Turning Tables

A few days passed and Cali and Harry were more or less avoiding each other – and Cali only knew that he was avoiding her too because after the first consecutive day of avoiding him, she stopped – but he was still not around. Her dreams about him were still clouding her mind – but they seemed more intense somehow. Like sleeping with him in real life made her dream life even wilder.

On top of that, not only was her unconscious mine thinking about him, but her conscious mind was always coming back to him too. His face was running on a loop in her head or something. It made life difficult – especially at work. She would be getting photographed with a male model – his hands would be on her and all she could think about was Harry – pretending it was Harry who was touching her. Her mind was fucked. She couldn’t understand how Harry’s feelings and her feelings for that matter changed so rapidly – even before the sex.

Cali went home feeling annoyed with her life. She just wanted things to be—okay, she didn’t know how she wanted things to be. Maybe like how things were right before the sex – the playful conversation they had. Yeah, that span of time – the what… thirty minutes they spent talking? God, she and Harry were barely civil toward each other and Cali was wishing for their relationship to be like it was for like a split second in all of eternity. Yeah, her mind was definitely fucked.

Cali immediately stripped her clothing off as soon as she was in her bedroom. She needed to shower. Before her shoot, she was rubbed down head-to-toe with body oil. She didn’t understand why she had to be doused with lube every time someone needed to take a picture of her. It was gross and it made her feel gross.

After her shower, she walked to her kitchen in her towel to get a bottle of water. Opening her fridge, she realized a) there was no bottled water and b) she had no food whatsoever. Whoopee. It looked like she would be spending her lovely evening at the supermarket.

Cali started to get ready by doing her hair and makeup and as she was drying and straightening her hair, she heard her text ring tone go off somewhere in her bedroom. Once she retrieved her phone from her purse, she opened the text. It was from Harry – and she couldn’t keep that damn smile off her face even if she wanted to.

Harry: I’m bored. Do you want to hang out?

Yeah, she had a huge, cheesy grin spread across her face and she couldn’t help it. Then she remembered she needed to go grocery shopping.

Cali: Sorry. I’ve got plans.

Harry: Boo. Like what?

Cali: Grocery shopping. Super fun.

Harry: I can give you a ride.

He was going to drop everything and give her a ride to the grocery store? It was weird.

Cali: I was just going to take a cab.

A few moments later she heard a knock at her door. She quickly retrieved her robe from the back of the bathroom door and put it on. When she open her flat door, Harry stood in front of her wearing jeans, a white v-neck and a black leather jacket. As much as she didn’t want to admit it to herself, he looked hot.

“Let’s go,” he said with a bright smile.

“Harry, I can really just catch a cab…” Cali said, hesitating slightly. She wasn’t even ready to go.

“Let’s go, Cali,” he said firmly.

“But, I don’t want to ruin your night,” she countered.

“Did you not get my first text? I am bored. Besides, I can get my grocery shopping out of the way too,” he chuckled lightly.

“Well…” She hesitated.

“Let’s go,” he said again. Pushy.

“I’m not ready yet,” she said, pointing to her half straightened hair.

“I’ll wait,” he said with a shrug. Cali moved to the side so he could step into her flat. As he walked in, Cali watched as his eyes scanned over the whole layout and contents of her apartment.

“You know, I’ve only been in your flat once. And it was that time when…” He said, but cut himself off. Yeah, she was certain they both knew when that time was – when he fucked her best friend on her brand new couch.

“Your flat is nicer than mine,” he stated matter-of-factly.

“No way! Yours is way better,” Cali laughed as she made her way back to the bathroom to finish her hair.

“Yeah right. Look at your kitchen. It’s so open and new and clean. Modern is way better,” he explained, his voice rising a little louder since she was in another room from him.

“Your kitchen is my favorite part of your flat. I love the brick archway,” Cali said, sticking her head out the bathroom door. The building they lived in was an old brownstone which was converted into six flats so each flat had a different floor plan.

“My kitchen looks like it’s a hundred years old,” Harry grumbled as he walked to the bathroom. He stood in the doorway, leaning against the frame.

“It’s got new cabinets,” she pointed out with a smile, thinking of the old couple that lived in his flat before him.

“Only cause the bloke who lived there before me almost burned the place down,” Harry chuckled.

“Hey, don’t hate on Mr. Reid. He and his wife were the best neighbors ever,” Cali protested, sticking her head out of the bathroom to send him a glare.

“What about me?” He asked, quirking an eyebrow.

“Keep dreaming,” she said, rolling her eyes.

After bending over to get the back pieces of her hair with the straightener, Cali stood up straight and noticed Harry standing in the bathroom doorway, his gaze focused straight on her cleavage.

“You could at least try to pretend you weren’t looking at my boobs,” she countered, smirking at him. His eyes met hers quickly as a smiled passed across his face.

“Sorry. I was having flashbacks,” he chuckled playfully. Cali let out a laugh and smacked him on the arm.

“Oww! I remember that from that night too. Damn, woman,” he grumbled, rubbing at his arm.

“Pervert,” she laughed as she unplugged her straightener.

Cali walked to her bedroom so she could get dressed and Harry followed, now holding himself up against her bedroom door frame.

“I need to get dressed,” she told him and he nodded, not moving a muscle.

“Harry,” she groaned.

“What? It’s nothing I haven’t already seen a thousand times,” he laughed, exaggerating just a bit.

“A thousand times? You’re funny,” she deadpanned.

“I thought so,” he chuckled, bouncing his eyebrows at her.

If he wasn’t going to move, it meant she was going to have to. She changed in her closet into a white tank and a black skirt. She threw a black jacket on over the tank and slipped on a pair of black heels before she walked out of the closet.

“Ready?” Harry asked when she emerged and she noticed he was sitting on her bed now with a perfect view into her closet.

“You were just watching me, weren’t you?” Cali asked, quirking an eyebrow at him.

“I tried not to. Really I did,” he said, smirking at her.

“God. Let’s go,” she said, rolling her eyes at him as she grabbed her cellphone from her night stand and her purse from her bed. He chuckled as he followed her out of her bedroom and then out of the flat.

“Are you heading to a fashion show after the market?” Harry quipped, checking out her outfit.

“No,” she said, rolling her eyes as they walked down the stairs and out the front door of the building.

“Looks like it,” Harry told her.

“Forgive me for not wanting to look like absolute rubbish,” Cali scoffed as the two of them walked toward Harry’s Range Rover that was parked on the street.

“No, you definitely don’t look like rubbish,” Harry said as he clicked the unlock button on his key fob before opening up the passenger door for Cali.

“Thank you,” she said, sending him a small smile as she got into the vehicle.

Harry drove them to Tesco’s, which was only a few blocks away. Once they were inside, Cali grabbed a cart and started walking toward the produce section, where she usually got most of her grocery shopping done.

“So, what inspired you and the other lads to start your band?” Cali asked as she picked through the bananas.

“Uh, I don’t know. I’ve always been musically motivated. My dad used to be in a band,” he said, checking out the oranges.

“Really?” Cali asked, quirking an eyebrow at him.

“Yeah. We were actually going to start a band when we were younger – Louis and I, but we just never got it off the ground,” Harry explained and Cali nodded, finding herself intrigued by his whole story.

“How’s your sister?” Cali asked, continuing on the conversation when it began to lapse.

Gemma was in Cali’s sister’s grade in school and what she can remember of her, she was exceptionally nicer than Harry ever was.

“She’s married now,” he said, smiling proudly.

“Really?” Cali asked, feeling happy for her.

“Yeah. She got married a couple years back,” Harry said, moving on to juggling grapefruits – yes, juggling.

“You’re going to drop one of those and I’m going to laugh when it smashes all over the floor,” Cali chuckled.

“Yeah, right. I’ve got mad skills,” he said, throwing the large fruits in the air. Two seconds later, one of them went tumbling to the ground, rolling under the shelf and Cali was laughing hysterically at him.

“At least it didn’t bust open,” he said, looking around guiltily as he placed the other fruit back on the pile.

“You’re ridiculous,” Cali laughed.

“But yeah, Louis and I like making music together. We flow well. Plus the other lads are pretty awesome too,” Harry told her, going back to their previous conversation.

“You guys are really good,” she told him as she moved the cart along the aisle.

“If we would have started the band when we were younger as planned, I think we could have gotten somewhere. The scene was just so much better back then – especially for the music we write. Right now it’s just for fun, though. For the music,” he told her. He was genuine in his response and she liked that. She liked honest, humble Harry.

When they reached to the meat counter, Cali had them cut her up some turkey slices while Harry looked at the seafood.

“Have you ever had the salmon from here?” Harry asked, looking over in her direction.

“No. I’m not a big fan of seafood,” she said, turning up her nose.

“Oh my god! You’ve never had my salmon,” he said enthusiastically.

“What’s so good about your salmon?” She asked, mocking him.

“You’ll have to taste it,” he said, smirking at her.

“Oh, really?” She asked, quirking an eyebrow.

“Yeah. I’m gonna get some,” he said as he ordered it from the person behind the counter. Once he had his package he put it in her cart next to her fruits, vegetables and salads.

“So are you coming over for dinner then?” He asked, quirking a questioning eyebrow at her.

“Dinner?” She asked. Suddenly she was feeling nervous.

“Yeah. I’ll make the salmon,” he said, smirking at her. Cali stared at him, not sure if it was a good idea.

“Well?” He asked with a goofy grin on his face. She couldn’t think of a good enough excuse to say no.

“Uh… okay,” she told him finally.

“Brilliant!” He said, smiling widely.

Harry picked up a few more things for their dinner – he even picked up some wine that perfectly paired with salmon apparently. And Cali almost protested. Because them and alcohol – Oh God. They most definitely didn’t need to add alcohol to it, but Harry insisted, like a god damn sommelier, that the salmon needed the wine. So a massive bottle of white wine was purchase for their dinner and Cali joked that Harry got the biggest bottle on purpose and he didn’t correct her.

Once they had all their groceries paid for and packed up, they lugged them out to the car.

“And you were going to haul all this home in a cab,” Harry chuckled, rolling his eyes at her.

“I wouldn’t have bought this much. It’s a luxury – this whole getting a ride from the neighbor thing. I usually stop by here like multiple times in a week because I hate making big trips in a cab,” she said as she put her last grocery bag into the back of Harry’s vehicle.

“Just let me know when you need to get some groceries. Anytime,” he said as he got into the driver side and she got into the passenger side.

“Harry, shut up. I’m not going to depend on you for rides,” she said, rolling her eyes.

“You’re being stupid, Cals. Just get over your pride. Seriously,” he said and she scoffed. She also secretly loved how he called her ‘Cals’. What was happening to her?

Harry helped her bring all her groceries up to her flat – like a gentleman. It made her feel weird that he was being so… weird. His chivalry was freaking her out.

“Uh, thanks,” she said as they brought up the last load.

“Yeah, no problem. Thanks for hanging out,” he told her, smiling widely.

“Yeah…” She said, feeling awkward.

“I’m gonna go start the food,” he told her, pointing back to his flat.

“O-okay,” she stammered, remembering that Harry was cooking dinner for her. He smiled and walked out the door.

All her nerves in her body were screaming for him and she didn’t know how well she was going to be able to tune them out. She tried to calm herself down as she put away the groceries – but it wasn’t working. Did he… did he think it was a date? Oh, God… did he think they were going to… end the night together? He text her that evening wanting to ‘hang out’ and then ended up bombarding her into having dinner with him. What on earth was going on? She was going over to Harry’s house for dinner and it made her feel out of control.

Harry knocked on her door a little while later and she was fidgety and nervous when she opened the door to him.

“You can come hang out if you want,” he told her with a smile.

“Uh, yeah,” she said, feeling awkward.

“Dinner will be done soon anyway,” he added.

“Brilliant,” she said quietly as he smiled at her again.

When they got over to his place they shared a bit of awkward conversation as they stood in the kitchen. Well, he was acting normal – it was her who was being a lunatic.

Once the food was finished, Cali and Harry ate in the living room in front of the TV, which she very much appreciated, because it meant that he was thinking it wasn’t a date. It helped her relax exponentially.

“Do you like it?” He asked, smirking over at her. She actually did, which was surprising to her. It didn’t taste too fishy – which was what she didn’t like about seafood.

“It’s really good,” she told him honestly.

“You’re not just saying that, are you?” He asked, nudging her arm playfully.

“No, no. Seriously,” she laughed, grabbing her wine glass to take another sip.

“Good. Because I am an excellent cook,” he said with a cocky smile.

“Mm-hmm,” she said as she took another sip of her wine. She was already on her second glass – which was odd for her, since she didn’t usually drink wine. But it was calming her nerves and she liked it.

When they were finished, Harry brought their empty dishes to the kitchen as Cali finished off her glass of wine.

“Bring the bottle of wine!” She yelled to him.

“Got it!” He yelled back a moment later.

When Harry came back, he poured them each another glass and then sat down next to her, noticeably closer than before. They two of them watched TV and talked. Cali found it odd that she found it extremely easy to talk to him.

She learned that Harry moved away from Holmes Chapel right after high school to Manchester. After graduation Cali ran as fast as she could away from Harry Styles the bully and never looked back. She had no idea what he did between then and now. Apparently he and Louis moved to London a few years back and lived together up until he got this flat. His parents and his sister Gemma still live in Holmes Chapel.

By their fourth and fifth glasses of wine they were talking about their dream jobs – Harry wanted to be a famous musician and Cali wanted to be a clothing designer. By the end of the second bottle of wine, that magically appeared out of nowhere – or seemed to anyway, Cali told Harry she should probably get back home.

“I don’t want you to go,” he said honestly, his eyes hazy as he looked at her.

“Well, you got me drunk and now I need to go to bed,” she giggled, knowing it wasn’t a good idea for her to stay much longer. Not with her libido screaming at her – for Harry.

“I didn’t force you to drink. You did that all on your own,” he laughed amusingly.

“It went with the food,” she protested.

“We were done eating during our second glass of wine. How many have you had since then?” He laughed.

“Shut up! You kept pouring them,” she countered, smacking his arm lightly.

“Only ‘cause you’re drunk and would probably spill all over,” Harry joked.

“Oh, shut it!” She said, sitting up to punch him in the arm, but he grabbed her wrist before she could.

“You really are violent when you are drunk,” he laughed, his fingers cinched around her wrist.

“You bring it out in me,” she shot back at him with a playful glare.

“Whatever, lady,” he laughed as he still held her arm.

“You do! You get all snarky and sarcastic when you drink and I just feel the need to hit you,” she argued, swinging playfully at him with her free hand, but he caught that wrist too.

“Oh, now what are you going to do, Calista?” He teased as he held both of her wrists. She squirmed, trying to get free from him, but he had a good grip on her.

“I’m too strong for you,” he taunted.

“You bastard, let me go,” she snapped as she brought her leg up to kick him.

“Uh-uh, you brat!” Harry said, maneuvering his legs over hers to pin her down completely.

“HARRY!” She whined.

“CALISTA!” He whined back, mocking her.

“Get off of me, you lunatic,” she laughed, trying to squirm her body away.

“Uh-uh. You are trapped and I am not letting you go until you’ve learned your lesson,” he told her.

“Okay, I’ve learned it. I’ve learned it!” She shouted, hated that she was being held down.

“And what did you learn?” He asked, quirking an eyebrow at her.

“That I need to keep my hands to myself,” she told him.

“Oh, no. That’s not the lesson. Your hands are free to roam wherever they want,” he said, putting emphasis on the word ‘roam’. Cali rolled her eyes noticeably and Harry chuckled.

“Okay, I won’t hit you anymore,” she told him. She would say anything to have control of her body back.

“Unless you’re hitting on me,” he joked.

“Oh, get off me!” She growled, trying to push against him.

“Nope. You haven’t learned your lesson,” he told her.

“Harry…” She whined.

“Cali…” He mocked her.

“Oh, I hate you,” she shot at him.

“No, you don’t,” he chuckled.

“Yes, I do,” she snapped, glaring at him. He just shook his head with a smile.

“What are you smiling at?” She shot at him, her eyes narrowed into slits.

“I’m smiling because of the fact that you’re lying to both yourself and to me,” he explained.

“What are you talking about?” She asked, her glare never leaving her eyes.

“You do, in fact, like me,” he said confidently, smiling down at her as his body continued to pin her down.

“NO, I DON’T!” She yelped, squirming to no avail.

“You do,” he said again.

“Harry!” Cali yelped, feeling like she might scream.

“You’re so stubborn,” he shot at her.

“I am not. Get off me,” she said, squirming under him.

Her body only stopped moving when his lips crashed into hers. He was kissing her and her mind was flustered and she didn’t know what the hell was happening between them. Without fully thinking it through, her lips moved against his – their tongues fighting for dominance. Slowly, Harry’s grip on her wrists loosened until he was no longer holding them. His body relaxed against hers, lying half atop her and half on the couch. Her newly free fingers intertwined in his hair as his hand gripped onto her hip, caressing the exposed skin.

Cali wasn’t entirely sure how it happened – she just knew that being in a room alone with Harry Styles and any sort of alcohol was a bad combination.

“Harry…” She mumbled as his lips moved down her neck and his hand kneaded her breast through her shirt.

“Hmm…” He hummed.

“We’ve gotta stop. I told you… I told you this wasn’t a good idea,” she said, putting her hands against his chest. A moment later, he pulled up to look at her.

“If that’s what you want,” he said and she could see a challenge in his eyes.

“That’s what I want,” she told him quietly.

He reluctantly got off of her and took his original seat on the couch. Cali sat up and wiped at her puffy lips.

“I should go home,” she said, avoiding looking in his direction altogether.

“Yeah,” he said quietly.

With that, Cali got up and left. Once she was back at home, she stripped out of her clothing and put on a tank top and pajama pants before crawling into bed. How did Harry get her to do those sorts of things? Oh, yeah. Maybe because he’s some sort of sex god. Because he knows what the fuck he’s doing. She couldn’t help but start remembering the things that went on between them when they got together before. Oh, God. He was… oh, man. It was making her incredibly horny just thinking about it.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

And then she was thinking – why the hell not? Why couldn’t she and Harry just, you know… hookup? It could just be platonic. They were both single.

Before she knew it, Cali found herself crawling out of bed and tip-toeing across the hall to his door. Was she really going to do this? She knocked quickly before she could talk herself out of it. A few moments later, Harry answered his door wearing only his pajama pants and her entire libido was wrecked over it. She wanted him… bad.

“I was thinking…” She said, biting at her bottom lip.

“What’s that?” He asked, quirking an eyebrow at her.

“Maybe we could, you know…” She began to explain, but couldn’t find the words. But thankfully, Harry was already on the same page.

“Sex?” He asked, like he was reading her mind.

“Yeah, but you know… platonically. I mean – just sex, you know,” she explained.

“Just sex?” He asked.

“Yeah,” she said, nodding her head.

“Hmm,” he hummed, looking like he was really contemplating it.

“What? Now you’re against it?” She scoffed, giving him a dirty look.

“I never said that,” he said, quirking his eyebrow.

“Okay, so what then?” She huffed, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Like a friends with benefits thing?” He asked curiously.

“Exactly like that,” she said, feeling elated that he was understanding exactly what she was trying to explain without even having to explain it.

Harry looked like he was really thinking it over, even though she knew the moment sex was mentioned that he was on board no matter what kind of sex she asked for.

“Seriously, Harry? It takes you that long to come up with a yes or no answer to ‘you want to have sex?’” She asked impatiently, getting annoyed with him.

A smile erupted on his lips – there it was… his answer.

“Come on,” she said, pushing passed him into his house. He closed the door and followed her into his bedroom.

Thus beginning their extended sexual relationship.

Notes