Hello everybody!! Hope your December is going great, without too much madness cramming your days.

The picture above is what I've found online regarding H's L.A. home. It kind of seems fitting for this chapter. And of course we all know what H looks like, but it's always so nice to see photos of him.

I also want to tell you how much in awe I am of the amazing @Choose_love_H_S and her beautifully written stories.  Go check out her work, it's worth it!

Enough talking, please read ahead. Hope you enjoy it.!!

Sixteen

The following day Harry's good mood had returned and he was back to his same take-charge, bossy self. His resting period was over, and he was desperate to get his hands on a guitar as soon as possible. He was pushing himself really hard; to make up for the time he felt he had lost. He had booked an impossibly long practice session with his band.

I was exempted from attending the band session, and our morning work meeting had been postponed until dinner time. "I mean, you can come and watch us practice if you want Bliss. I just think it'll be boring. Besides, I do feel a little self-conscious when people watch and I'm not at my best, it's the perfectionist on me." Harry explained, "I've set up dinner tonight with Ben Winston and his wife, to go over show stuff. We leave at 6 p.m."

I agreed to stay behind because it felt right to give Harry some privacy. He needed time with his band to sort any unresolved kinks before the tour began. Let's face I'd be absolutely useless in the studio session they had scheduled, and I was really looking forward to a proper lie-in, something I hadn't done in ages.

In fact, I had been up early every morning since my work with Harry began. And today turned out to be no exception. The much-awaited late morning sleep hadn't materialized and I found myself with my eyes wide open at 7:30 am, craving a work out session. Seems like I'm broken, Harry has ruined me with his healthy habits. I could hear my inner lazy girl telling me off "You've put us to shame. Now, be sensible and go back to sleep till at least till 10:00 am, noon would be better but I'm granting you a weaning period from all this exercise tomfoolery. And please feed us some lovely fried eggs with white bread for breakfast. Not a fruit plate."

"Go back to sleep," I said to my inner lazy girl, putting on the required leggings and top and going down to the running machine because this house also had a built-in gym.

Harry was notoriously absent. I figured he had foregone his usual morning workout for a little sleep since he had such a busy day planned. I was wrong. No sooner had I turned the running machine off than I heard the piano being played, undoubtedly by Harry since there was no else in the house. I made my way to the music room, and found him sitting before the piano in just his swimming trunks, with a towel casually draped around his neck playing a beautiful instrumental version of "Sign of The Times." I felt like I had died and gone to heaven.

I couldn't stop myself from clapping when he was done, it was all so beautiful. (I mean the music was beautiful, not almost naked Harry. Get your minds out of the gutter. Of course, Harry is beautiful, but he is also very talented.) Clearly, he hadn't expected to have an audience and turned around startled. When he saw it was me, he smiled shyly.

"I'm sorry if the noise disturbed you," he said.

"Oh, Harry! That was amazing! You've said you play a bit of piano before, but you were just being modest, you play extremely well."

"It wasn't really great." he carried on being bashful.

"I'm telling you it was great. You needn't worry about your instrument playing skills, at all."

"Naah, it could have been better. I didn't get some of the notes right."

"For what's worth, I loved it."

"Thanks. Let's go grab some breakfast. I might even let you do some cooking."

Breakfast consisted of a ginger root, cucumber and pineapple smoothie with a side plate of watermelon, dragon fruit and papaya (Luckily, my inner lazy girl had taken my advice and was snoring away at the moment. She denies it, but she snores). Harry had warmed to my cooking skills since the London Confession Sessions, but he still insisted on doing the smoothies himself. I was allowed to cut and dice the fruit. We argued over who would and brew the coffee and reached an agreement in which I'd do the coffee and Harry would mix some matcha tea, which he explained required a special technique to get a proper froth.

"I'm limiting my coffee intake for tour now, it's said to be bad for the vocal cords and I don't want to take any chances. So from now on, it'll be a small cup in the mornings, and matcha the rest of the day for an added energy boost." He explained as he offered me a cup.

"It just tastes like regular green tea," I said disappointed, after taking a small sip.

"Green tea is good for you, it's a strong anti-oxidant. So there'll be no complaining, thank you very much." He countered.

"All right, I'll drink it. I just love the smell of freshly brewed coffee in the morning." I replied.

"True, that's why I said I'm still having a small cup." he answered, "glad to see you worked out today, without any prompting," he remarked.

"Well, it was kind of nice. I'll grant you that." I told him.

"There is hope for you still, Bliss Clarke!" he teased, "I just went for a swim in the pool today, it's still cardio. You should try it sometime."

"I don't see that happening today or tomorrow."

"Why? Is it your time of the month?"

"Harry! That's an extremely personal question!" I answered, mortified. "And not that it's any of your business but it's not."

"Sorry, it just that I grew up with two females, so it just seems natural conversation." He apologized. "I reckon it's not your time of the month because you're eating just your regular amount of chocolate, no extras. What is it, then? You do know how to swim, do you not?"

"Yeah, I do know how to swim." I said, and went on to explain, "I'm not used to this L.A. sun and I can't find my sunglasses." I didn't elaborate, as to the reason of why I was finding it impossible to locate my sunnies since I was adhering to the Bliss Clarke moto of "why go through the trouble of unpacking only to pack everything back." He didn't need to know that.

"Say no more! I have the perfect solution for that !" declared Harry, opening a kitchen cupboard and taking several sunglasses cases out. "You can have these," he offered.

"Thank you, Harry." I said, "You're very kind to offer but I'm afraid I can't wear your sunnies, they'll be too big."

"Are you implying I have a big head?" he said, in mock outrage.

"Not exactly, it's just that they are gentlemen's sunnies. They tend to be bigger"

"Relax! These are women eyewear."

"Are they?"

"Yeah, Gemma is designing a sunglass collection. It'll be out next year. These things take ages to develop. She sent me some prototypes, asking for my opinion. Apparently, I'm some kind of fashion expert."

"You think?!" I laughed opening the cases. "Harry these are lovely! Won't it be weird me wearing them if they are not out yet, though?"

"It'll be ok; actually Gemma wants the feedback of regular people, in case some adjustments might be needed."

"In that case, it'll be an honor. Thank you very much!"

"That's ok," he answered running a hand through my hair and messing it up.

******************************************

After Harry left I decided to give in a little to my inner lazy girl and went right back to bed in the extremely comfortable bedroom I was using in his LA home, not to sleep but to work on my writing. Like the place he has in London, his California house was neither too big nor too small, with the right mixture of both modern touches and sophistication. Looking out the window from across my bed offered a magnificent view of the city below. I'm not sure if window is the correct term to describe it since there wasn't really a wall in front of the bed but floor to ceiling glass. Before you start to argue about how difficult it'd be to get a proper sleep there because of this glass wall/window let me put your minds at ease, it comes equipped with a remote control blackout curtain, that you can graduate to let more or less in light in. It is perfection.

The main theme in this residence seemed to be glass-wall/windows, since they repeated themselves in the sitting room, kitchen, dining room, and studio. Harry's bedroom even had an attached balcony. Of course, Harry had insisted on a house tour when we arrived, shorter this time because of the long trip we've just had and because he 'd owned this dwelling less time than his London place. He did comment on the glass-wall/window "All this glass threw me at first. I felt kind of exposed, but the house is high up and there isn't anyone around really. After a while it grew on me, it's amazing to have sunshine all the time. I mean it's September and it's 26° out there."

Harry had indeed been right; it was gloriously warm and sunny. I eyed the pool, and then glanced at my suitcases, not sure if I could be able to produce a bathing suit without having to unpack everything. I reasoned it'd be unavoidable in the end, because we were going out to dinner tonight and I had to look nice but decided to test my luck. I decided to stick my hand into the nearest piece of luggage, take out the first thing I managed to grab and see if it was of any use. Hey, miracles can happen.

Applying the before mentioned method produced a Tesco carrier bag that I was certain I hadn't packed. Had I been given another person's suitcase? It might have happened since I hadn't retrieved it upon arrival; Harry's team had done it for us. I had asked for a miracle, maybe the real owner of the luggage had something I could wear in the pool it wouldn't hurt to have a look. Inside the bag I found a note from Mum "Bliss lovely, I sneaked this in for many sunny days ahead, love, Mum xoxoxo". Besides the note I also found, a hot pink bikini, a yellow flowy beach cover-up that could double as a sundress, strappy low heeled sandals, and some tassel earrings. I let out a sigh, this was my luggage, after all, that was a kind of dressy outfit I had purchased for my honeymoon, for those days when we went straight from the pool or beach to dinner. Leave it to mum to send it along in a Tesco bag. It 's a well-known Clarke family fact that mum is completely useless when it comes to sorting the house, but she can pack anything in a Tesco bag, she could even fit a house in there.

Granted my few weeks of healthy eating and working out with Harry, had been massively good for my figure, but I still wouldn't dare to flounce myself around him in a bikini. But since he was out for the day, I dared.

I looked at the time, it was 11am. I was going out in seven more hours, this gave me more than enough time to facetime back home, eat lunch, go for a swim, write a little, shower, and to do my hair and makeup. So I took my laptop and made myself comfortable in one of the pool chairs, under the shade, I was still wary of the Pacific coast sun.

*************************************

"Bliss!"

"Bliss, wake up!"

"Wake up!"

I could hear someone calling my name distantly. It sounded a bit like Harry, but surely it couldn't be him because at the moment I had my arms wrapped around his waist, with my right cheek resting on his, and we were both horseback riding along a Caribbean beach.

Wait! A Caribbean beach? How is it possible? Weren't we on L.A. at the moment?

"You're dreaming, Bliss. Open your eyes." said Logic, who contrary to popular opinion, does play an important role in my brain function, there are even times when it overrides any dissenting emotions lingering about.

I complied and opened my eyes. There 's no arguing with Logic when it takes over.

I was feeling a tad disoriented, coming back from horseback riding on the Caribbean beach was dizzying.

I looked around warily.

Harry was standing in front of me.

"Hey Bliss, seems like you have day after jet-lag," he said, with a trace of a smile on his voice "how long have you been asleep?"

"Don't know?" I said dubiously, sitting up. "Had lunch, did some writing, I was planning on taking a swim but I must've dozed off instead."

"Clearly." Harry commented, glancing over my discarded laptop and empty lunch plates.

"I'll clean this up." I offered.

"Don't worry about it. I'll do it." he replied, "We need to get going if we want to make it to dinner in time."

"Dinner already? What time is it?" I asked, surely I couldn't have slept all afternoon.

"I also need to give you this," without answering my question about the time and handing me an envelope"

"What is it?" I asked

"Your standard tour package. I met with our tour manager today he was handing this out to the band and I took yours since you're staying at my house it made sense."

I inspected the envelope's contents, which besides of an All-Access-Pass for the Harry Styles Live Tour and the latest iPhone, consisted of several cards issued in my name: A health insurance card, A VIP airport lounge card, and two credit cards. Attached to the credit cards was an instruction sheet detailing the credit amount allotted to each one, and a security number for cash advances in AT machines.

"Harry, this is too much!" I let out, completely taken aback.

"What? Of course you need health insurance in case something happens. With your drinking habits being what they are you might have an accident."

"I don't mean that. I understand you provide health coverage for your employees, besides it's in my contract."

"Everybody in the band is getting an iPhone with a phone company plan included, we need to keep in touch whilst we are touring."

"Not that either. Many employers do provide cell phones for work. It's the credit cards, it's way too much, and you're already paying me generously."

"Again, it's just standard procedure. The main people in the tour get them, for emergencies, they need to have ready access to cash or credit to keep the tour going. Say, for example, you miss a plane, this way you will be able to buy another ticket."

"I see, your mind is made up in this matter. Is there any point in arguing?"

"None whatsoever"

"Fine, I'll take the credit cards, but will not use them."

"Good, now that is sorted better get changed for dinner. Unless you're planning on going wearing that tiny two-piece number, which looks amazing on you by the way and it's absolutely fine with me, we're in L.A. after all and you look well sexy."

And then, at that exact moment, I felt my whole body turning the exact shade of hot pink as my bikini.

We'll be going to the actual Café Habana dinner next week.

If you like the story, please hit the star! If there's something you don't like, please be kind enough to let me know, we all need constructive feedback!

I almost posted a photo of what Bliss looks like in my head. If you want to know, please comment and I'll post the photo next update!!!