"But my home ain't on the map
Gotta follow what I'm feeling to discover where it's at"

Recap:
"I told them that they'll be staying at your house," he says, shrugging.

"I told them that they'll be staying at your house," he said, shrugging.

"It's a two bedroom flat, Simon. Not-" he cuts me off, "I said they'll be staying at your house, Mia."

Then suddenly, it hits me like a ton of bricks.

Oh god no.

End of Recap.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My house?

Now this is a complicated situation.

It's kind of hard to explain, I guess. I wouldn't say it's my house but legally it is.

Remember mi abuela who lived in Holmes Chapel? A few years ago, she moved to London. She was...well still is very well off.

She doesn't like using the word rich...but just know that she is.

So she bought herself a house...ok that's an understatement of the century. She bought herself a mansion in a secluded area in London.

When my life was turned upside down, I went to live with her for a while. Of course, she was rarely there because...how can I put this? She's the adventurous type, likes trying new things and exploring but either way, we were still really close.

I remember this one time when she video called me while she was skydiving. My mother would call her bat shit crazy but I thought that she was rather cool and courageous. She was able to do things that we were scared to even try.

Anyway, so Mari and I lived with her for a bit but I couldn't live there forever. I needed to get my own place. I felt guilty living in her home and not being of some use to her because she would always reject my attempts at helping out around the house.

I still remember whenever she told me no, I would get so upset and pout my lips and mope around the large house when I was bored. With that thick Spanish accent, she always said the same thing over and over again,

"Don't make that face, or it'll stay that way!"

So one day, I took Mari and we went apartment hunting. Well....flat hunting, same thing. She was about 3 years old then. I found the perfect one. It was just right for the two of us. Which is a good thing because I wanted to get out of abuela's place as soon as possible. I felt like I was being a burden to her.

I couldn't keep it a secret for long. She found out.

She always finds out. It's quite creepy...

"So, you think you can just move out without telling me, huh?" she sounded so hurt. I felt so bad but I wasn't okay with our living situation and I also wanted a chance to feel independent. After I told her all of this, she was very understanding. Almost too understanding because what came out of her mouth next absolutely floored me.

"Voy a viajar por el mundo por un tiempo. No estaré mucho aquí y no quiero que la casa se desperdicie."

(I am going to travel the world for a while. I won't be here much and I don't want the house going to waste)

She proceeds to pull an envelope from behind her back and gently rests it on the table and says softly, "You're my last surviving grandchild and you've been through so much in your life already, carina. I can't think of a better person who deserves this more than you do." she slides the envelope over to me and I take it very cautiously and open it. I took out the documents from the envelope and skimmed through them. My hand immediately covered my mouth in shock.

"La casa es tuya mi nieta. All you have to do is take it," she said lovingly.

She put the house in my name.

She literally gave me her house like she was selling hotdogs at the side of the road!

"Abuela...no, " I shale my head repeatedly, trying to slide the envelope back over to her but she wouldn't take it. "I can't possibly take this. ¡Es demasiado! I already found a place. Really, you don't have to"

"Whether you live in it or not is your choice, mijita. But it doesn't change the fact that the house is now yours. ¡Mira! It says it right here on this document." she says with a smile and that extra Spanish sass.

After a while, she seems to have caught on to my thoughts...

"Mia, if you don't want to live here then I completely understand! I mean, look at the place, ¡Es enorme!" We chuckle together.

"Ahhhh. There's that beautiful smile" she says softly while looking at me and continues,"but the house is still yours. Use it as a vacation home if you want. When things get tough or you and Mari just need to get away, come to the house, okay?"

She was really convincing. Just as I'm about to agree, I start to overthink again but she stops me, "Before you say anything else, Maria is going to be here regularly to clean and stock up and everything else so you don't need to worry about a thing."

"No! You're not paying Maria to be a maid to a house that's-" she cuts me off, "Lo siento pero the house is yours now and in that document that you're holding, it clearly states that Maria comes with the house" she says triumphantly.

"Don't fight it, Mia. The house is yours whether you like it or not and you must agree to the terms on the document because I said so," she says sternly. Life lesson: don't EVER talk back to your Cuban grandmother.

"And if I can learn to fluently speak English then you can learn to stop being so stubborn! Eres como tu madre. How do you expect to get a husband if you're always so stubborn?!" I groaned in response. It always, and I mean always, goes back to that.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After agreeing to Simon's suggestion, not like I had a choice anyway, I realized that it was three o'clock. Mari was supposed to be arriving soon.

I signaled to Simon that I was leaving his office. I stopped at my desk to put down my notepad and pen and saw a note from Linda.

Hey! Just wanted to say that I left and I'll show you the pics of the dresses tomorrow. Sounded like things in that meeting got pretty serious. Hope it went okay xxx

I smiled at the note and then went toward the direction of the lobby. Honestly, my head was spinning from everything that went down in the office but as soon as I saw her angelic face, all problems seemed to disappear.

She ran over to me to with huge grin on her face, the bag on her back swinging from side to side. I mouthed a 'thank you' to Mr. Jones, her driver, and picked her up in my arms and attacked her with kisses all over her face. She giggled and pleaded with me to stop.

"I missed you so much. You have no idea!" I said placing a kiss on her head and hugging her to me tightly. I missed her so much!

"I was only gone one day!" she exclaimed.

"Correction! It was one day and a night. ¿Como pudiste dejarme solo por tanto tiempo?" I said dramatically. (How could you leave me alone for so long?)

"Sobreviviste bien," she says while patting me on my head. (you survived just fine)

We laughed at our antics and then I put her down. We were on our way back to my desk chatting about her weekend when Mari abruptly stopped.

"Mamá? Am I dreaming or is Harry Styles really standing in front of us?" she whispered to me, not so subtly.

I looked down at her and saw her looking straight ahead. I followed her gaze and sure enough, there stood Harry Styles, in a white t-shirt, black skinny jeans and combat boots. Now would be a good time for the ground to just open up and swallow me. Mari starts having a mini fangirl moment while Harry has his hand covering his mouth and his eyes wide, looking at us in shock.

Instinctively, I pull Mari behind me, as a way of protecting her? I don't know. I just knew that I needed to get out of this situation. What was he still doing here anyway?

I clear my throat and say, "Mr. Styles, is there something I can help you with?"

He turns to look at me and then at Mari and he struggles to maintain eye contact with me as his wide eyes keeping flicking back to Mari and says, "I was hoping that I could have a moment with you, if you don't mind."

Oh hell no. Not today universe, not today! "Actually I do mind, now if you'll excuse us..." He was blocking the way we needed to go to get back to my desk.

"Please Mia," He pleads softly, "I promise it won't take long and if you still hate me after... then I'll leave you alone," the last part he says quietly, looking down at his feet.

With Mari's hand still in mine, we walk towards him and when we stop a couple inches away from him. Well is he gonna move? "How about you start leaving me alone now? Save yourself the trouble, Harry."

He opens his mouth to say something but is cut off by Mari tugging on my arm and asking, "Why are you being so mean? You're never mean to anyone especially people you meet for the first time." I didn't realize that she was really paying attention to our exchange. She picks up on things rather quickly and can easily tell when something isn't right. Like now, she is correct. I'm never this rude or rude at all to anyone I meet.

I'm trying this new thing called being civil and polite. It looks good on the 'mum' front.

Harry just brings out that side of me. Apparently.

She doesn't know about Harry and I so I don't get her wrong for being curious about my behaviour.

But as soon as that curiosity came, it left just as quick. It seemed as though a light bulb went off in her head and she exclaimed, "Wait a minute, is this the Harry you and Aunty Lilly were talking about!"

I watched her with a confused expression. She continued, "When you were talking on the phone the other day. You were talking about a Harry and how he's a cow-" I quickly covered her mouth with my hand as I realized what she was talking about and what she was about to say. I thought she fell asleep!

Harry watched her with an amused expression but again, those eyes never lie. Inside those mesmerizing green eyes, there is a little bit of hurt. I feel kind of embarrassed but at the same time, I felt good knowing that he knows what I think of him at the moment. Does that make me a bad person? Now that I've seen it, I can't help but regret saying what I said.

I stooped down so that I was leveled with Mari and said with a smile to make what I was going to do convincing enough, "Mari?¿Quieres ir a ver Papá?" I needed to distract her for a while before she starts asking more questions.

Nothing is more dangerous than a curious kid.

She immediately started jumping up and down and said,"Yes please! I get to ride the horsie again! !Vámonos! Let's go, let's go. Oh! I almost forgot!"

She stops bouncing and turns to face Harry and sticks for hand out, watching him expectedly. Harry watches her confused. I tried so hard to hold in my laughter. She gestures towards her outstretched hand. Harry bends down to her level and nervously sticks his hand out to shake hers.

She grasps his hand in hers and does two firms shakes saying, "It was a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Styles."

He says amusedly, "Please call me Harry. It was a pleasure to meet you too,..."

"Oh! My name is Mariangeli but just call me Mari," she says with a grin. I choose to ignore the fact that he's acting as though this is the first time that he'd known of her existence because I'm pretty sure that I would've included such a detail in one of my last letters to him.

The ones that he never responded to.

Maybe he's acting like this for the sake of formality.

"Well it was a pleasure to meet you too, Mari," he said with a grin matching hers. Then she steps forward and shocks both Harry and I as she gives him a hug. His shocked expression immediately melts away and a soft smile plays on his lips as he wraps his long, tattooed arms around her tiny body.

Okay, I have to admit. That was pretty cute. She steps away from Harry and starts tugging on my arm again, saying "Let's go". Harry opens his mouth but I quickly cut him off, "We have a lot of time to talk during the week, Harry. Or did you forget that you're stuck with me for a week?"

"Right. Seven days. I need to go home and pack." he says as though realization just dawned on him.

"Then what are you still doing here?"

"Yeah. Okay. See you later then." and he rushes to the lobby.

"Bye Harry!" Mari shouts behind him. He turns around with a grin on his face and waves at us. I awkwardly wave back, surprising myself.

When he is out of sight, Mari pulls at my arm and carries me towards Simon's office.

You gotta love Mondays, right?

A/N
Chapter 9 is up. OMG thank you to all the readers who actually found this book and take time out of their daily lives to read what I write.

Got a little sneak peek of Mia's past and of course the sweet interaction between Harry and Mariangeli. Although I must say that this is just the beginning. There's so much more drama to come ;). The picture of Rita Moreno at the top is Abuela. Hope you liked the chapter. Comment and let me know your thoughts so far. xoxo