Harry Styles

Never did I ever think gift shopping would be this difficult.

I've never been a fan of presents, especially because of my dad taking them away every time I got attached to them, so I avoid going gift-shopping as much as I can, but tomorrow's Amber's album release, and I believe she deserves a boyfriend who can share his happiness and pride with presents, despite his hatred for them.

It's even harder to find a gift that holds some meaning.

Usually, I'd just give a swarm of flowers, but I don't think it could top how Amber grew me a bouquet of the best ones I've ever received.

That's why I've googled "Best Gifts For Girlfriend". So far nothing bright.

I find myself becoming more and more frustrated because even the internet's not helping — it's only showing options like expensive jewelry or designer clothing, but I've gathered that Amber would like something more special. I must admit, I'm a real idiot for trying to find a last-minute present at a shopping center, but I was hoping for something a little more sentimental.

Drawing my fingers through my hair, I check the time on my phone, gathering that the mall closes in 15 minutes. Realizing I've spent at least 4 hours looking for a proper gift, I take a quick turn to Target — my only hope of salvation.

I'm absolutely sure Amber would love and take huge care of any present I'd give her — I mean, I've noticed her carrying the Twilight magnets in her purse everywhere she goes — but I want my gift to be relatively nice.

With despair filling my chest each second that passes, I rush into the kids' toys selection. Strolling past the shelves for infants, I come upon the Lego collections. I almost run past all the boxes, but my eyes fall onto something that almost makes me gasp.

A Lego TV show set of the "Friends" apartments.

I breathe out in absolute relief that I've finally found something that I think she would enjoy. The worker on the speaker announces it's only 7 minutes left until the mall closes, but I don't care because I've already rushed to the cash register to buy it.

Seems like luck is on my side today, eh?

~~~

I arrive home.

As I open the door to Amber's apartment, I'm instantly swarmed by the scent of her cinnamon candles. I set my gift bag under her shelf of the Crocs collection, and stride ahead to the kitchen, hoping to find her there.

When the stalker picture was sent a few days ago, I made some security guards check up on her apartment to see if everything was all right.

When they concluded there hasn't been any suspicious activity around there, and the locks have been changed, I was fine with Amber going back here, as long as she'd let me stay with her. For safety reasons, of course.

Peeking my head into her kitchen, I don't find her charismatic presence there, so I head to the living room. Sitting down on the fluffy couch, my eyes roam around the room to find her, but she's not there either. I'm about to go look in the other rooms until my sight falls onto the coffee table in front of me.

There's a Disney Princess notebook laid flatly open next to a vase of sunflowers. I narrow my eyes, trying to remember where I've seen this particular book until I realize it's her manifestation journal.

When I first saw her writing on the smooth pages of the notepad a few months ago, I never expected her to continue with this strange nervous habit.

I take notice of how about half of the pages are now filled with scribbles of black ink. Without picking up the notebook, I lean forward to scan over the neat handwriting pressed onto the sheets.

'Someone relates to at least one song on the album'
'Someone relates to at least one song on the album'
'Someone relates to at least one song on the album'
'Someone relates to at least one song on the album'
'Someone relates to at least one song on the album'

I almost trace my finger over the sentence she's written across the whole page. I turn my head to the other one, finding different words scribbled on it.

'I feel satisfied with my work despite others' opinions.'

I stand up right as the words register in my mind because this starts to feel like an invasion of privacy, though she left it open on the table. I'm actually glad she's found a way to express her worries and thoughts, even if it's just on a piece of paper.

I'm not nervous about not finding her in this room because I can distinctly hear her soft voice humming some melody somewhere in the flat.

Slowly following her sweet timbre, I get trailed into her bedroom, though I don't let my feet carry me inside yet because the sight ahead of me makes me halt all of my movements.

She's wearing a dress.

Holy shit.

I rest my head against the doorframe, quietly observing every movement she makes. I watch as she fluffs her hair, taking a few steps toward her tall mirror, and twirls in small half-circles.

The emerald-green voluminous skirt moves beautifully with every action she makes, and a few small feathers of the blush-pink boa fall onto the soft carpet beneath her bare feet.

Now that I've analyzed every small detail of this situation, I become more familiar with the quiet tune she's mumbling.

It takes me a while to detect she's humming along 'Strawberry Sunscreen' — our pancake song.

Lately, I've been feeling this thing like my heart does a cartwheel, and this moment is definitely one of them.

I don't know if it's the way I let out a satisfied breath or it's how she flips her hair aside, but it makes her draw her attention to me, and let out a small gasp.

It seems to me like she hadn't expected me to be here at all. By the way her face paled a little, and she froze in her place with the boa between her elbows, I can tell she had been enjoying herself too much to notice any bustle around her.

"Uh—" I watch her struggling to find the right words. Truth be told, scanning the way her hands are shaking right now, it looks like she feels as though she's just committed a serious crime.

"You look undoubtedly gorgeous, Am." I want to take a step forward, but stop when she widens her eyes even more at me attempting to move a single muscle.

She finally snaps out of her shocked state, tucking a curl behind her ear. "Uh— thanks." She squeezes her eyes shut only to open them again. "Pretend you didn't just see this, please."

I don't have the time to furrow my brows when she's gently pushing me past the doorframe into the kitchen, and quickly rushing back into her bedroom, this time locking the door behind her.

She leaves me standing in the middle of the room totally confused for less than a minute, before she's unlocked the door, and moved into my sight again. Though, this time there's a black silk robe wrapped around her body, leaving no trace of the pretty dress.

"Hi." She smiles, while gently taking my hand between hers. "How was your day?"

Her hand leads me to her sofa, letting me sit down first and pull her in my lap. "Were you planning on wearing it tomorrow? For the album release?" I avoid answering her question, shooting one back instead, while nodding my head to the green article that's probably hidden deep down her closet.

I watch as she fiddles with her nailbeds, while I caringly tuck a piece of her curls behind her ear. "I'm not ready for that yet, no." She sorrowfully shakes her head. It's like she's beating herself up for not being able to wear a piece of clothing like that in public. "I'll let you know when I'll officially be wearing it."

"Yeah? That's amazing." I enjoy the way her fingers have sneaked into my hair. "Just don't feel pressured, okay? Being comfortable is key."

I won't act a fool and say I haven't thought of any scenarios that made her become so paranoid of cars or grow this hatred of dresses — I just keep wishing with my whole heart the twisted versions in my mind aren't true.

Maybe that's why I'm not asking many questions — because I don't really want to hear the truth.

"Thank you." She lets out a breath of relief, taking my hand between both of hers, and resting it underneath her chin like it brings her comfort.

"Look at you," I smirk, pulling my head back a bit to get a bigger picture of her flustered face. "Releasing albums, doing what you love and feels right... I'm so proud."

I wish she wouldn't try to hide her smile as much as she just did, but it broke past her lips anyway. "Are you just trying to get me to compliment you back?"

I match her narrowed eyes, pressing a light kiss on her cheek. "Yeah, I haven't been praised in a while. Figured I should do something about it." I joke, humoristically rolling my eyes. I let my smirk take over my face, loving the way it just made her laugh.

My thumbs gently rub the skin on her thighs, while her sweet cinnamon scent gets imprinted on my mind. "What's gotten you so tense, Am?"

She inhales a large amount of air, and holds it in for a few seconds, before letting it out smoothly. "I'm releasing a whole album tomorrow. What do you think?"

True.

I've noticed she usually downplays a lot of her emotions, but I can tell this is a big deal to her by the way there was a certain bounce in her step or how her eyes just lit up just talking about it.

"Is it weird of me to ask if any of the songs on the album are about me?" I hesitantly ask, brushing a curl out of her lit-up face. "Or I'm at least involved in any?"

"Such a narcissist, aren't ya?" She jokes, stifling her laughter. "I guess you'll just have to listen and find out." She decides to keep me on my toes until the last moment.

Of course, she has shown me a few demo versions of some tracks. In fact, she's asked a lot for my opinion on certain things on the album, but she's never actually let me hear the songs from start to finish, so it's as big of a surprise to me as it would be for any other person. I mean, I don't even know the title of the big record.

I've found that she wants to share her album-making experience with every single person that's close to her. There were times when she called and asked me, Olivia, or her other close friends like Landon for our take on certain aspects of the project.

It's one of the traits I absolutely adore about her — how she always tries to make everybody around her feel included and wanted.

"Such a tease, aren't ya?" I retract, twisting her own words. "I guess you'll just have to kiss me."

When she looks down at the ground, before lifting them up and connecting them with mine, I feel the air get sucked out of my lungs.

The beautiful hazels in her eyes radiate so much light, that it makes me wonder if she knows how ridiculously overwhelming they make me feel.

The huge smile spread across her cheeks tells me she's going through the same struggle as me, so it only makes my heart race at a more furious speed.

"I swear, you'll be the death of me one day, Mr. Styles." She shakily breathes out, momentarily closing her eyes.

"Likewise, Easton... Likewise." I match her smile, one of my fingers constantly twirling a strand of hair. It's so soft.

Before she has the chance to add to our wits, I abruptly crash my lips against hers. At first, it's just our teeth clashing against the other, while laughter spills out past them.

The more we connect in the kiss, the more a distinct taste of the usual hard candy she carries around spreads on my tongue. A trace of cherry.

Her laugh's cherry. Her lips are cherry. Her smile's cherry. She's cherry.

I'm afraid I'm never going to get enough of her.

The urge to untie her silk robe with a single flick of the wrist almost gets too unbearable to me, so I pull back from the kiss because she has to wake up early in the morning for some PR necessities, so we're not even going to wait until it gets released at midnight, which would make more sense.

My retreat sends a defiant groan out of her throat, and it's challenging my whole self-control right now. I lick my lips, my eyes flicking down to her swollen red ones. "C'mon, Breathtaker." I gently pat her lower back twice. "You need to get some beauty sleep."

She rests her forehead against my shoulder as if to savor the moment. "Will you be staying the night?"

Her question catches me a little off-guard because I thought it was obvious. "Definitely. And I'll stay as many nights as you wish." I clear my throat. "Honestly, it tends to get a little scary and lonely in my apartment if you're not there."

I feel her smile against my shirt. "Me too."

~~~

We get woken up to the sound of about a dozen text messages ringing loudly in the air.

An involuntary groan shoots through my body, as I open my hands for Amber to slip out of my grasp. "Ugh, turn it off, please."

I have a suspicion it's way too early for either of us to be waking up, so I keep my eyes squeezed shut in hopes I could fall asleep again in her cinnamon sheets.

I feel her scramble around the bed and pause for a moment before falling back onto her pillow. "Harry, mine's on silent. It's your phone."

Her whine makes me sleepily shoot up in a sitting position. I rub my eyes a little, and look to the side to watch as Amber puts another pillow over her head to block out the texts that are still incoming non-stop.

I glance at the clock on the bedside table, watching 4:12 am pop up in the lights.

What the actual fuck?

I mutter a random line of curse words under my breath, reaching my hand out to find my phone. I widen my eyes a little when I understand who the messages are being sent from.

"Shit. It's my mum." I rub my eyes once more to understand why the hell is she spamming me with so many texts.

To this, Amber removes the pillow from her head in small concern. "Is everything all right?"

I don't respond to that until I've taken in the situation completely. Though, a wave of relief and confusion washes through me when I realize what's the deal.

"For fuck's sake." I curse out, making Amber's face drop in worry, but I'm quick to wipe it away when I declare. "She's gotten a new cat."

I scroll through the messages and conclude what's the cause of the huge spam. "...And she's literally sent a hundred pictures of the pesky little thing."

I quickly swipe past the dozens of photos and watch as she's taken literally every single angle of the cat and sent multiple 5-minute videos of it crawling up some trees and shit.

"What? Show me!" She's already shot up from her sleeping position. I watch as Amber's drowsy features turn into glowy ones in an instant once she sees the new animal. I've never seen her hands shake from excitement so hard.

Her joy is broken as fast as it was created when another alert shows up on the screen. "Oh. She's FaceTiming you."

She immediately stops her rapid scrolling through the cat pictures, and throws the phone in my lap, while a glimpse of panic appears in her eyes, which makes me want to burst out in laughter. "Tell me what's the situation, Harry. Should I hide under the bedsheets? Run? Act like I'm sleeping?" I've never heard her talk so quickly.

I try to wipe my amused smirk off my face, trying to calm her down, even though I'm slightly panicking on the inside as well. "Nah, you're fine. Just do whatever you feel is right. Mum's the nicest person ever."

I can see Amber about to oppose, but I'm already pressing the green button to answer the call.

The bright screen immediately makes me narrow my eyes, but I can still see her warm smile. "Hello, darling!" Anne's voice is bright and cheery, and it suddenly makes me miss London a little.

I only show myself in the camera for now because Amber seems to be frozen in place, trying to take in the conversation as quietly as she can.

"Hey, mum. Why are you calling? It's 4 am here in LA." I let out a faint groan, still rubbing my eyes.

My sentence creates a little frown on her face. "Oh, dear..." She scratches the back of her head. "I forgot to check your time. I'm so sorry, dear, I just got a little too excited about the new cat. Did you see the pict—"

She trails off her sentence when she pays proper attention to my side of the call. "Now wait a minute..." There's a sneaky smile hidden in her voice. "Is that the Amber you keep talking about every time we're on a call?" Once I nod a firm yes, she waves at the camera. "Hello, sweetie!"

If my cheeks haven't blushed this far, I'm sure they did just now. I turn the camera to a different angle, so that Am can be spotted better. She seems to tense up at first, but then manages to slip into her genuine smile. "Hi!! It's so nice to finally get to see you!"

I try to hold my hand in a way that doesn't show me shaking that much because this is quite a big deal to me. "Harry showed me a few pictures of your cat! I swear, it's the most adorable creature I've seen. What name have you chosen?" Amber's energetic words make mum's smile spread even wider.

"Her name's Blue. She adores cuddles." Mum explains, getting so excited about Amber's interest. "Wait, let me show you how she's trying to fit into my winter boot."

There's a certain quiet moment where mum tries to flip the camera around on the screen, but fails after a few attempts, so she just shows the cat in selfie mode. At this point, Amber's taken my phone in her hands, and I don't know if it was because she saw how nervous I am or if she's just overly excited.

"Oh, she's so tiny!" Amber almost squeals, and I lay beside her with a smile on my face, trying to figure out how I ended up in this situation. "I have a feeling Blue and Pope would get along really well." She refers to my sister's cat, whom she promised to make a blanket for.

"Oh, definitely." Mum is back to sitting on her couch. "I guess I'll just have to wait until Gem comes over. In fact, when are you both coming to London? I would love to chat more."

That one question has made my stomach twist in happiness because the invite for Amber means mum likes her. I mean, I'm sure Anne would approve of any love interest I have, but she's never been so quick to invite anyone over.

"Erm... We'll have to check our schedules." I respond this time, speaking for both of us to not create any uncomfortable situations.

"I would love to! I had the best experience last time visiting London." Amber smiles, handing the phone back to me, and I reminisce about the time we flew to the UK for the filming of 'Behind the album' and walked around Camden market.

"I'm sure we can arrange something splendid. Right, H?" Mum says while