For the Summer // A Harry Styles OU

V. Margaret

Evie was relieved to wake up for the first time in what felt like a week without a hangover, even though it was actually only two days. That was the last time she was going to let something get to her the way it had. Because shitty ex-boyfriend and even shittier mother aside, she was not enjoying how rough she'd been feeling the past few days.

It still didn't stop her headache though, which she was sure would soon manifest into a pretty fantastic migraine. She'd cried from the moment she stepped through the door last night, to the moment she passed out from exhaustion of doing nothing else besides crying. Impossibly, she was more upset that her mother was cruel enough to dump such a substantial amount of money on her without a word, all because she'd told her she wanted her out of her life. She was feeling less and less herself as the days went by, and she was hating every moment of it.

The girls had each made comments about how ill Evie looked and how red her eyes were from all her crying, but she kept her reasons to herself. No amount of bitching about her mother and Theo was going to change anything that had happened, because if anything; it was going to make everyone else's work life more awkward. As much as she currently despised Theo, she didn't want the rest of the girls to feel more uncomfortable than they already did whenever he waltzed into the room.

The morning meeting was a chore. Not only were there a lot of arrivals to go through, which did her already hoarse voice absolutely no favours, but Theo was standing eyeing her pretty much the entire time, and she was just waiting for him to say something about the look on her face.

"Okay, thanks everyone." Peter sighed as he rounded off the day's happenings. He turned to Evie with a kind of half smile, and she immediately knew what was going to happen. "Evangeline, can I speak with you and Theo for just a moment, please?"

She inhaled a breath and nodded once, leaning against the desk that the marketing manager usually occupied, who had politely and silently left the room with the rest of the meeting attendees.

Theo stood a fair distance away from her, shoulders squared and arms folded as his hard gaze narrowed in on a pile of papers on Peter's desk. His suit was grey today, the one that Evie had always said to be her favourite because she liked the slightly bobbled texture it held. His shirt underneath was white like it always was, but his tie was crimson red today. He looked... annoyingly handsome. But it changed nothing.

"Evangeline," Peter spoke softly, "I understand the situation with your mother is... a little hairy at the moment." Well, that's certainly one way to describe it. "But you must know her bill needs to be paid. I can't have it sitting outstanding in the system because you had an argument with her."

Evie cleared her throat, her gaze hardening as she looked to Peter, who very clearly had little-to-no idea what had actually happened. It absolutely didn't surprise her that Theo had gone to him with some bullshit story about it to get her in trouble, because that's just exactly what Theo was like.

"With all due respect Peter, I'm only going to say this once." Her tone carried more strength than she'd expected, but there was still a thick lump threatening at the base of her throat. "I did not want my mother to stay here. I told her 'no' multiple times, and she wouldn't have it. Until Theo came to see me late Friday evening, I was under the impression she was staying elsewhere. Theo spoke to her afterwards, Theo agreed to let her stay, Theo made the reservation. I had nothing to do with it. She's a horrible person trying to cause trouble, and I'm sorry she didn't pay her room bill, but that's not my problem. He," she pointed to Theo, "shouldn't have been so stupid to just believe her when she said I'd pay and let her leave without checking first. You cannot make me pay this bill. Because firstly I can't afford it, and secondly it's not my error."