7th of April 2018
"I have something for you," Harry said as he walked into our hotel room, a devilish grin on his face.
I noticed the Gucci bag in his hands and I audibly gasped, placing the book that I was reading down on the bed as he practically skipped over to me.
"What the fuck did you buy?!" I questioned, Harry letting out a laugh.
When Harry said he needed to go 'run errands' I expected him to have a meeting or grab a coffee with friends, not go shopping at the Gucci store on a Friday morning.
"It's for you," he said with a smile and I felt a pang of sadness hit my chest, knowing that he was trying to make up for what happened in Italy earlier in the week. "Go on, open it," he said as he handed me the bag.
I gave Harry a slow nod as I removed the box from the bag, trying to suppress the smile that was on my face.
I opened the box and removed the tissue paper, a small gasp leaving my mouth when I picked up the dainty pink dress that Harry had chosen for me; a square neckline, a small Gucci button on the front, so subtly beautiful I could have screamed at how perfect it was.
"Harry, it's beautiful..." I said trailing off, admiring how simply perfect this dress was, I mean it is a Gucci dress, so it makes sense that it's stupidly perfect. "Why though? You didn't have to do this."
"We are going to a party after the show," he stated in a matter-of-fact tone and I raised an eyebrow at him. "And I decided that we both needed new outfits for tonight," he said, holding another Gucci bag in his left hand which was for him.
"Who the fuck do you know in Birmingham?" I asked with a laugh.
"No one, but that's besides the point, we are going to a party and we are going to have fun," he said, sounding slightly stressed and I knew he was, once again, trying to make up for what happened in Italy.
"Okay, and who else is coming with us?" I asked, feeling the smoothness of the fabric between my fingers, the stylist part of my brain racking through ideas of how I was going to wear this dress tonight.
"Just the two of us, it's a date."
I gave him a smile and thanked him for dress once more, pulling him into a hug on the bed as he kissed my forehead multiple times, leaving me with a giddy feeling throughout my body.
"I love you," I whispered against his skin and I felt him breath a soft sigh and I looked at his face and smiled at him, a small smile wavering one his lips.
"I know," is all he said and I felt my heart drop into the pit of my stomach.
Oh my god. He didn't say it back. What the actual fuck?!
"I love you too my golden girl," he said after a moment and I almost breathed a sigh of relief when he said it.
We stayed like that for a while, kissing and laughing on the bed, like everything was normal between us, even though it definitely wasn't.
"You're so pretty," Harry mumbled against my lips and I giggled, running my hand through his curls, Harry smiling into the kiss like he had some so many times before.
"You're prettier," I said softly against his lips, slowly deepening the kiss between us, hating the fact that there was space between our bodies.
I felt his fingers run down my spine, the loose fabric of my t-shirt suddenly feeling itchy and hot, a barrier between what I really wanted to feel on my skin.
"What time do we have to be at the venue?" I asked Harry, letting out a small moan as he kissed my neck, and I could almost feel the smirk on his face when he heard me make a sound, as he knows what he does to me with so little effort.
"Whenever I wanna get there," he mumbled against my skin.
"Okay, whatever you say," I breathed.
*****************
"Do you know how fuckin good it feels to be back in England?" James asked as we sat in the dressing room, Ruby doing my makeup for when I go out with Harry out with Harry later tonight.
"Pretty fucking swell if you ask me," I said back.
"You two sound so British when we are in England," Ruby laughed, my eyes closed as she did my eye shadow; a soft golden look that we had eventually decided on after scrolling on Pinterest after what seemed like hours.
"It's coz we are home and at ease," James said, which made me giggle slightly.
"Definitely," I said, my eyes still closed as Ruby worked her magic on me.
I was always in awe of what Ruby could do with a makeup brush, she is seriously talented, which is probably why she is so highly sought after, but she has chosen to stay with us for the time being.
When she isn't on tour with us, or traipsing around the globe, she works on music video shoots, designer fashion shoots, fashion shows, award shows; anything and everything really.
And she truly loves it.
Nothing makes me happier than seeing Ruby's soft brown eyes burn with fire when she's excited and talking about her work, I could listen to her talk about her work for hours.
It's the same when listening to Harry talk about his music and performing, or James talking about hair styling, which by the way, he is on the same level as Ruby in that regard.
I'm always so proud when I hear any of my friends talk about their careers and how much they love it; whether it be Christsbel back home talking about the maths and numbers behind accounting, or Lauren calling to tell me about the successful client she had that morning, it always makes me happy.
Once Ruby had finished my makeup, James got started on my hair, fixing my naturally curly hair into some textured waves, spraying them with hairspray so they wouldn't fade with the hours.
"All done!" James exclaimed proudly and I thanked him with a hug, looking at myself in the mirror, both of them having done some miracle work on me.
"You guys are wizards," I said, taking in the makeup on my face that Ruby did; James pulling the whole look together with my hair.
"You make it easy," Ruby said affectionally from the couch, reading the first Outlander novel, having recently become obsessed with the television show.
I smiled at her and walked over to sit down next to her, pulling out my laptop from my bag that was resting against the couch so I could reply to some emails while also half watching Suits, which has become my favourite show over the last couple of months.
The room stayed comfortably silent for a while, all three of us lost in our own worlds, which was nice because it was a very rare thing to have a moment of silence on tour.
"So, what exactly are you doing tonight?" James asked from across the room, where he was lying on the floor scrolling through his phone.
"Harry won't tell me, he came back to the hotel room this morning with a dress from Gucci-" I began before both Ruby and James cut me off.
"What the fuck?-"
"I know! Proper mental. Anyways, he gave me the dress and was like we're going out tonight just the two of us but he won't tell me where or what we are doing."
"Does he even know anyone in Birmingham?" James asked.
"Do you even know anyone in Birmingham?" Ruby added and I laughed, shaking my head at their questions.
"Nope, I think he's just trying to make up for what happened in Bologna I reckon," I said, pressing my lips together as I knew if I spoke about it again I would get angry again. "Anyways, I'm kinda excited because I love surprises but I wish he would give me some kind of hint."
"It's Harry Styles, I'm sure whatever he has planned will be utterly fantastic," James said, Ruby nodding in agreement and I smiled because they both picked up on the fact I didn't want to talk about what happened in Bologna.
Suddenly the band and Harry burst into the room, obviously having had a good sound check.
Harry stopped in his tracks when he saw me, a small grin appearing on his lips which made my cheeks blush as he walked over to me, making me feel like we were the only two people in the room.
"You look..." he said trialing off slightly, his lips parting as his eyes looked me up and down. "I mean you always look beautiful, but you look radiant Anna, my god."
"You can thank Ruby and James," I said with a chuckle and he shook his head.
"Nah, you're always stunning golden girl, makeup only enhances your features. Beautiful with and without."
"I love you."
"I love you more," he said, kissing the top of my head as Ruby made fake gagging noises.
"You two are disgusting," she said but she was doing a very bad job of trying to hide the smile on her face.
"Fuck off Cook," Harry said playfully and Ruby stuck up her middle finger at Harry as he walked to grab a bottle of water from the fridge, the two always calling each other by their last names when they were having banter.
We went through the usual pre-show routine.
Jeff ordered us dinner, salads from a local restaurant.
I steamed Harry's suit; a blue one with a black singlet, as Ruby and James started on everyone's hair and makeup.
Harry came into the bathroom with a grin on his face, his suit neatly waiting for him.
"What?" I asked as he began to undress himself as I leant up against the bathroom counter.
"You just look so pretty," he said bashfully, pulling off the t-shirt he was wearing to reveal his soft, tattooed skin before it was covered again by the black material of the singlet.
"You're prettier," I said, affection laced in my voice as I watched him pull his jeans off, mesmerised by the way he does even the simplest of things.
Harry just smiled at my words as he finished getting dressed before I walked over to him and handed him his boots.
"You finally going to tell me where we are going tonight?" I asked as he took the black boots from my hands and awkwardly put them on his feet, not wanting to sit down on the bathroom floor in his suit.
"You love surprises though?!" Harry asked frantically, and I just gave him a laugh.
"You bloody know I do, I think I can wait a couple more hours to find out where we are going."
"Okay good, because I have to be on stage in ten minutes," he said with a grin, obviously excited to be back on stage again.
"Good luck darling," I said, standing on my tippy-toes to give him a short but sweet kiss on the lips, which he happily reciprocated.
"Thanks golden girl, gotta dash," Harry said, his eyes lighting up in excitement which made me smile at him before he jogged off to join his band and head on stage.
I quickly packed away the steamer and Harry's clothes he was wearing during the day.
I made my way back into the dressing room where everything was already packed up, James and Ruby pouring all three of us a glass of wine.
"Are you lot going out tonight?" I asked.
"Yep," James said, Ruby nodding excitedly. "I have a couple of friends that live in Birmingham so we organised some drinks for after the show."
"Go and get changed Anna, we will be waiting for you side stage with your glass of wine," Ruby said warmly and I nodded at her words, practically skipping to the bathroom, which is where my pink Gucci dress was waiting for me.
I quickly removed the clothes I was wearing for the day and eagerly slipped into the dress, the fabric feeling soft and cool against my skin.
I ran my fingers along the fabric, wanting to savour every moment in this dress, eventually looking at myself in the mirror to see how it fit my body.
To nobody's surprise, it fit perfectly.
Every piece of the fabric sat perfectly on my skin, and I let out a squeal as I spun around in the dress, wanting nothing more than to show my dress off to the world.
I took a couple of mirror pictures in the dress, my hair and makeup really pulling the whole look together, before I made my way back into the dressing room, pulling my dainty silver heels out from my bag and slipping them on.
I suddenly heard the intro to 'Only Angel' meaning I needed to hurry side stage to see my boyfriend do what he does best; entertain.
*****************
"Okay, now will you tell me where we are going?" I asked Harry as we sat in the back of the Uber, taking us to god knows where.
"You'll see soon enough love."
"Alright," I huffed, even though I was excited for the surprise, as although I have never liked change, I fucking love surprises.
We drove for a little while longer, Harry's hand on mind as we made conversation with the Uber driver who had the thickest Birmingham accent I had ever heard.
"Alright you two, we are here," he said cheerfully.
"Thanks mate, have a good night!" Harry exclaimed and I quickly thanked him as we climbed out of the car and we were suddenly standing in front of a boat club.
"Harry, darling," I laughed as music played loudly from inside the club. "What in the world are we doing here?"
Harry gave me a cheeky grin and took my hand as we began walking towards the club, where the median age was probably people in there sixties.
"We are gate crashing the Birmingham University Rowing Club annual dinner."
I instantly let out a loud laugh, wondering how Harry had even found this event.
"Harry, my love, how on earth did you find out about this event?" I asked as he gripped my hand tightly and we approached the door.
"I spend a lot of time scrolling on my phone, saw this come up and thought it would be fun to attend just the two of us."
"You know people are probably going to realise who you are?" I questioned as we walked through the door to the old boat house, which was beautifully decorated in fairy lights and red, blue and gold decorations, which I assumed was the universities colours.
"True, or we could pretend to not be Harry and Anna for a night," he said with a grin, the lights glittering down on him.
"Okay, who are we then?" I asked with a smile and Harry put on a dramatic thinking face, which made me giggle as we slowly integrated our way into the room.
"You are Olivia and I am Edward, we hail from Manchester but we have been living and studying in Australia for the last four years," he said and I laughed, this fake backstory growing more ridiculous by the second.
"Oh my god," I laughed. "Okay let's roll with that."
"Andddd we are in Birmingham visiting your dads family who moved here a couple of years ago and we have just been out for dinner with them when we stumbled across this party."
"May as well say we are a duchess and a prince at this fucking rate."
"If you want we can pretend to be a duchess and a prince?" Harry asked seriously and I just shook my head.
"I am very content with being Olivia and Edward from Manchester," I said with a grin. "Now let's get a drink."
We made our way over to the bar where the bartender serving us gave us a strange look, either recognising Harry or wondering who the fuck the two randoms were at this party.
"I'm sorry, but who are you two?" a young girl asked, probably no older than nineteen.
Before I could even say anything, Harry launched into the elaborate story he had created and I had to hold back my laughter as this girl was lapping up every second of it.
"You just look so much like Harry Styles, that's the reason I asked," she said kindly and I giggled to myself because I was not sure how Harry was going to get out of this one.
"Yeah I get that a lot, our mums are cousins," he said with a grin, lying straight through his teeth.
"Oh! No fucking way, that's so cool!" she exclaimed happily, chatting to us for a couple more minutes before her friends dragged her off to the dance floor.
"Aw H, she's a fan, you should have broken the ruse for her," I said, watching the girl dance with her friends to Elton John which was played loudly over the speakers.
"I'm not Harry tonight, I am Edward and you are Olivia," he said and I rolled my eyes at him as he let out a chuckle, and suddenly 'Mr Brightside' was playing over the speakers and I was pulling Harry to the dance floor.
"What a fucking tune!" I yelled over the music, Harry grabbing my waist as we began to dance, neither of us caring what we looked like, because tonight, we were nobody.
I knew it was nice for Harry to not have to worry about going out and having a good time, as there was not a single camera on him, and this was the happiest I had seen him in a long time.
It really was nice not having to worry about anything and just enjoy ourselves; as for the night I was just Olivia in a pretty pink dress and Harry was Edward in his pretty blue suit.
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Guys what a fucking month it has been
As It Was has a grip on me lol
I recently just got a full time job which means I can stop working two jobs!!! And hopefully this will mean more updates and I can finally finish this story lol
Anna's outfit:
Thanks for reading, stay safe. I love you xx