Ellie Hoover

I lazily lifted my eyes open to the bright sunlight covering the room. I looked at the time on my phone and flopped back down on the comforter, which was too cozy too even think about getting up. An aroma drifted through the room, letting me know Harry had to be up and
eating breakfast.

I pushed myself off the bed and walked into the kitchen, where I caught myself staring at a long exposed back, accented by the lean muscle shifting as Harry worked on the stove.

“Are you going to stand there and not even say good morning?” I jumped at his voice and quickly moved my obsessive eyes to a much less interesting painting on the wall. I shivered as a breeze wafted through from the patio doors behind me.

“Good morning, Haz.” I sat on the kitchen bar stool before setting my elbows on the cold granite counter top and placing my chin in my hands. “Smells so good. What are you cooking?”

“Just some eggs and toast. I picked up some groceries at a small market about a block away this morning.”

“Well thank you, Harry. You really didn’t have to. You also don’t have to sleep on the couch
again tonight,” I added, hoping to be sly.

His arm reached up to one of the cabinets to his right and he retrieved a white coffee cup.

He remained quiet as he proceeded to pour hot water from the kettle on the stovetop and placed a complementary tea bag in the same cup. I finally saw his frustrated face, eyebrows closely knit and tails of his lips pointing downwards. He placed the mug in front of me and looked finally opened his mouth to speak.

“Well I’m not letting you sleep on the couch.” He turned back to the stove and placed two eggs on each plate beside a piece of freshly cut toast. Harry took out a bowl of freshly cut fruit and scooped some on both plates before placing one in front of me.

“Thank you so much. I’m sorry I didn’t help.”

He laughed as he took a step into the barstool beside me. “I think you and me both know that there is no way you can help out in the kitchen.”

“Don’t make fun of me!” I joined him in laughter after I slapped his arm. We sat in silence, enjoying the silence, only interrupted by the soft sounds of breaking waves and the occasional birds chattering outside.

Harry cleared his throat beside me, causing me to look up from the puddle of running yolk on my plate.

“So, what do you want to do today?”

I shrugged. “You picked this place. What is there to do?”

“We can go to the markets and shops, take a hike, go to the beach, or do other touristy stuff,” he said before taking a bite out of his toast. “Oh! We need to get clothes today. Did your friend get your luggage in Seattle?”

“Yeah. Kelsey picked them up at the airport and took it back to the apartment. Well if we need go shopping today, we might as well explore the shops and stuff.”

He nodded while fitting the last piece of bread in his mouth. “Do you need to shower before me?”

“No, you can go right ahead. You really need it,” I chuckled into the mug between my hands.

“Oi!” He yelled, walking into the bedroom.




“So the lady said we can walk down to the beaches, which are a couple blocks away and from there it is pretty easy to navigate where all the shops are,” Harry said as he joined my side at the entrance of the hotel.

“Oh, ‘The Lady’ huh?” I laughed.

“What?” He looked at me with one eyebrow cocked to the ceiling while a smirk formed.

“Nothing. Let’s go,” I shook my head, still laughing at Harry’s choice of words. He opened the door for me and I graciously walked by him.



The rough taste of salt water lingering in the air and the sweat forming under my long sleeve shirt and scarf from the direct heat of the sun made me forget that we were still at the end of December. We walked on the sidewalk beside sand, which was paired with crashing waves deeper into the beach. There was a reasonably large amount of people soaking in the Chilean sun on such a prepossessing day. There were only a few straggling clouds remaining in the soft blue sky. It was a perfectly relaxing start to our spontaneous trip. All my stresses and worries floated to the back of my mind.

“I think the shops are within these couple blocks.” I nodded as I looked up at Harry; he was
already looking down to me and the sunlight exploded from behind him as his head blocked the sun. I longed to see those unforgettable green eyes but they were blocked by a pair of all black sunglasses. His pale complexion made him seem angelic. I couldn’t stop the thoughts about Harry circulating through my mind.

“I’ll follow you,” I said. With that we headed left down the next street narrowed in by colorful buildings of shops of all sorts. Street vendors were also very prominent on the streets of that tourist town.

I followed him into a store that smelt like a mix of blueberries and cheap wine.

“Hola,” a man behind a glass counter waved; Harry and I both sent back a smile.

“I quite like the looks of these shirts,” Harry commented, floating towards a circular rack filled with vintage looking collared shirts.

I laughed as I searched through them. “I actually love this one,” I said pulling out a silky button down shirt colored cream decorated with soft green palm trees.

“Perfect vacation shirt,” he smiled, trying to model it off while holding the shirt in front of him on the hanger. I left him to enjoy himself in the weird variety of interesting polos and button downs and looked around the small store some more.

“You could go to town with these shirts. Do you need pants?”

“I don’t think any of these stores will sell jeans that fit these amazing legs,” Harry winked.

“We can see if there are any swimming bottoms or some joggers.”

“Good plan. It is vacation and it is hot, must I remind you?”

“Thank goodness I have you here to help me. I thought it was going to snow tonight,” he proclaimed, keeping a straight confused face.

“Alright smart ass. Are you ready to pay?” I shot him back a look of annoyance, but couldn’t keep my amusement in.

“Is smart ass my new nickname now?” He chuckled, making his way to the man behind the glass counter.

I looked at the handmade treasures under the glass. They reminded me of Kelsey and how I really hadn’t talked to her in a while. I frowned at the thought and it didn’t go unnoticed by Harry.

“What’s wrong?”

“I should get a gift for Kels. I miss her.” I looked up at the man towering over me with sympathy engraved in his green eyes. I noticed his eyelids moving closer together as the rest of his face lifted in a smile.

“I think you’re a great friend. What were you going to get?”

“She would love those earrings.” I pointed to the circular pair threaded with bright blues, yellows, and oranges in the middle of the display.

“Can we purchase those earrings in the middle?” Harry asked the man who was already smiling at him.

The man slightly frowned and Harry asked again, pointing at the pair I had previously taken notice to. The man’s movements were slow and unsure and I giggled when I realized what was happening. Harry shot me a look of misunderstanding while I just smiled, eager to see what would happen next.

The man placed the pieces on the glass and Harry looked back at me with mischief flying off his smug smile.

“Can I see the two rings in the back?” He asked, turning back to the man. The man opened his mouth to say something but closed it.

“Puedemos ver los dos anillos en la esquina trasera, por favor?” I interrupted.

“Sí, sí!” The man delightful understood. He pulled out the two rings Harry had asked for and placed them on the glass. Harry picked one them up excitedly. One was made up of bronze and the other silver, but both had an intricate blue engraved design on the front. We both inspected the rings, marveling at the beauty. I was wondering what Harry wanted with the rings.

“Are you getting them?” I asked and received a nod from Harry’s head as he continued to study the jewelry.

“Pagaré por todo esto, sus camisas incluidos. ¿Cuánto cuesta?”

The man looked at all we had before answering. “Ochenta pesos.”

“Gracias,” I added after handing him the money, which fortunately Harry didn’t catch in time.

After bagging up all the items, Harry followed me out the door.

“Shouldn’t he know how to speak English? This is a pretty common area,” Harry muttered next to me. “And how come you never told me you spoke Spanish?” He pouted.

I smiled at his frustration. “You don’t know a lot about me, Styles.” We continued walking up the street past more small stores.

“I can speak French, Italian, and Spanish. I’m trying to learn German, but who knows if I’ll ever get there. It’s pretty basic but it was a requirement to know two languages in the business school and I loved learning it.”

He nodded at my side. “We both took French, but I only remember some basic stuff.”

I nodded before we walked into the next store. I bought clothes for myself in this weather as well as Harry buying more. After a couple hours of exploring through the shops and looking around through the Chilean culture, we decided on lunch by the water.

“You shouldn’t have paid for my stuff,” Harry said as we were seated in the outside patio beside the ceaseless body of water. He must have noticed the muddles look my facial expression displayed. “In the first store,” he followed up.

“You shouldn’t be paying for all that you have on this trip,” I shot back, raising my eyebrows at him.

“Well played,” Harry chuckled.

“How is everything with the band? Tours? Albums? I hate to admit it, but I haven’t really paid attention much to One Direction,” my head ducked, slightly embarrassed.

“It’s fine, love.” He cleared his throat. “We are finishing up our last tour, Where We Are, soon after I go back and we start another one called On The Road Again pretty soon after that. Uh, we just released our fourth album, Four, a couple months ago. I believe it was around the same time we saw each other,” Harry grinned. “And we are working on a new movie with that best friend of yours on board. Things are going great though. It’s a bit much, but I love it.”

We continued to talk for the three hours we remained in our spots across each other. The majority of the lunch I caught myself staring intently at the simplistic beauty of that man. I realized something I should have been able to realize a while before. I was falling for this man. It hadn’t taken along, but I was getting sucked into a battle I knew I was unable to come out of clean and unharmed.

Notes

xo.
Sorry for such slow and horrible updates. I am going to start speeding up the story a bit more. Thanks!