Somebody Else's Arms

Part One

Hailey Breen’s eyes were startled away from the television set by a boisterous knock on her apartment door. She inwardly groaned wondering who on earth it might possibly be. She was literally sitting in her sweats with orange fingers up to her knuckles from the Cheetos she was just eating straight from the bag. Her hair was pulled up into a rats-nest of a ponytail high on top of her head and she didn’t have a smidge of makeup on. Really fucking attractive, Hailey.

When another knock followed shortly after, Hailey did her best to lick any evidence of the artificial cheesy goodness from her fingers and stashed the bag of Cheetos behind a pillow. Whoever it was didn’t need to see the makings of her pathetic life.

“Just a second. Jeesh,” Hailey said as she crossed the room to answer the door. Pulling it open, she saw her neighbor Harry Styles, all-around hottie of the building, leaning casually against the door frame.

“Oh, hi,” Hailey said, taken aback by his presence. She felt her cheeks blush immediately. Why, oh why, did he have to come over tonight? Tonight when she looked like complete trash.

She shouldn’t have been surprised though. Their friendship developed pretty rapidly over the year and a half they lived across the hall from each other. Their friendship, among other things – like the wild sensation of imaginary butterflies that fluttered in her stomach every time he was near her. Like she mentioned before, her life was pretty pathetic.

“Hi, Hailz,” he said as his sly smile greeted her.

“Hey, Harry,” she said casually, sending him a smile back, because gosh, look at him. Who wouldn’t smile when they saw him?

“Hey, I’ve got a dilemma that I need your help with,” he said, standing upright, running his hand through the front tuft of his beautiful brown locks.

“Uh, okay,” she said, sending him a look of unease. What on earth would he possibly need her help with?

“Can you… just, come on,” he said, swiping his hand through the air to motion her to follow him back to his place.

“I’ve gotta…” Hailey started, looking back into her apartment.

“What?” He asked a bit impatiently. She was going to mention she needed to shut off her TV, but really there was no need. She’d be back in no time, because she knew he had his date with Emma tonight.

“Oh, never mind,” she said, closing the door behind her, following him across the hall to his place.

Hailey followed Harry straight into his bedroom after petting his two adorable dogs, Jagger and Bowie.

“So… okay,” he said, walking into his massive closet.

Hailey immediately pounced on his bed, sprawling herself out like she owned the god damn place. She perched her head up on her hand waiting for his so-called dilemma that he so adamantly needed her help with. Jagger immediately jumped on the bed with her, but Bowie stood at the foot of it looking up at her like ‘pick me up, lady’. He was just too tiny to make it up on the bed by himself.

“You know, you really should get Bowie some stairs leading up to your bed. It’s not fair,” Hailey called out to Harry as she picked up the tiny mutt. Both dogs curled up with her on the bed after getting their fair share of kisses in.

“I’ll get right on that,” Harry said, sounding purposely bored.

“Daddy just doesn’t care. No, does he?” Hailey said, speaking directly to the tiny puppy.

“So, which shirt should I wear?” Harry asked as he walked out of the closet with two, no doubt, over-priced designer dress shirts. One more outrageous than the next.

“Uh…” Hailey said, looking between the red floral one and the electric blue floral one. Harry certainly had a knack for dressing eccentrically. But that was all just a part of what made Harry Harry.

“Blahh,” she said, making a face at them both.

“You don’t like them?” He asked, frowning a bit.

“Jesus, Harry. Come on, man,” she said, pulling herself off of the bed to really give him her help.

She walked straight into his cavernous closet, really looking around. She sifted through his shirts on their hangers and found a stark white Armani dress shirt and a pitch black Gucci blazer.

“Here,” she said, handing them to him, watching as he quirked his eyebrow.

“Do you have slacks to match the jacket?” Hailey asked him.

“Yeah,” he said, looking at the garments in his hands.

“You can’t go wrong with simple every once in a while, Harry. There’s nothing sexier than a man in a well-tailored suit,” she said, sending him a look of pure satisfaction for a job well-done.

“You don’t like my floral choices?” He frowned.

“Simple is sexy, Harry. You want Emma to think you’re sexy, don’t you?” She asked, heightening her eyebrows at him.

“Well, yeah,” he stated matter-of-factly.

“Then trust me,” she said knowingly.

“But, now I need different shoes,” he said with a huff.

Hailey sighed as she immediately turned back into his closet, realizing just how painful this truly was. She was picking out the perfect date outfit for the perfect man, except the date wasn’t with her and she had absolutely no chance of ever getting her hands on any of that perfection.

“Here,” she said, thrusting a pair of shiny black Saint Laurent dress shoes at him.

“Cuff links?” He asked, quirking his eyebrow with a sly smirk on his lips.

“Would you like me to pick out your socks and underwear too?” She asked him sarcastically. She needed to draw the line somewhere. She could not bear to rifle through his underwear drawer. It would literally cause her pain picturing what kind of skivvies a man like Harry Styles wore. Oh, her heart. Oh, her raging libido.

“I guess I can figure out the rest,” he said as he lay the garments in his arms out on his bed. Both dogs went to sniff at them before Harry gently scolded them away.

Hailey was still holding on to his highly-expensive designer shoes, watching him from behind. She bit her lip, studying his entire build. As if she hadn’t already scoured every inch of that body with her eyes and cataloged it in her brain for future reference. He was such a magnificent creature.

“Well, I think my work here is done,” Hailey said, quietly placing the shoes on the bed next to his suit before she made her way to his bedroom door.

“Hey, where are you going?” He called out to her.

“Uh, back to my place,” she said, sending him an odd look.

“But… what if I look absolutely horrible?” He asked, his mouth left slack-jawed.

“You won’t. Trust me,” she told him.

“But… just… just wait until I try on the shirt and jacket,” he said, throwing his t-shirt over his head quickly.

Oh, good god.

It wasn’t like she hadn’t seen his chest or abs or perfect treasure trail before – they lived across the hall from one another for a year and a half and there was a pool at their complex. It was just the fact that he caught her so off guard ripping off his shirt like that. It definitely threw her.

“Uh…” Hailey stammered, trying to pry her eyes away. But, of course, she couldn’t.

“Just hang on,” he said, carefully pulling the shirt off its hanger and slipping it over his shoulders, covering up more than a few of his massive collection of tattoos.

As he buttoned the shirt, covering up more and more skin, she felt like she could actually breathe again.

“So far so good,” she said, swallowing what little saliva she had left in her mouth.

“Don’t go anywhere,” he said, eyeing her as he grabbed for the jacket.

She watched as he pulled it on and stood in front of her, smoothing out the front of it.

“Oh… uh…” Hailey said, pointing to his collar that was a bit wonky in the back.

“What?” He asked, trying to smooth it out, but failed.

“Uh… just… here,” she said, moving toward him, laying his collar flat for him. Dear lord, his scent was intoxicating.

“Thanks,” he said, turning up a bashful smile at her. Oh god, their faces were so close. She might die.

It took Hailey a moment, but her brain synced back up with her motor skills and she took a step back feeling like an idiot for staring at him longer than any sane person would.

“How do I look?” He asked, holding out his arms.

“Hmm,” she said, tapping her lips with her fingertip. He left the shirt unbuttoned ridiculously low so that his cross necklace and his sparrow tattoos were peeking out. But it worked for him. It definitely worked.

“What?” He asked, frowning at her.

“The running shorts need to go,” Hailey joked, making a throat slicing gesture with her hand.

She didn’t mean it to come out sounding sexually at all, but when she saw the cock of Harry’s eyebrow, she knew exactly what he was thinking.

“I mean… you know. You’ve gotta wear it with the slacks… the black slacks… you know what I mean,” she stammered, feeling more than a little flustered as she waved her hands in the air, trying to redeem herself. Harry could only chuckle at her.

“But, seriously, how does the rest of it look?” He asked, casually holding his arms out at his sides, waiting for her opinion.

“Perfect,” she told him honestly. It was her number one describing word for Harry. Big sigh.

“You’re the best, Hailey. Truly the best,” he said, closing the space between them, wrapping her into a hug.

His cologne and natural musk were choking her – in the most pleasing way. Everything about his scent, his looks, his personality turned her on. But her brain knew it wasn’t the best idea to get sucked in to his ethereal halo. Her brain knew what her heart couldn’t understand – that Harry Styles would never look at her, think of her, or feel for her the way she did for him.

And the hardest part was trying to think with her brain when her heart kept leading her straight to him.

Notes