A Single Daffodil

“Vita, I’ve been meaning to tell you something that’s very important.” Lebron James leaned onto both of his elbows on the table between us, holding a very serious expression on his face. He held his hands in the form of prayer as he rested his lips against his index fingers. “It has come to my attention that you don’t know you’re beautiful.”

“WOW! Good one!” I exclaimed, jerking my head back while the rest of the guys at the table broke out in laughter. Chris Bosh almost spat out his drink and Dwayne Wade was covering his howling laughter with his napkin. “You’re all jerks!”

I knew it would happen eventually. The teasing and stupid One Direction jokes at my expense from my three, nonbiological, professional basketball playing, “older brothers” --or so they claim to be, anyways.

It was a Friday night, and it was exactly four weeks since our victorious win at the NBA Finals. At this point, it was practically tradition to have a celebratory dinner at the luxurious AltaMare, a seafood restaurant that sits right on the bay of South Beach. It was my dad’s favorite place to celebrate, mostly because it meant he could have an endless amount of crab cakes, but also because the restaurant insists on shutting down the whole place for our celebration. The dinner was a chance for the whole Miami Heat organization to enjoy our victory together with friends and family. Sophia was my only plus one for tonight, since Jayden’s flight back from Los Angeles didn’t land in Miami for another two hours--it was officially preseason for Jayden, meaning he was going to be flying all around the country for the next three months before he goes into the TransWorld Motocross competition in Switzerland. It’s also been two weeks since Sophia and I have seen him, meaning it’s been two weeks too long since the three amigos have been reunited. I hated it.

Savannah’s silver and gold bangles made a loud Clink! as she slapped the back of her hand against Lebron’s chest.

“Stop that!” She scolded him, her perfectly plucked eyebrows crunched together as she glared up at him. Lebron, who was still giggling like a little school girl, held his hands up in surrender.

Savannah rolled her eyes at her fiance and looked over at me. “Ignore them, Vita. I think you two are adorable.”

“I do too!” Gabrielle, Dwayne Wade’s girlfriend, leaned past Dwayne to blind me with her bright, pearly white teeth. “Where is he, anyways? I was looking forward to meeting him.”

It was no secret that Harry and I were dating. Thanks to E! News, and just about any other news outlet in the world, everyone on the entire planet knew Harry Styles was dating the Miami Heat Coach’s daughter. Okay, maybe not everyone on the planet, but fuck, it sure felt like it was everyone. Suddenly, I was the most popular girl in south Florida. Friend requests on Facebook were coming in left and right and everyone I’ve met in the past eighteen years was e-mailing/texting me about how they saw me on television (which was always followed by the ‘so what have you been up to? maybe we should hang out more!’. Which was funny. Like, really funny.). I even had to take down all my information on facebook, like how I work at Jane’s Flower shop, after hordes of young girls started flocking the store to get pictures of me. And because all of that wasn’t enough, I even learnt last week, thanks to Sophia the all mighty Social Media queen, that there are fan pages of me on twitter, tumblr, and instagram. I didn’t even have twitter, tumblr, or instagram.

It was insane.

I felt like Mia Thermopolis from Princess Diaries after everyone found out she was a Princess, except my situation was way worse. I didn’t get a tiara, Julia Andrews wasn’t my Grandmother, and no one bought me a cute blue Mustang. No, no. I got the psychotic paparazzi hiding in Mrs. Baker’s bushes across the street from my house (which was driving her crazy, by the way), reporters asking my dad how he felt about the whole thing, excessive heckling and intruding texts from people who suddenly found me appealing, and let us not forget! The incredibly angry, aggressive and relentless One Directioners.

Did you know that death threats are still a thing? Oh yeah. They’re still a thing alright.

But you know what? For the most part, I didn’t care. I really didn’t. I didn’t care that my private life was now completely exposed or suddenly something that everyone wanted to unmask. The point I’m trying to make is, I’m happy. I’m really happy. I think of Harry’s cute little nose, and his adorable laugh every time he finds me funny, I feel the butterfly wings flutter against my stomach and my heart lodge itself in my throat.

“Yeah, where is Loverboy anyways?” Dwayne draped his arm across Gabrielle’s chair as he leaned back. He was wearing a black Hugo Boss suit, with a matte black Rolex watch to match. “Afraid to hang around a couple of NBA Champs?”

“Oooh, tell ‘em!” Lebron added with a snicker.

I snorted. “Oh, get over yourselves. You’re all a bunch of sissys off the court.” I ignored Chris Bosh’s noise of protest and Dwayne’s shocked expression. “He’s in the studio recording. The last thing he wants to do is hang around you Lame-Os.”

Lebron gasped, whipping his head around to Dwayne. “You hear this girl? Lame-Os!?”

“I KNOW this girl didn’t just call us a couple of Lame-Os!” Chris Bosh exclaimed. “You’re really asking for a premium nuggie to the head, Spoel’.”

Just as I was about to karate chop Chris’s arm away from my perfectly styled hair, my father appeared behind me and Sophia. He placed a hand on both of our shoulders and gave a small squeeze. I looked up and offered him a small smile. It was the first time I saw him tonight.

“What kind of trouble are you hooligans getting into now?” My dad joked, quickly dropping down to plant a kiss on the top of my head.

“They started it!” I exclaimed as I warded off Chris’s fighting arms again. “I think it’s time to trade some players for next season, dad.”

Dwayne gasped, giving me an incredulous look. “Damn, Vita! Tell us how you really feel!”

I pushed my chin out, giving him a cheeky grin.

“Thanks for letting me come to your celebration, Mr. Spoelstra!” For the first time tonight, Sophia put her phone down. She’d been too busy texting Niall to even acknowledge any conversations all night.

“Of course, Sophia.” My dad answered. “You’re family!”

I quickly reached for my glass of champagne and took several sips, hoping this was enough to keep my mouth shut. Otherwise, I was going to tell my dad just how rich that statement was, especially coming from him.

You see, I was a little peeved with my dad. While I know his whole life and career is devoted to basketball, he hasn’t reached out to Grandpa Gene or me in weeks. I typically don’t hold it against him because I’m used to his lack of fathering in the past couple of year due to how busy he was. But these past couple of weeks, he chose to do everything else but try to see me and Grandpa Gene. I had to find out from the tabloids that he was taking girlfriend #4 of the year on vacation to Cabo with a couple of other friends from work last week. I was angry because he didn’t know what family was. He ignored his family. His career came first and Grandpa Gene and I came last.

“Don’t hold it against him, Vita.” Grandpa Gene encouraged me the morning after I found out about his little Cabo vacation. I was idly doodling on a spare sketchbook in Grandpa Gene’s sunroom as I ranted on about how my dad deserted us. Grandpa Gene was painting at his usual easel, letting me go on until my voice was hoarse and my mouth was dry. When I finished, he calmly responded. “You have to remember that your father didn’t just sign up for a coaching job. He adopted a whole basketball team and an organization. He hasn’t forgotten about us. He just has an even bigger family to worry about.”

I had to admire my Grandpa’s optimism, but I couldn’t exactly push away the feeling of abandonment. Sometimes, it didn’t feel like Eric Spoelstra was my dad. We never did father-daughter things together, like watching a movie or talk on the phone. Every time I saw him, he was always too occupied with coaching and if he wasn’t coaching, he was planning. His whole life was completely devoted to basketball. I had to accept the fact that he’ll never be a typical dad in a traditional sense a long time ago, but it still hurts when I think about it. I always tell myself I can’t resent him for his successful career, even if I am craving a traditional father-daughter relationship.

At least I’ll always have Grandpa Gene to fill that void.

After my dad finished catching up with the group I was sitting with, his assistant coach, Chris, called him over to make a speech before the dessert came out. I sighed and sat back in my chair, lazily clapping along with everyone else after Chris introduced my dad at the front of the room.

I tried to focus on whatever kind of motivational speech my dad had up his sleeve tonight, but I was getting too distracted by my vibrating phone that was concealed in my clutch. I quickly lowered the phone into my lap and unlocked the home screen to read the text.

That dress looks incredible on you.

Before I could even finish reading that text, another one came in from the same number.

But it would look much better on my hotel room floor instead.

My jaw dropped and my cheeks immediately flushed. I lifted my head and scanned the room, trying to find the cheeky boy who sent the texts. He wasn’t suppose to be back from the studio for another two hours, so you can imagine my surprise when I saw his silhouette leaning against the wall by the entrance to the restaurant. His arms were folded across his white t-shirt, and his black skinny jean-covered legs crossed at the ankle. A huge, satisfied grin was plastered on his face.

“I’ll be right back.” I whispered to Sophia as I quickly lifted my napkin and clutch from my lap and slipped away from the table.

I started shaking my head with a huge grin as I approached Harry.

“What are you doing here!?” I whispered excitedly when I reached him. “I thought you were going to be stuck at the studio for another two hours!”

“We finished early.” Harry pushed himself off the wall and reached for my hand, pulling me into him and planting his lips softly on mine. Even the simplest kiss from him made my knees weak and my heart race. When he pulled away, he was smiling down at me, his eyes bright. “Thought I’d surprise yeh.”

“Mission accomplished.” I grinned at him. “Wanna get out of here?”

“‘Course. Won’t your dad mind though?” He nodded in the direction behind me. I turned around to see that my dad was still yapping on about something basketball-related to the entire room.

I turned back to Harry and shook my head. “He won’t even know I’m gone.” I started pulling him towards the doors to the parking lot. “Come on, I want to go make out in your car.”

Harry moaned, easily letting me tug him out of the restaurant. “You’re dangerous when you get like this.”

Unfortunately, we didn’t get the chance to do much of anything in his car except reverse out of the parking spot and drive, thanks to the rude and demanding paparazzi’s waiting outside the restaurant. I struggled to fasten my seatbelt in place with all the blinding spots in my eyes after one of the cameramen pushed the camera right into the passenger side window.

“God, they’re worst than mosquitos.” I commented when we finally pulled out onto a main road. I jokingly squinted my eyes as I blindly reached for Harry. “I can’t see anything. Where’s Harry? What the--is that a nose? No, wait. An ear?”

I grinned when Harry’s laughter echoed around the car. He swatted my hands away and started to moan. “Vita! I’m driving!”

I giggled, placing my hands back in my lap. “So, what’s the word? I know we’ve gotten frozen yogurt like four times this week already, but I wouldn’t exactly hate it if we stretched it to five times before Sunday.”

“I was just about to ask you if you wanted to!” Harry replied. “Froyo, then my place?”

“God, yes. Yes so hard.”

Harry laughed at my reaction and turned onto the road where Pinkberry was located.

Because it was a little past nine pm, Pinkberry was practically empty when we got there, save for the family of four tucked away in the back corner. Harry and I have been here so many times in the past month, that picking our froyo and toppings had become second nature. I didn’t even have to think about what I was getting. Large cup, chocolate flavored yogurt, peanut m&ms, gummy bears, two cherries, and a whole lot of cheesecake pieces. The ratio of toppings were unrivaled, and I never switched it up after I conquered my technique of frozen yogurt perfection. Harry, on the other hand, changed his frozen yogurt combination every time we went. He didn’t like ‘uniformity’, as he puts it. He liked picking at random, and going with the flow. It drove me crazy because I couldn’t understand how someone could be so apathetic about froyo.

This time he picked strawberry yogurt and oreo pieces, kiwi, reese’s mini buttercups, and corn flakes as toppings.

Harry laughed at the vomiting noise I made when we got back into his Range Rover.

“Judge me all you want, Vita, but life is all about trying new things.” Harry defended his froyo concoction of gross. “You can’t have chocolate flavored froyo for the rest of your life, you know.”

“I can and I will!” I exclaimed, scooping out a huge chunk of yogurt and peanut m&ms and shoving it into my mouth. It made a satisfying crunch.



It smelt like bacon and burnt toast.

That was the first thing I noticed when Harry and I walked into the Presidential suite at the Four Seasons.

“Oi, ye twat! You burnt the toast!” I heard Louis’s voice exclaim angrily from the kitchen. “That’s the third time in a row!”

Visiting the Presidential suite was something I could definitely get used to. It was visually appealing in many aspects. While the suede covered couches and the 90” flat screen tv in the main living room (there were two living rooms; the other one was upstairs where the bedrooms were located.) added to the whole cozy aura, it was the floor-to-ceiling windows looking over Miami Beach that was the most spectacular thing about the place. Every time I visited, I wanted to have a total introverted moment and sit right next to the window and watch the flickering lights from anchored boats in the faraway darkness of the sea.

Sadly, I haven’t had a chance to do that yet.

The second Harry kicked the door shut behind us, Zayn’s head popped up from one of the sofas in the living room. He smiled when he saw us. “Hiya!”

Soon after, Louis emerged from the kitchen area with a blue apron wrapped around his waist and a spatula in hand. “Oh, hi Vita! Nice to see ya!”

Niall rounded up behind Louis, with a piece of burnt toast in his mouth. “Vita! Is Sophia with you?”

Before I even had a chance to respond, Liam came bounding down the stairs. “Is that Jayden!?” He shouted the question before reaching the last couple of steps, where he finally spotted me and Harry standing in the entrance. “Oh, Vita! Hi! Is Jayden with you?”

“Sorry guys, just me.” I responded with a laugh. “Jayden doesn’t get in until-”

“Until ten minutes ago!” Liam finished for me. I raised an eyebrow at him as he feverishly checked his phone. “He said he’d text me when he landed! We’re suppose to have a footie match on xbox tonight!”

“What is with you and Jayden?” Zayn’s head popped up from the sofa again, this time to give Liam a strange look. “You’re obsessed with him, mate!”

“Shut up, yeah? He’s cool as!” Liam exclaimed, jumping the last step and jogging over to the living room area. He jumped the back of the sofa that Zayn was sitting on, and landed with a loud thunk!.

I shook my head with a smile as I watched Zayn and Liam get into a wrestling match. These guys were an absolute joy to observe.

“I thought you guys were going out to eat after recording?” Harry asked, walking over to Louis and Niall. I quickly followed suit, taking another bite of my almost melted froyo.

“Well we were suppose ta, but we couldn’t agree on a place.” Niall explained as I hopped up onto one of the breakfast bar stools that sat in front of the counter that attached to the kitchen area.

“So we decided to make a good ol’ English fry up instead!” Louis concluded. He stood in front of the stove, flipping the crackling bacon with his spatula.

“How fabulous.” Harry hummed, leaning next to Louis to get a peak at the bacon. He played with the hem of his white shirt as he loudly inhaled Louis’s fry up. “Can I have-”

“Touch my bacon and I’ll water board you.” Louis warned, pointing the spatula in Harry’s direction.

Harry looked up from the stove and gave Louis a shocked expression before looking over at me. I quickly mirrored his expression before breaking into a laugh.

I was about to ask Louis if he wanted a bite of my froyo, in exchange for a piece of bacon, but I never had the chance because the loud bang of the front door opening interrupted all conversations, thoughts, and wits.

“Hola!” That familiar screech I’ve grown to love and hate echoed through the entire Presidential suite. “I’m here! And look who I picked up on the way!”

“Me, I guess.” Jayden sauntered in right after her, making a more blase entrance.

Niall immediately jumped into action, dropping the toast onto the counter and practically racing over to where Sophia stood. He almost beat Liam, who was equally just excited to see Jayden.

I knew Liam and Jayden instantly became best friends ever since they hung out at Jessica Franklin’s party last month, but I couldn’t exactly figure out what the hell Niall and Sophia were. I’ve asked Sophia countless times if they were dating, but she almost always shoots that horse right in the face with the same reaction: “Ay dios mio! No way!”. Yet, for some reason, I’ve caught her leaving Niall’s bedroom in the previous night’s attire on several occasions when I would stay over too. Even when I’ve caught her red handed, she denies any type of relationship inquiries I have.

I’ll never understand it.

“Hey guys!” I swung around on my stool and waved my little froyo spoon at my two amigos.

“You left your clutch at the restaurant, idiot!” Sophia immediately glared at me after hugging and kissing Niall. Speaking of Niall, he was already tugging Sophia towards the stairs. Sophia dragged as she continued to speak. “And Lebron told me to tell you that you have to meet him for a workout session Tuesday morning.”

“Ugh. I forgot I agreed to that.” I made a face.

“That’s cool, Vita. Just sit there and pretend like this isn’t the first time in two weeks since you’ve seen your best friend.” Jayden’s voice was rich with sarcasm as he walked over to me. He engulfed me into a tight hug before ruffling my hair and plopping down onto the empty stool next to me. When he noticed Louis turning bacon, his eyes lit up. “Bacon?”

“Want some? I have tons here.” Louis offered.

“Hey!” Harry immediately protested, clearly not giving up the fight for bacon. “ Jayden can have bacon and I can’t!? This is blasphemy! Come on Vita, we’re leaving!”

“Such a drama queen.” Louis shook his head as Harry pulled on my hand and directed me towards the stairs. I didn’t care what was happening as long as it meant I got to make-out with Harry in his bedroom.

And we were about to do just that.

The minute Harry closed the door to his own bedroom, I knew it was game on.

I’d only just slid my cold fingers across his jaw when he frantically wrapped an arm around my waist, pulling me into him. I caught the tail end of his gaze running over my mouth before he caught my lips with his. Like clockwork, my heart banged against my chest wildly as we fumbled towards Harry’s bed. The second my heels bumped against the edge, Harry slide me back and pressed himself carefully against me.

It was pure ecstasy when we were like this, especially when his rough, but warm hands, slide up the side of my thigh and started bunching up the fabric of my dress in his fist. I was enjoying every second of it until a soaring pain shot through the middle of my back. It took me a moment to realize that it was because I was lying on something that was decidedly brick shaped and hard.

I pulled away from Harry’s lips rapidly, shifting under his weight. “Ow!”

Harry immediately looked alarmed, sitting up straight. “What’s wrong, did I-”

“No, ya dummy, I’m on top of somethi--wait a second.” As I was talking, I was reaching behind my back to see what was digging into my shoulder blades. I stopped mid sentence when I pulled out a pale blue covered notebook from behind me. “What’s this?”

Harry, who now looked even more alarmed, yanked it out of my grasp and hid it behind his back. “Nothing.”

I started grinning, sitting up on my elbows. “Oh my God. Is it your diary?”

“No!” He answered the question suspiciously quick.

It took enough for me to immediately retaliate and make a grab for the notebook. “Come on, Styles, share with the class!”

“No way!” Harry laughed as I tried to wrestle the book out of his kung fu grip. “There is no way I’m showing you my-VITA!”

I managed to yank the book out of his hands and immediately sat back on my heels with a pleased expression on my face. “Wowza, what a reaction. What could you possibly be hiding?”

Harry let out a defeated sigh, dropping down with exhaustion next to me. “My dream journal.”

“Your what!?”

Harry rolled over on his stomach and pulled the pillow that was once behind his head, under his chin so he could look at me. “Okay, don’t laugh. I like to keep a dream journal because I genuinely enjoy analyzing my dreams.”

I blinked at him.

“Aaaannnd, it serves as inspiration for song writing too.” He added.

“It is now painfully apparent that I’m dating a nerd.” My expression turned to agony.

“Fine! I was about to let you read it but your rights are officially revoked!” He exclaimed, making a grab for his journal but my cat-like reflexes were too quick for him.

I held the notebook above my head with a giggle. “I’m kidding! I’m kidding!” I lowered the notebook down once more and reached for the corner of the notebook. “May I?”

Harry made an unusual noise as a response. I wasn’t entirely sure how to interpret it, but I opened the notebook to a random page anyways.

I realized as I flicked through a couple of pages, that I’ve never seen Harry’s handwriting before. It was very scratchy looking, and messy. Each page had at least three or four entries with scribbled dates that served as titles. I settled on a page that was readable and cleared my throat.

“‘June 23rd’” I read the date out loud, sneaking a quick glance at Harry before continuing. “‘I had a dream that I was going to jump off a roof and into a pool at a party. Jonah Hill and Kanye West was there. Not sure if I had fun or not.’”

“I’m still not sure.” Harry added glancing up at the ceiling in thought. “And I don’t remember if I actually jumped into the pool.”

“Harry.” I started to laugh. “You’re crazy!”

He smiled, flicking his eyes back to me. “Go to June 1st’s entry.”

“June 1st...” I repeated in a hum, swiping back a couple of pages. I wondered why the date was so specific until I landed on the page and started reading the entry. “‘I knew she would show up in my dreams eventually. It was only a matter of time. I don’t know her name, or who she is, but she’s a mystery. A rude mystery. She called my nose stupid and dumb. In my dream, she was less cruel about my nose, but more hostile towards my presence. It was unsettling.’”

When I finished reading, I couldn’t bring myself to look up from the page. It was a dream about me. My heart started to swell with a new sort of warmth and endearment towards Harry. The entry was so raw, open, honest, and he was sharing it with me.

“There’s also...” Harry’s voice was low and soft as he lifted up slightly to reach over my knees to thumb through a couple of pages past the one I was on. While he did this, I finally looked up from the notebook and watched Harry’s determined expression. “...this one.” He settled on a page. “Read the third entry.”

I cleared my throat once more, peering down at the entry. The date read June 15th. If I can recall correctly, that was a couple of nights after our allegedly first date, when I met him at The River Rock and then played that silly basketball game we made up at the arena.

“‘Vita dips into my dreams sometimes, but this particular dream was different. We were standing at the shore and the sun was setting. There was a feeling I couldn’t shake within the dream, and it was a sensation I get whenever she is near. It’s a feeling that tells me I found a future. A feeling that doesn’t make me want to look back. If running gave me this kind of feeling, I’d run miles. Tons of miles. And in this dream, I could see that her eyes were the ocean and her hair was the surface of the shore that we stood on. It is what she embodies and it leaves me craving the dawn.’”

My mouth was dry by the time I finished reading the entry. I didn’t know how to react. My heart was racing so fast that it was ringing in my ears. My eyebrows scrunched as I tried to ignore the burning sensation behind my eyes that told me I wanted to cry. I had no idea Harry felt this way.

“I was tripping on Vita that night, I think.” Harry broke the silence with jest and a low, throaty laugh.

“Harry.” I found my voice and looked up from the notebook. A wave of tenderness washed over me when our eyes met. “This is beautiful.”

“It’s true, too.” Harry’s expression was somber and sincere. “I meant every word.”

I dropped his journal onto the bedside table before landing onto Harry with excitement. He reacted immediately, quickly pulling me underneath him as he rolled on top of me with ease. I giggled when he nuzzled his stupid dumb nose in the crook of my neck.

I couldn’t believe he was mine.