I can't believe this is my 11th update! When I first posted this story, I thought I wouldn't make it past the first two chapters.
I've gotten some very loverly comments, for which I'm extremely grateful.
Ten
Deep within the inner corners of my soul, I had a hidden dream. I fantasized with the idea that Harry would forget all about his threat of making me work with his personal trainer.
To be honest, there wasn't any dream hidden deep within my soul. Finding a way to get out of exercising with Harry up close was all I could think about (It's just that the phrase "Deep within the inner corners of my soul" sounds so much better). The looming training session was making me feel terrified and anxious. "Maybe I'll get the paralyzing kind of anxiety and won't have to do any working out," I thought hopefully.
Harry had been adamant about me doing putting gym time. "Bliss you're getting some exercise, end of the story. There's no excuse that will get you out of this. Back when I toured with 1D we tried them all in the days we were tired or hungover. They didn't work then, and won't work now", he declared.
"It's one of those 'It's your turn to suffer like I've suffered' situations to you, Harry? Is it not?" I complained, "You're being mean."
"I'm not. This is a good thing, you'll thank me later." He defended himself, "Besides I'm your boss."
"I can't believe you're pulling rank here," I answered, "I won't go. That's not in my contract, and you can't make me."
"Maybe I can bribe you?" He smiled teasingly, handing me a carry-all bag.
The bag was black with Treat People With Kindness written in white in the middle. Inside were, tees in several colors (black, white, pink and yellow), a pink glass water bottle, hair ties, a journal all with the same writing. He also handed me a plastic bag with some wonderful black and white hoodies, and sweatshirts in black, pink, red, light blue and purple with Harry's name on them. This was all unreleased tour merch. He was making things so hard.
Don't get me wrong, I really want to give the gym a go and not only because I am in love with the merch, but I do also think it'll be good for me. But I've always felt extremely uncomfortable with people seeing me stretch and bend in skin-tight clothing. "It's all right for you to walk around in gym clothes, Harry Styles because you're a gorgeous rock star with an amazing physique. But I'm little old Bliss Clarke, just an ordinary person. I'll literally die before I let you see my fat arse in workout leggings" I thought.
Harry's booming laugh made me realize that I had just said that out loud. "Oh Bliss, don't worry about that. I'm sure you'll look lovely. But I'll ask Lambert to look into extra thick high compression leggings just in case."
I was doomed, now I had to go just to save face.
Mine and Harry's London routine was soon established. Actually, Harry had a routine in place for his London activities and I tagged along. It's just that saying things like "Mine and Harry's London routine" makes me sound really important. What is it with me lately? It's obvious that my imagination has taken over my thoughts and is running around skipping and turning cartwheels in my brain. There's no stopping imagination when she gets that way.
I blame Harry for letting imagination loose, I had been doing a decent job of keeping her tied down until he came along adn played a stupid joke on me on my first day in his house after Holmes Chapel.
Not even an entire minute had passed after we had arrived that Harry insisted on giving me a house tour. He showed me every room in the house, starting upstairs whith the four bedrooms "The house originally had 6 bedrooms, but the architect who undertook the renovations insisted on making the master bigger by knocking down the wall to the adjacent one." He explained, "The same goes for my bathroom, it was merged with the smallest bedroom. I'm not sure I should have agreed to that. These massive rooms make me look like this dickhead, with an overly inflated ego."
"You work really hard, its all right to have a nice place to relax." I answered, "You, should feel comfortable in your own house."
As we moved from room to room, he made the occasional comment.
The kitchen. "This you already know."
The laundry room. "For doing your laundry," he could be Captain Obvious at times.
The lounge "This, you also know."
The sitting room. "Another one of the architect's ideas, he said I would need a bigger reception room."
The dining room. "I almost never use it, I eat at the kitcen mainly."
The studio/library. "Here is where the Scrabble matches take place."
A built-in gym. "I asked for ping-pong table here."
A video room. "For watching movies and playing video games."
The garage. "I'm looking into having a rear entrance here, for when there are paps outside"
The garden. "I'd like a dog to run around the garden, but I'm never here much to take proper care of one."
A small room/house at the back of the garden where his security stayed sometimes. "I wanted to make this into a dollhouse, but they wouldn't let me."
The house befitted Harry. It was big but not overbearing. The decor was exquisite, in a modern style, and yet it looked classy. It managed to be sophisticatedly, elegant and comfortable all at the same time.
"You can pick any bedroom you like, Bliss. Just tell me which one so I can put your bags up there" Harry told me, standing in front of a closed door at the end of the downstairs hallway, "I've already shown you all the rooms in the house, except this one. You can come and go as you please in this place, but you can never go into this room. This room remains off limits."
"All right, I won't go in there" I complied. I prided myself on my ability to be respectful of other people's wishes.
"If you do, terrible things will happen." He said darkly.
"I won't go into that room, I promise," I said, getting a bit annoyed.
"If you do, the rose that's kept inside will shed its last petal and I will be transformed from this charming prince standing before you into an ugly bad-tempered beast" he delivered with a very straight face.
I wanted to punch him.
"I love you, Bliss! I love joking with you" he started to laugh, "You should have seen your worried face when I started my Beauty and The Beast bit with you. This is just my music room, it has my guitars, piano, keyboard and a whole bunch of equipment. There's delicate stuff in it, so is cleaned professionally once a week. But of course, you can go in there."
After Harry uttered the words love and Bliss in the same sentence, imagination perked up and began to untangle from her restraints. See? It's all Harry's fault.
I was forced to wake up even earlier, work with Harry and his trainer in the gym at this house. Turns out I needn't have worried at all about stretching and bending in front of Harry.
He gets so caught up on whatever exercise he's doing, he hardly notices anybody around him. I do think he should have paid at least a little attention to me, though. All those wonderful hours I spent stressing just gone to waste.
We would have our morning gym and work sessions whilst breakfasting on fruit and protein smoothies. (Don't judge me, I'm not becoming one of those "fit and healthy" people, but Harry is and I work for him.) And then we'd shower and head out to the studio were Harry was rehearsing with his band for his upcoming engagements, in addition to the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge, also The Jonathan Ross show had called asking Harry to make an appearance on the first episode of their twelth season.
There were some days in which Harry got carried away by some idea he wanted to try out and hurried me along to the rehearsal studio, without even changing and I was forced to spend the whole morning with the band, technicians and a whole bunch of people still in my workout clothes. After a week of this, I must admit my self-consciousness about my appearance had ebbed away. I was also getting a full night's sleep. Damn it! I hate when Harry is right! Worse still, Harry seems to be right all the time, is one of his character flaws.
You should've seen Harry the morning I woke up early and almost beat him to the kitchn to prepare our breakfast. He was so pleased with himself, that he came up with yet another brilliant idea, he suggested I should try meditating. The horror!
Soon, he had us sitting crossed legged in his home gym, with our eyes closed and chanting. He explained he had gotten into meditation, during his hectic time touring the world with One Direction, that it had calmed down his anxiety and balanced his negative emotions about being away from home and fear of not being a good enough singer. He was very comfortable sitting on the bare floor, but he had been courteous enough to fetch me a pillow, and had even shown me the proper way to sit on it "Just position yourself on the front of the pillow, so half of your arse is on the pillow and the other half on the floor. It elevates your tailbone and makes it easier to hold the pose We'll grow gradually, start with five minutes and increase up to forty minutes, maybe an hour." I was having too many boobs and arse chats with Harry Styles for my comfort, not that I was ever comfortable around him. This time he had the decency to blush.
"That's enough for now, Bliss," Harry stated, after an attempt at meditation. "Fifteen minutes, and you kept your eyes closed and didn't sneak a peek at me for a full minute."
"I wasn't peeking at you" I defended myself.
"You were," he asserted, with a soft chuckle "even though I have my eyes closed, I can feel you checking me out"
"Don't flatter yourself, Harry. I'm not used to being sat doing nothing. I can't help opening my eyes." I told him, "I'll glue my eyelids shut tomorrow, to keep you from getting any notions."
"I'd glue them myself, but for two reasons: One, it'll be futile, you can't keep your eyes off me, and two: We won't be having a session tomorrow. I'm gonna be gone all day, I have some stuff to take care off. Now is the best time, both the BBC appearance for TV and radio are done, we taped The Jonathan Ross show yesterday and there is a little time before flying to America and starting the tour." Harry announced. "You get tomorrow free."
"Would it be all right if I go out tomorrow, then?" I asked, slightly confused. Harry never took time off work, I knew that by now. Even his downtime adhered to a strict schedule.
"Well, I'm hurt." He said, dramatically clutching his heart "I thought you only had eyes for me, but as soon as I'm not around you go on a hot date."
"It's not that, is just that I thought it'd be nice to go out with Allegra, Felicity, and Joy. I won't be seeing them whilst we're on tour and they'll love a day out in London" I found myself explaining.
"A girl's day out sounds really good. You can have lunch at The Ivy, my treat." He offered.
"No, no way. That's too much. You're already paying my salary and giving me food and lodging and enough gifts. Besides is impossible to get a party of four, possibly 6 if Mum and Imogen tag along, into The Ivy in such short notice." I complained. "Even Felicity can't do it, and she's got connections."
"Don't fret about getting a table. I'll call and make a reservation and tell them to send me the check." He said giving me his cheeky grin "I insist on paying for lunch, that way I'll make sure you don't have a party in my house during my absence."
"I...I....I... would never....not me....do such a thing...." I sputtered indignantly.
"On, Bliss! Sometimes you're too easy. It's no fun taking the mick out of you." He said, cradling me to his side with one of his long long arms and kissing the top of my head. He then wrapped his other arm around me and said: "Another thing, you can take my Range Rover. Driver included. You need a car to get about and I'm not sure my insurance would cover you."
I was torn between punching him for being condescending and treating me like a baby who needed to be chauffeured around or just leaning into his embrace. He can be so infuriating at times, but he's also so beautiful.
Still, he was being so nice that I badly wanted to just give in and say yes. But a strange feeling gnawed on the pit of my stomach, could it be Fear? It sure looked as though Fear was around and sending this little message "He's taking over everything. Beware! The Duck used to be like that. Beware!" But Hope also happened to be passing by, and answered Fear "Calm down, he's just a nice guy." Before Fear and Hope began a full-blown argument, Courage stepped in "You two are being ridiculous. Bliss should just tell him she's capable of doing stuff on her own."
I almost didn't speak up, because in my case Courage never developed beyond toddler stage, and thus was not very strong. Fear on the other side had grown so big he looked like a massive monster out of a comic book (you know which one I'm talking about, the one who is really big and green, and gets huge when he is angry. In my case what fueled my inner gigantic monster was Fear).
Somehow, I found myself saying "Don't get me wrong, Harry. I'm very grateful for everything you've offered. But I can go out with my girls on my own, you know?"
"I know, Bliss" he answered, in an unusually serious voice. "It's just that I like to care of the people I like. One lunch and a car for a few hours is no big deal."
"All right then. But just this once." I told him, sticking out my forefinger. It seemed as though he would be very hurt if I refused his offer. Besides, it seemed to come out of kindness. He was practicing the logo in his merch - Treat People With Kindness.
"I can't guarantee that Bliss. Whenever the occasion rises I might do it again. I take care of people. That's what I do." He stated matter of factly, "And that my dear Bliss, is common knowledge, you can put in your blog."
"I might be a bit naive and easy to fool Harry, but you are downright cheesy." I kinda huffed.
"You know I love cheese, Bliss" he laughed. Harry 's laugh was so genuinely filled with mirth, it made impossible to say no to anything he proposed.
Hope was doing a celebratory jig with Courage at this moment. They behaved exceptionally well, they didn't stick their tongues at out at Fear saying, "I told you so". But Fear was not used to losing, he had reigned supreme over the realm of my emotions for so long, he always had to have the last word "He said he likes Bliss, but just you wait. He'll let us down. People always do." Courage answered back "Oh, sod off! You're just afraid of not being needed anymore."
We all know Harry is a work out enthusiast. We've all seen photos of him leaving the gym, with his lovely hair looking longish and held up at the front with a hair clip, which makes us so hopeful!!.
How do you guys feel about working out? Avoid it at all costs like Bliss or live for it like Harry? Where the gym is concerned are you a Bliss or a Harry?
Let me know!!!
Lots of love, xoxoxoxo