In The Heat of Los Angeles

“Shut off your alarm,” Harry said into my hair. In our sleep we had moved and I woke up to him spooning me. Not gonna lie, this is like fucking heaven. I reached towards my phone on the nightstand and shut the alarm off. He pulled me back against his chest. “Do you really have to work this morning?”

“I do, but only for a few hours. Then Malibu here we come.” I turned around to face him and snuggled my face into his chest.

“Malibu here we come.”

“You don’t sound excited.”

“I’m fucking tired. You were thrashing in your sleep. You’re difficult to sleep with when you’re drunk.”

“Sorry.”

“It’s okay, love. I could’ve slept in the living room if I wanted to but I wanted to sleep here.” He nuzzled against me and we started to drift back to sleep. I knew we didn’t need to wake up when that alarm went off. It had been set so that we could get up and go to the gym if we wanted. And let's be honest, I didn’t want to go to the gym. He smelled amazing and his warm body next to mine was sort of nice this morning. I was just falling into the early stages of sleep when the door of my bedroom flew open, hitting the wall. It was quiet enough today that I didn’t jump, I knew it was Kammi and was awake enough it didn’t startle me today.

“You know when you break a fucking hole in the wall I’m going to make you fucking pay to fix it. This isn’t your home for much longer. Be nice to it,” I said without even opening my eyes.

“You need to get up. Gym time this morning. I know you haven’t gone since Monday,” Kammi said.

“You’re correct. I haven’t and I don’t intend on changing that right now. I intend on laying here in bed and sleeping.” The bed sank. “Get out of my bed.”

“Why are you in here, Kammi?” Harry asked.

“She doesn’t ever get out of bed when her alarm goes off. So I always have to wake her up to go to the gym.”

“Not going to the gym,” Harry said. “We can do something later.”

“I have a really nice gym in Malibu. I’d rather do that than get up right now. There’s a cute boy in my bed and he’s naked.”

“I’m in bed with a naked Harry Styles?” Kammi asked.

“I sleep naked. So yes,” he said.

“I totally need to Snapchat this.”

“No!” Harry and I both yelled at the same time. I shot up in bed and turned to look at her.

“Get out of my bedroom.” I was begging. I just wanted to sleep. I just wanted to crawl back into the comfort of Harry’s arms and sleep and not deal with my weird roommate who loves seeing an alarm clock say 5:15AM. “Get out!”

“You are such a bitch in the mornings,” Kammi said smiling at me.

“I am. Tremendous bitch. Now leave. You could’ve at least waited until 6:00 or 6:30.”

“Fine. Be a slacker.” She left the room and slammed the door shut as she left.

“Stop slamming doors!” I heard Nick yell from Kammi’s room. “Be a normal person and get back in bed.”

“Why is everyone yelling?” Ty asked. I could hear him in the hallway outside of my bedroom.

“Kammi’s a bitch, that’s why,” I yelled back as I climbed back into Harry’s arms where I was comfortable. The door opened again. “I need a fucking lock.”

“Yes, you do,” Harry said.

“Why is Kammi such a bitch in the morning?” Ty asked. He came over and I not only felt the bed sink but this time I felt the blankets move.

“Why are you in my bed?”

“I am used to coming and snuggling you when Kammi is destroying my morning. Am I not allowed anymore now that you’ve got a boyfriend?”

“Not my boyfriend,” I mumbled. “And not when he’s naked. Get out of my bed.”

“Oh my god. Naked? Can I take a picture to put on my Grindr? I want people to think I shared a bed with Harry Styles.”

“No because you’d photoshop me out and he’s mine.”

“I thought I wasn’t your boyfriend,” Harry asked. I opened my eyes to see him smiling at me despite looking exhausted.

“You aren’t. But it doesn’t mean that you aren’t mine.” He smiled at me before leaning in to kiss me.

“Oh gross! You two are going to get all mushy and nasty with me in bed while you’re naked.” Ty threw the covers off of himself and nearly off of Harry before storming out of my room.

“That was a good way to get him to leave us alone.”

“I didn’t even think of it that way. I just thought about wanting to kiss you because you said I was yours.”

“I’m tired. I’ll deny it in an hour,” I said smiling.

“We should probably get up. Judging on the sounds of this place no one has fallen back asleep.”

“It’s unlikely they ever will. Kammi will probably drag Nick to the gym. Ty will change what he’s packed for this weekend another five times before breakfast. Eliza is probably drinking coffee already and most of the way through a script already.”

“What’s she reading scripts for?”

“Me. You. My Dad. Herself. I think she’s trying to audition for something in New York when we are there next week. If she leaves me I will cry.”

“Your friendship is very special. Thanks for letting me have a peek at it yesterday.”

“You’re welcome. Should we get up and shower?”

“We should. Should we shower together today?”

“We could. It would definitely save time.”

“And water,” he said. “California is in a drought, you know.” I started laughing hysterically.

“That’s a great excuse.” I turned to look at him and leaned in and gave him a soft kiss. “Good morning.”

“Good morning.” He hugged me close to him before giving me another kiss. I climbed out of bed and went into the bathroom. Being home made me immensely more comfortable with my morning routine because I had everything here. The shower was quick and we were both dressed and ready to leave fairly early. I figured we could eat breakfast at the office rather than at home because it meant that we didn’t have to worry about cooking and cleaning up the kitchen before leaving the house. We headed down to the garage with all of my roommates and Nick.

“How many of you crazy assholes are riding with me to Malibu?” I asked.

“I am,” Eliza said.

“Okay,” I grabbed the keys for my Jeep from my purse as we were getting off of the elevator and headed to where my cars were. “Guess I need more than two seats this weekend.”
“I can drive if you want,” Eliza said.

“No, it makes sense to have the Jeep up there this weekend.” I unlocked the door and threw my bag in the back of the car.

“How many cars do you have?” Harry asked.

“Three,” I replied as he climbed into the passenger seat. “The Range Rover, this and the R8.” I nodded to the sports car behind him.

“Very nice car. I had an R8 Quattro years ago.”

“I thought about it, opted for the Spyder. California girls need convertibles, right?”

“They do. How long have you had it?” he asked.

“About a month or two. I bought it as a birthday present to myself when I turned 25.” I pulled out of the parking spot and onto the street. “EJ, do I have any meetings today?”

“Nope, I left it open for you today.”

“Thank god. I have a bunch of emails to send today and some demos to listen to that I got this week.”

“Demos?” Harry asked.

“Yeah, when artists are in the studio or are writing for a new album a lot of time they send things to me to listen to. That way I can start thinking on what the first single is going to be and start visualizing concepts for videos, album art, performances, you know how that stuff goes. I’m hands on with our higher tier talent.”

“That’s good to know.” He placed his hand on my thigh causing me to look over at him. He was smiling. His hair was still pretty wet from the shower and I was tremendously jealous of how beautiful it looked with almost no work. My hair was a bit wavy today, which was what I’d hoped for because of the fact that I’d be by a pool as soon as I left work. Okay, no lie, I stole the product Harry uses in his hair hoping that it would make my hair looks something like his hair does. Fingers are crossed. I pulled into the parking garage at the office with Nick pulling in behind me driving Kammi’s Range Rover.

It was only about 7:30 so it was still pretty quiet around the building. We road the elevator in near silence before all parting at the offices. Kammi did have a few conference calls this morning because of the approaching NFL draft so Nick followed Harry and I into my office to put his stuff down. It was about five minutes later that everyone congregated into my office to decide on breakfast. Eliza put in all of our orders and we turned on the morning news. This was our usual routine we just had added guests.

“So what are the plans once we get to Malibu?” Harry asked.

“Pool. Drink. Eat. Maybe the beach,” I replied as I sat next to him in one of the oversized chairs in my office and rested my head on his shoulder. “My father is coming up for dinner tomorrow night.”
“He is? Are we okay?”

“We are fine,” I said looking in his eyes. “We just won’t act like we are sleeping together. I mean I have to tell him at some point, I just don’t know if I’m ready to do that yet.”

“We don’t have to tell him yet if you don’t want to. Take the time you need with that,” he said. “Though you have already told your mother.”

“Yeah, but that’s shit girls talk to their moms about. Not their dads.”

“She’s right,” Kammi said from her spot on the couch, her legs draped across Ty’s lap and her head in Nick’s. “My Mom knew when Nick asked me on a date. Took me a long time to tell my Dad.”

“How long?” Harry questioned.

“I don’t know, like a month,” she answered.

“Try two,” Nick interrupted. “She had to call him because I was taking her to an event as my date and there were pictures of us kissing that she knew were going to get released and she was afraid of his reaction so she called and told him.”

“Oh yeah,” she said looking up at Nick. “That was why I told him. He normally just figured we did everything together because we’d been friends for so long.”

“Well, take whatever time you think is appropriate.” He kissed me quickly before we all started eating breakfast. My morning was spent replying to emails and listening to Nick and Harry goof around on the instruments that were in my office. I had quite the collection of guitars, some that neither of them dared to touch and some that they both fought over playing. There was an old upright piano that I’d had most of my life, Pops bought it for me one summer I came to stay with him in Los Angeles because Mom had put me in lessons during the school year and I needed to keep practicing. The piano had eventually been upgraded at my father’s to be a baby grand as I got better and without me knowing he’d kept this one all along. When our offices were done and I walked into my new office on the first day there in the corner next to the exposed brick wall was my shiny black piano. I had drums in here as well, Nick had been trying to teach me and it was a great way to take a stress break but I wasn’t ever going to be great at them.

I enjoyed that the way Nick and Harry had decided to bond was through music. One would be on guitar and the other on piano. I knew Nick could run circles around Harry on each of the instruments. He’d been playing for the majority of his life. Harry was incredibly talented though. They jammed on songs we all would’ve been raised on, whether through our own taste in music or our parents’. I had quite a few demos to listen to so I slid on a pair of noise cancelling headphones I kept in the office and started clicking through. Today was an array of music. Everything from pop to rock to country to hip hop. Occasionally I’d catch Harry looking at me and watching as I’d lounged out with my feet propped up on my desk my rose gold headphones covering my ears. He’d smile at me and I’d get a glimpse of his dimples. It was unfair. I was working and he was over there taunting me by looking cute. At 9:45 the door to my office opened up and Pops walked in.

“I thought I heard music coming out of here.” I slid my headphones off and rested them on the desk.

“Hey Pops!”

“Hey kiddo,” he replied.

“Yeah, we are in here because Kammi’s got conference calls all morning. Draft stuff,” Nick said. “So we of course started goofing off on Ev’s stuff.”

“Can’t leave musicians in a room with instruments for too long,” Harry said.

“No, you can’t. There are a lot of times where I walk through here late at night and hear Evie playing piano when she thinks she’s by herself.”

“I didn't realize that you played," Harry said as he looked at me, still sitting in my desk chair.

“She’s played since she was six. That’s the first piano I bought for her. The baby grand she got in junior high is still at my house.”

“Really? Since you were six?” He looked surprised. Normally when you have tons of conversations about music you mention if you play instruments. He’d talked about writing on both guitar and piano during our conversations, I never had.

“I like to be a little bit mysterious. What kind of fun would it be if my Pops couldn’t tell you that I had played piano for almost 20 years? There’d be nothing left for you to learn if I blurted everything out about myself.” He laughed.

“Do you only play piano?”

“Nope.” I wanted to keep the mystery theme and just give him that answer.

“She sings and plays guitar,” Nick said. “And I've been trying to teach her how to play drums, she’s not too terrible anymore.”

“She’s a great musician, she just decided from a young age she liked the behind the scenes part better. Gives her an edge that if she thinks a chord progression is off that she can actually play it for a client. She and Nick always goof off in the studio. I have a playlist in my iTunes that they recorded of her singing my favorite songs.”

“Stop gushing, Pops. It sounds less believable if it’s my father that says I’m amazing. And I’m not, there is a reason I sit behind the desk and tell people what to do. I have no stage presence.”

“Not true,” Pops said. “That band you were in was good.”

“Pops, it was me and three of my friends in high school. We were terrible.”

“Okay, the band was terrible but you were great.” Harry looked like he wanted to laugh at me. I could feel myself turning red. I very rarely told anyone about the band I was in while I was in high school. I was never the coordinated one when it came to sports but I had taught myself how to play guitar in junior high when I went through the rebellious stage that kids go through. Mom finally got tired of me being in my bedroom with an amp turned up really loud so she converted one of the apartments over the garage at the house to be a place my friends and I could hang out and play. At some point in high school one of the guys thought it would be cool to actually form a band and not just goof off. They loved the ‘chick singer in a punk band’ concept. They hated that their singer left for California every summer and school break so we didn’t last long. “I still have that EP you recorded.”

“I’d love to hear that,” Harry said looking at me with a devilish grin.

“Pops, if you play it for him just remember that Uncle Mikey could probably help me kill you and make it look like an accident.” Pops just laughed.

“Wait until she gets drunk this weekend and steal her phone. It’s in her iTunes. The band name was Designated Hitter. The EP is called Hitting for the Cycle, she did all of the recording herself.”

“Pops! You’re gonna pay for this. That’s such a terrible record. I like to pretend it didn’t happen.”

“Hitting for the Cycle.” Harry smirked at me and my eyes went wide. After the conversation we had where Nick explained what that meant I knew this was going to require another explanation.

“Well I’ll be up tomorrow afternoon maybe shortly after lunch. I’m bringing Jessica with me. Evie that means you need to be on your best behavior.” He turned to see me gagging at my desk. “You should get to know her.”

“I’ll be nice tomorrow. Promise.” Jessica was the current woman my Dad was seeing. I’d had to attend a few dinners with them both and hadn’t been impressed so far.

“Drive careful,” he said coming over to me. I stood up to hug him. “Send me a text when you get to the house.”

“I will. Are you staying up there tomorrow night?”

“No, I’ll let you kids have your weekend up there. I’ll just come up tomorrow. We can all spend the afternoon at the house and do dinner together. Make sure you FaceTime you mother tomorrow.”

“Did you talk to her again today?”

“She sent me a text message and told me to remind you.”

“What would she do if you two were a normal divorced couple and she couldn’t text you to make you call me?”

“Oh, I’d just be the pissed off ex-husband because Grace wouldn’t give up.”

“She sounds like quite a woman,” Harry said. My father looked at him confused.

“Has Everlee told you much about Grace?” he asked.

“Yeah, she talked about her a bit when we had dinner the other night.” I just wanted to laugh. Of course Harry knew what Mom was like because of the fact that he’d been about as ballsy as my mother and called her. Which is why Mom invited him to Chicago. She would’ve been the person who somehow stole the phone number of the person she was interested in’s family and called them. Harry was her kindred spirit.

“Grace is pretty crazy. It’s what we all love about her,” Pops said. “Alright kids, have a safe trip and I’ll see you tomorrow.” Pops came back over and gave me a kiss and the cheek and a hug before leaving the office.

“Are we ready to go?” Nick asked as he put the guitar he’d been playing back on it’s stand.

“I am. Go get your girlfriend,” I said. He walked through the bathroom and into Kammi’s office. I stood up from my desk and started packing up my laptop and headphones.

“You didn’t mention that you’d been in a band.”

“Because the band was terrible. I try to avoid talking about it.”

“But you are a musician and didn’t tell me.”

“I don’t consider myself a musician. I haven’t taken piano lessons in years and honestly don’t think I’ve played in three weeks. It’s probably been longer since I picked up a guitar.”

“Well, you should do more of it.”

“I probably should be we aren’t going to worry about that right now. Right now, we are going to worry about getting in the Jeep and heading out of the city and to the beach house.” I put my bag on my shoulder before walking over to where Harry was. I hugged him and he bent down to kiss me.

“Malibu here we come!”

“You sound a bit more excited now than you did this morning.”

“I’m a bit more awake now. I also know that as soon as we get there you are getting out of work clothes and into a bikini. Which is something I’m very excited about,” he said as his smile changed into the smart-assed grin I’d grown used to this week.

“Of course you are. Get your shit together that you brought up here so we can go.”

“Are you ready?”

“I am. Give me sun and a drink and life will be perfect.” Everyone finally was ready to go and we were out of the office by 10:30 and on the road. It was just over an hour on the road to get to the house in Malibu but it was a beautiful drive. It helped that the roof of the jeep had been taken off while we were inside the building, we could feel the ocean breeze and the wind in our hair. The wind that had Harry’s hair completely in his face for most of the drive. I was lucky that there was an assistant in our office that I’d discovered knew how to take the roof and doors off of my Jeep. I always made sure to give him perks because he always handled it for me when I needed it and had found a place to store the roof in the office so that I could just bring it back in on Monday and he’d put it back on. I needed to learn how to do it myself but I never had. Pops had always done it for me when I lived at home so I’d never worried about it.

After about an hour and a half on the road, due to the requirement to get Starbucks and needing to stop for beer and groceries, I pulled off of the PCH and into the community that the house was in. I rolled upon the gate and punched in the code. Nick managed to sneak in behind me before it shut. I pulled down the driveway and parked the car. I’d eventually move it into the garage but I wasn’t sure if we’d need to run around again today. I grabbed my bag from the back of the Jeep.

“Malibu!” Ty yelled. He’d found a bottle of Rosé when we stopped and popped it as soon as we were in the driveway. He took a drink before passing the bottle to Kammi. I just shook my head at them before walking up to the house. I unlocked the giant glass door and it swiveled for me to open.

“Welcome to the beach house,” I said to Harry. “Alright crazies, you know where your rooms are. I’m going to take H on a tour.”

“Also known as she’s having sex,” Ty said.

“Probably not.” I took the bottle of Rosé from him and took a giant drink. “I want one of those for myself.”

“Alright. I’ll put the other bottles in the cellar.” Ty was so excited. Malibu and Rosé were our normal treat. We both claimed it was what our spirit animal, Lisa Vanderpump, would want us to do. I took Harry’s hand and pulled him up the stairs. I knew it would only be a matter of time before the rest of my roommates found their rooms and started to get settled in. When we were in Malibu we functioned exactly how we would if we were at home.

“Hey Joe is going to come up later tonight,” Nick said. “You cool with that?”

“Of course,” I said as I was walking across the landing on the second floor that had a giant window looking out onto the Pacific Ocean and the beach. “I haven’t seen your brother in a while. It’s about time for him to be around and give me shit.”

“This view is incredible,” Harry said as he intertwined our fingers. I hadn’t even realized we were still holding hands.

“Just wait until you see my bedroom.” I opened the door and we walked in.

“Holy shit. This is gorgeous,” he said. It was completely modern and sleek. It reminded me of his house. The master bedroom had one wall that was a glass pocket door that opened out onto a private deck. There were his and hers bathrooms and closets, an office, and a gym all attached to the master suite. In total it was bigger than the first apartment Eliza and I had shared in Chicago. Off of the master suite was not only the giant private deck but also a deck meant for yoga or an outdoor massage off of the gym and a five hole putting green off of the office. Pops had built this place to be perfect, moved all of our stuff in and thrown the first party. After that first party he realized that he hated having the master suite. Too many people able to just walk into his sanctuary and see his life. There was a nice apartment over a detached garage. He has stayed there ever since. We entertain too many clients here for him to want to live in the main house. Maybe someday he’d take it back from me until then he only ever stayed in the master bedroom if he was in Malibu on his own, which was rare.

“This is my favorite place in California,” I said as I opened the pocket door.

“His and hers bathrooms?” Harry asked walking out of the bathroom.

“And closets.”

“I noticed that.” He gestured to the swim trunks he now had on. “And while it’s fucking amazing it also means I don’t get to watch you get ready in the morning. I’ve rather liked that this week.”

“I’m pretty excited that you won’t be able to watch me get ready. A lady needs some privacy.” He walked into my bathroom seeing the soaking tub, shower and gorgeous white closet.

“I could stay in this house for the rest of my life.”

“I’ve told Pops that we aren’t allowed to sell this one because I want to retire in it.” Harry laughed. “This place is my happy place. The place I can just come to hide and enjoy living at a slower pace.”

“You living at a slower pace? I find that hard to believe.” He sat down in the closet as I started going through what I’d packed for this weekend and the bathing suits I kept here looking for what I wanted to wear.

“I do. Here and usually in Chicago. The only times Chicago ever becomes hard to slow down is like between Christmas and New Year. I tend to just move home for that time period and work from there. Normally if I go home if it’s for less than I week I’m not working unless it’s just glancing at emails. My staff is completely capable of handling everything without me most days. So when I’m home, I’m home to be Evie and not the President of the Music Division of one of the largest entertainment firms in the world. I just need to be a good daughter and big sister. That’s what I do.”

“I bet your Mum appreciates that.”

“She does. She also sort of wishes I’d followed in her footsteps and not those of my Pops.”

“I like that you call him Pops,” Harry said.

“I’ve done it since I was little. It’s what he calls his Dad so when I was a kid that’s what I thought you called your Dad. I refer to him as Dad when I’m talking about him to people that don’t know us well because not everyone gets it. Pops still slips out a lot though.”

“I get it, I like it. It’s cute.”

“Thanks, we know that my main focus in life is to be cute.” I rolled my eyes at him a bit as I grabbed a black bikini.

“You don’t have to work hard to be cute, love.” I pulled the top I’d worn to work off and threw it in the hamper in my closet. “I also enjoy this striptease I’m getting. Are you sure Ty can’t be right? I’d enjoy a bit of sex.” I laughed at him.

“I’d enjoy the pool, so no. Ty can be right…later.” I took my bra off and replaced it with the bikini top. Next went my skinny jeans and were replaced with the bottom of my bikini. I found a wrap that I often wore as a swimsuit coverup and put it on. I walked over to where Harry was sitting and he pulled me in between his legs hugging me. He rested his head on my stomach as I played with his hair.

“I’m glad you came up here with me for this weekend. It will be nice to spend time together before I’m gone for a while.”

“Yeah it will. So if Joe is coming up tonight and your father tomorrow. When do we get our second date?” he asked.

“We could go to lunch without everyone tomorrow. Or even make Eliza ride back to LA with everyone else and do dinner Sunday.”

“A lunch date? I rather like the sound of that. There’s a restaurant up here that I really like. Tomorrow we will have our second date.” He looked up at me resting his chin on me and smiling. Damn, he really was cute. He kissed my stomach quickly before standing up and kissing my lips. “Show me the rest of the house.”

“Alright.” Before leaving the master suite I showed him the gym, which was pretty fantastic for being a home gym and my office.

“You could work from here and never leave.”
“Probably, it’s a LOT smaller than my office in LA but it’s nice. I have had times where I work from here on a Friday morning and leave Thursday to come up.”

“Do you do that a lot?”

“Once we get into the heart of summer I’m usually up here every weekend. This early in the year I’m not here as often.”

“There’s a putting green off your office?”

“Yeah, that was Pops’ decision. He taught me to golf as a teenager knowing that business happens over golf. My business does not. I don’t like golfing.”

“Really? I love it.”

“Yeah, I’m terrible. I mean I’d happily ride in a golf cart and drink all day. But I don’t ever use my clubs.” Harry laughed at me. I showed him the other bedrooms that were upstairs and the elevator. That was one of the many things I found unnecessary when Pops and the architect built this place but they both thought it was cool. The first floor had a great room that was huge and opened up onto the deck by the pool. Everyone had already opened all of the glass pocket doors and the glass windows surrounding the sunken bar that was off of the portion of the room with the pool table. There was a prep kitchen that was perfect for when we hosted events here, it meant the main kitchen area wasn’t full of whatever we were cooking. There was an area to sit and watch tv, a few more bedrooms and a theater in addition to the main area. I looked in the white wine cellar to see that Ty had stocked up the bottles of Rosé we had bought. We found a case of the kind we liked and decided it was worth it. Thankfully there was space in there. The cellars were pretty cool, both pillars in the middle of the great room, one for red and one for white.

“This is a gorgeous house.”

“I know. There’s a lot that Pops added that I wouldn’t have thought of. Like did we really need the covered area on one end of the pool for outside dining and cooking and the other for lounging and TV watching, probably not. But this was him building what his dream beach house was. And he’s got the money so go for it I guess.” Harry walked outside as I went to the sunken bar that made you eye level with anyone sitting at the bar. “What do you want to drink?”

“Tequila on ice?” he asked.

“You’re ready for a relaxing day, tequila this early would kill me. And you’ll get along with Joe. He’s a tequila drinker too.” I went to the bar and found the variety of tequilas. “Take your pick.” I put the bottles in front of him, he surveyed each before handing one back to me. I poured his glass and handed it back to him before pulling the Rosé out of the ice bucket and pouring myself a large glass. I exited the bar and Harry stood up. He followed me to one of the cabanas and sat down with me on a sofa, I draped my legs across his lap.

“I like that you have your own beach up here,” he said as he looked around. The house had bluff top views and was on the other side of the PCH so one of the parts of the outdoor living area was a huge ‘beach’. It was kind of nice to have. When we held parties that were family friendly there were often kids playing in the sand. And admittedly I could often be found laying in the sand because of how soft it was.

“Yeah, we will head over to the beach on occasion but we’ve got pretty much everything here. You can still hear the waves over the road and you don’t have to deal with tons of people. Which is nice when we’ve got clients or like Nick or I guess now you.”

“Yeah, everything I could wish for, none of the camera phones.” He leaned in to kiss me.

“There’s camera phones,” Ty said as I heard the sound of his iPhone taking a picture.

“You can’t post that anywhere. You know that right.” I glared at him.

“I know. You two aren’t supposed to be making out with each other. I won’t snapchat the kissing. But I feel like I should be allowed to post pictures of all of us this weekend. Just because the Brit joined the party doesn’t mean you can ban me from social media.”

“I won’t ban you. As long as nothing looks incriminating.”

“Duh. Now get together for a picture,” he said waving his hands at Harry and I. I sat up and moved next to him. Ty snapped a few pictures before sitting down and taking a drink of his glass of Rosé. A few minutes later Kammi and Nick emerged.

“Joe is on his way,” Nick announced.

“Yay!” I cheered. Joe was fun and we got along really well though we often picked on each other. “Of course we match.” Kammi appeared wearing the exact same bikini I had on.

“Typical,” Nick said laughing.

“We did buy this together and we both love it,” Kammi added.

“And we both look fucking hot in it. Ty, this you can take a picture of.” We posed the picture just perfectly before Ty took a few pictures of us together.

“She doesn’t own one,” I replied. “You know her. She needs straps.” Eliza eventually appeared in a string bikini and headed behind the bar.

“Any requests?” she shouted. When we were in college she worked as a bartender so she often took care of all of our drinks when we were together. She could make almost anything.

“If you’re making the frozen peach bellinis I’d take one,” I yelled.

“I’ll have another drink,” Harry said.

“Whatcha got?” Eliza asked.

“Casamigos on ice.” She nodded approvingly. Eliza was our resident tequila drinker of the group. I often stuck to wine and beer, when it came to hard liquor my go-to was usually vodka though my father’s influence was often seen through scotch. Ty loved martinis of all kinds and always said the more wine the better. Kammi usually chose a beer or vodka with some sort of low-cal mixer. Nick loved anything. I don’t know that there were a lot of drinks he’d tried and not liked, he was someone I could never predict what they were going to ask for at a bar. He claimed it was how he kept me on my toes.

“Lime?”

“Sure,” he replied. I watched Eliza move behind the bar. I knew that she missed bartending. She had thought about getting a part time job at a bar when we moved out here because it was something she loved doing. She felt at home behind a bar. I could mix a drink but never make it look like art and half the time had to google what someone ordered. She was like a magician behind the bar. We eventually decided to emerge from the shade of the cabana and jump in the pool. We had an array of rafts and items to make the pool seem like a little more fun. I watched as the door to house opened from my spot on a raft that looked like a sprinkle donut. Joe walked into the house.

“Hey Joe!” I yelled. I was maybe the tiniest bit buzzed and typically got louder the drunker I got. This should be fun.

“Hey kids,” Joe replied. He dropped his stuff on one of the chairs on the deck, kicked his shoes off and headed towards where I was in the pool and jumped in to create a large splash which not only got me wet but created enough of a wake to make my raft flip over. I emerged from the water glaring at him. “Miss me, Ev?”

“Not anymore, asshole,” I said as I dunked him under the water. I saw Harry smiling at me from the edge of the pool. As Joe emerged I was already swimming towards Harry to get away from what would likely be the aftermath of trying to drown Joe.

“You are such a shit, Ev.”

“I know.” I lifted myself out of the pool with my arms just enough to kiss Harry. “Hi.”

“Hi,” he replied laughing. “You’re trying to drown your friends.”

“I know. I’m a bitch.” I sunk back into the water and watched as Joe climbed onto my now vacated donut raft.

“So E, you’re making out with your newest client,” he said.

“Yup.”

“So unlike you.”

“I know. I blame your brother and your new roommate. Well, truthfully I blame that he’s hot and I’m a weak, weak woman. But I also blame those two.” I pointed at Kammi on her swan raft and Nick sitting on the side of the pool next to Harry with a cigar and a drink. He had his feet on Kammi’s raft so she didn’t float too far from her drink. Ty was in the cabana claiming he was taking a break from the sun, he’d been sitting there with chips and salsa to go with his margarita for almost an hour at this point. Eliza had just moved up there about 10 minutes before Joe got here. “So you came alone?”

“Yeah, lady isn’t in town. Plus I figured that a night of partying with my bro and friends was a good plan.”

“Staying the night?” Nick asked.

“Yeah, as long as it’s okay with Ev.”

“Stay the weekend if you want. Pops is coming up tomorrow and bringing the new girlfriend. I know how you enjoy being my sidekick when it comes to the wannabe step-moms.” Joe laughed at me. He and I had played a few tricks on my father’s girlfriends over the years. They usually were all terrible at pretending that they liked the idea of James Scarcello having a daughter and most of the time bribed me with mani/pedi appointments and handbags. I blamed the girlfriend between step-mom’s two and three for my addiction. She had given me a Chanel bag for my birthday thinking that Dad would be impressed, he hadn’t been. She didn’t last long but the bag still lived in my closet.

“Oooo. Do we like this one?”

“She reminds me of the characters from Clueless,” I replied.

“This should be fun.”

“Harry, this is Joe. Joe meet Harry,” I said. He paddle himself over to us in the pool and shook Harry’s hand.

“Nice to see you,” Harry said. He looked down at me. “I’ve met him at an awards show before babe.”

“Oh, well I didn’t know that.” I laughed a bit.

“Yeah, it’s been a while. But what you will find is our Ev doesn’t act like she thinks every celebrity knows each other which is comforting because I can always count on her to remind me of people’s names.”

“That is good.”

“So you and Ev? I like it.”

“Thanks,” I said smiling up at Harry. “He’s not too bad to hang out with.”

“Wait, didn’t you say James was coming?” Joe asked.

“Yes,” I replied.

“Does he know?” Joe gestured between Harry and I.

“No. He definitely doesn’t.”

“She’s too terrified to tell him. Yet informed me that he’s been married to a client.”

“Yeah, I don’t know how he’ll react. This is new. As is Harry being a client who also happens to be my current focus. Not sure how he’ll take the news. Mom however loves it.”

“Of course Grace would.” Joe started to laugh pretty hard. “Grace is awesome. You’ll love her, man. The last time I played in Chicago I got this call from Grace telling me that I needed to stop at the house for lunch. She had like a five course meal. Italian Moms are the best.”

“Yeah they are.” Denise, Nick and Joe’s Mom, was less Italian than my Mom when it came to numbers but she had the Italian Mom skills and every time I’d ever been at her house or the boys’ house when she was in town I got fed until I needed rolled home. “Oh and check this, he called Grace.”

“That takes balls,” Joe said.

“It’s also exactly what Grace would do,” Nick added.

“It is,” I said laughing. “She probably loves Harry for it. She should’ve been in the FBI or CIA or something. She can get info out of all of us. Do you remember that time you were in Chicago for tour and Eliza and I met up with you and we all got SUPER hammered?”

“Yeah, we were playing that outdoor show,” Nick answered.

“The next morning she woke me up at like 6:30 and told me she needed my help with a bunch of stuff. That crazy woman was just trying to torture me while I was hungover. Of course I was stupid enough not to remember that with you guys in town it meant you’d all be coming over for dinner that night. I was rolling meatballs for what felt like 10 hours. I was only 18 but she told me that it was time for me to learn to drink wine while I cooked. She did it just to make me want to puke, which I did. And then I got the Grace Inquisition about what we’d done the day before. She knew Joe was trouble.”

“I was not!” he protested.

“You were the troublemaker,” Eliza said. “I was just so glad that was a weekend my parents were out of town and that I’d decided to walk to my house and not hers when we got off of the L. I know Grace would’ve done the same to me and I wanted to die that whole day.”

“You ran away from the dinner table to throw up,” Nick said laughing. “We all ended up in Ev’s room passed out by like 8:00.” He turned to look at Harry. “At about noon Ev sends us all an SOS text so Joe and I went over thinking she was like dying or something. Grace of course knew we were all hungover and tortured us in the same manner. We were lucky EJ was the only one that threw up.”

“Your Mum sounds fun.”

“Oh she is. I can’t wait to watch her torture Jonathan. Currently he’s just in the ‘get in trouble if he parties with his friends’ phase of life. He’ll eventually reach the ‘mom wants to make you feel like dying and never drinking again’ phase. I hope the first time it happens that I’m at home.”

“I hope we all are,” Ty said.

“Whatever, you’ve only gotten the Grace Inquisition if my Mom thinks something is wrong with me. You haven’t experienced the full level of her torture.”

“Excuse me,” Ty said. “Mexico two years ago. Grace decided I shouldn’t be single any more and tried to set me up with the guy who worked at the house we rent. And he was straight.”

“That was so funny,” Nick said.

“At least you get invited to Mexico. Grace told me I wasn’t allowed.”

“You know she’s kidding,” I told Joe. “She loves you. She just also loves giving you shit. You typically react so dramatically. I mean you must remember, while I am a lot like my father most of my personality is Grace’s.”

“That is true,” Eliza said. “You are definitely your mother’s daughter.”

“I can’t wait to meet Grace to see for myself.”

“Grace is going to love you,” Nick said. “Are you going to Chicago next week?”

“Well I’ve been invited.”

“Ev, you’ve invited him to go home with you already?” Joe asked.

“No, Grace invited him,” I said as I rolled my eyes.

“She would. So you taking him?”

“Haven’t decided. Seems a bit soon to bring him home. Plus it’s Jonny’s birthday. I don’t want him to feel like I’m bringing home a new guy and overshadowing him.”

“He wouldn’t feel that way,” Eliza said. “Jonny would like Harry. And he’s probably so happy to have his sis home that he wouldn’t care. We will all be there for the weekend anyway. He’s used to you coming home with a crowd a lot of the time.” That was true. There were times when I came home with all of my roommates and Nick. Most of the time it was just me making a quick trip to Chicago to see my family but if it was any sort of occasion the whole circus traveled with.

“We need to make it past a second date before I invite him home,” I said laughing.

“When is the second date?” Kammi asked. She now had forced Nick to hold her raft so it wouldn’t even leave the side of the pool so she could be right next to her drink.

“Tomorrow,” Harry said. “I’m going to take her to lunch. There’s a restaurant I love not far from here. Figure get it out of the way before James shows up and before she leaves for New York.”

“We leave Tuesday morning,” Ty said. “You could probably get a third date in even. You know the date where most people expect sex. You two sort of skipped ahead to that.”

“Oh did you?” Joe asked.

“Yeah, I got drunk the first night we met and slept with him. He had to work to get me on a date, not in bed. He’s hot, like I said before, I’m weak. So very weak.” Joe just shook his head at me.

“You’re one of the weirdest people I know.”

“At least I own it.”

“True.” Harry tilted my head up to look at him.

“I’m going to get another drink. Need one?” he asked.

“Yes, please. I’ll come help.” I climbed out of the pool and grabbed my towel. I went into the house and into the bar with Harry. He reached for the bottle of tequila and I moved in front of him and smiled. He bent down to kiss me. My hands gravitated to the back of his head playing with the curls that were still wet from the pool. “I like kissing you and think you’re pretty cute.”

“I like kissing you and also think you’re pretty cute,” he said laughing at me a bit. “You are so funny when you drink. You lose your normal filter.”

“I sort of do. It helps that the five people over there know me better than most people. Honestly, even if I hadn’t admitted to them that I thought you were hot and had slept with you, they’d still find out. It’s like they can read my mind.”

“I like seeing you with your friends like this. I had a fair amount of time alone with you this week or just portions of that group. All of them together, you seem so happy. I hope someday you light up when I walk in a room the way you did when Joe got here.”

“You know that’s just because he’s my friend right? I don’t light up because of any other reason. Kammi used to think I had a crush on Joe and tried to set us up. I…I’m not interested in him. I’m interested in you. He’s just usually the only other person around when I’m with Kammi and Nick, the four of us hang out a lot.”

“I know you’re not interested in him. I’m glad that it forced you to admit you were interested in me though.”

“You know I’m interested in you. I really like you, a lot. I know that it’s just french doors right now, but they are open, wide open. I want to get to know you better.”

“And I want to get to know you better too and maybe tear down the wall the french doors live in.” He smiled at me before kissing me.

“Your dimples, dude. They make me want to kiss you every time I see them.”

“Well aren’t I in luck. You make me want to smile a lot which means you get to see my dimples a lot and I get kissed a lot.” He smiled and I kissed him again.

“Are you two going to stop making out anytime soon?” Kammi asked. “I’m hungry. We need to figure out dinner.”

“I don’t really want to stop making out but we can, I guess.” I kissed him one more time before turning to see that everyone was out of the pool and sitting at the bar. I hopped up onto the counter to sit, pulling Harry over so he could lean against it and I could rest my head on his shoulder. “What do we want to do for dinner?”

“We bought a bunch of stuff to grill,” Eliza said. “Though that is probably tomorrow with James.”

“We bought stuff for fancy grilled items and not so fancy. We could do burgers tonight,” Ty added.

“Sounds good to me,” I replied. “I think we probably have stuff to do french fries and some other junk food.”

“Yes!” Kammi said. “I vote burgers and fries. I’m in the mood to not eat a salad.”

“This is so not what I’m used to in LA,” Harry said.

“Oh we are a bunch of foodies,” Ty replied. “We eat salads and work out and shit but like if you told me I could also have pizza with dinner I’d be in heaven.”

“You can have pizza for dinner,” Kammi and I both said. I reached over the bar to high-five her.

“Yes!” Ty almost screamed. We all started moving around the kitchen. The great part of the prep kitchen meant we could split up into teams. Nick, Joe, and Harry took the grilled food. Kammi and Ty took the pizza. Eliza and I took the french fries and the fryer. It didn’t take long before we were all sat down at the table to eat. We’d all decided that beer and burgers sounded perfect so we’d all grabbed beer.

“I want to make a toast,” I said giggling.

“Oh god,” Nick said. He leaned over to Harry. “Her toasts are typically just weird ramblings, especially if she’s drinking as much as she has so far.”

“Fuck off Nick,” I said. “Each of you sitting at this table are some of my favorite people. I wouldn’t be who I am without you. Eliza Joy, you’re my oldest friend, you’ve been with me through diapers and will still be around when diapers reappear in my life. I love you and always will. Kammi Ann, you and I have nearly given our fathers about 10 million heart attacks together. You’ve been my partner-in-crime for so long. Our interview Monday was just another thing to add to the list of what we’ve accomplished together and I’m so proud to do it all with you. Tyberius, without you I’d be a whole lot less stylish and we all know that I owe you my life. You make life fun and beautiful and I promise that we can still our ‘we hate morning Kammi snuggles’ sometimes.” He laughed remembering this morning. “Nick, thanks for never making me feel like the third wheel with you and Kam. You never let your relationship with her change what our relationship was. You’ve been one of the closest guy friends I’ve ever had and I would be lost without you. Joe, oh Joe.”

“She normally wishes she could scream that,” Joe said. I threw a french fry at him while I laughed.

“You keep me on my toes. You are who taught me that it’s okay to not be so serious all the time. You were the person who kept me entertained on my LA visits when my Dad had to work and I was stuck with whatever woman he was dating, you are my sidekick when it comes to being a pain in James’s ass. You’ve been a lifesaver more times than I can count.” I turned to look at Harry. “And you, you may be new to my life but I already feel lucky to have you in it. You make me laugh, something that most people would say I need to do more of. I can’t wait to see where this goes and discover what kind of impact you have on my life. And I don’t just mean my career, I mean my life. I have a feeling it’s going to be a big one.”

“Whoa,” came the response from more than one person at the table.

“Ev, did you just open up to him?” Kammi asked.

“I did.”

“I think she opened a window next to those french doors,” Harry said smiling before leaning in to kiss me. “I can’t wait either.” I knew my smile was huge, there was no sense in hiding it around the people at this table. They knew me better than I knew myself sometimes. Each of them wanted to see me happy. Maybe I should listen to them instead of the crazy voice in my head telling me that everyone will think badly of me.

If I’m happy why should I care what other people think. I’ve never concerned myself with what anyone else in a board room thinks of me when I walk in it. I’ve never thought that when I walk into an industry event or premiere that people in the room think I’m not worthy to be in the room. I’ve always known that they respect me and my work ethic. My father's friends in the industry typically told me to slow down or I’d burn out early. My family all wanted me to focus on having as successful of a personal life as I do a professional life, something my Pops had never managed to do with the exception of his relationship with me. I’d been so focused on my career since leaving Chicago. It had ruined one relationship and prevented another from even getting off the ground. I needed to make sure that I didn’t allow that to happen again. Especially this time because this guy seems pretty special so far.

Once we were done with dinner we all started mixing drinks again. Joe was playing DJ with the stereo system and picking what we were listening to. We’d eaten dinner early enough that I was pretty sure we’d all end up getting hungry again later so it was a good thing we had leftovers from dinner. We were all lounging around enjoying the nice weather when Harry started to whisper in my ear.

“What do you think of going upstairs for a while?” I could tell he was a bit buzzed, like we all were, because of the sound of his voice. Or maybe it was me that had consumed too much because the sound of his voice caused my whole body to shiver.

“Yes, please.” I smiled at him. “We are going to bed,” I announced.

“Shut the doors when you get up there so we don’t have to hear you two,” Ty said.

“Of course,” I replied. I bent over and kissed the top of Joe’s head. “Your bedroom is open. Stay here this weekend. I know Pops will be happy to see you.”

“Okay, goodnight Ev.” We went inside and I saw Harry grab the open bottle of Rosé I’d been drinking from. He took a drink before turning to kiss me. I took the bottle from him and had several drinks on the way upstairs. Once we were in the bedroom he pulled my swimsuit cover up off trying to kiss me again.

“Windows,” I mumbled against his lips. “I need to shut the windows.” I got all of the doors closed and then hit the buttons necessary to close the automatic shades. As the shades started to descend I was picked up off of the ground and thrown onto the bed. I started to giggle as Harry crawled up the bed towards me. “That was sort of hot.”

“You in this bikini has been taunting me all day. I had to imagine some pretty terrible things to not get completely hard watching you in this tiny thing.”

“You did a wonderful job hiding it. Your shorts are small enough anyone would’ve been able to see.” He started to kiss me forcefully. His hands slid down to the bottom of my bikini and started to push it off.

“Lean up,” he said. I sat up a bit and he pulled my top over my head before standing enough to pull his shorts off. “You are so fucking beautiful. And the more you open up the more attracted to you I’m becoming.”

“I am really trying.”

“I know you are.” He kissed down my body stopping at my breasts which caused me to moan. In only a few short days he’d figured out just how much I loved when he did this. I pulled his hair out of the bun it had ended up in so that I could run my fingers through his hair. The kisses started to move further down my body stopping at my hips. I felt him bite at them. I reached for the nightstand hoping I’d find condoms, I opened the drawer and found nothing.

“Harry,” I said quietly. He didn’t answer but licked back up my side until his mouth found my breasts again. “H.” Still nothing, his mouth moved towards the other breast. “Baby.” He finally looked up at me. “I don’t have any condoms in my nightstand. I need to go get them out of my bag.”

“Did you pack some?” he asked.

“No, but I did buy a box when we were at the store.” He kissed me as he smiled.

“Go get them,” he said as he laid down on the bed beside me. I climbed over him and ran into my closet where my bag was. I found the plastic bag that I’d bought in the pharmacy of the store we’d stopped at. I’d maybe been overzealous, I bought two boxes of condoms. I just wanted to be safe and I knew I didn’t have any at home, it had been a while since I needed them there. I came back into the bedroom and climbed onto the bed before straddling Harry’s thighs, my butt resting on the bed. I opened the box, tore off a packet and opened it with my teeth. This time on the first try. “That’s still hot.”

“Much hotter when I do it on the first try, right?”

“Yes,” he said laughing. I stroked him a few times before putting the condom on. I raised up to my knees and with Harry’s help lowered my body onto him. I moaned loudly at the sensation. My hands anchored on his chest as my hips rolled back and forth. Harry sat up, taking a nipple in his mouth biting lightly. His hands gripped my hips guiding my motions. My head fell backwards as he started to kiss my neck.

“This feels so good,” I whispered.

“You’re amazing.” He kissed me with a passion that felt new. Every single one of our kisses had been amazing. But right now, this kiss, and the sex we were having felt different. I’m guessing that my decision to open up and be honest with him today was making this feel different, not that it actually was. “What am I going to do without you this week?” he asked.

“You’ll…be…fine. You’ve got a hand.” He started to laugh at me as he kissed me again, biting my lip. I started to rock my hips faster as I felt my orgasm approaching. He had figured out the tricks of my body over the last several days and knew how to prolong it so I felt the waves of pleasure over and over until he too reached his orgasm. I fell onto my back on the bed, staring at the ceiling and trying to catch my breath. “Fuck it. I’m gonna miss you while I’m gone.” He started to laugh.

“You’ll be fine, Evie, You’ve got a hand.” I laughed pretty hard at that as I turned to rest my head on my hand and look at him.

“I like that you call me Evie. Literally the only people that call me Evie are family, but I like it when you call me that.”

“I like the name. It’s cute. Evie.” I crawled out of bed and headed towards the bathroom, when I came back out I was in a pair of shorts that barely covered my ass and an old Northwestern football t-shirt. I crawled in bed next to Harry and cuddled up into his arms. It wasn’t long before he fell asleep and I was still laying there. I snuck out of bed and headed downstairs. I knew I needed to get a bottle of water or I’d feel like shit in the morning. I grabbed a bottle from the refrigerator and slid open one of the doors a bit and walked out onto the deck. I laid down on one of the loungers and listened to the waves roll in on the beach.

“Whatcha doin’ up, Ev?” I turned to see Joe walking out with a bottle of water.

“Couldn’t sleep. You?”

“Got thirsty. Saw you out here when I was coming to get water.” He sat down on the lounger beside me. “You look happy.”

“I am happy, really happy.”
“So, this thing with Harry, you really think it could end up serious, don’t you?”

“Yeah, I do. I don’t know why. I mean you know me, I don’t like being vulnerable with people very much. I’m so used to be in control of my life because of what I do for work that sometimes it’s just a challenge to stop being Everlee Mae Scarcello, powerful woman who could kick the ass of half of Hollywood and just be Everlee, a girl who is 25, single and sometimes wishes she could just give up being in charge and move home to Chicago.”

“You let all of us see it. You should let him see it. I watched you two together today. He doesn’t take his eyes off of you.”

“Oh I know. It’s amazing and also scary as hell.” Joe laughed.

“Only you would think affection from someone was scary.”

“Well, my luck should lead me that direction.” I turned to my side to look at Joe. “You know Drew. You know what our last two years were like and how devastated I was when we broke up.”

“I know. I was in New York when you made that trip there to have the conversation and end things. You’d both tried seeing other people and trying to see if you could fix it and you couldn’t. I remember the call I got from you that night because you knew I was in New York. You were a mess.”

“I don’t ever want to feel like that again. It was the worst feeling in the world.”

“Breakups happen and are usually meant to. But you can’t let that determine whether you try again with someone or not. You did try again for a while and it just wasn't right.”

“I know, but this would just be worse. Anthony was at least in Chicago most of the time, I could go home to see him. Harry is in LA or London. I mean there’s no way I can make an excuse to go to London every other week or some shit.”

“I know the feeling. But if the person is right the situation can be too. He’s here a lot right?”
“I mean I think so. But he’s got auditions for movies starting Monday. That means somewhere else on set for a few months. And as much as I’m his manager I know that it can cramp your style to have a girlfriend on set.”

“Anyone who thinks you cramp their style is crazy. Ev, I think you’re great and he obviously thinks so too. I think your hesitation is coming from your fear of Jimmy’s reaction. He’s proud of you, who you are dating won’t change that. He used to think we were dating, remember?”

“Yeah and that was just weird. At that point you were pretty much the only person I hung out with in Los Angeles because Nick was barely here.”

“He’s going to support you if you believe that the decision is right. He’s a Dad first, his priority is seeing his kid happy.”

“I know you’re right,” I said. “I just don’t want him to be disappointed in me.”

“There’s no way he could. I played golf with James and Nick a few weeks ago. He’s so proud of you it’s almost obnoxious. And he wants you to be happy. Trust me.”

“Okay,” I said. I yawned.

“Go get some sleep you look tired.” I stood up as Joe did and embraced him in a big hug. “We are all proud of you, Ev and just want you to be happy. So go be happy for a while.”

“I will, thanks Joe.” I headed upstairs and quietly opened the door. I climbed in bed next to Harry feeling him shift in bed and hug me.

“Where’d you go?” he asked quietly. I knew that me getting in bed had woken him up.

“Downstairs to get water, I was thirsty.”

“Okay. Sleep now. Goodnight, love,” he said kissing me. He hugged me closer to him and I finally felt sleep take over.

Notes