Office Hours |h.s|

nineteen

Harry

Parking in front of Niall and Shea's place, I take a second to check my phone. They invited me for a Sunday dinner to hang out and maybe watch some football, which was pretty nice of them. I just wish I could have spent the night talking to Maude or planning for our trip to Maine this weekend.

A smile creeps up on my face when I see I have an unopened text from Maude. Opening up her message, I grin, seeing she sent a picture of herself holding a towel to just cover her body. She's so fucking sexy and amazing. Spending the last few days with her felt like a breath of fresh air, and the sex was definitely worth the wait. But even putting the sex aside, I definitely have been enjoying my time with her. Yeah, it's been a bit stressful given the circumstances, but when it's just the two of us, it's perfect.

Quickly I respond, telling her I wish I was there with her to treat her right, before putting my phone on do not disturb and back into my pocket. I really do wish I could be there with her right now instead of being here. It would definitely be a lot more fun than spending the night third wheeling with Niall and Shea. Instead, I get out of the car, grab the bottle of wine I brought and make my way to their front door.

As I knock, this nagging voice starts to play in the back of my head, telling me that they're gonna know. I don't know how they would know, but it's not very often that Niall and Shea offer to cook me dinner. They're smart people and I have definitely been a bit of an idiot as of late considering I'm dating my student. Did Niall see something that day? Fuck...

Before I could spiral further into this panicked state, the door opens, revealing my friend, holding a beer. "Styles! Come on in!" He grins, reaching over to put his hand on my shoulder and lead me in.

Inside, I walk over to the kitchen, putting down the bottle of wine, "Hey Shea!" I smile, going over to greet her with a quick kiss on the cheek as she finishes up cooking.

"Hey H, glad you could make it!" she smiles, "Dinner will be ready soon, just go relax."

"Don't need any help?" I ask, not wanting to just leave her to do all the work while I sit in the living room with Niall, but she shakes her head quickly. "I do not want anyone else's hands in this kitchen, so get out." She jokes, making me laugh.

Going to the fridge, I grab a beer before going to join Niall in the living room. Plopping down on the couch with him, I sigh, "So, how've you been H? I feel like it's been a while since we've gotten to hang out."

"We just got lunch together on Tuesday." I remind him, but he gives me a look. "What, we totally did! And you barged into my house the other day to hang out."

Niall shrugs, "Still you've just been super absent lately. Work stuff?" He asks, taking a sip of his beer.

I nod, taking whatever excuse he'll offer up for me. "Yeah, we got a giant case we have to work on. I can barely focus on what's up and down in this case, but we're trying our best." I sigh, taking a sip of my own beer.

"You guys will do great. You know what you're doing and as long as you stay focused and look at all the facts and evidence, you're gonna be fine. Plus you have Mitch and he's just as good at this job as you are."

With a nod, I run a hand through my hair, "Yeah we're gonna do fine, I'm sure, but I'm probably gonna be super busy in the coming weeks, we had to bring on students to help with the workload-"

"Really? Did you bring on Sterling?"

My blood runs cold at the mention of Maude. Why would he bring her up just out of nowhere? Did he see her at my place that day? We were hidden from the windows I'm pretty sure, so even if he peeked in I don't think he would have been able to see us. There's no way.