"Ms. Blackwood, do you wish to press charges?"  The police officer asked me.

"Yes," I nodded. "I mean, will she get help? I think she needs to see a psychiatrist or something?"

"Yes," the officer answered. "With all the questions we've asked, we have enough information for a psych evaluation, so if she needs any kind of professional help, she will get it."

"Thank you," I said, smiling in relief."

After a few more questions, the ER nurse came and gave me my discharge papers and instructions. Drew had arrived to drive us back to the mansion. I was exhausted and I happily settled into Harry's side for the hour-long commute. After checking to be absolutely sure I was fine, Harry let me go into the house to get some sleep.

* * * 

Sunday morning left us all a little shell-shocked. It had been a stormy weekend, both literally and figuratively. Everything that happened with Demi had shaken us up a bit, and there had been rain and thunderstorms on and off as well. We were awakened around 10:00 AM because Harry and Ben both had some special announcements for us. No one bothered to get ready before we lumbered down to the meeting room where we normally waited for our date cards. 

First of all, Ben greeted us. "Good morning, everyone. How are you all feeling?" 

Mumbles and thumbs up's were sent back as replies.

"How about you, Harper?" Ben asked, patting his forehead, referring to my stitches. 

"I'll be all right," I smiled lazily. "A few more narcotic painkillers ought to help, along with a strong Mimosa," I laughed and all the other women laughed, too. Honestly, I didn't have much pain at all, and the heavy pain meds usually made me nauseous.+

"Well," Ben began. "Our first bit of exciting news is that, on Saturday at the end of this week, we are going to have a very special event, an event to which you can all invite three guests. So friends from back home, siblings, parents, whomever you'd like to invite, but the guest limit is three. Just let Claudia know and she will make all the arrangements. She will contact your guests and arrange for their travel, airfare, etc. and you will get to see some of your special people on Saturday. If they have not yet signed a non-disclosure-agreement, that will be required, and they will be asked to not share anything about their time with you until after all of the television episodes have aired. Does that make sense to everyone?"

"Yes!" We all said excitedly. I knew immediately who my three would be - Dad, Allegra, and Jason. I couldn't even imagine how much Allegra was going to freak when she met Harry! I was so excited. I wondered what we would do all together for a day. 

Ben went on. "Before you go to bed tonight, please pack all of your bags. We will be leaving the mansion for a few nights and have a different home base until the end of the week. Be up bright and early tomorrow because the cars leave for the airport at 8:00 AM." 

There never was a dull moment around here, that's for sure.

Then Harry took over. "Well, last night was eventful, and I'm glad that everyone is all right. Harper was a trooper at the emergency room. We had to give her an extra lollipop to keep her quiet though," he said, smirking at me, and I stuck  my tongue back out at him. "But seriously, your safety is very important to me, to all of us, so please don't hesitate to talk to a security officer or one of the bodyguards if you feel that you're in danger or something just isn't right. All right?" Everyone agreed.

"Will we get any updates on Demi? I mean, is she...okay?" Jordin asked.

Ben jumped in and said, "We don't know much yet, but she will go through some psychological testing based on behaviors we witnessed here at the mansion. We'll let you know if we hear anything. The whole situation was unfortunate."

Changing the subject, Harry said, "I know we don't normally schedule anything for Sundays, but if you take a look outside..." he glanced over his shoulder at the rain steadily pouring down, "you can see that we're stuck inside the house today anyway. There are flash flood warnings everywhere, so we are going to sit tight and I thought it would be fun to have a movie fest. How does that sound?" 

Most of the women agreed it sounded perfect. But Harry had one stipulation: "Dress like you would for a chick flick night with your friends. Get on your cozy yoga shorts and t-shirts, put your hair in a messy ponytail, and no make up!" Several of the girls whined at that. But Harry explained, "When I marry someone, her beauty matters. But it's not her physical beauty that matters the most to me., it's what's inside her heart that matters to me. That being said, you can go full glam with the make up but if you don't have a beautiful heart, I won't be interested. On the other hand, if you have a warm, generous, and funny heart, your outward appearance becomes much more attractive to me. Besides, ladies, if you and I are going to be waking up in the same bed every day...." he paused for the hollers and cat calls, "I'm going to see you without make up all the time." 

"Can we at least brush our teeth?" Bianca asked.

"Oh, please, by all means, brush your teeth," Harry laughed. 

He told us to meet in the movie room on the lower level in half an hour so we could change and grab some coffee, but we were told there would be a buffet of food in the movie room all day long, so we didn't have to find breakfast before coming down. 

Feeling chilled from the constant rain, I pulled on some striped pajama shorts, a pink t-shirt and then a sweatshirt to cover it. I always laughed at the play on the Nike slogan on the front of the sweatshirt, Just Do It Later, especially because I was the polar opposite of a procrastinator. I had to dig deep for some warm socks, but I was thankful I had decided to bring them.

Harry dimmed the lights while we all found seats. There was a variety of chairs, sofas, even bean bags, blankets and pillows. I chose an extremely large papasan chair and snuggled in. I wondered what kinds of movies Harry liked anyway; was he really into chick flicks, like I'd heard?

As Harry had said, there was a buffet of assorted breakfast pastries, coffee, and as always, mimosas, in case anyone had the desire to get drunk at ten in the morning. Between diabetes and cirrhosis of the liver, this show had to be in bed with some major pharmaceutical companies.

A few cameramen tucked themselves into corners and I found it ironic that they would be fiming us...watching films. That seemed to be the epitome of foolishness, but I knew they had to keep the cameras running just in case something really exciting happened; for example, if I fell off the papasan chair and had to get a matching set of stitches on the other side of my head.

Harry sauntered in, looking hot as fuck in some slim-fitting Nike joggers and a torso-hugging white t-shirt. It was a mystery how he could wear such a mundane outfit and still look like he was ready to take the catwalk.

I was surprised, almost shocked, when Jamie called out, "Harry, come and sit by me!" She was in a small loveseat with clearly only enough room for two. Sure, she claimed to be One Direction's biggest fan, but she hadn't really been very assertive in getting Harry's attention or spending time with him. 

He gladly joined her, saying, "Thank you. I hate it when no one asks me to sit by them. It's so awkward." Everyone laughed again at the thought of Harry being shy or embarrassed, although I saw glimpses of it from time to time. I didn't think that achieving superstar status miraculously made him - or anyone, for that matter - impervious to normal episodes of social anxiety.

Before starting the movie, he said, "I'm going to cuddle here with Jamie for a bit." I found it fricking adorable, the way he said cuddle as if he was saying could and not like it rhymed with puddle. "I want at least half hour with her," he said, giving her a cheesy grin - I'm sure her heart was going wild. "And then, if you want me to change seats, you'll have to sing a One Direction song for me to come and sit with you." 

"A whole song?!" I shouted playfully.

"At least a verse," he called back. "And don't worry, we have all day - enough time to cuddle with everyone." No one seemed to be arguing with that arrangement. "Now, hush everyone," he teased. "And pass the tissues around because I always cry." 

While the thunder rumbled outside and rain pelted the windows, we first watched Love Actually, then the Notebook. When I decided it was my turn to have Harry sit with me, I stood up and said, "Harry!" He looked at me and I belted out the first lines to Hey, Angel, even though I can't sing for anything. "Hey angel, do you know the reasons why we look up to the sky? Hey angel, do you look at us and laugh when we hold on to the past?" I couldn't sing anymore because I was laughing so hard at myself, but Harry seemed to think I did all right. 

He came and snuggled in next me on the giant papasan chair. Lucky for me - or maybe not, considering it was slightly awkward - Harry was with me during the extended love scene in The Notebook. I wasn't easily embarrassed, so I would consider my discomfort something else entirely. It was desire, pure and simple. Harry stroked my arm lightly and played with my fingers during that scene, and I could hear his breath getting heavy. God, I'd never been so turned on in my life. I didn't dare look down below his waist because I knew that I would likely find he was as aroused as I was.

I'd seen the movie before but never in this context. It was almost painful. Tearing my eyes from the screen, I slowly looked at Harry and mouthed out, So Fucking Hot. The resulting laughter helped to defuse the growing pressure in the air around us.

As  much as I didn't want to share him, Sara stood up a bit later and sang, "It's Gotta Be You," as her official request for Harry to sit by her. 

I could hardly focus on the rest of the movie since my brain kept re-enacting that Notebook love scene, except it wasn't Noah and Allie. It was Harry and me, and I envisioned Harry's tall, sleek, tattooed body moving with mine and closing my eyes while I bit down on my lip and-

"Harper!" Brittany yelled. 

I jumped about three feet out of my chair. "What?" 

"We're taking a break for lunch. Are you hungry?" I could smell the food that had been brought to the buffet table and my stomach grumbled on cue. I stood to stretch, slowly making my way over with Brittany. We were almost there when she leaned in to my ear and whispered, "Or are you thirsty?" 

"You pervert," I laughed. 

"I saw you sitting there with Hazza during that scene, and I'm pretty sure that there was steam rising from your chair." I had read that was an old nickname of Harry's, but I never heard anyone actually use it til now.

"Shut up," I giggled. Then in a very quiet whisper, I said, "But that was so hot, right?"

Brittany laughed and said, "I raised you right." 

After lunch and Titanic, a lot of us stayed in the movie room and dozed to the sounds of thunder and rain, curled up cocoons. Dove was the lucky girl who landed next to Harry and leaned her head on his shoulder while she fell asleep. 

On a daily basis, I had to shake my head at the fact that I was dating one of the world's hottest pop stars. 

And so were nine other women.

* * *

In the evening, we had warm chocolate chip cookies and milk. Or coffee, for those who wanted it. Or whiskey sours. Booze was always an option. We still sat in the movie room, although we were no longer watching movies. It was just like a big pow-wow with Harry and it was a lot more fun than I would have thought. 

We played Charades and Pictionary. We answered various questions that Harry posed to us throughout the evening, like, "What was your most embarrassing moment?" or "Who is the biggest influence in your life and why?" 

And of course, as the evening wore on, different women pulled Harry away for a little chat here and there. After most of the women had gone, Harry came to me and held his hand out. "Come on," he said, nodding in the direction of the door. 

I followed him to a cozy room on the first floor, where he closed the door so it was just the two of us. And Terrence, of course. Terrence couldn't let us be alone together - he had to get everything on camera, you know just in case we decided to have a quick fuck in a sitting room with no lock on the door.

Harry didn't seem to care that we had an audience because he came to me, pushed me up against the wall and kissed me hard. A slight moan escaped from me before I remembered that  this was being recorded. I opened my mouth willingly to enjoy Harry's taste. My hands kneaded his hips for a while, but then I crawled them up his chest, over his neck and into his plentiful curls. 

When we eventually broke the kiss, he whispered, "I've been wanting to do that all day." 

"Probably because you made yourself horny with that movie!" I said and we laughed very loudly. "It got my motor running, that's for sure." He kept laughing and sneaking kisses in between. 

I would have been completely content, standing there making out with Harry until we were forcefully separated, but Harry finally pulled back and asked, "How's your head?" He gingerly touched the bandage next to my hairline. 

"I hardly notice it," I said. 

"We'll have to make sure you get to a doctor some time in the next week," he said, his eyes full of concern.

"Don't worry," I said. "Kimberly is on it. Besides, you have more pressing things to worry about. Nine of them exact. Ten if you count me."

"I always count you, Harper." 

"I'm still scared, though," I said, suddenly becoming serious. "I know I've told you that before. I talked to my dad this week."

"Really? That's great," Harry interrupted. 

I nodded. "Yeah. It was just kind of disheartening because he cautioned me about being with someone like you. You know, since I'm into structure and routine, and I like to be in control of my environment." 

"Well, it might come as a surprise to you," Harry said. "But I like routine and some predictability, too. I don't always get it, but that's when I've learned to be flexible. Just because you're wired a certain way doesn't mean you can't learn to be adaptable."

"I know," I sighed. "There are so many unknowns, though." 

He slid one hand under my chin and stroked my cheek with his thumb. "I can't make you any promises in terms of routine and control over your life, but the future tends to be like that anyway - none of us can ever be sure what our lives will hold. But I can promise that, if we end up together, I am very much willing to work out a compromise between your lifestyle and mine. I would never imagine just dragging you through my life and hoping you enjoy it. And I doubt you would do that to me either, right?" 

"You're right," I agreed in relief. Everything made so much more sense when I spoke to him. And when I kissed him. He leaned his forehead against mine and spoke quietly, although Terrence had the microphone shoved in too close for comfort. "If you were mine, Harper, I'd do anything to make you happy." Then he kissed me again and I hoped Terrence backed off because I hated the smacking sounds of kissing on TV.

______

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Any guesses about the special event at the end of the week?