The Reinvention of Harry Styles

Molly sat in her mother’s apartment trying to think. She had been sitting at the table for a couple of hours now, and still had no idea how to fix this issue of the rumor about Harry’s ‘mysterious girlfriend’. Well, she had come up with a couple of ideas, but nothing she was willing to go through with.

There was what Molly called the ‘Jeff’ response: set Harry up with some random girl looking to get some free press (maybe a model) and let the fans go crazy with that, while Molly layed low and remained anonymous.

Then, there was what was probably the easiest response: doing nothing and hoping it went away. Molly knew that probably wouldn't work. She’d been in the fandom when something like this had happened, and she knew they wouldn’t let this slip away so easily. Unless, they had some kind of distraction: if something bigger came up, they might forget about the girlfriend.

Lastly, there was the option Molly refused to entertain, and had possibly broken Harry’s heart by suggesting she’d rather leave him than do this: go public with their relationship. It was out of the question, for obvious reasons.

Molly also had the task of trying to fix Harry’s possibly broken heart, and prove that she was not actually going to break up with him over something like that. Romance was not Molly’s forte, and she racked her brain for any idea of how to make it up to him, but came up empty.

“What’s on your mind, honey,” her mom asked and joined her at the table when she returned from work. Molly sighed and recounted her thought process from that afternoon and the two issues she was trying to fix. Perhaps saying it out loud would spark an idea, or maybe her mom would have some input.

Luckily, she did have an idea. “Well, I don’t know what to do about the first thing - and I’m sure Harry’s manager is hard at work trying to fix that one. But I have a few suggestions for the second one.”

“Really?” Molly asked, though she wasn’t surprised.

“Yes,” Deb smiled and leaned forward to rest her elbows on the table. “I think you two need to have a romantic night. Go all out with candles, flowers, dinner - lingerie…” She added with a wink.

“Well, I don’t really have any of that,” Molly blushed and looked down at her hands.

“Then we need to go shopping,” Deb stood up and grabbed her purse. “Come on, the store is only open until 7.”

“It’s 4:30, mom, how long is this going to take?” Molly followed her mother out the door, and Deb just laughed at her daughter’s question.

“Oh, honey, you are too much like your father sometimes.”

Deborah brought Molly to a fancy lingerie store, and was greeted - by name - by all the staff.

“Debbie, what can we do for you today?” A woman about her age approached them.

“I’m actually here for my daughter, this time,” Deb wrapped her arm around Molly’s shoulders. “She’s going to have her boyfriend over for the evening, and I want to make sure she shows him a good time.”

Molly’s cheeks turned every shade of red, and she could have sworn she even felt her scalp tingling as she blushed all the way up through her hairline. “Mom…” she groaned.

“No problem, we have just the thing.” The attendant smiled and turned to Molly. “What’s your size?”



Back at his hotel room, Harry awaited a call from his manager. They had spoken several times that day as she and his team worked to fix this PR issue. Molly’s words rang in his head every time Jocelyn mentioned the idea of him just telling the truth and going public.

“No, no, I told you I’m not doing that,” Harry repeated for what felt like the hundredth time.

“No, you’re not listening, Harry. You don’t need to tell the world you have a girlfriend, or say anything about Molly.” Jocelyn sounded like her patience had run out hours ago and was not trying to hide the annoyance in her tone. “Just issue a statement - on twitter or whatever - that you would like some privacy.”

“Yeah, I just don’t think that’s going to be enough.” Harry skeptically answered.

“Well, it’s a start. I’ll let you know when we’ve come up with something better.” Jocelyn ended their call, and Harry headed to the shower to clear his head. Something about the warm water and the steam seemed to cleanse his mind and wash away some of his troubles - at least temporarily.

Harry was just sitting down to make himself a cup of tea when he got a text from Molly:

*meet me at my mom’s apartment at 7:30 for dinner

Followed shortly by another text:

*and for a sleepover. And bring sexy clothes if you have any

Molly grabbed her phone back from her mom. “Sexy clothes? Mom, really?”

*or whatever clothes you want

Molly quickly texted back, and hid her phone from her mother. “Ughhh are you sure about this mom?”

“Yes, you just need to loosen up a bit. Here,” Deb grabbed one of the bottles of wine they’d purchased for the evening and poured Molly a glass. “Drink up. Then go get changed, and I’ll get some candles out, okay?”

Molly trudged off to the guest bedroom and took the clothes out of the bag. ‘How do I put these on?’ She looked over the fancy bra, the corset-type thing her mom insisted on, and the garter belt and stockings the store attended promised her were sure to capture any man’s heart.

‘I don’t need to capture it, though, I need to hold onto it, and keep it safe’. Molly remembered the sad look in Harry’s puppy-dog eyes when she implied she’d rather break up with him than go public with their relationship, and this was all the encouragement she needed to strap herself into the black and red lacy contraption.

When she finally emerged from the guest bedroom in her robe (she insisted she buy her own after seeing pancake man wearing her mom’s) Deb had decorated the house in candles, and placed the flowers they bought in a vase on the table. Molly looked around the apartment in amazement and felt like there really was, somehow, magic in the air.

“I’ve set out all the ingredients for dinner, I think if you follow the instructions it should be okay. I actually haven’t made it before, so I can’t say,” Deb shrugged. “I have to leave, but hopefully Harry will be here soon.”

“You’re leaving?” Molly felt confused, but of course her mom wasn’t going to stick around for this.

“Yes, I’m having my own, er, sleepover, elsewhere,” Deb winked, and Molly felt sick at the implications.

“Okay, well you don’t want to be late for that,” she ushered her mom toward the door. “And, um, thank you.” She glanced up at her mom before giving her a quick hug goodbye.

“Have fun tonight, honey,” Deb hugged her back, before slipping out the door.

Molly fell back onto the couch and refilled her glass of wine. ‘When will Harry be here?’ She wondered and checked the time. He was only a little late, so Molly decided to get a start on dinner.

‘This doesn’t look that hard’ she thought and read through the instructions. ‘I’ll just get this started, and it’ll probably be ready by the time Harry gets here.’ Molly put a pot of water on the stove to boil while she started carefully mincing a few cloves of garlic.

‘Oh, the recipe calls for white wine? Looks like I have to open another bottle of wine…’ she thought, and wondered if her mom had intentionally opened a bottle of red for this exact reason. She measured out the needed amount, and the refilled her glass, ‘more for me’, she thought and sipped her wine while the garlic, butter, and wine cooked. She added what seemed like the right amount of pasta to the boiling water, and moved on to the shrimp.

“Frozen?” She looked at the shrimp in shock because she didn’t have time to let it thaw out. Molly shrugged, and figured she could just dump the whole bag in, and it would thaw out and cook. Molly added some salt and pepper, and sat back to wait for it to cook. “Actually, I should set a timer,” she hopped up and tried to figure out the timer on her mom’s stove, but was interrupted by the intercom buzzing.

“Harry’s here!” She skipped over to the door and buzzed him into the building, and quickly fixed her hair before waiting near the door for him. She opened the door before he barely had a chance to knock. “Harry! You’re late, but that’s okay.” She pulled him inside and gave him a kiss.

“Sorry, you said to bring ‘sexy clothes’ and I didn’t exactly know what that meant,” he answered with a sly smirk.

“Ugh, that was my mom,” Molly rolled her eyes.

“Debbie, really?” Harry laughed.

“Wait, I have to do something,” Molly rushed over to her phone and pressed play, and suddenly ‘Still the One’ by Shania Twain started playing on the sound system. “I meant to do that before you came in, oops.”

“This is one of my favorite songs, thank you,” Harry kissed Molly’s cheek, and paused as he pulled away. “Umm, are you cooking something?”

“Oh shit, yes!” Molly rushed to the kitchen and turned down the pasta before it bubbled over. Harry grabbed a spoon and tried stirring it, but it had become a gooey glob on bottom of the pan.

“Have you ever made pasta before?” He joked.

“Yes, of course,” Molly shrugged. “I just forgot about it; I thought I had set a timer. We can make more if we need to.”

“No, I think we might be able to salvage this,” Harry slowly broke up the strands of linguine. “What’s that burning smell?”

“Fuck, the shrimp!” Molly lifted the lid off the shrimp and a plume of smoke rose up out of the pan. Harry reached for the stove vent just in time to save the smoke alarm from going off, and turned down the temperature of the burner to keep them from burning further.

“Looks like you were trying to make shrimp scampi?” He deduced, and glanced at the bottle of white wine - now nearly empty. “But perhaps you got into the wine a bit too early?”

“My mom said I needed to relax and she poured me a glass, and then I had some more,” Molly gestured to the two open bottles. “And, then, some more…”

“Did it help, at least?”

Molly shrugged. “I guess, though I still feel a little on edge. I wanted tonight to be perfect, to show you I’m sticking with you, and I’m not going anywhere. You know, that you’re ‘still the one I dream of’,” Molly tried to smile as she quoted the song playing in the background, but she sighed and slumped her shoulders forward.”But now I’ve ruined it.”

“It’s not ruined - it’s only dinner, after all, and I don’t think it’s that bad. The shrimp looks like it’s nearly done, so we just need to drain the pasta. Can you help me find a colander?” Molly smiled at his encouraging words, and the two searched the cabinets for a colander.

Molly insisted Harry wait at the table while she finished up - since this last part shouldn’t be too hard. She managed to get their food on plates without anything going wrong, and joined Harry at the dining table. “It doesn’t look that bad,” she smiled, and grabbed her fork.

She and Harry slowly took their first bight, and after a few seconds Molly spit it out. “What is that?”

“Um,” Harry discreetly spit his food into hs napkin. “I think you forgot to take the shells off the shrimp.”

“Oh, shit, they were frozen, I didn’t even think about that…” Molly sighed in defeat and leaned on the table. The shrimp were either rubbery or burnt, and the past a had a gluey texture to it.

“Why don’t we just order some takeaway?” Harry smiled and pulled out his phone. “I think I know a great Chinese place around here.”

“Thank you, that sounds much better than this.” She brought their plates back to the kitchen and dumped their food in the trash. By the time she finished cleaning up all the pots and pans their take out had arrived, and Molly eagerly joined Harry at the table again. “Oh my god, egg rolls? Thank you!”

“I know it’s one of your favorites,” Harry smiled, and they dug in.

“I’m sorry I messed up dinner,” Molly finally said.

“That’s fine, I like this - with all the candles - just as much,” he smiled. “The night isn’t totally ruined just because you burnt some shrimp.”

“You’re right, dinner was only part of it.” Molly got a glint in her eye.

“Oh really? Is that what this robe is for?” Harry reached over to run his hand along the satin fabric.

“Yeah, my mom insisted. Well, this whole night was her idea, really,” Molly shrugged.

“It’s a lovely robe, but,” he slid closer to her and started to unfasten the ties. “I’d love to see what’s underneath.”

Molly’s breath hitched at his touch, and remembered the scandalous lingerie she’d let her mother talk her into buying. But that didn’t matter anymore, and she let Harry untie her robe. “Lace, huh?” He asked with a raspy voice, and eventually brought his eye up to meet hers.

“‘Give to me your leather, take from me my lace’,” Molly quoted the song Harry had sung with Stevie Nicks in the Troubadour that spring, and brought a smile to his face.

“Unfortunately I didn’t bring any leather - unless you want my belt. But,” Harry got a dark glint in his eye, “you want me to take this off?” He reached forward to slowly run a finger lazily along the hem of her garter belt, and let his hand slide along her waist.

“You don’t want to admire it first?” Molly stood up and slipped out of the robe, slowly spinning to reveal the whole outfit.

“It does look absolutely entrancing on you, but you know where it would look better?” Harry lifted his head to look at her, but his eyes were still glued to the lacy bodice covering her midriff.

“In the trash,” Molly joked with a short laugh.

“I was thinking more like, the floor,” Harry answered slowly - slower than usual - and reached up her back to find the fasteners.

“Oh, like the bedroom floor?” Molly laughed, thinking of Liam’s single of the same title.

“Any floor would suffice, like, this one for example,” Harry let the corset/bodice type thing fall to the floor, exposing Molly’s soft abdominal skin, so he could run his hands over it.

“Right here, okay,” Molly answered breathlessly, and let Harry’s hands to whatever magic they pleased, and slowly - one by one - her new lace garments were removed, leaving a trail from the dining table to the couch. Molly reached down to remove the last item - her stockings - but Harry stopped her.

“Leave them,” he breathed, placing a hand on hers, and Molly caught a dark look in his eye.

“Okay,” Molly smiled coyly and took in this new side of Harry she was seeing for the first time, learning his nuances and what makes him tick. For the first time that evening, she had finally - as her mother instructed - relaxed, and it certainly wasn’t the wine that had helped her ‘loosen up.’

Well past midnight, they were still lying on the couch together, cuddled in a mess of blankets. They had finally caught their breaths, and just sat in silence taking each other in.

“Should we,” Molly finally said, and propped herself up on her elbow so she could see Harry’s face, “search romantic comedies on Netflix, and see what we find?”

Harry’s face drew in a tired smile that reached all the way up to his eyes, and he nodded. “Yeah, something like that.”

Notes

'Leather and Lace’ seems to be the song of the weekend for me, because I just wrote another chapter in my Harry/time travel short story which revolved around this song xD https://www.wattpad.com/526860608-not-your-average-harry-styles-one-shots-and-short

This was a fun chapter to write, and I was actually making shrimp scampi while wrote it, so that’s why I went into a bit more detail than necessary describing their dinner xD (and it turned out fine, unlike Molly’s :p)

And, from today (Jan. 28) through Feb 1, my novel will be FREE on Amazon in kindle e-book format :D I would really appreciate it if you checked it out, it would mean a lot to me : )
https://www.amazon.com/Oxterionn-Part-I-Lila-Smith-ebook/dp/B078XLGR3G/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1517077709&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=oxterionn+part+1

Thank you!!! :D