Love and Fame (Harry Styles)

Chapter 22

Ed had taken us all to a fancy dinner after his amazing show in MSG, his treat. And while the boys had been tired and had retreated to their hotel and my apartment after a few hours, I stayed behind with their friend throughout the entire evening.

I had so much I wanted to ask Ed about career wise and we talked for hours and hours about music and songwriting. It was really nice.

And when I finally made my way home in a taxi Ed paid for, I could crawl into Harry's strong arms and sleep safe and sound for a few hours before we had to catch our flight to London.

London was freezing cold and I was grateful that I had brought my brown Ugg's and the grey knitted jacket from Acne Studios.

When Harry insisted on giving me a tour around town, I put the shoes and the jacket on, as well as a thick scarf and leather gloves.

"Drop the gloves," Harry chuckled when I followed him outside.

"No, I'll be cold."

"I wanna hold your hand."

"You can still hold my hand. The gloves doesn't change anything."

"I wanna be the one to keep you warm," Harry insisted and I smiled because it was cute.

"Okay, I can drop the glove on this hand," I said and pulled off one of the gloves before I tucked my hand in Harry's.

We walked around town like that for hours and on our way back to Harry's place, he dragged me into a tea shop and purchased a box of Whittard hot chocolate powder. It was strange because I had never seen him drink hot chocolate before.

"It's for you," he explained when he saw my puzzled face expression. "You need something hot to drink when it's so cold out, and you don't like tea or coffee."

It made me smile and I rested my head against his shoulder as we walked hand in hand the last few blocks to his place.

He had a surprisingly modest apartment. Abnormally huge for a nineteen-year-old, of course, but still pretty modest. And I had immediately felt like home there.

When back in Harry's apartment, he prepared dinner for us. He was an amazing cook, and his special quesadillas were always welcomed with a big smile on my behalf.

While he cooked, I seated myself on the kitchen counter and dangled my legs as I observed him. Harry would occasionally come over to where I was sitting to peck me on the lips or to have me taste something. It was nice.

"Wanna watch a movie?" Harry said as the quesadillas were finished, and I nodded.

We headed into the living room and plopped down on the extremely big and comfortable couch. I tucked my legs under Harry's so that he could keep my bare feet warm.

Harry grabbed the remote and started flipping through channels. Occasionally he would pass a gossip channel talking about us, but he'd always hurry past it without stopping. Which suited me perfectly because I didn't really want to know what the world was saying about me.

"Netflix?" he offered when nothing appealed to us on TV. I nodded.

We decided upon a new romantic comedy release after seeing the trailer. The movie seemed okay, but not good.

"Hold on," I said very suddenly, and Harry paused the movie while I left the room with no explanation at all.

In the hallway I rummaged through my leather bag to find my Ray Ban reading glasses.

When I found them, I put them on, returned to the living room and instructed Harry to continue the Netflix movie. I cuddled up against his chest while the movie developed into some cheesy romantic thing.

"Love?" Harry said and I made a sound to let him know I was listening. "What are you doing for Christmas?"

I slowly pushed myself away from Harry's chest to look at him. Was he about to ask me what I thought he was gonna ask me?

My heart thudded in my chest as I tried to make a casual shrug. But we knew each other too well by now and Harry's face turned into a big smile because he could tell how excited I was.

"Nothing special, why?"

"I thought... since you're already here and Christmas is just a few weeks away, that you might want to celebrate it with me?"

"I would love to, babe," I whispered and Harry gently pulled me close to kiss me.

"Then we should go meet my family soon, so that you won't be strangers on Christmas Day," Harry said when the kiss was over, and my eyes widened.

"Dammit, I hadn't thought about that," I mumbled. "What if they don't like me?"

"They'll love you," Harry said and kissed my nose. "What's not to like?"

"The fact that I break people's expensive china when I first meet them?" I offered and Harry laughed.

"You won't do the same mistake twice."

"I hope not," I sighed, and then another worry popped into my head. "What about presents?"

"What do you mean?"

"I'll have to buy your family Christmas presents if I'm to celebrate with them, and I don't know what they would want."

"We'll get something together," Harry said and I agreed because that was a good idea. "Wanna go meet my family when the movie's over?"

"So soon?" I said nervously and Harry chuckled.

"I was thrown into it when I met your family and that turned out okay."

"Because you're not a socially awkward person," I pointed out and he laughed again.

"You're not socially awkward either," he insisted, but I just rolled my eyes because we both knew that I kind of were.

The movie ended too soon for my liking, and Harry and I put our plates in the dishwasher before we prepared to leave the apartment.

I was still very cold, so I brought out the grey woolen sweater my mom had knitted a few years back and pulled it over my head. Harry seemed to like it.

"You're welcome to borrow it if you want," I offered since the sweater was unisex anyway.

"I don't think it'll fit me," Harry said dryly. "You're so tiny."

"Sorry."

We put our coats and shoes on and left the apartment to meet Harry's family. I was not ready. At all.

I would probably lose my ability to speak again. Or I would just say a lot of meaningless crap. Or I would break something valuable of theirs. It was just the story of my life.

We drove to Harry's childhood town a three hours drive away, and in the car I played every possible first meet scenario in my head. None of them ended good for me.

"Stop worrying," Harry insisted as he accelerated the car towards Holmes Chapel, Cheshire. "We'll spend the night and everyone will love you."

"We'll what?" I gasped and Harry arched an eyebrow. "Harry! You didn't tell me we were staying the night. I brought nothing with me."

"Of course we'll have to stay the night. It's a long drive and it's already late."

"Yeah, but you could have mentioned it when you saw that I didn't bring anything for a sleepover!"

"Don't worry, you can just borrow something of mine."

"You didn't bring a bag either."

"I still have some clothes at home," he said with a shrug and I grumbled, not satisfied. "You'll look hot in a pair of my old sweatpants and a faded t-shirt."

"Maybe to you, but your family will just see a hobo."