The sound of the automatic voicemail continued to ring in my head all the way home and all through the night. I tossed and turned and stared at the ceiling for hours. Aiden was out. The thought alone made me want to throw up. I had told Harry that maybe we should cool things off for a couple days, just to be safe. I also needed time to break it to Helene that I'd went behind her back for a month and continued to see Harry. I guess I was making enough noise throughout the night because at some point Helene's crazy mess of golden curls was visible at the end of my bed.

"Can't sleep either huh?" I asked whispering, even though we were alone at our place. Since I got that voicemail I was careful about everything, locked all the windows and doors, rounded every corner with my fists clenched, just incase I needed to be ready.

"Not one bit. This whole thing with Aiden has gotten me shook up, but it will be fine" she said like she was trying to convince herself more than me. "Your cover is deep enough that he'll never find you, I should know because I put it together myself." she laughed trying in vain to lighten the mood.

"Ugh Helene, I have something to tell you... something that might make the situation a bit more complicated." I said my voice trailing off, losing confidence as I went. She looked at me, waiting for me to continue. "I sorta have been seeing Harry for the last month."

"What!? Like having sex with him!?" she blurted out.

"No! No of course not. We just go to the apartment and talk, nothing sexual I swear!"

"Well I guess that's not as bad as it could be, but it still puts you both in danger. Especially since you know this whole thing with Aiden.." she said, trying not to sound as scared as I knew we both were. "Well alright, let's both try to get some sleep. Come the morning though you better be in here, no more sneaking off to Harry" she said shaking her finger at me like a mother scolding their child. I just rolled my eyes at her and pulled the covers up over my face and waited till she walked out. It was going to hurt not seeing Harry, and I knew it hurt Helene that I'd lied to her, but it wouldn't hurt as bad as what Zak had coming for him.

The next morning I told him to come over around lunch time, that we had to talk. He hadn't been very friendly since I'd walked out the other morning, and I didn't blame him, but I couldn't continue to pretend like I was in love with him. That wasn't fair to either of us. I didn't bother getting dressed or doing my hair this morning either, since I wasn't seeing Harry I didn't see the point. Zak arrived around 1:30 and I sat in the living room in one of the arm chairs facing the door, no coffee table incidents this time. He didn't say anything when he walked in the door, just sat down on the couch, avoiding eye contact with me.

"Zak, I'm really sorry I just-"
"Ava save it. I already know what's going on ok?" he spat out. My heart dropped. He knew about Harry, which means he knew about Grace...
"W-what?" I stuttered, my heart beating a million miles an hour.
"Yeah that's right. I know you're cheating on me. I don't know with who or where, but I know. I didn't expect this from you Ave. I thought we had something" he said, his voice losing it's venom. I felt like I could breathe again, he didn't know.
"You're right Zak. I'm sorry, I know it's wrong but I just don't myself having a future with you." it wasn't a lie..
"Well what about the apartment?" my face turned bright red, oh the apartment. I couldn't give it up, how else was I supposed to get my daily fix of Harry?
"I'll sell it if you want. You take your half of the money you paid for it and Helene will help me sell it." I said quickly, my mastery of the skill of lying coming back to me.
"If that's how you want it." He said shortly. He got up and walked into our room, and I could hear him grunting as he picked up clothes and opened bags and drawers for his things. He dropped all his belongings by the door and came to stand in front of me in the armchair. "Take care of yourself alright Ava?" he whispered. He kissed my forehead lightly, picked up his things, and was gone. Another part of my life over and done with.

For the next week Helene refused to let me leave the apartment. She took both our laundry to the laundromat, went grocery shopping, and took out the trash. In just that short time I felt empty again. Not because I'd lost Zak, but because I couldn't see Harry. One night Helene got called into work on another case and left around 6.
"Stay here. If I find out you moved from this apartment I'm going to be so angry with you" she warned me, half jokingly.
"Aye aye captain" I said saluting her with a sarcastic smirk on my face. I had no intention of obeying her command, but I'd at least let her think that. I watched her exit the building from our kitchen window and waited until she'd hailed a taxi and pulled off our street. I quickly threw on one of the enormous black hooded sweatshirts Zak had left behind and a pair of black yoga pants. I slid on my Uggs, flipped up the hood and slipped outside carefully. I ran across the street to the nearest phone booth and searched the small shelf blindly in the dark until I my finger found what I was looking for. I took out my phone to use the screen as a flashlight and flipped to S.

Stevens.. no. Strayer.. no. Svedinski.. no too far. Styles.. there he was. I inserted change, dialed the number, and waited what felt like hours as the ringer on the other end kept going.

"Hello?" a cautious voice answered on the other end of the line. That voice. Raspy and deep and it sent chills up my spine.
"Harry?" I asked whispering.
"Grace oh thank God. I thought something happened to you its been like a week! I didn't know how to find you or who to-"
"Nevermind that, I don't have long and I only inserted a tiny bit of money. Meet me tomorrow morning at the apartment 6 am. The people from the furniture store are coming to drop off the stuff Zak and I bought for the apartment, so you have to be Zak Clarke until they leave." He scoffed at the idea, but I kept talking so as to prevent him from making any assanine comment. "I dumped him so you can cut the attitude now Styles." I said feeding into his playful nature. "But I've gotta go ok?" I whispered, realizing I only had a minute left before the call disconnected.

"Sounds like a date. Hey Gracie I uhm.. I lo-"
'I'm sorry, but your call has been disconnected. Please enter more money in order to continue your call.'
I sighed and turned to go back up to the apartment. I knew what he going to say, but it still would've been nice to hear it.

Helene came home only about 45 minutes after I'd re-entered our apartment. We sat up talking about her case and other things and I pretty much forgot about the whole Aiden situation. I told her that I needed to go to the apartment tomorrow because the movers were bringing in the furniture and I needed to be there. Surprisingly she let me go. We had unhealthy amounts of ice cream and went to bed. I woke up at 5:30 the next morning. I had barely slept but I was so anxious to see Harry I threw on an old pair of jeans, a tshirt, and Sperrys and ran out the door.

When I got to the apartment the department store truck was already parked outside the building and a steady stream of about 10 men were carefully moving various furniture items up and down the stairs and elevators. I squeezed past them and into the apartment to see Harry standing with a man from the furniture store, holding a clipboard.

"Alright Mr. Clarke, just sign here and initial over here and we'll finish moving the rest of the furniture in" the man said in a gruff voice. Harry did as he was told initialing as if he really were Zak Clarke, and handing the man back his clipboard. He looked up to see me leaning on the door frame and came over to wrap me in a hug, but this hug felt different. It wasn't the warm familiar hug I was used to but he held me tighter, his breathing heavier, tension building between us from the moment we made contact. He pulled back and admired my bum-ish apparel.

"Good morning beautiful" he said, with a playful grin on his face, those huge dimples digging craters into his cheeks. I blushed under his gaze and went on with instructing the moving men on where to put each furniture. The driver of the moving truck never got out to help, but sat in the cab of the truck reading the paper that covered his face. By the time they left we thanked the men for their service and tipped them all a couple bucks. I went to go tip the driver for his time, but he sped off before I even got close to the cab of the truck. Oh well I thought and scurried back up the stairs to Harry.

When I got into the apartment, I was in awe. All the furniture looked beautiful. The dining room table to the right of the entrance was a beautiful dark wood, and the rug under it was a nice green, offsetting the dark green walls. The dining room flowed right into the kitchen, which looked beautiful with all the next stainless steel appliances. Around a tiny corner the living room had a new flat screen mounted on the wall, and dark brown furniture with green accent pillows set up beautifully. I knew I had orderd a coffee table though, but I forgot about it quickly when I realized the most beautiful aspect of the apartment was missing.

"Harry? Where are you?" I called out into the apartment, moving from the living room down the hall.
"In master bedroom love". I smiled and skipped in. The new black wrought iron bed looked perfect against the deep red walls and the beige carpet. Harry had just finished making the bed with the new bedset I bought, and was propping himself up on one of the hundreds of pillows that decorated the bed. He flashed me a brilliant smiling and patted the spot next to him on the queen sized bed. "Come here, it's quite comfortable really" he said attempting to keep his playful tone, but his voice gave away a low husky undertone. Butterflies sprung up in my stomach and I walked over to the bed slowly and sat laid down next to him.

We stared at the ceiling for a while, until Harry turned on his side to look at me, I remained on my back but turned to see him staring at me with those lustful eyes. "Everything looks beautiful love. I'm assuming you picked it all out?" I nodded, biting my lip. "You know what I think though?" he asked, moving his face closer to mine.

"What's that?" I said, trying not to let my voice waver. Harry knew the effect he had on me, but I still tried to make it seem as if he had no effect at all.

"I think the most breathtaking part about this place, is you" he whispered as his lips finally crashed into mine. 19 years of waiting and hoping was released into that kiss. His large hands envoloped my hips pulling me into his chest, our lips moving in heated rythm with one another, like we'd been doing this all our lives. I let my arms snake around his neck and laced my fingers through that unruly mop of curls, like I dreamed of doing for years. Our tongues danced around one another and a small groan sounded from the back of Harry's throat. My cheeks burned with the intensity of the moment and a small breathless gasp escaped my lips as Harry's hot lips moved from my mouth down my jawline.

"Harry" I whispered, not able to control the words tumbling out of my mouth. His long sot fingers had been tracing careful lines up and down my sides. I hadn't even noticed he'd moved them under my sweatshirt, but I didn't care. I wanted to feel his skin on mine, I wanted to feel his lips on my skin. I wanted more. As his hot kisses branded my neck I moved my hands to his shoulders, digging my nails in, trying to get as close to him as possible.

"Woah there" Harry said gasping for breath as he raised his head from the soft spot of skin where my neck met my shoulder. "Slow down a minute love" he said softly, bringing his hands to brush away my loose hairs, and cup my chin. He brought my lips to his again, and left a loving kiss on my lips that still tingled long after he'd pulled away. He pulled me into his side, wrapping his arms around me again protectively.

"There. That's how a first kiss should be" he said closing his eyes and smiling lazily. I nestled into arms and smiled back, because he was right.

Notes

Ahh really excited about this chapter!! Let me know what you guys think :)