How Long?

Text between Harry and Louise:

Harry: Had a good time?

Louise: In fact I did, on my way home. How is down under? Lonely yet?

Harry: It’s beautiful but I fucking hate this cattle station. And I am never lonely. I have you to keep me company, remember :). Tom treated you okay?

Louise: Yes, You have a tough competition when you come back. I and Tom are besties.

Harry: Huh! Nobody is as demented as me to deal with your sorry ass. I am sure he was just being polite.

Louise: My SORRY ASS! EXCUSE ME it’s ME who deals with YOU. You are even infuriating on texts.

Harry: What can I say, I have a talent. What else happened?

Louise: Met your girlfriend. She is still a total bimbo. That’s the kind of girl you’re into?

Harry: Astrid is NOT my girlfriend. It was onetime shag kind of thing and it was atrocious.

Louise: It was your first time!

Harry: Exactly, it was my first time and it was HORIBBLE.

Louise: It had to be, first time is suppose to be special with someone you love.

Harry: And you are talking from experience? Ehh??

Louise: Sod off!! Go and be with your bimbo!

Harry: God, will you ever let it go?

Louise: Never!

Harry: And you call me infuriating. Anything else that I need to know about?

Louise: No, that’s about it. We won by the way.

Harry: By ‘we’ you mean your brothers.

Louise: By ‘we’ I mean us Tomlinson’s

Harry: Clever! You home yet?

Louise: Just getting out of the car.

Harry: Good, have a nice night. I am off to work. Talk to you later. Bye, Lou.

Louise: Bye, Harry.

Louise with a huge smile entered her room. She sank into her bed still smiling ear to ear. Then it dawned on her that she didn’t tell Harry about her date with Jake. She contemplated texting him but then she changed her mind. Why to make it a big deal of it. It’s only one date; it might not even turn into anything. Brushing the thoughts away she went to change.

---

All ready for her first date with Jake, Louise was looking at her reflection in the living room mirror. It was hard to focus knowing Jake would be here soon. Louise had never gone out with someone on a formal date. She had dated before but that was casual and relatively meaningless. This date felt different. Jake had gone out of his way and like a gentlemen courted her for over a month, and Louise liked that. She was totally lost in her thoughts when Mark and Luke came home from their polo rehearsals. She had totally forgotten that both her brothers were home for the weekend.

“When did you grow up? Luke doesn’t she look like mum” Mark said looking at his baby sister all glammed up.

Louise blushed.

“Where are you going all dressed up?” Luke asked.

“I have a date” Louise said shying away from her brothers.

All the men in her life were so protective of her that sometimes Louise wished they just leave her alone. She dated a guy for about two months before. He was highly intimated by her brothers. After weeks when they finally warmed up to him, for a moment it seemed like she really had a boyfriend and then Harry ruined it with being all territorial about her.

“You and Harry?” Luke asked giving her one of his big brotherly looks.

“No! God! It’s not Harry. Harry is in Australia for god sakes” Louise said getting flushed from the
memories of the night in cellar.

“It’s not Harry?” Mark asked confused. He was convinced that her sister was already seeing Harry.

“No, I am going out with Jake. Jake Warren. I have taken permission from dad, so there is no need to
get hyper about it” She said warning her brothers.

“Jake Warren, really” Mark asked.

Louise heard a car pull up on their driveway.

“Yes, can you two please not embarrass me in front of him, please?” She pleaded.

“Can’t promise that” Mark said with an evil grin on his face.

“Luke please tell Mark to behave himself” Louise hissed as the door bell rang.

“Miss Louise, Master Warren is here for you” Mae their maid announced coming in the room followed by
Jake.

“Thanks Mae” Louise said.

“Hello, Louise” Jake greeted her with a kiss on her cheek.

“Hi” Louise replied.

“Hello, Mark. Luke” Jake said shaking their hands.

“Are we ready to go?” Jake asked Louise who could see her brothers eyeing him up.

“Yes, I just need to grab my sweater. Be right back” Louise said before rushing to fetch her sweater.

Jake opened the passenger seat for Louise and then went to the other side. She could feel her brothers still watching them from the window. Jake started the engine and once they had some distance between them and the house, Jake cleared his throat.

“That was tense in there. Are they always like that around your dates?” Jake asked with an easy smile on his face.

“Yes, and I am really sorry about them. They get quite overbearing at times. I hope they didn’t asked you a lot of question while I was getting the sweater”

“It’s alright. I have a younger sister, I know how protective brothers can be” He said placing a hand on her knee. “I didn’t get the time to say this before but Louise you are looking ravishing tonight” He said squeezing her knee.

----

Text between Tom and Harry:

Tom: Guess what? I think Astrid still have a thing for you.

Harry: *Groans* You too! It was just shag two years ago get over it already.

Tom: Don't get your knickers in a twist. Just saying, met her last week she was asking
about you an awful lot.

Harry: Don’t care

Tom: She is still a looker.

Harry: Then you go for it, you wanker. Leave me is peace.

Tom: Talking about peace, you doing alright with the whole Jake thing?

Harry: What the fuck are you talking about?

Tom: Jake and Louise. Ringing any bells?

Harry: What about Jake and Lou?

Harry: ??

Harry: TOM!!

Tom: Sorry, was taking a piss. Last I heard from Susanna they had a date. Didn’t Louise
tell you?

Harry: No, are you sure?

Tom: Pretty sure. According to Susanna, Jake went all out to impress her by booking a
table at Alloro, he even borrowed his father’s Bentley.

Tom: Harry?

Tom: You there??

Harry: Yep, still here.

Tom: You alright mate.

Harry: I am bloody brilliant, Tom.

----

Louise sat in front of her computer taking a break from her studies. She couldn’t believe that she had been going out with Jake for over two months now. He was an all around a good bloke: Smart, funny and sweet to Louise. He was older than her and was already in college but he was so patient with her. Even after knowing him all her life she was still surprised by him.

Between her school, homework, his college, classes and their social commitments, it had been hard to get together more than once a week. They had been on eight dates by now, so their relationship, if that what it was, was on a very slow track. While most of their friends tried to spend every night with their significant others, Jake and Louise was taking it slow.

For Louise it was good thing. She was young and she didn’t really want a boyfriend at the moment. They held hands and snogged in the car but were not rushing into anything. She was still a virgin and so far Jake had understood it.

A lot of Louise time was spend on the enormous amount of school work she had. Though she still had some time she was already thinking about her collage applications. She was literally killing herself to keep up with school, and it was paying off as her grades were better than ever.

She stretched her hands above her head and yawned. She was dead tiered this week had been rather hectic for her. She took her phone out and there were some messages from Natasha and a couple from Jake but none from Harry.

It had been a few weeks since Harry had been in South Africa. For some reason, mostly he thought because of their mother, Harry and William kept coming back there. On this particular trip he met with Prince Seeiso of the Lesotho Royal Family. Even though he was a decade older than him, Harry and Prince Seeiso had instantly hit it off. Harry was so moved by the vulnerable children and young people in the country that he had offered a helping hand and for the past few weeks he had been doing nothing but him spending time with these amazing children.

But now was the time to relax and after a month of rigorous work at Lesotho Harry was going to
Johannesburg for some down time. His friend Julian was going to be there and he had promised to show him around and to have a wicked good time. After months of ‘manual labor’ as Louise called it, Harry was in desperate need for some genuine, good old fashioned fun.

Julian and Harry met up in one of Johannesburg’s most trendy club. Julian was there with some of his friends, vacationing. The drinks were flowing and conversation was going on full swing. Harry after months felt relaxed. He absolutely hated his time in Australia and after working hard in Lesotho, this night was all he needed.

Julian was telling Harry some outrageous story about his time in Spain when Harry eye caught the sight of a petite blonde. She was standing on the other side of the club with a bunch of girls, laughing. She was beautiful even though Harry tried his hardest his eyes kept going back to her. She had seen him looking at her and gave him a sweet but somewhat seductive smile. He knew he had work up the courage to ask her for a dance. Standing by the bar he drowned another shot of tequila. He hoped it will give him courage he needed.

“Hey Harry, I would like to introduce you to someone” Julian said from behind.

Frowning Harry turned around to meet another one of Julian friends but he was taken aback when the same blonde he had been eyeing the whole night was standing in front of him.
“Harry, this is my friend Chelsy Davy and Chels this is Harry also known as Prince Harry” Julian said making the introductions.

“It’s an absolute honor to meet you” Chelsy said extending her hand.

“Believe me, the pleasure is all mine” He said taking her hand while grinning.