Only Your Arms (Harry Styles Fan fiction)

Chapter 53

I took my headphones out of my ears before stuffing them into my jacket pocket and walking through the doors of my apartment. My hair was half up, half down and the Whole Foods grocery bags in my hands were starting to feel extra heavy. I couldn't wait to get upstairs and throw them down onto my kitchen counter.

I hauled the bags through the lobby before seeing and smiling at Gary.

"No plans tonight?" Gary asked, a warm smile on his face. I smiled right back at him.

"Nope, I'll be staying in tonight." He nodded at me before looking down at the papers that laid in front of him.

"Alright, I'll be up in just a little bit. I've got some paperwork to do and then, I'll be on the 15th." I nodded at him and smiled. My entire security team had been on high alert ever since the break-ins and threats I had been getting. I was lucky if I got in a fifteen minute nap without one of the guards asking if I was okay. It was exhausting. I wanted to perform and make my own music, but I wanted to be able to live a normal, average life, too. It was all so much, but I knew that by putting myself out there, I gave up any chances of leading a simple life.

"Take your time. I've got tons of food I've got to put away anyway," I replied before looking down and readjusting a grocery bag that was slowly slipping from my hand.

"Anything you want to eat?" He asked.

"I'm okay. I'm just going to sleep for a little bit before cooking myself something small. I'll see you a little later," I told Gary. The wind warning us of the oncoming storm had really put a barrier on any plans I had made. I wanted to go up to my apartment, write, play some music, and call it a night. I hauled myself into the elevator before placing the grocery bags on the floor and pulling out my phone. I had two missed calls and three texts from Harry and I knew he was probably pacing the studio, wondering where the hell I was. I smiled before dialing his number and watching the numbers of the elevator floors change every two seconds.

"She lives," he spoke into the phone and I couldn't help but laugh.

"I'm sorry- I was shopping for food and I lost track of time. You should see me trying to haul these damn bags through SoHo- I'm such a klutz." I could almost feel him smiling through the phone. He knew how much of an awkward butterfingers I was when it came to grocery shopping.

"I would've paid money to see that. Did you drop oranges everywhere this time?" He asked and I shook my head.

"No, there were no oranges rolling through the streets of New York today. I'll let you know if it happens tomorrow," I joked. I heard him laugh whole-heartedly and I wished that I could hear that laugh in person.

"Didn't anyone warn you to not go shopping for groceries by yourself after that time you nearly made the floor the shelf for the apples?" He asked and I blushed as I recalled this embarrassing encounter. It was the first summer I moved into New York and one of the first times going food shopping for my apartment. I was only about 18 years old and, while trying to open the plastic bag to place the apples in, my elbow hit the wooden plank guarding the apples. The red fruits game plummeting down and fell onto the cold, cement floor of the market. I was mortified and didn't know what to do except try and pick up the apples. This, however, made everything worse when my knee tipped the basket my food sat in and spilled my own groceries out as well.

It was an awkward experience and, if it hadn't even for the kind man who offered me encouraging words while helping me pick up the apples, I would've never shown my face at that market again.

"You know, that old man told me that things like that happened all the time, but I think he was just trying to make me feel better," I spoke back to Harry.