the last time

part three

the next day

Harry

I splash cold water in my face and stare at my reflection in the mirror and fix my hair. I head back into the bedroom and unplug my phone from my charger. I see a missed call from my mum and immediately call her back. It rings but there's no answer so I assume it might've been on accident. As I'm getting changed, my phone begins to ring and I glance at it to see that it's Laurie, the head of my PR team, calling. I roll my eyes and take a deep breath before answering it.

"Good morning, Laurie." I say into the phone.

"All the media reports are talking about your bar fight from two days ago, Harry. Care to explain?" She says, annoyed.

"Not really."

"Harry, this isn't cute. In the past few weeks all that has been reported about you has been negative. Your fans and the public are starting to assume that you have a substance abuse problem." She says angrily.

I roll my eyes and put her speaker phone as I put on my sneakers. "Okay? Isn't it your job to fix it? That is what I pay you for, isn't it?"

I hear Laurie sigh and type some stuff into her computer, "Harry, look. I know these past few weeks have been tough on you, okay? Break ups are hard and I know you really loved Camille but-"

"You don't know shit, Laurie," I interrupt. "I pay you a handsome amount so you better fix it. Post an apology, donate some money, I couldn't care less what you do, just don't bring up Camille. She has nothing to do with this."

There's a beat of silence and I worry that I may have gone too far this time. "Alright," Laurie finally says before hanging up.

I fall back onto the bed and hold my phone to my chest. I stare at the ceiling for a bit then force myself to get up. We're doing screen test for my music video Cherry today and the last thing I need is to worry about my image.

I grab my keys and wallet then head out.

..............

As I reach for the front door of the building we're hosting the screen tests at, I see Aurora texting on her phone and looking around. She looks a bit lost so I walk towards her, "Looking for something?"

She looks up in surprise but then smiles when she recognizes me. "Oh, hi Mr. Styles. I was just making sure I was at the right place. Looks like I am."

I smile at her and open the door for her as we approach the building. "Please just call me Harry. It was just a silly joke but you seemed to have been committed to it."

She smiles and nods, "Some of our customers can be....special."

We head to the elevator and I press the button to the sixth floor once we're inside. "Nervous at all?" I ask her.

"Not really. The script Lucas sent over seems fairly easy and I feel a lot better having already met you both." She says.

The elevator doors open and the hallway is full of women around her age. They're all fixing their hair, reading the script, or rehearsing. We step off the elevator and I glance at Aurora who is clearly now intimidated. I hold in my laugh and lean down to whisper in her ear, "Nervous now?"

She looks up at me like I've grown another head and I stifle my laugh by biting the inside of my cheek, "Don't worry, you're already my favorite." I give her a small wink and I can see blush creep up her neck.

I leave her to sign in and I make my way to the designated room, saying hi to everyone and trying not to linger too long. I walk into the room and see Lucas setting up the camera and two cups of coffee on our table. He has the script out and a clipboard with a list of names of all the girls out there.