No Control (Book 1)

21. Story Of My Life

It seemed like my alarm went off as soon as I closed my eyes. I groaned and switched it off, longing for a few more minutes' sleep. Instinctively I reached for my phone to see what new horrors were waiting for me on Twitter. I had a load more mentions but couldn't be bothered stressing myself out with them. I did, however, note my follower count had now hit 30,000. I sighed and exited Twitter, making a resolution not to look at it again until at least lunchtime. I got out of bed, and began to get ready for work.

I stopped for a Gingerbread Latte at Costa on my way to the tube, and sipped it squeezed between two sweaty old men on the platform. Luckily the trains were running on time, and I sauntered into my office about quarter past eight.

"Here she is! My work wife," came Gary's voice across the office.

"Morning Gary," I called back as I set my laptop on my desk and put my half-drunk latte next to it.

"Good weekend?"

"Can't complain," I said, trying to hide the grin that always set up home on my face whenever I thought about Harry. Which was most of the time, so I pretty much wore a permanent stupid grin.

"Oi oiiii," he whooped. "What's put that smile on your face? Or is it a Who?"

I ignored him and sat down, catching sight of my pictures of Harry Styles that I had pinned around my desk. I stared at them for a minute, letting myself enjoy the memories of Friday night. I opened up my laptop and logged on to the network. I waited for my emails to sync, and then idly flicked through the High Importance ones as the office began to fill up. By 9am my head was buried in my work. I didn't come up for air until I felt someone standing next to my desk and I looked up to see Sarah, one of my fellow work Directioners and admin assistant holding up my Harry Styles mug. "Tea?" she offered.

"Oooh go on then," I said.

"Emergency conference in the kitchen," she said through gritted teeth, without her lips moving. I nodded slightly to indicate I had understood, and she walked away, collecting mugs from desks and heading towards the kitchen to make a round of tea and coffee. I waited a minute, then got up and casually headed towards the toilets, making a sneaky detour to the kitchen on my way through. Sarah was making the drinks, and turned around as I came into the kitchen.

"What's up?" I asked, knowing it could only be about One Direction and praying she hadn't seen the crazy fans tweeting me and Harry.

"The boys are back in town, boys are back in town," she sang, and lifted the back of her hand to her forehead theatrically. "I can just feel them so close, you know?" She was talking about One Direction landing at Heathrow Airport on Friday; we had discussed it at length on Friday afternoon before we left work. It seemed like a lifetime ago.

"I know, only back for a week though," I sighed. "Wonder what they're up to?"

"Harry Styles took his mum out for dinner last night." My stomach flipped at the mention of his name.

"Eerrr wha.. did he?" I stumbled. "How do you know?" My heart was beginning to pound.

"Duh, pictures online," she said, pulling her phone out of her pocket and showing me. Indeed, there he was, walking alongside his mum, apparently going out for dinner in Knutsford.

"Ahh, he said he wanted to do that," I said absent-mindedly, looking at the picture of the two of them.

"He's close to his mum, isn't he," Sarah nodded as I realised what I had just said. Luckily we are both big enough One Direction fans to get away with knowing things like this about the band. If Sarah had said something like that I would automatically assume she had read it in a magazine or something.

"Just think," she continued, "they're just hanging out right now, like normal people. Y'know, just chilling out, being cool."

"They're probably all still in bed," I remarked.

"Oooh what I wouldn't give to be in that bed!" Sarah laughed.

I laughed along, aware that I was trying too hard to be natural. If I wasn't careful, Sarah would suss something was up and start hounding me with questions. As I walked back to my desk I avoided catching anyone's eye, and sat down and stared at my laptop screen. My Harry Styles mug arrived on my desk filled with tea and when I looked up to say thanks, Harry Styles was standing in front of me.

I gasped and clutched my hand to my chest, and realised immediately it was just Sarah wearing her Harry Styles mask. "Christ, Sarah," I breathed, as the office erupted into laughter around me.

"Aww, did you think it was really him?" Gary teased.

"For a second," I admitted, my heart hammering in my chest. They get me with this stupid mask about once a month and I fall for it every time. Honestly, lab rats learn quicker.

The rest of my day was uneventful. I tried to keep my head down and avoid conversations about One Direction or Harry Styles, which was hard considering I was usually the one who instigated these conversations, with Sarah and my boss Nicki willing participants. I was glad when the clock finally showed 5pm and I could shut my laptop and head home. I decided not to bother taking my work with me. I wasn't too snowed under and fancied a night in front of the TV relaxing. These last couple of days had been very stressful.

I spent the evening doing just that, and the next two days passed in the same way. I found myself drifting into daydreams regularly though, and by Wednesday night I was annoyed to find I had a stack of insurance requests to analyse, all of which needed decisions before the weekend.

I took my laptop home that night but couldn't catch up fully, and finally gave up about 9pm. I would have to bring it home again on Thursday night to finish off anything I didn't get done during the day.

I made myself a cup of tea and flopped on the sofa to watch some TV. While I was channel surfing I got a text.

From: Sarah: Harry Styles sighting! Having dinner with his family at a restaurant near Preston! xxx

I clicked on the link she'd sent in the text and it opened up a picture of Harry sitting at a table next to a girl. It had obviously been taken by a fan across the room as it was a bit blurry but you could tell it was Harry. I smiled to myself, thinking about him saying in the car that he was looking forward to seeing his family. I quickly texted her back.

To: Sarah: Swooooon! He looks sexy. Imagine being the waitress serving that table! I'd probably throw his food all over him or something! xxx

I turned over the tv channel onto the music channels and began flicking through them, one by one. My stomach flipped as I heard the beginning of Best Song Ever. I put the remote down and watched the entire video from start to finish. I couldn't take my eyes off Harry the whole way through. My entire body was covered in goosebumps as I watched his beautiful face on the screen. His voice sent shivers down my spine and I couldn't help smiling at his sexy smile. Oh jeez, I really was pathetic. What was even more pathetic was that I rewound it 3 times. I kept thinking back to dancing with him in Lagoon, and the feel of his arms around my waist and his lips against mine. I sighed and turned the music channel over.

After another hour of watching crap tv I finally switched it off and stood up. My phone pinged, and I recognised it as my Twitter notification. I frowned and picked it up. I thought Callie had switched off my follower sounds. I caught sight of the notification and my heart began to pound. It wasn't a follower notification, it was my notification for when Harry tweets. I quickly opened up his tweet.

It was a picture of a pool of pale brown liquid on a kitchen work surface, and it was taken from above, as if someone was holding the camera at chest height and pointing it down their body. At the bottom of the picture was a hem of a shirt with what looked like a tea stain splashed on it.

@Harry_Styles: 3rd shirt ruined in a week. No one else to blame this time. #littlewhitelies