The first meeting with Harry had been a dream come true. Nola had said nothing but "dada" ever since he'd left and I'd felt as though a huge weight had been lifted off my chest. Part of me wanted to kick myself for not having done anything about getting Harry involved sooner. If I'd known it was going to be so simple I wouldn't have hesitated. But it had been hard for me to hide my disappointment when Wednesday came around and Harry set off to his first gig of the tour. I couldn't help thinking all my hard work was going to come undone.
He'd messaged me on the Tuesday night and we'd exchanged Skype contact details. I'd put him on speaker phone and held it under Nola's nose so that she could babble to him. She had of course been wearing her bandana, which proved to cause a huge fuss if you tried to remove it from her head.
I sat infront of my laptop screen now, Nola firmly on my lap, the two of us staring at the Skype homepage. Harry would be on stage within the next two hours and he'd messaged to confirm he'd be coming online first. Elenore was lingering in the room, filing her nails and hoping that she might get a glimpse of Niall.
"Dada?" Nola said, twisting to look at my face. She pointed at her bandana.
"Soon." I promised her, forcing a smile.
"Are you seriously nervous about this?" Elenore sniggered, raising an eyebrow from the corner of the room. I glared at her. "He's been to our flat, he's seen you face to face."
"And I was nervous about that too!" I grumbled. The truth was that I was more worried about the rest of the band being with him. I wasn't sure I wanted them to meet Nola for the first time through a Skype call. I pulled Nola closer to my chest and kissed her head. At least she was happy.
Suddenly a message popped up on the screen announcing that 'Harry Styles' was calling us. I immediately clicked to answer with video and held my breath as the cameras loaded. Within seconds Nola was squealing with delight at the sight of Harry grinning at her through the screen.
"Hey, Nola!" He beamed. "Still wearing the bandana I see. Good girl!" Nola waved at him repeatedly, her smile mirroring his.
"Is Niall there?" Elenore said fiercely in a hushed voice. I shook my head and she sunk into the armchair, her face slipping into a pout.
"So how are you guys?" Harry asked, brushing his hair off of his face. I noticed he had an earpiece dangling down from the side of his head.
"We're both good," I smiled. "Nola can't stop saying 'dada' and she won't let me remove the bandana. Elenore reckons you've turned her into a monster."
"That's my girl!" He chuckled, winking at the camera. "The boys can't wait to meet her. They thought the birthday party was a good idea. Have you thought any more about it?"
"Not really," I confessed. "Nola has me preoccupied full time, but I think it would be great. Just let me know when you want to do it."
Harry opened his mouth to reply but stopped suddenly and looked over his shoulder. I heard impatient banging on the door of his hotel room, shortly followed by voices. Female voices.
"Harry! Harry! Stop being boring and come out! There isn't long left until you go on stage and we're all downstairs waiting for you!" I really didn't want to know who 'we' was. Harry shifted uncomfortably where he sat but ignored the owner of the voice.
"Anyway," he said quickly. "What did you get up to today?" I threw a quick glance at Elenore whose eyebrows were mashed together. She shrugged at me and looked back to her nails.
"Not much." I mumbled. The voice came again.
"Harry??" The voice continued persistently. "Whoever you're talking to can wait, that's what you always tells us remember?"
I felt the blood rush to my face and my eyes prickle with tears. I wonder what those women would say if they knew Harry was talking to his daughter. I raised my eyebrows slightly and sighed. "I think we'll be off now, Harry."
Harry's jaw dropped and he rolled his eyes. "No, you don't have to do that. It's nothing, I can get rid of them."
"It's Nola's bed time," I said quickly. "Have a good performance. Bye." I ended the call and slammed the lid down, my heart racing.
Nola turned to look at me, her expression unsure. "Dada?"
I knew exactly what she was asking. "He's gone to sing!" I told her cheerfully. "And so it's time for you to sleep." Her face scrunched up the way it did before she was going to cry and within seconds she was balling her eyes out. I hauled her into my arms and stood up from the sofa.
"Well that was...weird." Elenore said eventually. "He didn't really do anything wrong though, Marnie."
"I never said he did." I snapped, struggling to get Nola to stop struggling.
"Well you dismissed him pretty quickly after those women's voice came out of nowhere." She pointed out.
"I didn't think it was appropriate when Nola was able to hear. It was uncomfortable." I peppered Nola's face with small kisses as she sobbed into the space between my neck and my shoulder.
"He looked pretty uncomfortable too!" Ele laughed. "Man that boy is going to have a shock when he realises that 'ladies man' and 'baby daddy' don't really work with another."
"I thought you were convinced he wasn't a ladies man?" I asked, bouncing up and down. She shrugged. "What am I supposed to do?"
"Go and put Nola to bed and I'll get the wine."
"Good idea." I sighed and left the room.