CHAPTER 17

                                    

                                          
24 January 2016
                          
Los Angeles, California
                          
Aurelie's POV
                          


                          
 I decided to take Harry's advice and invite Alice over. He played the song that he wrote for me over and over again until it hurt his throat, and with the fear of damaging his vocal cords and ruining his career, I let him go. 
                          
 Alice is on her way over with all my belongings from the hotel, so I steal a toothbrush from the large bathroom cabinet and clean my teeth. It's already been a hell of a day and it's only eleven. That seems to be happening a lot recently. 
                          
 I slip on a different sweatshirt of Harry's in an attempt to make myself seem a little more presentable, but the huge eye bags and left over mascara on my cheek that won't budge kind of gives me away. 
                          
 Thank god for micellar water, hopefully Alice will pack my bag neatly enough for me to find it with ease. 
                          
 Though Harry had told me to stay at his for as long as I needed, I didn't want to overstay my welcome. I planned to stay here for another day before going over to my Moms house. 
                          
 Alice was taking forever, so I took a stroll around the house. He had groceries delivered for me, which I thought was the sweetest thing. 
                          
 If anything has been made clear to me in the past few days, it's that Harry cares about me just as much as I hoped, and that I really need to prioritise recovery if I want a relationship between us to stand a chance. 
                          
 Bearing that in mind, I rifle through the bag filled with my favourite foods that was delivered, and prepare myself a breakfast. Alice probably would have eaten already, but if she caught me with food then she would eat it all herself. I make her a plate too. 
                          
 I create a sweet breakfast- always having such a sugary palette. A plate of fruits: strawberries, frozen mango since I prefer the texture of it to room temperature mango, green grapes, watermelon and blueberries. I lay out some greek yoghurt too, crumbling a granola bar over the top of it. 
                          
 It looks pretty good, if I may say so myself. 
                          
 Now it's just a waiting game for the blonde Princess to show. I nicknamed Alice that as a child. She always wanted to be the princess, and she argued that because she was blonde, she got to be it. I was either the Prince or the villain. I didn't have any less fun, though. 
                          
I know that she would appreciate the late breakfast, especially since she was using her Saturday off from the law firm to be spent with me. 
                          
 When there's a knock at the door, I nearly jump out of my skin, spilling the rest of the yogurt pot. Cursing profusely, I wash my hands and open the door. 
                          
 Alice strolls in casually, smiling like she owns the place, and envelopes me in a hug. She takes in my appearance, an immediate frown forming on her features. 
                          
 "I'm okay, I'm okay." I protest, not wanting to start a huge thing. It was hard enough talking to Harry about my feelings, and I could tell him anything I felt like. 
                          
 "Sure." she says sarcastically, dropping my bags to the marble flooring. "Where do you want these then?" 
                          
 "Leave them there, I'll just sort them out in a bit." I smile, sipping my mug of tea. Being around Harry so much had really made tea grow on me. 
                          
 "I think you should show me around this huge house, then I'll take you surfing."  she shrugs like we'd already planned it. She's already seen Harry's house a few weeks ago, too. 
                          
 "I don't have a clue how to surf, what?" I choke slightly on my tea, the soothing drink doing the exact opposite of what it's supposed to do. 
                          
 "Trust me. The waves will clear your mind in no time. I'll just take you to Santa Cruz or something." she feasts her eyes on the food that I put out, reaching for the watermelon straight away.