I woke up dying of thirst, still in my clothes from last night, and half covered by Jace's pajama clad body. My head pounded as I tried to wiggle out from under him, finally giving up and collapsing back on the bed in a hungover mess.
"Nghrhrr," Jace grumbled. I laughed weakly at the inhuman noise and poked his stomach, seeing if I could wake him further. "Don't fucking touch me," He groaned with a muffled voice.
"Why are you in my bed?"
"Alice and Aaron are in mine," He mumbled l, finally opening one eye to perk up at me. "Go back to sleep.
"It's too hot with you in here."
"It's too early to be flattered, Norah."
"Jace, will you just remove your legs from mine so I can sleep?" I sighed. He let out another strange noise and untangled his legs, scooting to the furthest edge of the bed. I tried once again to get out from the bed and once again failed miserably.
I snuggled up against Jace as I tried to fall back asleep. "Didn't you just say I was too hot?" He snapped.
"Yes, but I want to cuddle," I explained. He smiled with his eyes still shut and shifted to where our bodies were slotted together and both were comfortable. "Are you going to make breakfast?"
"It's like 8 in the morning and I'm hungover. What do you think?"
"I think that I'm going to heat left over Chinese. Do you want some?"
He gave me a slight nod in response as I finally managed to slip out of bed. The hallway was dark and I could hear loud snores coming from Jace's room, presumably where Aaron was still in a deep sleep.
I made coffee while I heated up the Chinese food, then headed back to my small room with a tray consisting of two steaming mugs and two bowls full of chicken fried rice. A well balanced breakfast, if I do say so myself.
Setting the tray on the edge of the bed, I finally managed to change out of my clothes from last night and sip into an oversized t-shirt. Then I brushed out my tangled mess I call my hair and crawled back into my welcoming bed, where Jace was now leaning against the headboard clasping one of the mugs in his small hands.
I scooter up beside him and grabbed a bowl of fried rice, clicking on my TV while I was at it. "I'm so hungover," I complained.
"Yeah, when you left Harry was basically carrying you. What happened when you got back?"
"He is such a drama," I protested. "I wasn't that drunk!"
Jace raised an eyebrow at me as if to say he didn't believe me. And he was right not to. I was hammered. I had even initiated a kiss with Harry Styles, the scariest and most beautiful man alive. The young CEO started to fill my brain as I half-watched a rerun of America's Next Top Model.
"Are you going to answer my question?" Jace asked with a tone of annoyance.
"Oh yeah," I shrugged, coming back to the real world. "He bright me home, and then we made out. And then I was really drunk and he put to me bed. He said he'll see me soon."
"He totally likes you!"
"I don't know. He's so...business like half the time. I think it's more of he just wants to fuck me."
"And you should let him."
"Jace!" I groaned, setting the now empty bowl on the night stand with a frown. "I'm not going to do that. I'm trying to play hard to get here."
"Oh, obviously. I can tell from that giant love bite on your neck," He snickered.
"It's hard to play hard to get around him. Especially because he knows he's so sexy. And so adorable at the same time. It's like, he has the piercing green eyes that could cut you like a knife and then these dimples that melt your heart. It's very contradictory. And frustrating."
"I guess I'll just have to date him then," Jace faked sighed. "Oh poor me."
Giving him a playful slap across the chest, I curled back up into the sheets of my small bed and turned up the volume on the TV to indicate the conversation about the sexy CEO was over. Jace grumbled but laid next to me.
We spent the rest of he day in a hungover state, watching a full season of America's Next Too Model. Aaron and Alice stumbled into our room and thanked us for having them around noon, then left us alone. We polished off the Chinese food for lunch and by dinner Jace was functioning enough to make us Easy Mac.
"How are we not fat?" I teased as I bit into the cheesy goodness, still in my bed. He motioned for me to scoot over and I obliged, letting him slip into the same spot he had been all day.
"I don't know. We should probably try to eat healthy or something."
"We're never going to do that."
"I know," He laughed. "By the way, what was your text about last night? All I could make out was something about Harry and a suit."
I had to bite back my laughter as I tried to explain, remembering wondering what it would be like if Jace wore Harry's clothes. "I was imagining what it would be like if you wore Harry's suits. I don't know. In my drunken state it was very hilarious."
He gave me a slight shake of the head. "You're weird as shit Norah. Although, I would love to try on some of his clothes. But I think he would murder me before that happened."
* * * *
On Monday morning, Jace and I were finally no longer hungover and both were awake early to make it to work on time. At 8am came the usual pounding on my door and I stumbled out of bed and into the shower.
I blow dried my hair and did my makeup, and pulled on a white shirt dress with my favourite black boots. I stumbled out of my room at 9 o'clock screaming and asking if Jace knew where my Louis Vuitton purse was.
"Sitting behind the couch in the living room!" He called from the kitchen.
Thanking him, I stepped in and spotted the black bag. I grabbed it with triumph and was about to turn away when I noticed Harry's navy suit jacket lying on the back of the couch where he had left it two nights ago. With a loud laugh, I picked it up and carried it to the kitchen.
"Jace, look what he left!" I cheered.
He turned around brandishing two cups of coffee and smiled widely at the sight of the jacket. "Shut up. Let me try it on."
We giggled uncontrollably as he slipped it on. The sleeves fell past the tips of his fingers, completely swallowing the smaller man as we laughed. He strutted around the kitchen with his shoulders thrown back and narrowed his eyes at me.
"Are you trying to be Harry?" I giggled into my palm.
"Do not make fun of me. Go get me coffee," Jace commanded in a voice that was much deeper than his usual. I spit out my coffee at his impression, spewing it all over the kitchen counter, much to Jace's disapproval.
"You got some on the sleeve of my suit coat," He whined, brandishing it up for me to see.
"Your suit coat?" I taunted. "I'm giving it back to him today."
His eyes widened as he slipped off the jacket. "Are you seeing him again?!"
"I'll just swing by his office during lunch."
"Stalker," Jace teases. I playfully slapped the upside of his head in response. We each grabbed our respective cups of coffee and granola bars as we stepped out of our apartment. My boot heels clicked against the stairs as we walked down and out onto the busy New York City streets.
We walked with our arms linked, sipping our drink and munching on nut bars. Finally the GQ office building loomed up ahead of us. Our trash was thrown into the garage can we we walked in. My office was warm and welcoming as I tossed my bag down on my desk and collapsed in my chair.
My email was overloaded with new messages that I quickly flipped through. We had a meeting, that I had obviously forgotten about, at 11. Jace barged in as usual and informed me ten minutes before.
The meeting took longer than it should have because Victoria kept shooting everyone's ideas down until she found 'the perfect one'. Finally, Aaron gave the idea of a section on New York socialites and that was that.
"Longest meeting ever," I grumbled on my way out, checking the time on my gold Michael Kors watch. "Should I text Harry and tell him I'm bringing him his suit jacket?"
"Definitely. You can't just show up," Jace pointed out. He gave me a kiss on the cheek and waved his fingers as we parted ways, me headed to Harry's office with his Gucci suit jacket in my arms, and Jace back to the lunch room with Aaron.
"Good luck with your psycho CEO!" He called over his shoulder.
"He's not mine!" I yelled back. Victoria glared at me and I scurried out of the office with a sheepish grin.
After a short walk, I was at Styles Enterprises once again. I stood outside the tall building for a few minutes before finally mustering up enough courage to enter and barged in. The blonde receptionist looked at me in confusion, but with a confident wave I walked past her.
People came on and off the elevator as I slowly made it up to the top floor. The receptionist from last time looked absolutely shocked to see me. She had probably thought she's never see again after I ran out of there last time.
"Uhm, I have Mr. Styles' suit coat," I mumbled, holding it out awkwardly for her to see. "I need to give it to him."
Her mouth dropped open but she quickly recovered. I scowled at her. "Mr. Styles is in a meeting. He is very busy today."
"Oh. Well, I'll just leave this here for him. Will you tell him he left it at my apartment?"
"Sure," She smiled with fake enthusiasm and a curious glance. "Mr. Styles was at your apartment?"
"Not that it's any of your business, but yes he was," I mumbled.
"Must have really impressed him in that first interview. Now unless you have more business to take care of here, please escort yourself out," She said sweetly. I grimaced and turned away to walk back to the elevator.
Fiddling with my rings as I waited, my head snapped up at the sound of Harry's deep voice echoing down the hallway. My knees weakened immediately and my heart started pounding. Memories of his lips pressed harshly against mine flipped through my brain as I heard him snap at someone in his business tone, making me smile like an idiot.
Finally I got the courage to look, and raised my head slowly to peek at him. He had on dark grey suit pants and a white button down shirt. His brown curls were all over the place as he adjusted his tie with one hand and talked on the phone with the other, gorgeous face pulled into an angry expression. He looked perfect and powerful, as usual.
I was wondering why he was talking on the phone outside of his own office when a blonde, who I recognised as Cara, opened the door and stepped out into the hallway beside him, adjusting her dress. Her hair was also messed up. Sex hair, I realised.
He scowled at her and pointed back at his office, indicating for her to go back inside. She said something back that I didn't catch. He covered the mouthpiece of his iPhone, still scowling at her, and pressed her roughly against the wall.
I watched a cheeky grin plaster her face as she nodded her head yes and was released, then stepped back into his office. He winked and started talking in the phone again, all emotion gone from his face the second she went away.
The elevator beeped and I hurried inside, holding onto the railing for dear life. I don't know why I thought maybe he had actually liked me. I had let myself forget that he was a business man who put pleasure first. I had known that ever since I read about his reputation when doing research for my interview.
"Fucking stupid," I mumbled to myself as I walked, fiddling with my chunky golden necklace.
I had let him charms get to me, just like he knew they would. As much as I wanted to run up to him and slap him across the face for getting my hopes up, I also wanted to jump on him and wrap my legs around his waist and have his lips caress mine. I wanted to see him smile with his dimples.
I wanted the nice side of Harry. The side that I had seen only a few time but I was already hopelessly infatuated with. The side that wasn't really Harry. I needed to remember that he was Mr. Styles, CEO and a millionaire.
Shivering as I stepped out onto the sidewalk, I pulled out my phone and quickly deleted his number so that I wouldn't text him when I was drunk. Drunk Norah was very into drunk texting. I decided that I wasn't going to fall deeper into the hole that was Harry Styles, because I would only come out with a broken heart.