No Control (Book 1)

26. Night Changes

"So what time does your flight leave tomorrow?" I asked as the waiter cleared away our first course.

"I think it's about 8.30," he said

"In the morning?" I asked. No wonder he wasn't drinking if he had to be up early.

"No, the evening," he replied. "It got moved back. I'm getting picked up from home at 6."

"So how come you came back to London today?" I asked, thinking out loud.

He cleared his throat. "To take you out. If you'd said no I would have stayed an extra night with my mum and driven down tomorrow morning." I kept my gaze averted while I silently screamed.

"I'm flattered," I said, honestly.

He smiled. "Good. To be honest, I thought you were going to turn me down."

Errr what did he just say?

"Turn you down?" I said, trying to keep my voice normal. Who in their right mind would turn you down? I wanted to say, but didn't.

"Well, yeah," he said. "It kind of threw me a bit when you didn't text me after I put my number in your phone."

"I didn't even notice it," I said. "Of course, you could have just asked me for my number..."

"It was a spur of the moment thing," he said. "And after I followed you on Twitter I thought you'd probably message me, but you didn't. I wasn't sure if you were interested or not." I kept my face impassive but inside I was doing backflips.

"I didn't want to pester you," I said. "You must get women throwing themselves at you daily. I wasn't expecting to hear from you again to be honest." I blushed as I said this.

"You know how to keep a guy guessing," he smiled. "I like that."

"It's not intentional," I said. "I just don't do clingy."

"I think I figured that out," he nodded.

"So...," I hesitated, and then thought what the hell. "So that picture you tweeted the other day of the spilt drink..."

He grinned. "It was the only way I could think of getting your attention," he said. "I thought if you reacted to it, I'd ask you out. If you ignored it, I'd have assumed you weren't interested."

"So it was aimed at me?" I asked, just to clarify.

"Course it was," he said. "I just had to be a bit cryptic so no one else would understand."

I took a large sip of champagne to hide my smile. The waiter arrived with our main courses, and topped my champagne up again. I asked him for some water, and he brought another glass to the table. Harry looked at me questioningly.

"I've hardly eaten anything all day," I said. "This is starting to go to my head."

He smiled, and began asking me about my family and my childhood as we enjoyed our main course. I kept forgetting who I was on a date with. I never expected Harry Styles to be so easy to talk to, or so fun to be around. There were times when I would suddenly remember he was my guilty celebrity crush, member of the biggest boyband in the world, and hottest guy on the planet. And each time I did my stomach would flutter and my heart would pound sickeningly. We carried on talking long after our main course plates had been cleared, and when the waiter came over with the dessert menus I had to shake my head. "I don't think I have room for another bite," I confessed. There was still some champagne left in the bottle, but I was already feeling light-headed and was determined to keep in full control of myself.

I excused myself from Harry and found the bathroom. It was the poshest bathroom I had ever been in. It had huge marble sinks, soft lighting, and a toilet attendant. I smiled at her as I walked in, and locked myself in a cubicle. While I had a spare moment I pulled my phone out and sent a quick text to Callie: