Always You |harry styles| - completed

SEVEN

Miles Davis: Concierto de Aranjuez

"Ouch!", I'd stubbed my toe on the side of the couch as I heard my phone buzz for the millionth time, meaning that Josh was waiting in an Uber out front. Keys, phone, wallet, jacket... I had everything and I almost fell down a flight of stairs, trying to hurry.

"When are you ever late, you asshole?", he opened the door of the black Toyota RAV-4 and I slid in beside him.

"Usually never, but today has been a day.", he nodded and I wondered if he knew about us not being partners from now on.

"Did Jack talk to you about anything important?", I decided it was best to get the important stuff out of the way, so we could enjoy good music and copious amounts of alcohol in peace.

"He did mention he had something to tell me, but we've been working like crazy on this Smithsonian event. What's up?", Josh confirmed my fear that I'd have to be the one to tell him the news.

"Oh, well... I talked to Lil' today and it turns out they deemed us too valuable to work in a pair, so from now on we'll both get a new EP to school and mold into a decent producer.", I tried to laugh it off, but Josh's face told me all I needed to know.

"They can't do that to us! What if we're not good enough on our own?"

"I know, I was afraid to ask the same question, but I've thought about that too. Like what if we only work splendidly as a pair.", the driver pulled up to the famous Blues Alley and we both shuffled out of the car. This was threatening to put a damper on our mood, but I guessed some shots would temporarily solve the problem and put a band-aid over our broken professional hearts.

Josh's current girlfriend, Alyssa, was waiting at a table in the center of the dimly lit room, with two glasses of wine and a tray of tequila shots in front of her. That woman was a godsend! Numerous musicians were on and off the stage and our visions got blurrier as the hours went by. I filmed some gigs for Harry and decided to send him the videos while on my smoke break. It amazed me how I never got cold standing outside of clubs in the dead of winter, if I had enough alcohol in my system and was there for my nicotine fix. The videos went through and I didn't want to wait for his response, since he was probably asleep.

"Come on! One more shot and then we call it a night!", Josh yelled over the loud music and I agreed to his proposition, because I knew it was the only way to get a drunk Josh to go home.

"I'll see you in the morning, sleep it off, you drunk!", the cabbie drove off with Alyssa and Josh as I walked up to the steps of my building. Going out on a work-night is always a terrible mistake, but we got used to operating on little to no sleep, so we should be fine.

Changing into my pajamas and talking off my makeup in the bathroom, I heard the voice of Stevie Nicks get quieter and that meant someone was texting me. At three in the morning.

"If I stub my toe one more time... I swear to God!!!", I vocalized my threat directed at the couch and picked up my phone, removing it from its charging station. It was Harry, which kind of made sense, since L.A. was three hours behind Washington, meaning it was midnight there.

'I really liked the band in the second video. Hope you got home safe. Talk in the morning. (put two Advil and a glass of water on your nightstand, you'll thank me later) x, H' – his text said, and it really was a true depiction of his sweet nature, caring for others always, but especially in the times they aren't caring for themselves.

'Home. Taking my makeup off and jumping into bed. Will do, the Advil thing. Smart thinking. Go to sleep. x, Teacup', I replied, set a million alarms and hoped they'd be able to wake me up in time to get to work.

The first alarm sounded and I was rudely awoken to a pounding headache and a dry mouth. The two Advil and the entire glass of water went into my body as quick as humanly possible and as I moved to the shower I made a mental note to thank Harry for his tip later. The warm water woke my muscles up, after the alcohol induced coma that rendered them useless slowly disappeared from my body. It was seven in the morning, and I'd only had four hours of sleep, which would catch up with me sometime in the day.

The office was fairly quiet around 8:30 when I walked in, Josh was nowhere to be seen and it seemed as though the rest of our coworkers went out on a Thursday as well. It gave me more peace and quiet to go through the Coldplay folder once more, single out the things I'd like to improve and work more on, maybe sketch the stage in a few different ways and figure out how the hell I'm going to talk to Chris Martin as if he weren't Chris Martin.

Around midday, when the office filled up a bit more, but still not to its full potential, Harry asked if he could call me. Perfect timing for my lunch break, which I decided to spend taking a walk through the neighborhood, instead of sitting at my desk.

"Hey Teacup! Are you feeling better?", he said while munching on some healthy looking cookies, which didn't look appetizing at all.

"Better, the Advil really helped, as well as a warm shower. I actually got to the office before anyone, y'know! And, Josh called in sick, the little drunk!", I found a free bench in Lincoln park up on the Hill and sat down to devour my avocado salad.

"Well I'm glad, it's a trick my mum taught me when I first started drinking, and it just stuck with me. What are you working on?", Harry stopped eating and sat on top of a giant loudspeaker. I could see Mitch and Sarah talking in the background, which meant they were rehearsing.

"Give it up Harry!", I teased him, acting as if the roles were reversed and I was the famous artist while he was a regular Joe, "I will not tell you who my new client is, since I don't even know if it'll work out. Can't you just be happy that they're making me go to L.A. for two days, which will give us the opportunity to go hiking?", I put an emphasis on the hiking, since he really wanted to see me suffer through the wrong kind of physical activity.

"Fine Teacup, but y'can't blame a man for trying. Go on back to work, I've got to perfect a bridge in one of my new songs, I'll catch you later.", we ended our video call and I walked back to the office, hoping to catch Lil' and run some ideas by her.

"Was today some sort of holiday that I wasn't aware of?", I knocked on the open door of Lilian's office and found her sitting on her brown suede sofa, with files and papers spread all over the glass coffee table.

"Ah, it appears that all of the firm went out last night and called in sick this morning, I don't want to know what they got up to, honestly.", she removed her glasses from her nose and set them in front of her.

"I went out too, but I pushed through the desire to stay in bed all day and do nothing, since we do have an important weekend coming, which is actually what I wanted to talk to you.", she nodded and moved over so I could sit.

"What can I help you with, dear?", I pulled out my notes and a few of the files which had descriptions of Coldplay's previous tours.

"I wanted to know how many people I'd be working with and if my job would be like I've been imagining the past few days, or I'd have a marginal role in the process.", Lil' put her hand over mine as she smiled comfortingly.

"Trust me, your role will not be marginal in any sense. You'll have all the executive decisions, an assistant that will work closely with you and try to learn from your genius, the usual assistants we have will be replaced with hundreds of stage hands, but you can pick ten that you trust the most from our firm to bring with you. You will work with an industrial designer, as well as with Chris, on the stage, you'll have a lighting expert for the light show and you'll have state of the art visuals at your disposal. You don't have to worry, because you won't be alone.", her calm voice managed to bring me a piece of mind, and I was able to put some puzzle pieces together and get an idea of what my job would entail.

"Listen, go home, rest, I'll meet you at Dulles at seven in the morning and we can go over any doubts during the flight. I wouldn't have suggested you if I didn't have faith in you, trust me and my instincts.", Lil' gently ushered me to go home and, in that moment, I felt very grateful to have a boss like her.

--------------------

A/N:  TPWK, always. 

Enjoy, comment and vote :) 

T