Being on an outing with Harry Styles apparently warranted VIP treatment whether you wanted it or not. The minute we stepped in to the zoo he had been approached by some kind of manager who insisted we have a guide to show us around. And so here I was sat on the steps in the Central Garden with Lou watching Brian, our guide, chatting away animatedly to Harry as Madison and Lux pressed themselves up against the glass surround of the sea lion tank.
I looked to my right at Lou who was tapping away on her phone,
"Does Lux travel with you every time you have to travel with the boys?" I asked genuinely intrigued.
"At the moment," she placed her phone down on the step next to her empty take out cup and stretched her legs in front of her, "she's pretty much grown up travelling with me for work so far but I think this will be the last tour she travels for the whole time with me. I don't like the idea of her growing up to be some spoilt brat who thinks flying in private jets and stuff is the norm, and she starts school next year so will probably spend a lot of time at home with family while I'm away."
"Must be hard though, doing your job and looking after her at the same time. The thought of having to be away from her for long periods of time." She shrugs nonchalantly and I'm wondering if she's been asked these questions a million times before.
"It was when she was a baby and she needed me all the time, but her dad Tom comes on the road with us sometimes and Harry's sister Gemma toured with us last year so she was kind of Lux's unofficial nanny while I was working. The whole team is like one big family because we keep the same people every year, and the boys themselves are brilliant with her especially Harry because she sees him the most."
"How come?" Surely she saw all the boys the same amount of time if they're all travelling together, I thought.
"Like I said before, Harry finds it difficult to stay at his house when he's in London because a lot of the fans know where it is. When he brought it he spent a lot of time having it renovated, so he crashed at mine and Tom's for a while when Lux was a baby. At one point fans thought that harry was actually Lux's dad instead of Tom," she laughs. Seeing my brows shoot up in question she holds her hands up in an innocent gesture, "no, no, no.... God no!! Me and Harry are close, he knows he can always tell me anything and he comes to me when things start to get a bit much for him sometimes but that's all. He's like my not so little brother."
"Oh." This whole world of fans camped outside and not being able to stay at your own house was absolutely mind boggling to me, I was starting to wonder how any of the boys coped with that amount of attention. Because of course it wasn't just Harry. I'm sure all the boys deal with it to some degree, but I'll admit I've seen the magazines and front page stories on Harry and how he's labelled 'Womaniser' any time he's seen out with a girl even if there are others with them. In fact, thinking about it, I was sure I'd seen an article in one of the magazines Emily had left around at the dance studio with a picture of a blonde girl that they speculated was his latest girlfriend attending some awards bash with him. It turned out the girl was actually his sister and the picture had originally been tweeted by his own mother.
Lou's phone buzzed and she held it up to show me she had a call,
"I'll be right back," she said, standing up and walking off to one side. I nodded and turned my attention back to where the girls were pointing something out excitedly to Harry, who was now crouched down behind them looking in to the sea lion tank. Suddenly one of the sea lions swam up directly in front of them and rubbed its nose on glass making the girls erupt in squeals and all three of them clap, I laughed thinking Harry seemed to be enjoying this as much as the two girls were. I'm not sure if it was because he heard me laughing at them or that he felt me watching but Harry's head shot around, his gaze catching mine instantly causing those butterflies to surface inside again. A lopsided smile spread across his face like he knew exactly the effect he was having just by looking at me, and I had no doubt in that moment that he probably had the same effect on every girl/woman that met him even just briefly and he knew it. The surprising thing was that he wasn't arrogant about it at all. He cocked his head to one side and waved me over with a flick of his hand, that smile still firmly in place framed by his unruly hair and seemingly glittering eyes. I stood, picking up Lou's empty take out cup and depositing it in a nearby bin before making my way down the remaining steps and to Harry's side.
