THE WALK BACK to the restaurant's car park from Aki and Mai's was a little chaotic. Due to the time, which was nearing 2 am, the streets were bustling with partygoers crawling from one bar to the next. The pair stayed close as they pushed themselves through the small crowds of people gathered on the paths. Harry had bowed his head whenever the pair walked past anyone to prevent himself from being recognised – somehow, it had worked.
As they approach Harry's car, he slowly
turns to face her; both of them are silent and unsure of how to proceed. Neither party wanted to say goodbye just yet.
"How, um," Harry clears his throat and speaks louder, "How are you getting home?"
"I was going to get the tube but seeing as the last one left almost an hour ago, it looks like I'll be getting an Uber," She answers, checking the time on the smartwatch around her wrist.
"You might be waiting for a while, it's Friday night," Harry speaks with concern, looking at their surroundings. The restaurant has evidently been closed for hours with no sign of any staff members remaining and with it being located out of central London, other buildings around them were just closed businesses or houses that have little sign of life. The only car left in the car park is Harry's and a distant, muffled cheering from a small pub down the road is the only sign of anyone else nearby, "They ramp up the prices too – it's daylight robbery,"
"Are you trying to make this the worst thirty-minute journey of my life?" Violetta jokes, scrolling through her phone to find the Uber app.
"Thirty minutes?" Harry harshly sucks air in through his teeth, "You'll need to get out a mortgage to pay for that," He presses the button on his key that releases his central locking, "I guess you better get in,"
"What?" She watches him stroll towards the passenger side door and open it, leaning his elbow on the top and crossing one ankle over the other.
"I'm offering you a lift, Violetta," He chuckles at her puzzled expression and gestures a hand towards the car.
"You don't have to do that," She insists.
"I know but I want to," He says. She pauses for a second, pursing her lips in thought and searching his face for any insincerity. When she finds none, she exhales and slowly makes her way over to him, "Plus I don't want you to go broke from an Uber ride,"
"I'm not going to go broke from an Uber ride!" She rolls her eyes.
"I know you're not because I'm such an amazing, charitable person who's offering you a free ride home," He grins cheekily. They stand face to face as she reaches the car with only the passenger door between them.
"You forgot annoying and big-headed," She smiles sarcastically, taking her bag off her shoulder to place it into the footwell. Harry forgeries shock with a dropped jaw and wide eyes.
"Well, well, well," He tuts, "The true Violetta is starting to show,"
"It takes a real douchebag to bring out this side of me,"
Violetta crosses her arms and leans them on the top of the car door, causing their faces to be only inches apart. Harry sharply inhales, his breath getting caught in his throat at the unexpected proximity but he tries not to let his confidence falter.
"Insults now? I'm starting to regret being so generous," He says lowly, his voice suddenly deeper and suggestive. His sea-glass eyes roam her face and he's once again taken aback by how effortlessly pretty she is.
"Just get in the car, popstar, it's not very polite to leave a lady standing in the cold," She flirts and he hangs on every word. Her warm breath hits his lips as she speaks and he resists the urge to whimper. He wants to blame his pathetic desperation on the dry spell he's currently going through but he knows it's just her and this unprecedented effect she has on him.
She giggles at the dazed look he possesses and gently pinches his chin to bring him back to earth before delicately climbing into the passenger seat. He silently groans to himself as pushes the door shut behind her and jogs around the car to the driver's side.
After a smooth 30 minute journey, Harry's black Range Rover pulls up outside a tall block of flats located in the London Borough of Hackney. The spongey leather car seats and the heavenly scent of tobacco and vanilla are worlds away from the uncomfortable tube chairs that numb Violetta's bum and the pungent smell of stale urine that she has become accustomed to since moving to London. The low-frequency vibrations from the engine along with Harry's velvety voice were lulling her to sleep and she had to fight to keep her eyes open. Harry eventually halted the attempts of small talk in between the occasional directions from the car's satnav when he noticed her inability to form coherent sentences; her tiresome mumbles got lost on him. He discretely turned the volume of the radio down a few notches to grant her a few minutes of shut-eye for the remainder of the journey.
Violetta is disappointed when the car begins slowing to a stop and Harry is gently shaking her awake.
"We're here...I think," Harry smiles, hoping the satnav has guided him correctly. Violetta blinks a couple of times to clear her blurry vision and a clear view of Harry's handsome features eventually comes into focus.
"I'm so sorry," She gushes, quickly straightening her posture that had begun to curl up, "It's been a long day,"
"I've lost count of the amount of times I've fallen asleep in someone else's car over the years. It's not a problem," He chuckles, shrugging.
"Thank you so much for the ride," Violetta says, stifling a yawn and unclipping her seatbelt. She leans down and picks up her bag that she had placed in the footwell, "I was not looking forward to the Uber ride home, they never have their heaters on and I end up almost freezing to death,"
"It's no trouble," Harry smiles, "My place is only about twenty minutes from here. Thank you for keeping me company tonight,"
"Likewise. It's honestly the most fun I've had in a long time,"
As Violetta reaches for the door handle, Harry speaks up, "So, um, feel free to tell me to get lost at any point because we only just met tonight and with how...abnormal my life is, I'm aware that I'm most likely being irrationally stupid but I might not get another opportunity to ask and I would massively regret it if I didn't," He pauses his rambling and looks at the muddled expression on her tired features. He takes a breath to steady his nerves and get out his point before he completely loses her attention, "I'd really like to see you again. Properly. Like a date," He attempts to suppress a grimace. He is a globally renowned musician, who regularly performs in front of thousands of people, yet he still struggles to ask someone on a date without sounding like a pubescent teenager.
Violetta is suddenly wide awake and can't stop her eyes from widening. She had noticed Harry's flirtatious behaviour throughout the evening but assumed it was just his natural charm, and he wasn't aware of it. She hadn't expected it to escalate to this. She imagined they would part ways at the end of the night and it would just be a memory she would look back on fondly. Now he's staring at her with hopeful eyes and she's suddenly forgotten how to speak. He tries to appear patient but his fingers fiddle with his rings and his nose gives an occasional twitch.
She takes a deep breath to compose herself and then turns her body to face him, dropping her hand from the door handle, "I'm going to be honest with you, and please don't take any offence to this because it has nothing to do with you or your abnormal life, but dating is not something I can prioritise right now,"
The rejection is clear on his face and Harry wants the ground to swallow him whole.
"I'm just so busy with work that I barely have a spare minute to myself and when I do, I'm looking for auditions or catching up on sleep," She tells him, "I struggle to find time to socialise as it is so getting involved with someone probably isn't the best idea, I hope you understand,"
"You don't have to explain yourself to me, Violetta, I've been in the same position myself," He says softly, "Ironically, your decision to focus on yourself just makes me more attracted to you,"
Her cheeks burn and she turns away from him to mask it but the slither of light from the streetlamp outside gives her away.
"You can't say things like that when I'm trying to be responsible for once in my life," She jokes, trying to silence the overbearing voices in her head that are begging her to change her mind.
"You're right, 'm sorry," He chuckles, "Can't help but selfishly wish you'd waited a month or two before changing your ways though," He says it lightheartedly but they both know he means it.
"Harry," She groans in frustration, tipping her head back onto the headrest. Harry has to stop the salacious thoughts that enter his mind from hearing his name fall from her cherry lips in such a way.
"Okay, okay, I'm stopping," He holds one ring-clad hand up in defence and another flat against his chest, "Scout's honour,"
"Thank you," She breathes in relief.
"For now," He adds, sporting a cheeky smile that has her heart thumping harsher against her chest. Suddenly, she understands why millions of people across the globe are prepared to queue for hours just to catch a glimpse of it. It was mesmerising: pristine white bunny teeth peeking out from behind a pair of pillowy, rose-coloured lips - a masterpiece that is framed by deep dimples carved into a creamy canvas like one-of-a-kind artwork hung in a galley.
"We might never see each other again," She says breathlessly, peering up at him through her thick lashes. She knows she needs to leave and seek respite in the confines of her small flat before she caves and dives into something that she fears would drown her in the most bittersweet way.
"I have a feeling we'll be seeing a lot more of each other from now on," Harry confesses, noticing the way her doe eyes continuously flicker between his eyes and his mouth. His proclamation anchors her gaze on his.
"You do?" She asks.
"Mhm," He nods, "Call it intuition,"
Her eyes narrow briefly, challenging the legitimacy of his theory but he doesn't falter, "I guess I'll be seeing you soon then,"
"Goodnight, Violetta," He says cooly, watching as she carefully exits the car, smoothing down the back of her skirt so she doesn't show more than she's willing.
"Goodnight, Harry,"
He waits patiently until she has fully entered the building until he fires up the engine and drives off in the direction of his own home.
— ❀ —
"You did what?!" Maeve exclaims, shooting up from her seat and almost spilling her red wine on the cream sofa. Violetta winced as the burgundy liquid sloshed around in the glass, a drop escaping over the rim and landing on Maeve's hand.
Bandit, Violetta's beloved border collie and Maeve's dog, a goldendoodle named Archie, both look up with pricked ears from where they are playing in the corner. The volume of Maeve's voice had alerted them but they soon went back to their intense tug-of-war tournament after discovering nothing was out of the ordinary.
"You don't need to say anything, I already know what you're thinking," Violetta sighs. She clutches the neck of the wine bottle on the coffee table and begins to pour but only a dribble trickles out, much to her dismay.
"You turned down Harry fucking Styles - I have so many thoughts right now!"
Maeve hastily follows Violetta as she heads into the kitchen to search for a fresh bottle of wine. Having already started the bottle before Violetta arrived, Maeve was the tipsier one out of the two but only by a small margin; Violetta was a self-confessed lightweight and her head was already beginning to feel slightly fuzzy.
Maeve had called Violetta around mid-morning and all but demanded that she went over so she could inform her of every little detail about the night before. Elijah had conveniently announced he had arranged a gym session with his personal trainer when he noticed Violetta strolling into the living room earlier, dressed in old pyjamas and carrying a bag full of items that only suggested one thing: girls' night. He sprung up from the sofa, abandoning the book he was reading, and grabbed his keys off the hook before planting a kiss on his girlfriend's cheek and exiting the house – despite wearing jeans and leaving behind his gym bag that was hanging up on the coat hooks next to the front door. Both girls thought nothing of it and knew he would be stumbling through the door in a few hours' time, expressing his eternal love for Maeve and smelling of beer.
"I know, Mae but Harry Styles or not, I don't have time to be dating anyone,"
With a glass filled almost to the brim, Violetta leans against the kitchen side and takes a sip.
"And you think he does? The man changes country more than I change my underwear!"
"Firstly, that's disgusting," Violetta rolls her eyes as Maeve shoots her a look that says 'you know what I mean', "And secondly, you just proved my point! Neither of us have the time,"
"Isn't he on a break from touring right now?"
"Yeah, he's working on his third album," She tells her, remembering how they had briefly spoken about his career last night. A sappy half-smile curls at the corners of her lips as the memory of them sitting on Mai and Aki's rooftop, discussing everything and nothing comes to mind. She was surprised at how effortlessly their conversations had flowed and how easy he was to talk to: the way his eyes stayed trained on hers whenever she spoke made her feel heard and that what she had to say actually mattered.
"Even better...he might write a song about you," Maeve teases, unclipping a takeaway pizza menu from the side of the fridge, "We're getting pizza,"
"Okay now you're living in a daydream,"
Maeve just smirks and grabs her phone to type in the pizza place's number. She orders for them both without needing to ask Violetta what she wants. It's always the same. Medium, thin-crust vegan pepperoni with extra mushrooms and a large pot of garlic dip.
"Should be here in forty-five," She announces as she comes off the phone, "Not too bad for a Saturday night,"
They make their way back into the living room and get comfortable on the sofa with Bandit and Archie at their feet. One of Maeve's playlists is on shuffle, covering up Violetta's groans of pain as Maeve waxes her eyebrows. Violetta has her head resting on Maeve's lap, trying to keep still and avoid a cosmetic disaster.
"So did you talk to Harry's friends much after we left? Sarah and Mitch, wasn't it?" Violetta asks. All she can see is Maeve's forehead that's burrowed in concentration as she leans over her.
"Yeah, for quite a while actually. Sarah had overheard me stressing when you didn't come back from the bar and told me she had seen you and Harry leaving together. We ordered a few shots and just chat shit for the rest of the evening," Maeve explains.
"What are they like? Harry spoke highly of them,"
"They're really great, you'd like them a lot. Mitch was quiet until he had a few tequilas in him – he's actually really funny and sarcastic and Sarah is super down-to-earth and an absolute sweetheart. Before we left, we exchanged numbers and invited them to the bar for a round of drinks on the house," Maeve smiles before grabbing a small mirror and handing it to Violetta, "All done, what do you think?"
Violetta sits up and holds the mirror, inspecting her freshly shaped eyebrows. She grins, turning to Maeve, "Perfect as always!"
"And right on time!" Maeves says as the doorbell rings, signalling their pizzas have arrived.
— ❀ —