Hard to Handle (A 1D Story)

Ch. 3 - Move-In Day

Chapter 3 - Move-In Day

I woke up around noon, to a text from Sophie at P&W. “10-12 slides and notes for tomorrow meeting? Columbia LA branch exec. Emailed you pdfs. Send by EOD today?”

“Mm.” I squeezed my groggy eyes back shut and tossed my iPhone back onto the side table. After a while longer of lounging, I stretched my whole body lazily across the huge queen-sized bed and smiled into the pillow. It was so nice to be able to work out of an office that was an empty (and insanely breathtaking) mansion in Bel Air… how many other 21 year old girls could say that?! I mean, a mansion. All to myself!

Well… for now.

It had been almost three days since I moved some of my stuff from my house into the huge Bel Air model home that P&W had picked out for the boys, and they hadn’t shown up yet. John told me that they were at the Marriott downtown for the weekend, but would be stopping by for good at the beginning of the week.

Which is today. Ugh. I flipped over, shielding my eyes from the SoCal sunlight streaming through the window. As much as I liked the guys, I liked having an empty house to myself just a little bit more. I swam in the infinity pool in between TV shows and walked around the huge property in a robe whenever I wanted. Plus, once they moved in, it meant the real part of my job would have to begin. Up until this point, I’d just been assigned a few PowerPoint slides and some research projects. P&W were super flexible about letting me work from “home” – since “home” was technically “on site” for the other half of my job.

My eyes had just fluttered closed again when I heard the front door bang open quite loudly, followed by a loud, singsong-y, “Honey, we’re home!”

Fuck. I bolted upright in bed and after a split second hesitation, threw back the sheets and leapt out. Fuck. Why are they here already!? I ran a quick hand through my tangled net of black hair and heard my phone beep again.

“BTW boys left Downtown a while ago. Should be reaching Bel Air in a few. –John.”

I snorted, tossing the phone away again while I pulled on a pair of jean shorts at lightning speed. I heard the rolling of wheels and shuffling of feet against tile coming from the foyer. Well, thank you for that, John, I thought sarcastically to myself. A 30 second warning is always appreciated.

I was just in the middle of pulling a t-shirt over my tank top as the door to my room burst open – Harry at the front of the pack.

“Whoa!” he called loudly, laughing and taking a large step back into the rest of the guys. “My mistake, I’m so sorry. I didn’t see anything, I swear.” He covered his eyes with one hand and Niall’s with his other. “Niall, especially – don’t look.”

“Shut up,” Niall laughed, shoving Harry’s hand off his face.

I laughed too, wearily. “Don’t worry about it, guys, come on in.” Now that I was fully clothed, I sank back onto the bed, still groggy. I rubbed my eyes and stifled a yawn. “Sorry, I can’t believe I just woke up.”

“It’s noon,” Zayn deadpanned, raising one thick eyebrow in jest.

“And we’ve been up for ages,” Louis added. He both looked and sounded undeniably upbeat. He hopped onto the bed next to me. “And now we’re here. So come on, don’t be rude. Get up!” He shook me by the shoulder.

“Ugh, can you not?” I laughed and shook my head in half-asleep protest.

“What is that - ‘can you not’?” Louis stopped shaking me. “Is that an American thing?”