It felt strange not seeing Allie all day. We had spoken at lunchtime, but it wasn’t enough. Just the thought of going to bed without her was hard to muster. Even in just the past few days she was becoming a quintessentially large part of my life.
On my drive home through some London traffic, I made a call to my favorite restaurant. What could be better then to take an American to a British gastro pub, and Bull & Last was one of the best in town. I made a reservation for 7:30 the following day.
The past week had been exhausting. Even after only two months of not dancing on stage daily, I was completely winded by all the choreography. Hektor was nice, but he had no concept of slack. By the end of the day I found it hard driving home since my legs didn’t want to deal with the three peddles.
Seventeen messages awaited me on my phone when I walked I the door. After throwing my keys into the bowl by the door, I listened to them while taking off my trainers. My agent and public relations people had all left multiple messages as well as my mother. Not feeling like talking to the PR people, I tackled all but my mother via email. Before calling my mother, I spent some time under the cascading warmth of my shower before phoning.
“Liam, why haven’t you called?” She answered the phone.
“Hi mum. I know, I’m sorry. There has just been a lot going on.” I said.
“Well I would think so. How are you darling?” Her voice never ceased to turn me back into a child, and all I wanted to do was spill all mu guts to my mother.
“I met someone, mum.” It just spilled out. I knew she would not have known since she never read gossip, but I still felt like if I didn’t tell her now, I wouldn’t have the chance to tell her before someone else did.
“Oh, I’m so happy for you Liam. Tell me more.” My mother prattled.
“It happened a few weeks ago, actually, it will be a month tomorrow. It happened when she literally ran into me, spilling coffee on both of us. Out of the blue, we met again later that night. Well, really, she bought me a drink then ran off.” I wanted to tell her everything. I might be a grown man, but I still was a mummy’s boy.
“Good, tell me about her.”
“Her name is Allie. Allie Halloway. She is an American who came here to do some schooling. She is an medievalist.” My mother ooed and awed as was proper while I blabbered on, explaining every detail about Allie.
Finally, she cut me off after a good five-minute description of Allie, saying, “well, she does sound lovely, but you do know that I would like to meet her and give you my blessing before it turns too serious.”
“Soon, mum, I promise soon.” We talked for a while still before I excused myself since I, once again, had an early morning wake up call. I put down the phone and wondered if my mother could tell from my voice that I was already becoming serious about Allie; that I was already looking to the future for us.

That night’s sleep was quite fitful. I dreamt of Allie, and her monster of an ex. He was beating her up, but I couldn’t do anything but watch in horror as she pleaded for mercy. She screamed out for me, pleading with her eyes for my help, but I was trapped in a solid glass box.
When I woke up, I was tangled in my sheets, covered head to toe in a cold sweat. Gingerly, I rose from my bed and made my way to the bathroom. I looked awful; bags under both eyes. Quickly, I took a drink of water hoping it would be enough to pull me out of my bad dream. However, when I found myself back in bed, all I would see was Allie in pain every time I closed my eyes. The next few hours were no better, filled with a stream of bad dreams trickling through my subconscious: all of which pertained to Allie in some way or another.
When I made it into work the next morning, I was late.
“You look like hell, mate. You okay?” Niall asked me already with a microphone in hand and sitting Indian style on the stage.
“Didn’t sleep well.” I mumbled as I joined the rest of the boys sitting on the stage.
“Sad news boys.” Hektor said when we were all paying attention. “Looks like we wont be able to have rehearsals tomorrow since I am going out of down.”
“Darn it!” Louis said extremely sarcastically.
“But that doesn’t mean I don’t expect you all, especially you Harry, to practice.” Hektor continues.
I couldn’t hemp myself, so I said, “No worries, Hektor, I will work on increasing my stamina.”
Everyone chuckled at my remark, remembering what Hektor had told Allie the other day. “You better, Liam, seeing as I will be talking to Allie to make sure.” Hektor replied, causing a few of the boys and surrounding back up dancers to whoop, holler and clap.
“Now, onto work. Lets start with Little Things.”
“But it’s acoustic. We are sitting down for it.” Niall was confounded.
“That’s the point.” Hektor commenced. “You all look tired today, some more then others.” He glanced my way, giving a sympathetic smile. “So we can take it easy and start slow for now.”
Hektor must have been feeling nice since we did no new choreography nor was he hard on us. I was more then grateful and more then excited when he let us go early which gave me more then enough time to get ready for tonight’s dinner with Allie.
After a long, hot, shower; I made my way over to Allie’s apartment. Since I was running early, I decided to stop at a florist shop on the way. For Allie, I purchased a large bouquet with lots of colorful flowers recommended by the florist. Also, for Maggie, I bought a smaller bouquet of sunflowers. Feeling I had sufficiently found enough flowers, I continued the twenty-minute drive to her home.
A quick few wraps on the door and Maggie greeted me with a beautiful grin.
“You, my friend, are early. I like someone who is not afraid to show up early.” Maggie said before letting me in. I have her a kiss on the cheek and offered her the sunflowers. “They are lovely, thank you.”
“My pleasure. Is she ready?” I asked.
“Allie!” Mags yelled. “Lover boy is here.”
Looking down the hall, I saw Allie open the door and pier around. “Give me two more minutes?” She asked.
“Take all the time you need.” I replied.
“While I have you to myself, Liam, I need to speak with you.” Maggie said before dragging me into the kitchen in hopes for some extra privacy. “Look, I am sorry for any trouble I might have caused the two of you. It was never my attention.”
“Maggie…” I began before she held up her hand and cut me off.
“No. Listen to me. It was a bit of a wake up call for me. You have to understand that I have always wanted to be famous. I guess I compensated by reading gossip mags. I never stopped to think of the damage they might be doing.” She looked genuine. Never letting her glance stray from mine. “I am working on being a better person, and one way of doing that is to make sure that Allie is not going to get hurt. So please promise me that you will take care of her?”
“I have no intention to ever let her go, so of course, I will take good care of her.” I replied, probably admitting a little more then I should have.
Just then the sound of someone clearing their throat caused the two of us to turn around. Allie stood there in a mint dress and a yellow cardigan, which magnified the red of her hair as well as the perfection that was her porcelain skin. “You ready?” her voice danced across her lips.
“Let’s get your flowers into some water first.” I said as I hander the flowers to her.
She took them from my hand, closed her eyes, and put her nose into the bouquet taking a deep breath. “They are lovely, Liam.” She said before placing a hand on my chest and leaning into a kiss. Our lips met and by instinct, I cupped the back of her neck. She tasted like tea and lemon.
“Give me those.” Maggie reached for the flowers and practically shooed us out saying, “I’ll put these in water and you two love birds go out.”
I didn’t hesitate in grabbing Allie’s hand, wrapping her fingers with mine, and leading her towards the elevator.