“Molly!” Alexa screamed into the phone once Molly answered her call. “Molly, Harry has a girlfriend!”

“I know,” Molly blushed and giggled to herself, and glanced over at Harry next to her in bed.

They had, of course, ‘made up for lost time’ after his show last night, and spent the rest of the night in each other’s arms. Upon waking up to the many texts and missed calls from Alexa, Lily, and her other Harry-infatuated friends, Molly realized their little secret was (partially) out.

And surprisingly, Molly felt completely okay with that.

“And where are you? I’ve been trying to reach you all day?” Alexa whined.

“Sorry, my phone died; I just plugged it in,” Molly lied. She wasn’t quite ready to admit to her bestie that she was the one dating Harry. She knew she’d have to eventually, but Molly hoped to be far away from her when the news broke.

Okay, technically she was on the other side of the world -pretty far away- but Molly wasn’t sure how to explain it, or prove it was real.

Luckily, Harry had thought about this issue, and had (in his own words) a ‘completely logical solution’:

“Come to the ARIAs with me,” he beamed over breakfast once Molly had gotten off the phone.

“Like, as your date?” Molly balked.
“Yeah, as my girlfriend, I mean. I basically told the world I loved you last night, so this seems liked the next step, right?” He tilted his head in thought as this idea suddenly didn’t seem so smart anymore.

Molly shrugged. “I guess at some point, but don’t you think we should let things settle down first? The fandom is on fire right now after what you said last night.”

“I think it’s best we nip it in the bud, set things straight before the rumors start flying again.” Harry explained, and Molly reluctantly acknowledged his sound reasoning.

“True, but…” It was all happening so fast. Was she ready to go public with him?

“Molly,” Harry leaned closer and took her hands. “I love you -I have for...I don’t know how long- and nothing’s going to change that.” Harry explained with a certain light in his eyes Molly hadn’t seen before.

‘He really does love me’ she thought, and smiled shyly.

“The fans will figure it out eventually, you know that, so it’s best we take control and set the story straight ourselves.” Harry continued.

Molly didn’t want to agree, but she had to admit his logic was sound. “I hate it when you’re right,” she groaned, and leaned closer to him.

“So you’ll do it?” His eyes opened wider, and smiled a full-dimbles smile that melted the last remaining ounces of Molly’s willpower. “You’ll come to the ARIAs with me?”

Molly still cringed at the idea, and tried to think of any excuse. “I don’t have a dress, and you’ve probably already RSVPed no plus-one, so…”

“Actually, ages ago Jeff said he’d be my ‘date’ so I have two seats reserved in my name.” Harry explained. “And we can easily get you a dress by then,” he added.

‘Of course,’ Molly thought with a pout. “Speaking of Jeff, maybe we should check in with Jocelyn and your PR team to see what they think about this?”

“Good idea, I’ll call her right now,” Harry smiled and grabbed his phone.

Molly closed her eyes and sighed, as she knew what Jocelyn would say - because it's what Molly would recommend. It was for her own personal and selfish reasons that she wanted to keep their relationship between just the two of them -as it should be- but it wasn’t that simple.

Judging by the way Harry’s conversation was going with his manager, Molly knew she should just give up and stop fighting against the current. She was clearly the only one against this idea, something Harry confirmed when he finished his phone call with his manager.

“She not only thinks it’s a great idea, she’s even pulling a few favors to get you a dress to wear to the awards.” Harry smiled.

“Great,” Molly sighed. Of course Harry Styles’ girlfriend can’t just buy a dress from Macy’s to wear to an award ceremony with him.

“It’ll be okay, trust me. I know how much you don't like the way the media and the fans pay such close attention to me, so I understand why you are hesitant.” Harry put his hand comfortingly on her arm. “But we will never live in an AU where that doesn't happen, so-”

“Wait…” Molly's brain whirred into gear at the mention of an 'AU’. 'Where would he have heard a term like that? Unless… Holly, the tulips…’ “Oh my God…. You read my fanfiction?!?!?”

“Umm…” Harry froze. He had never really thought about what he'd say if she confronted him on the subject. But, really there was only one thing he could say: the truth. “I missed you, that’s all. I'm sorry.”

Molly couldn't even be mad with an excuse like that. Sure, she was embarrassed, but once she got over that, she found it kind if endearing. Creepy, but endearing. “How did you even find it?”

“Um, Liam helped me out a bit, but I guess I got lucky. There was a lot to go through, so I went way back and scrolled until I found a username that looked right.” Harry smirked a bit at the blush this brought to Molly's cheeks.

“Oh no…” she whispered, recalling her old username, Molly_Styles95.

“I didn’t read too much, just the one where celebrities don’t exist, you get ice cream with One Direction, and then I send you flowers.” Harry explained, still amused at Molly’s reaction.

“Okay, that’s good. Still embarrassing, but it could have been worse.” She shook her head.

“And why’s that?” Harry started to smile and cocked his head. Before Molly could answer, there was a knock at the door. The designer Jocelyn had gotten in touch with was here to take some measurements for Molly’s dress. They went over the options Molly had to choose from, and after settling on something that she thought would compliment her body type, the designer left to start adjusting the dress to fit her.

Harry and Molly spent the next day working with PR to figure out how they were going to ‘come out’ together. Should they just show up at the ARIAs together, with no explanation? Or should they post something cheeky on Harry’s instagram beforehand, somehow hinting at Molly’s identity? They had so much to work out, that by the time the PR team left that evening, the couple were exhausted.

“So...do we tell people the real story of how we started dating? Or do we stick with the story that we met while you were doing SNL?” Molly asked as she and Harry hopped into bed together.

“That's not really anyone's business.” Harry replied quickly.

“Right, but in case someone asks, we should get our story straight.”

Harry was quiet as he contemplated this. “You slept with Tom this summer.” He quietly said after a moment.

“Oh, right,” Molly ducked her head bashfully.

Realizing he'd caused her embarrassed, Harry admitted, “and, there might be a few girls who’d be upset if they learnt I’d had a girlfriend this spring.”

“Right,” Molly fully understood what he meant. “Same, actually.”

Harry's eyes shot open wide. “Really?!”

“Well, not girls, no. But I was a senior in college, and, you know, stuff happens.” Molly shrugged, not really sure where she was going with this. She didn’t exactly want to start talking about past hookups with her boyfriend, nor hear about his.

“Yeah, so I guess we'll stick with the facts,” Harry nodded.

“Which are?” Molly turned to face him.

“That we started dating this summer, right?” Harry cocked his head in confusion.

“Kind of. I mean, we met this summer, and immediately pretended to date, but didn’t actually start dating until near the end of August.” Molly explained.

“Okay, August, sounds good.” Harry agreed, and it was quiet for a moment as they both tried to change the subject. “Netflix?”

“Netflix and chill? Always,” Molly smiled and cuddled up to him

***

Molly’s dress arrived the morning of the awards, and Harry’s stylist Rupert helped her with shoes and accessories. Lou Teasdale did her hair and makeup before getting started on Harry (since his hair was much easier) and once she saw herself in the mirror, Molly started to feel a little confident about attending the awards with Harry.

“How do I look?” She asked him and turned to show off her beautiful gown and hair style.

“Wow, absolutely stunning…” Harry’s jaw dropped when he saw Molly in her elegant emerald green, satiny, dress. The low neck showed off just enough of her cleavage, and the dress hugged her middle section, then slowly blossomed out to a long skirt that nearly reached the floor in the back, and showed off up to her ankles in front. Lou had curled her hair and left it partially down, with the front pinned up on the side with an emerald-like gemstone-encrusted flower. Rupe had paired the dress with black stilettos decorated with green rhinestone flowers that matched her hair pin, and a pair of emerald earrings.

“It’s not too... green?” Molly asked, checking herself out in the mirror behind Harry.

“It really brings out my eyes,” Harry joked and pulled out his phone to take a picture. Harry took a selfie of himself with Molly in her dress behind him. But because he was sitting in front of the mirror, and she was standing behind him, Molly’s face was not in the picture, just her dress.

“You should put that on instagram,” Molly commented after seeing the picture.

“Really?” Harry turned to look at her. “You’d be okay with that?”

Molly bit her lip. “I think it would be smart to let your fans know you won’t be arriving alone.”

Harry nodded as he posted the picture on instagram, with the caption: ‘My date’s dress brings out my eyes’.

Molly laughed as she read this over his shoulder. “That’s kind of lame, Harry, but it works.”

“That’s how they know it’s really me posting it,” Harry joked, and smirked back up at Molly.



***


“You’re shaking?” Harry took Molly’s hands in his own in an attempt to stop their quivering.

“Or course I am - I’m nervous,” she responded, a bit out of breath as their car neared the red carpet for the ARIA awards.

“It’s okay; just take a deep breath.” He instructed. “I don’t mean to sound misogynistic, but all you really need to do is stand there and look pretty. You don’t even have to look pretty - though, you do, as always,” he added with a smile.

“But, what if someone talks to me?”

“They won’t, but if they do, we’ve gone over everything. You’ll do fine, trust me.” He leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. “You know PR better than some of the people on my PR team, sometimes.”

“Right, I studied this for four the past years in college,” Molly reminded herself. “I can do this,” she tried to motivate herself.

“Good, because we’re here,” Harry pointed out, and Molly’s heart started racing at warp speed again. Harry glanced at her, and gave her hand a reassuring squeeze before the door opened.

“Here goes nothing,” Molly muttered to herself and followed Harry out of the car and onto the red carpet. The camera flashes and fan screams were overwhelming and hit her like a tidal wave, but Molly tried not to show it. ‘Just smile and wave, like the penguins of Madagascar,’ she repeated in her head as they made their way hand-in-hand down the carpet.

“I’m going to sign a few autographs, okay? Karen will show you where to go,” Harry quickly explained, and hesitated with a smirk on his lips before planting them on Molly’s.

“What-” She started, but was cut off by Harry’s kiss and the screaming of Harry’s fans. She gave them a polite wave before following Karen down the rest of the red carpet.

“Harry, is that your girlfriend?” One fan asked as he signed a picture for her.

“Yes, she is,” he grinned.

“She’s so pretty, I’m happy for you!” The fan replied, and Harry felt all warm and tingly inside knowing his fans (or at least this one) had accepted his girlfriend.

Molly was anxiously awaiting Harry when he finally made it up the red carpet. They were shown to their seats and a few people Harry knew said hi to them. Before Molly could catch her breath, the award ceremony began. Then, she was just another audience member - and she could finally relax.

That is, until they reached the award Harry was up for. The nominees were read for best international artist, and each was show in the audience on the screen. Molly watched herself on screen next to Harry and tried to keep calm, so much so that she hardly noticed they had read who’d won the category until Harry stood up and leaned over to give her a kiss.

“You won? Congratulations!” She quickly said before Harry left to accept the award.

“Wow, thank you,” he said and looked at the award. “First, I’d like to thank Sony, and my band -they’ve been wonderful- and my mum, of course, my wonderful fans, my manager...and of course, I have to thank my lovely girlfriend, Molly, for being so supportive and helping me stay true to myself - I don’t know where I’d be without you.” The music started playing, so Harry knew his time was up, and made his way off the stage and back to his seat.

“That was really sweet of you, did you have a speech planned?” Molly whispered to him.

“Kinda, I mostly forgot it though,” he laughed.

The rest of the show went by quickly once they had relaxed. Molly actually enjoyed herself, and got up and danced when Harry preformed Kiwi. The night ended on a high note, and the two rode back to their hotel feeling positive about the experience.

Molly finally turned her phone back on, knowing she would probably get a lot of messages once their secret was out. She expected dozens of text from Lily and Alexa in their group chat, but instead they only sent this:

A: Why didn’t you tell us you were dating Harry?*

L: Don’t you trust us?*

This was not the reaction Molly was expecting.

Notes

They’re finally public together!!! This chapter took forever to get it all together in a way that works, so I’m glad it’s finally done!

The dress in the image is not exactly how I picture Molly’s dress, but it’s the closest I could find (That’s also not how I picture Molly, btw, but it’s close, I guess).

Thank you for reading, commenting, and voting!!!