Nora woke up with the bright sun and thoroughly regretted leaving the shades on the window open. She groaned into her pillow, not wanting to even move a muscle. She felt like crap.
“Are you okay?” She heard a voice croak and she immediately threw her head up.
Harry. Ohmygod.
“Harry…” Nora breathed as memories from the night before filled her brain.
“Hey,” he smiled over at her, looking so tired, yet so fucking attractive.
Nora was in shock. Speechless. They had sex. Like, they really did that. And it was good fucking sex. Good sex. And even if she wanted to, she couldn’t help herself from smiling back at him as a blush crept up her cheeks.
“You’re not going to pretend like you can’t remember last night, are you?” He asked, keeping that smirk on his face.
“No,” she said as she shook her head, smiling bashfully at him.
“Good. Because there is pretty solid proof,” Harry said lifting up the blankets, showing her they were both naked.
“Pretty solid,” Nora laughed. Harry’s smile was genuine. Not just a stupid smirk on his face. He actually looked truly happy for once.
“Does it freak you out?” He asked her, his smile dropping slightly.
“No,” she said honestly, shaking her head lightly.
“Good. Will it freak you out if I kiss you?” He asked, his smile widening again.
“No,” she shook her head again, still feeling bashful.
Harry immediately leaned over connecting their lips. And a part of her knew she should leave it at that – that she had already done enough damning things to get her fired. But she didn’t want to. She pulled him back to her the second he broke the kiss. He chuckled against her lips, but kissed her back, letting it get heated in a matter of moments.
When Nora went into this job, she thought it’d be a piece of cake to keep to herself and not get involved. That was until Harry came along. The second they were in each other’s presence, the sexual energy was indescribable. The contract she had with Syco was supposed to keep her away from the boys. But there was nothing keeping them from her. Harry made that perfectly clear. She signed on the dotted line, not exactly realizing what she was getting herself into.
Harry’s hands moved effortlessly up and down Nora’s body as they kissed, turning her on and making her pant for him. She wanted him. She wanted him so bad. And there was nothing stopping them. There were no clothes to discard. There were no barriers or hindrances. They already did this. What was stopping them?
“Condom?” Nora breathed against his lips.
“I-I…” Harry stammered, pulling back, looking into her eyes with confusion displayed on his face.
“What?” She asked him.
“We… I don’t… I don’t have one,” he stammered. Nora sighed, feeling the disappointment settle in.
“I mean, we didn’t… we didn’t use one last night. Is it… does it really matter right now?” He asked.
“What?” She asked, startled by his words.
“You don’t remember?” He asked.
“Harry!” Nora snapped, pushing up against his chest.
“What?” He asked, sitting up.
“We didn’t use a condom?” She questioned as she sat up too.
“Well, no… I didn’t have my wallet on me, and you—” He started to explain.
“Oh my god,” she said running her fingers through her hair.
“Hey, you were horny as shit last night, Nora,” Harry pointed out.
“That doesn’t mean we can just not use a condom!” She said firmly, moving to the edge of the bed away from him.
“You told me you’re on birth control,” he snapped.
“I am! That’s not the point!” She yelled.
“You told me to do it!” He shouted back.
“What?” She asked, turning back to him, a glare in her eye.
“You told me to just fucking do it already. That it didn’t matter,” Harry told her.
Nora stopped to contemplate his words. Did she? Was she that careless?
“That was really stupid, Harry. After all the girls you’ve been with,” Nora snapped as she got up and started pulling on her clothes.
“You just love finding shit to hate me for,” he scoffed, getting out of the bed too.
“It’s so easy,” she seethed, narrowing her eyes at him. He scoffed again, as he pulled his pants up his legs.
Immediately the weight of her words hit her. That wasn’t fair.
“Harry, I’m sorry,” she sighed, turning to him, feeling bad for saying something so mean.
“Yeah, whatever,” he grumbled, grabbing his shirt up from the floor.
“Harry…” She breathed, walking up to him, grabbing his arm. His eyes stared into hers, his lips pursed angrily.
“I’m sorry,” she told him sincerely. He let out a large breath and nodded his head.
“I’m sorry,” she said again, stepping a little closer to him.
“It’s okay,” he said quietly as she reached up letting her fingers lightly play with his paper airplane necklace.
Nora felt his arms wrap around her waist loosely, his shirt still in his hand. When she looked up into his eyes, he was already looking down into hers.
“But it was fun, right?” He smirked, completely disregarding their fight and bringing up the night before.
“It was,” she nodded.
“Thank you for remembering,” he said quietly.
“I don’t think I could forget something like that,” she smirked up at him and another smile grazed his lips.
“Does that mean I’m unforgettable?” He asked playfully.
“Ha!” She laughed, swatting lightly at his bare chest.
Harry leaned down, capturing her lips with his again, leaving a few soft kisses on them.
“Why can’t you always be this sweet?” She smiled up at him.
“I can be,” he said, looking straight into her eyes.
“Too bad I’m finding all of this out right before I get fired,” she said quietly.
“It’s not like they have a monitoring device on me. They don’t have to find out, Nora,” Harry said and she nodded her head.
“They won’t find out,” he assured her, leaving a few more kisses on her lips.
“I should… I should probably sneak back into my hotel room,” Harry said, pulling back slightly from her.
“Yeah,” she nodded.
“I’ll see you, Nora,” he said.
“Yeah,” she whispered as he kissed her forehead and stepped around her to head for the door.
“See you down at breakfast later?” He asked her as he threw on his t-shirt.
“Yeah,” she nodded and watched as he slipped out of her hotel room door with one last wave of his hand.
Nora immediately went into the bathroom, needing to get ready for breakfast. As she pulled off her clothes, she looked at herself in the mirror. Suddenly she felt like a completely different person. A person who would jeopardize things she shouldn’t be jeopardizing for a boy. A person she didn’t recognize anymore.
She sighed, dropping her eyes down to the sink as she turned it on. She cupped her hands under the stream and pulled her head down to splash her face with the water before grabbing a towel to dry off. When she looked back into the mirror, her eyes fell on the purplish, grayish bruises on her neck. Hickies – Harry gave her fucking hickies.
Oh, God. Now what?

Harry felt good about things with Nora when he stepped out of her hotel room. She didn’t forget about their night together or pretended like it didn’t happen. If anything, she embraced it. And god, she wanted him. And he wanted her too. Things were going to be good. He just knew it.
“Styles?” He heard Zayn’s voice and looked up immediately seeing him and Josh walking down the hall toward him.
“Isn’t that Nora’s room?” Josh pointed out.
Harry was like a deer in headlights looking at them, caught red-fucking-handed.
“You!” Zayn shouted, his eyes getting wide.
“What did you—you and Nora?” Josh stammered.
“You spent the night with Nora?” Zayn asked, entirely too amused by what he was catching onto.
“Shhh. Dude, shut up,” Harry hissed, moving away from Nora’s door as he looked up and down the hallway to see if anyone was lurking around.
“Did you fuck her?” Zayn asked in a hushed tone.
“You guys gotta vouch for me, okay. When Liam or Louis ask where I spent the night – I was with you,” Harry told them.
“Yeah, sure,” Josh nodded.
“Dude, did you fuck her?” Zayn asked again.
Harry looked up at Zayn with a slight glare, which of course gave him his answer.
“Holy Shit. You fucked Nora?” Zayn laughed, patting him on the back.
“Stop fucking saying it,” Harry hissed at him. Josh chuckled, shaking his head.
“Oh my god,” Zayn said in disbelief.
“We’re headed down to breakfast if you want to stop in your room real fast and change,” Josh told Harry.
“Nah. I can wear this. I’ll just get ready later,” he told them.
“Alright,” they said and the three of them headed down to the hotel restaurant.
“Oh, Harry. We’ve been looking all over for you. Look who’s here to see you,” he heard Caroline, their stylist, say as soon as he walked up.
Confusion set in. But the second he saw her turn around, his entire body froze up.
Holy shit.
His girlfriend Claire was sitting directly across from Caroline.
“Oh… shit…” Zayn breathed quietly from behind Harry, saying exactly what he was thinking.
“Claire,” Harry said, trying to hide the horror on his face as best as he could. Everything about Claire being there was not good. Not good at all.
“Hi. You weren’t in your room,” she said as she stepped toward him.
Harry wrapped his arms around her because that’s what he was supposed to do. That’s what all the prying eyes expected him to do. She was his girlfriend after all.
“I… uh, I stayed in Josh’s room last night,” he said looking back at them, looking to call in that favor about vouching for him. When he saw both of their shocked expressions register their part in the situation, they both nodded their heads.
“I missed you so much,” Claire said, looking up at him.
“I missed you too,” he told her, leaning down to kiss her lips quickly.
“Come, darling. Sit down. There’s plenty of room for you here,” Harry heard Caroline’s voice, breaking him away from Claire.
Harry sat down next to Claire and she grabbed his hand tightly in hers. This was all weird to him. This was all just weird. And he was completely dreading the moment that Nora would join them for breakfast.
“What… what brings you here… to the States?” Harry asked her curiously.
Why did she pick Boston out of all places they’ve toured? And why the hell did she have to surprise him the morning after he finally broke through to Nora?
“I came to see you. I have a few days off. I’ll be with you at the New York shows as well. But then I’ve got to fly back. Aren’t you excited?” She smiled up at him. The only thing he was excited for was the ‘fly back’ part.
“Yeah. Yeah, of course I am,” he told her, feeling anything but.
“That was so thoughtful of you, Claire. What a sweet girlfriend you have,” Caroline said, smiling at the two of them. He liked Caroline, but he just wanted to tell her to shut up.
“Yeah,” he said under his breath as his stomach tied in knots, knowing that Nora’s arrival at breakfast was imminent.

Notes