Right Now

33. Like every party is just us two

"So what happened with Ilona?" asked Harry. It was almost an hour later, and we were sitting next to each other on a sofa in Niall's hotel suite. Most other people from the after-show party had gone off to a nightclub, including Liam, Louis, Zayn and their families and friends, but about a dozen others, including us, had just arrived back at the hotel for a karaoke session in Niall's room.

It had taken forever to get everybody to leave the party at the arena, mostly thanks to the fact that a lot of people were extremely drunk. Several had to be physically carried out, including Ilona.

Gemma, who looked a bit worse for wear herself, had blamed the cocktails. "They were bloody lethal," she'd said as we piled into Niall's room. "That barman was very heavy-handed."

I was OK; I'd given the cocktails a miss and only had a couple of glasses of champagne. Harry'd just had the one cocktail but he'd supplemented it with quite a few tequilas, and was looking a little bit glassy-eyed. Otherwise he seemed fine, unlike Abby, who by the looks of her had tried just about every cocktail on the list and like Ilona, was having problems getting her words out. Hopefully that at least meant she wasn't capable of singing.

She was sat on the other side of me on the black leather sofa, her head lolling against my shoulder as she watched Niall bending over in front of us to plug the karaoke machine into a speaker.

"Jesus, tha's a booful arse!" she said at the same time Harry asked me about Ilona.

"Yes, Niall has a beautiful arse," I said to Abby. "Put your tongue away Abs."

I then turned to Harry to answer his question about Ilona.  Everyone else in the room, including Gemma, Lou, Cal, Kimberly from Modest, bodyguards Dale and Bas, Julian Bunetta, Sandy and Josh from the band and vocal coach Helene, were people who could be trusted if they overheard anything private, but I couldn't help being cautious, and spoke quietly. 

"Ilona came into the bathroom while I was in there and launched into this rant about you," I told Harry. "She's got a major crush on you."

"Yeah, I kind of figured that, judging by the way she behaved tonight," Harry said. He seemed unsurprised, but then I guess he was used to it. It seemed like half the world's female population and a large chunk of the male one had a crush on him. What must that feel like, being an object of universal desire?

"She thought after the Henry Holland charity event that you had feelings for her too, and that's why she was invited along tonight," I explained. "It was Andrea who invited her, by the way."

He frowned. "I don't know why," he huffed. "I've never given Andrea any reason to think I'd want to spend time with Ilona. After last week, she knows I'm only interested in you."

My heart did a little flip at his words. I still couldn't quite believe it. Harry Styles was interested in me. Bloody hell.

I carried on the conversation as if it was no big deal to hear one of the most lusted-after men in the world saying he was into me. "Well, Ilona got it in her head that you were interested in her, because she'd also heard through the grapevine that there's someone you're keen on. She hoped it was her."

"Through the grapevine?"

"Well, from her friend Celia who's friend's with someone who's friends with Alexa and Nick."

"Sodding Nick," muttered Harry. "I mentioned to him the other week that I'd met someone who was lovely. He's rubbish at keeping his mouth shut sometimes."

"He didn't give away any details," I reassured Harry, the word 'lovely' bouncing around my brain. "Ilona had no idea it was me."

Harry's eyes flicked over my face for a moment. "It must have been a weird conversation for you."