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“Hi, I’m here with the Jaymes party.” I told the perky blonde hostess that was standing inside the front doors of the upscale restaurant. Liv had sent me a text earlier this morning that said everyone was getting together for dinner tonight before the tour started again tomorrow. She and Liam had been inseparable for the past couple of days and had spent the morning running all over town finishing up his errands. She insisted I head over to the restaurant at 7:00 if they weren’t back yet, and they would just meet the rest of us there.

The hostess checked her list of table names before grabbing a couple of menus. She smiled sweetly and ushered me to follow her towards the back of the room. I could see why Liv had chosen this particular place for tonight’s dinner. It was dimly lit and every table seemed clouded in its own sense of privacy. She weaved through the tables expertly, before pushing open a door that held the private dining room. The second we stepped inside I realized there must be some mistake.

“Oh, I’m sorry.” I apologized. “I think you might have the wrong James. Jaymes with a ‘y’, might also be under Liv Jaymes.”

The hostess simply nodded, as if she already knew all of those things.

“It’s supposed to be for a party of eighteen.” I told her, confused. “Not -“ I gestured to the table in front of me. “- a party of two.”

The hostess pulled out one of the two chairs, motioning for me to have a seat as she set the menus on the table. I sat, a curious look on my face, waiting patiently for some sort of explanation.

“Miss Jaymes mentioned that you might be confused, but asked me to tell you to trust her and that she would explain soon enough.” Without waiting for a response from me, she turned on her heels and left, the door to the room shutting softly behind her. I contemplated digging my phone out of my pocket and demanding that Liv tell me exactly what was going on right now. But taking a look at the restaurant’s specialty drink menu convinced me to order a watermelon margarita and just let the chips fall where they may.

The waiter came by to get my drink order and to fill me in on that evening’s specials. I waited patiently, not knowing if the other person coming to dinner was a habitually early or habitually late type. Scanning the menu, I noticed that nothing sounded good. This place may have been incredible in its décor, but I’d always been a bit on the picky side and everything looked too fancy for my ‘still stuck in kindergarten’ palette. The waiter returned with my drink right as the door to the private room opened and the same hostess from earlier came walking in. I should have been prepared for the six-foot tall frame topped by a head of messy curls to be following her. I rolled my eyes at Liv and Liam’s obvious attempts at getting Harry and I alone, chuckling softly.

Harry slid into the seat across from me, a confused frown pulling at his forehead.

“We’ve been set up.” I said, taking a generous gulp of my drink. I’m pretty sure I let out a slight moan, my eyes rolling back into my head. The watermelon flavoring reminded me of summers past, spent lounging by the pool. It was heaven in a very expensive crystal glass.

“This isn’t how I imagined our first date.” He mumbled, so low that I wasn’t sure I’d heard him correctly.

“You’ve imagined our first date?”

He nodded, his head dropping slightly as a blush colored his cheeks.

“If I’m being honest, this isn’t really my scene.” He raised his eyes to mine, encouraging me to go on. “I don’t care about fancy restaurants. I’m good with a pint of beer and a good pizza. This -“ I motioned to the over-priced menu. “- seems silly.”

“How do you feel about a pub? Great music, great food, cold beer.” Smiling, I downed the rest of my drink and threw a couple of crumpled up bills on the table to pay for it. Laughing quietly, Harry stood and motioned for me to follow him. We walked back through the maze that the hostess had led us through earlier, her face covered with a perplexed look at our sudden departure. The fact that there were no photographers outside of the frosted glass doors of the restaurant was a testament to their staff. Any one of them could have easily tipped the paparazzi off before we’d even arrived.

But the sidewalk was clear and the July night was beautiful.

“I should have asked you to dinner myself.” Harry confessed. I looked up at him, a vision of masculine features and that ridiculous mop of curls that he wore so well. I wasn’t sure how we’d gotten here.

Stuffing my hands into the pockets of my skirt, I asked honestly, “Why didn’t you?”

“My life isn’t really mine. It belongs to the fans and the media and the label. I can’t ask you to willingly jump into that. I wouldn’t want to date me. Why would you?”

His words stopped me in the middle of the sidewalk.

“You’ve been living this life for, what, five years now?” He bobbed his head up and down in agreement. “How long has it been since you’ve had a relationship, Harry?”

I heard his sigh before I heard his words. “A real one? Not, something set up by my management to drum up some positive press? Not, a casual friends with benefits type thing but an actual relationship?” He paused. “I don’t know. About five years.”

“You haven’t let anyone in since your band became popular.” I started walking again, Harry’s footsteps catching up to mine quickly. I had thought that our friends were just nosey idiots who should never have butted into something that wasn’t any of their concern. But with both of us having pushed our love lives to the back of our minds rather permanently, I probably owed them both more than I cared to admit. “I haven’t had one in four and a half.”

“So we both suck at relationships?” A hint of laughter lit up his gruff English accent. I smacked his shoulder as he directed us to turn down a side street. I had pushed my issues with Adam so far back that I wasn’t sure if I could grab them and bring them out. But I wanted to lay it all out on the floor in front of Harry, in case we decided to give this a shot. For the first time in years, I wanted to talk about Adam.

“The lead singer of your opening band ripped my heart out of my chest and threw it in front of a speeding bus almost five years ago.” This time it was my words that caused a halt in our walk. Instead of just stopping next to me, Harry took two big steps directly in front of me.

“I had no idea that you two even knew each other before you told me the other night.” The concern in his eyes was overwhelming.

“You couldn’t have. I don’t talk about it.” I admitted.

“You’re talking about it now.”

“You told me why you haven’t dated someone in so long. I want to return the favor.” I caught sight of a bench on the sidewalk out of the corner of my eye. Motioning for Harry to follow me, we sat down at opposite ends of the wooden bench. Turning my body to face his, I took a deep breath before going on. “We had been together for a couple of years. We had this crappy little apartment but we were so happy that it didn’t even matter. Until I grew up and he started doing some heavy drugs. I put my foot down and he said he was an adult and he would do what he wanted, not what I wanted. Which was to continue getting high at all hours of the night, the hell with me. I was sure for a while that he was the last man I’d ever be with. He broke me and Liv was the only thing that saved me.”

“What a fucking dick.”

I chuckled. “I wasn’t avoiding you, now you understand. I will just never be able to tolerate being around him for very long. I know that he has a job to do on tour and so do I, and I won’t let our history affect that. But I don’t want to hang out with him.”

Harry’s palm reached up, touching the side of my face. I leaned my cheek into his skin, closing my eyes to keep the tears from spilling over. I hated that talking about Adam still had such an effect on me. I didn’t want to waste another second being sad for the girl who had been so crushed. I wasn’t her anymore and I was thankful for that.

“You’re pretty incredible.” He said, just above a whisper.

“The woman that I am now is ten times stronger than the girl that lived through all of that heartbreak. But I’m still scared of being second best. That I’m some sort of relationship lemon and that no matter what I do, I won’t be good enough.”

His hand left my face, wrapping it around my shoulders and pulling me into his side. My arms automatically circled around his waist as I buried my head in his chest. He smelled like peppermint and cigarette smoke. It was strangely soothing. We sat for several minutes without either of us moving an inch. I would have stayed in that exact spot all night if I hadn’t been cuddled up to an international popstar in the middle of the sidewalk on a semi-busy street in London. I couldn’t guarantee that we hadn’t been spotted yet, but I had been keeping an eye out. I hadn’t noticed anyone staring or trying to discreetly use their camera phones to take photos. Somehow, we’d managed to stay under the radar, which I knew was too good to last much longer.

“We should probably get to the pub where there’s at least a little bit of security.” I suggested as I untangled myself from him.

“Logan…” Before I could completely stand up, Harry’s hand grabbed the side of my arm and pulled me back to him. His lips touched mine hesitantly at first, deepening the kiss once he knew I wasn’t pulling away. He broke it too quick for my liking, but the excitement that shown in his eyes convinced me that it wouldn’t be the last time that happened tonight.

“I want to do this with you.” I was throwing caution to the wind. “I’ll be patient with you, if you’ll be patient with me. And I promise to be honest with you, if you promise to be honest with me.”

“It won’t be easy.” He stated.

“I have no doubt that’s true.” I smiled as we continued our walk. Harry mentioned that we were only a block or so away, and I was ready to get a table and a beer. We made it to the pub after just a few minutes of easy silence, and were met at the back door by a security guard who simply nodded in Harry’s direction, holding the door open for us.

“I take it you’ve been here before.”

He smiled before reaching behind his body for my hand. Intertwining his fingers in mine, he started zigzagging our way through the back of the smoky building. “One of my best mates plays some secret shows here. I always come when I’m in town.”

“Secret shows?”

“He’s kind of well known too. And of all the times he’s played here and I’ve been, no one has ever let the cat out of the bag. He should be on stage right now, actually. Which means that we have a table being held for us.” His face lit up like a little kid on Christmas, as I started to hear the music. I couldn’t see a whole lot, the lights inside the pub were so dim, the only real light coming from the spotlight on the small makeshift stage. But I could tell that all of the tables on the floor were filled with mostly women in their early to mid twenties, and that everyone seemed more respectful of the scene than I was expecting. Especially when Harry had mentioned how his friend was well known. Whatever this place was doing was a breath of fresh air.

Our table was being held on the second loft style story. With the area being reserved for VIP guests, we weren’t bothered as we scooted side by side into the comfy booth with an exceptional view of the stage. Harry pointed out a couple of items on the menu that he said were to die for. Deciding to split a couple of things, he ordered our food and a couple of whatever was cold and on draft when the waiter came by. Leaning back, he pulled me into his lap, my left arm hung over his shoulder as his left hand rested on my thighs. The guy playing the guitar on stage looked vaguely familiar, but I’m not sure I would have recognized him until I heard Harry singing along.

“See the flames inside my eyes. It burns so bright, I wanna feel your love. Easy baby, maybe I’m a liar. But for tonight, I want to fall in love.”

I should’ve realized that the well-known red head was Ed Sheeran. And I should have known that his voice would be even more magnetic in person, even without Harry Styles singing in my ear. We bobbed our heads to the beat of the music, his fingers tapping out with the bass drum on my bare skin. When the waiter returned with our drinks and our food, we traded off feeding pieces of fish and chips to each other, him making me laugh every time he took as much of my fingers in his mouth as he possibly could. When he held out a bite of fish to me, but directed it towards his own mouth the second I opened mine, I threw my head back in honest laughter.

This was exactly what I thought of when I thought about what the perfect first date looked like. This man was who I thought of when I thought about who I wanted to risk my heart for again. Not the one that the fans or the public got. But this one sitting below me, with his inhibitions down and his hair up. I must have been showing those thoughts all over my face when I looked at him, as he roughly grabbed the back of my neck and crushed his pouty lips to mine in what felt like a very territorial move. Our tongues met in the middle, dancing to the sensual guitar solo that Ed was serenading the entire room with. There was no need to hurry. It felt like we had the entire world at our feet and that the night would last forever. Pulling the ponytail holder than he had wrapped around his curls an hour or so ago, I ran both of my hands through his soft locks. Not caring that I was in a short, loose skirt, I kicked one of my knees over his lap and turned my entire body to face him, his hands resting on my barely covered ass.

“I want to do this with you.” He echoed my words from earlier, as he momentarily broke the kiss. “This has been the kind of first date I wanted us to have. I want to say ‘fuck off’ to the issues we might have ahead and just jump with both feet.”

“So we jump. All in.” I added, lighter than I’d felt in longer than I could remember. And then we were kissing. And we kept kissing, so engrossed in each other that we didn’t notice the music had changed to a shitty sound system. Or that the man who had just stepped off stage for a break was now standing three feet in front of Harry.

“I’d be rather ticked off that you didn’t even seem to notice I wasn’t playing anymore if you weren’t tangled up with a very pretty lady.”

I jumped ten feet at the sound of the voice behind me, causing both men to giggle as I set myself back on the booth seat. Harry stood up, greeting Ed with a hug and a ruffle of his hair. As Harry slid back in next to me, and Ed took a seat across from us, Harry stole his hair tie back from me and expertly threw his hair back up.

“Ed, mate. This is Logan. Logan, this is Ed. One of the most annoyingly genuine people I’ve ever met.”

We shook hands over the tabletop before I grinned sheepishly. “It’s so nice to meet you. I’m sorry that was the first impression you got of me.”

“Oh love, no worries. I’ve been dying to be the soundtrack to this guy’s public hookup. Just maybe you’ll wait until I’m done playing to shag under the table, eh?” I blushed furiously as Harry rolled his eyes.

“Don’t be a wanker, Eddie boy. We won’t be shagging under any tables. Although, now that you’ve given us the idea… Maybe after the next date, yea sugar?” He winked in my direction; Ed spit his water out towards the floor.

“I’m very sorry guys. I just, I must be hearing things. My brain was sure it heard Harry Styles say something about the next date. As in, not the one currently happening, but some other time in the future.”

“This isn’t a one time event, Sheeran.” He pressed his lips to my temple.

“Well it’s about damn time brother!” Ed’s smile took up the majority of his face as he told me stories about how all of their friends were certain Harry was never going to see a girl naked again. To which, of course, Harry butted in that just because he wasn’t dating one person didn’t mean he hadn’t seen plenty of naked girls in the past five years.

When Ed teased him that naked pictures the girls sent him in private messages on Twitter didn’t count, I didn’t think that this night couldn’t get any better. And then Ed had to return for his second set and I returned to the spot where Harry’s arms were tight around me, and I knew it couldn’t get any better. I was just hoping that when we all met up and left on tour in the morning that our bubble wouldn’t burst just yet.

I needed at least a few days of uninterrupted bliss.

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Notes

Hi guys! I hope you enjoyed the new chapter (and the much quicker update). I had this chapter completely written, and then my computer restarted and I lost all of my work. So the second time I wrote it, I went an entirely different direction and I hope you like it!

I'll start working on the next chapter as soon as I finish my film studies homework, so hopefully I can have another update ASAP. :)