For the past few days, Penelope was basically living at Harry’s flat. Even on the days where she had shifts for both the design company and the restaurant, when she was finished washing dishes and cleaning tables, she would drive all the way back to his house. Incidentally, it was getting harder for her to work at the restaurant. She and Harry were no longer being private about their relationship, despite management’s wishes, so more pictures of them began to surface. Since he hadn’t had the opportunity to publicly announce that they were together, none of the customers were exactly sure who she was, but occasionally she would get an innocent “you look a lot like that girl that’s dating that One Direction fella”. Penelope figured that soon enough, even though she loved that little restaurant and the employee discount was convenient, she would have to quit.

Originally, she and Harry were going to go out tonight however her boss called her to his office at the end of the day and asked her to start on a project. Penelope hadn’t told Harry yet, but she was on her way back to his flat.

In her rear view mirror, she saw a black range rover that was basically on top of her. She tried switching lanes and speeding up but no matter what, the car just kept tailing her. For a minute she thought it might be paparazzi so she was trying to see who was driving, but as soon as she reached a red light, someone tapped on her window. It was Niall.

Immediately, Penelope rolled down the passenger side window. “Niall! What are you doing?”

“Me and Louis were just out at the shops and we saw you! We’ve been trying to get your attention for like ten minutes!” He said leaning into the car.

“You two were giving me a panic attack! I thought someone was trying to kill me!” She laughed.

“Shit, my light’s green! Follow me back to Harry’s. Okay? I’ll call you.”

“Yep, no problem!” Niall patted on the roof of the car and Penelope could hear him yell, “Follow that car!” He held his pants up as he ran to the car. Louis honked at her as they pulled off.

Penelope found Niall’s number in her phone and put it on speaker. “Wey hey!” She yelled through the phone when he answered, imitating him.

“Oh God, that was awful!” Niall laughed. “What’s up, Frenchie?”

“Harry and I were supposed to go out tonight, but I have to work now. And I was wondering if you guys were doing anything so maybe all of you can go out while I’m working.”

“Why would we want to hang out with that loser?” a voice yelled.

“Hi, Louis!” Penelope said shaking her head. “He doesn’t know that I can’t go yet. Are you two too busy?”

Niall sighed, “I mean this is really inconvenient for me. I might have to move around my date with Kate Beckinsale.”

“And I was supposed to be playing in a football match with Prince Harry—“

“But I guess we can work something out.”

“Aww, you guys are such lads!” Penelope giggled at their so called plans. “I’m gonna hang up before I crash into all of these people that don’t understand what a cross walk is.”

“We better get a reward for our sacrafices!” Niall teased before he hung up.

The entire way back to Harry’s she could hear Louis and Niall blasting music behind her. Every once in a while, Louis would beep his horn to the beat. Niall was hanging out of the window yelling naughty things at Penelope as she was trying to drive, classic gems such as “Hey babe, you should let me take you for a ride!” Clearly he was not concerned with what pedestrians thought. Penelope stuck her middle finger up out the window. Niall and Louis cackled so loud, it sounded as if they were right next to her. She just shook her head as they pulled into the car park. Penelope gave them both hugs when she got out of the car.

“Hello, love!” Louis said with a big smile. “How have you been?”

“I’ve been working tons so I’ve been super tired, but everything’s really good actually!”

The boys gave each other a mischievous side glance. “Have you been staying here since Harry got back?” Louis asked as they got out of their cars. He obviously knew the answer already.

Penelope blushed, “Yup.”

Niall was next to try to embarrass her. “Have you been getting your rest or… not so much.”

“As if Harry hasn’t told you already!” Penelope argued only slightly mortified.

Louis chimed in, “Well you know how guys like to exaggerate sometimes. We wanted to hear it from the horse’s mouth. Not that you’re a horse. You’re a very lovely girl.” He added laughing.

Penelope began walking faster as they continued to pester her about how often she and Harry had sex. They were just starting to make bets on said frequency when they got inside the flat. You could hear her sigh with relief.

“I’ll go see what Harry’s doing. Be right back,” she said setting her bag down in the kitchen
where the boys flocked to the refrigerator.

Harry must have just gotten out of the shower because he was soaking wet and in a towel when Penelope walked into his bedroom. “Hey there, sexy!” She teased.

He grinned and immediately walked over to give her a kiss. “You’re looking gorgeous today!”

Harry was still in bed when she left in the morning. He only woke up enough to wish her a good day and peck her cheek, but he was definitely attempting to make up for lost time. He pulled her close to him and kissed her neck. Penelope giggled and her face flushed bright red, but she had to stop him.

“Niall and Louis are here!”

Harry pulled back, “What?” Then he yelled, addressing his band mates. “Why the hell are you in my house?” He joked, immediately running out in his towel to greet them.

“Why don’t you have clothes on?” Louis shouted as Harry gave them both soaking wet hugs.
“Did you two already have sex? We just got in!”

“Shove it,” Harry laughed, grabbing a banana out the fruit basket and poking Louis with it. “What are you doing here?”

“We’re going out! Clubs! Drinks! Women! Well, women for me anyways.” Niall said laughing at his own joke.

Harry shrugged, “Sorry, guys. I can’t. Nell and I are—“

“Actually,” Penelope interrupted. “I can’t go out because my boss just assigned me a project and its due in three days. So, I asked these lovely men if they would kindly go in my place. That is, if you want to go.”

It was plain that Harry was a little disappointed. However, it was also obvious that he’d never miss an opportunity to hang out with his mates. “Of course I want to go. We can make it a lad’s night!”

Niall clapped one loud thunderous clap, “Yes! We’ve got to call up the rest of the fellas and have a massive night out!”

“I’m liking this!” Louis shouted, high fiving Niall and patting Harry on the back. “Tonight’s gonna be epic.”

Nell smiled, happy that she didn’t ruin the night for Harry. “Well I really do need to go ahead and get to work! Do you mind if I move your table? I have a really big canvas.”

“Sure, babe.” Harry pulled her in at the waist and kissed the top of her head. “You really can’t come with us tonight?”

She sighed, “No, and I really wish I could, but normally this kind of project takes at least a week and I have three days. My only other option would be to get help from Eric, my ex, because he’s the only other person in the same category as me which I don’t think either of us wants.”

“Yeah, I don’t think so. Good luck on your project Nell.” He laughed giving her another kiss before she got to work on her project and the boys got to work on calling everyone in their phone books to invite them out.

Penelope was pretty bummed that she couldn’t go, especially now that this was turning into a big event, but she knew that her job was more important. And Harry didn’t bother her any more about going. That is, until his friend Tom said that he was going to join the festivities. Harry had gotten dressed and done his hair and they were nearly about to leave when he started begging
Penelope to go with them. She had already changed into her pajama shorts and a tank top, had her hair pulled back and was sketching diligently despite all of the boys’ phone calls and chatting.

“You’ve never got to meet Tom and he’s one of my best mates! You have to come tonight! You’ll have so much fun!”

Penelope buried her face in her hands, sitting in front of the large canvas with a sketchbook poised on her knee, “Harry, I told you I have like negative time to work on this. Literally, I’m barely going to have time to sleep. ”

“I know that you’re really busy, but this night is gonna be loads of fun and I want you to be a part of it!” Harry said squatting down in front of her.

“I’m really sorry and you do look very cute,” she said tugging on a lock of his hair, “but I really can’t.”

He crawled up next to her and grabbed her legs, resting them in his lap and putting his hands on top. “Can’t you just come out for a little while?” He kissed her cheek then her shoulder.

“I’m not even dressed to go out,” she giggled as he continued pecking at her.

“You look fine! Nobody cares what you’re wearing, Nell!” Harry shook his head. “Look you can just work until it’s time for us to leave then throw on some jeans and hang with us for an hour or two.”

Penelope sighed, “I guess an hour wouldn’t be that bad.”

Harry jumped to his feet. “Yes! I got her, guys!”

“You’re coming?” Niall asked beaming. “That’s sick!”

“Only for an hour!” Penelope warned, then said to Harry “After that I have to focus on the project.”

“Okay, babe,” he said bending over to give her a kiss.

Penelope tightened her pony tail and got back to work.

Notes

Sorry I've been off being a diligent college student!
I feel like I've been neglecting my children haha
Please forgive me!
Hope you enjoy the chapter :)
Please subscribe if you haven't & comment!
I'd really like to know where you think the story is going!
There was a slight bit of foreshadowing ;)
I hope you all have a lovely day! <3