Chapter Nine
MONDAY
I was back at work, over the weekend the house was finally finished. Every wall had been painted, the living room had been wallpapered, the hall and bathroom were finished and so were the bedrooms. The only thing missing was the furniture so for the time being we were still living with the boys, they didn't mind though especially Cal. Emma liked the company too, she'd spent so long living with just boys that she felt she was beginning to forget what it was like living with girls.
Emma and Lux had been together for years, they were proper high school sweethearts and they were so adorable. She'd moved in with him after finishing university a few years ago and found herself being the 'mum' of the group, even though she was one of the youngest. She was definitely the most sensible one out of all of us and that's including Tobi who doesn't even drink alcohol.
Harry didn't drive me to work this morning, he was up the majority of the night with his sister who was going through a breakup. Rosie and Harry were really close, she hopped on the next flight from Guernsey and came straight to London and the flat after her boyfriend ended things. She pounded on the door and I opened it to her, I'd never met her before and I didn't even know Harry had a sister until he walked up behind me.
"Rosie! What's going on? Are you okay?" He asked her in a panic, she shook her head no and walked straight in the door pushing past me. "My sister" Harry mouthed, I nodded my head in reply feeling relieved that she wasn't his secret girlfriend or something like that.
Harry took her straight to his bedroom and I went back to the living room. They were in the bedroom all night so for the first night in days I didn't sleep beside Harry, instead I slept on the couch. I woke up with my alarm going off and found Harry fast asleep on the other couch with a blanket covering his body. I stood up, grabbed my blanket and put it over him to make sure he was warm enough and then I got ready for work.
Layla and I left earlier than usual so we could grab a coffee and some breakfast and that pretty much takes us up to now. I was walking into the building and over to the lifts, I pressed my floor and Layla pressed hers.
"So what's actually going on with you and Harry?" She turned and asked me.
"Nothing, we're just friends." I shrugged it off.
"Yeah because friends sleep in the same bed together, spend every second of the day together and are clearly in love with each other."
"I am not in love with Harry, that's ridiculous."
"You like him though."
"Well yeah, no... that's not the point. We're friends and nothing else."
"For now." The lift pinged and Layla got out laughing, as she walked over to her office the doors closed and I was left alone with my thoughts.
I made my way to my office, sat down in the chair and logged on to the computer. I spent the first half of my morning replying to emails and setting up future appointments with clients. In the afternoon I had a viewing on the other side of London, another house to value with Rodney and a meeting with Mitch.
It was such a long fucking day, after that time off I had I found it hard to get back into the swing of things but I knew that by tomorrow I'd be fine and everything would be back to normal. My diary for this week was literally filled to the brim like usual. I sold the house to a lovely couple who were just starting out and managed to make just over £5000 so I really couldn't complain. Speaking of money, when I checked my bank account at the end of the day the commission for the sidemen house had reached my account along with my wages.
Harry picked me up as usual, I didn't actually expect him to considering I hadn't spoken to him since last night when Rosie came.
"Oh hiya, I didn't expect you here." I saw him standing in the car park, he was leaning against his car like he usually was.
"Of course I'd be here, why did you think I wouldn't?"
"Well yeah, I was going to get the train back. How's Rosie?" I asked pulling away from the hug and picking my handbag up of the concrete.
"She's fine, her boyfriend broke up with her last night" We got into the car, me in the passenger seat and him in the driver's seat of course and began driving out of the car park.
"Are you busy tonight?" I asked him and he shook his head no.
"I was thinking of going to IKEA to grab a few bits for the house, do you want to come? We can get some food as well, I'll pay obviously."
"No if we're going for food then I'm paying."
"But..."
"No buts, do you want to get changed first?"
"Yeah, I'd rather not go in a dress." Harry continued driving back to the flats, we reached the carpark and he stayed put while I ran up to my flat and got changed into more comfortable clothes.
"Nice top." He smirked knowing it was his, honestly it was the first thing I grabbed ok.
"Yeah although it smells like boy." I laughed and changed the radio station. Whenever Harry and I drove somewhere, I controlled the music because he'd just put on some random shite that I didn't know. I'd actually made a playlist with all the songs that Harry and I would sing to in the car and so I hit shuffle on that and let it play.
The drive to IKEA wasn't long, about five or six songs worth anyway. We got out of the car and walked over to get one of the trolleys before making our way inside the store.
"So what are you actually here to get?" Harry asked taking control of the trolley as I wandered over to one of the shelfs to have a look.
"I have absolutely no idea but this... this is coming home with me." I showed him a little cactus that I'd picked up before putting it into the trolley. I wandered over to get some white shelfs because I knew where they were.
By the end of our shop I had two trolleys full and was £2500 down but it was so fucking worth it.
"Think we've got time for a B&M shop?" Harry turned around and asked me whilst stopping at the traffic lights. "That was music to my ears, I love a B&M shop."
"When are you going to Scotland?" He asked, I was supposed to go at the weekend but my mum fell ill so we'd postponed until next weekend instead.
"This week, Mum's already feeling better so I'll head up Friday morning and be back for Sunday night."
"Well what are you doing the weekend after?" He began driving again so turned his full attention back to the road.
"Emma said something about a girl's night." I could see some sort of disappointment in his face which confused me slightly but I ignored it and went back to scrolling through my phone and texting the girls group chat. We pulled up outside a massive B&M ten minutes later and of course I grabbed the biggest trolley there was because I knew I'd end up getting way too much unnecessary stuff.
In the hour we spent in the shop I'd managed to acquire three new bedding sets, a million cushions and blankets, another cactus, shit ton of photo frames and random household things that I thought looked cute but would definitely have no use for.
"Are you hungry?" Harry asked reaching the car and opening the boot.
"Starving, where do you want to go?" I replied passing him the bags from the trolley. He put them all in the boot and then closed it, we put the trolley back and got into the car.
We ended up going to Nando's it was pretty much the only thing that came to mind. When we'd ate our meals, we had a small argument about who was paying... I won of course and paid for the meal which made Harry go in a mood with me but I dragged him out shopping for hours so the least I could do was pay for dinner.
When we got back to my flat, Layla and Cal were in her bedroom and were finishing off the wallpaper. Harry and I dumped everything into my bedroom and decided to call it a night and head on upstairs. Tonight would be my last night sleeping there and honestly I'd miss it so much, sleeping with Harry was just so comfortable - I slept like a baby every single night. I knew Layla would miss being with Cal 24/7 as well, they were literally attached to the hip but the beds were getting delivered tomorrow along with the new couch for the living room so we'd be back to normal. Cal would be at the house for us to get the furniture as Layla and I would of course be at work but I'd pop over during my lunch break to make sure everything was fine.
I'd ran myself a bath in Harry's bathroom, he was streaming in his room so I'd just stay in here until he finished. I did my usual bath routine, sit for a while, shave and then get out and shower so I could wash my hair and then my body. By the time I'd finished Harry was still streaming and of course I'd forgotten my clothes. If I was really quiet then I'd be able to sneak into the room and grab my clothes but then I'd risk being seen half-naked by Harry and that would be majorly embarrassing considering this was such a short towel. Well it was a risk I'd have to take because god knows how long he'd be.
I opened the door as quietly as I possibly could and snuck into the bedroom. Harry looked up from his camera and then just kind of stared at me for a few seconds before he immediately looked back to the camera. I tried to be so quiet but of course I ended up tripping over a wire, Harry looked at me wide eyed and couldn't help but laugh. I grabbed my clothes from the bed and ran back out of the room laughing my head off, fuck that was so fucking embarrassing. I stayed in the bathroom until he finished and came and got me.
"Well that was eventful, are you okay?" He asked opening the door.
"Bit of a sore arse and knee but other than that brilliant. How was your stream?" I asked standing up and grabbing all of my stuff.
"Fine, they all assume I have a girlfriend though."
"What did you tell them?" I asked him curiously as we headed back into his bedroom.
"Just ignored the question, they probably thought you were Katie." I forgot all about Katie, Harry hadn't clarified that they'd broken up yet. He liked to keep his life outside of YouTube pretty private unlike some YouTubers.
"Fair enough, want to watch a movie?" I asked sitting on my side of the bed, yes I now had a side of the bed.
"Sure." He picked up the remote as he replied to me and pressed the Netflix button.