lol (: & thanks to:
Niall&Esme will be "Nesme" still don't know about Harry&Esme so that's up to y'all! Who really wants some Nesme action!? :O maybe? No? Yes? (:

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