Public Sphere | H.S. | #Wattys2016

Chapter XIX + XX: Harry Styles

Authors's note: First of all, I am so sorry that this update is super late. But I hope you guys enjoy it because it's definitely different than what you guys are used to for my story. I've had a few people tell me that they wanted to read Harry's POV, so here it is. I'm not sure if I'll be writing more in his POV, but I think this chapter clears up a few things and shows what's going on in Harry's head. 

AND THANK YOU. Public Sphere has officially reached 1K+ reads. I have no words but thank you for taking time out of your precious day to read my words. Thank you, and I love you all. 

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I saw her from the corner of my eye. She was sitting there looking unamused and shuffling her food with the fork. I excused myself from my meal companion, and made my way over to her. This was my chance.

She looked surprised; no, maybe a bit tense when she saw me.

And when I whisked her away from her friend, she was undoubtedly nonplussed.

I was surprised when she didn't put up more of a fight for dinner. But I was glad that she agreed.

When I got to the restaurant, I was nervous. I was sitting at the table at Alinea—a restaurant that I thought she might enjoy. I was waiting for her to show up and I had no idea what to do with my hands. I thought about putting them in my pockets, but that would've looked too weird. So I just settled on fiddling.

I think she knew that I was nervous, but I was glad to see that she seemed somewhat nervous, too.

When the executive chef came in to personally greet us and tell us that our dinner was going to be eleven courses, I got even more uncomfortable. Most ladies that I've taken out to eat, didn't really eat all that much.

But Jess was different. She ate. It sounds incredibly trivial, but she ate like she enjoyed the food that was put in front of her; it was great. Then I decided to be an a*s and told her that she ate a lot. Strike one.

She laughed it off, thank God.

Then I decided to call our dinner a date and her eyes went wide. Strike two.

She didn't respond for what it felt like forever, so I kept talking, undoubtedly digging myself into a deeper hole.

Sh*t.

She didn't want it to be a date. She didn't want it.

I don't know what I was thinking. I was a complete a*s to her for the last few months, maybe years, and then I decided that I would take her out to dinner, like that would solve everything.

But then she did something that made my heart drop, she smiled. She f**king smiled. And her smile made me smile. It made me smile so damn hard.

Maybe Lucy was right, maybe Jess and I had a chance. Maybe I hadn't f**ked it up just yet.

As we got up to leave, I just saw a sea of paparazzi and that made me sweat. I wasn't sure what Jess and I were. I wasn't even sure if she liked me, so I wasn't sure what she would do.

But of course, Jess, being Jess Hansen, did something not entirely out of character. She took my hand and dragged me out to the public with her.

The car ride was quiet. When the driver got to her apartment building, she squeezed my hand before she got out of the car.

I was confused.

I wasn't sure what this meant: Did she like me?

"Lucy," I whined into the phone once she picked up.