A Millionaire, His Suit, And Poor Me

April 2015. Henris's attic.

“That's not what it sounds like,” Noras said. She slowly lowered the fire extinguisher. That's exactly what it sounds like. “Noras," Henris said slowly. “Have you tried cooking?”

Noras looked around the kitchen. All she wanted was to cook a nice homemade dinner for Henris, sit down and eat with him like a normal couple, but two eggs broke, the stove caught fire and she accidentally added sugar instead of salt. Not his hour of glory.

“I was doing so well, I swear, but then, like. The fire Noras bit his lower lip. “There was a fire.”

Henris stares at her for a few moments, impassive. “You set the kitchen on fire,” he said after thirty seconds. “Technically, just the stove and part of the wall cabinets. To say that it's all cooking is a bit extreme, don't you think?"Nor raised his eyebrows and crossed his arms.

There was a moment when Henris and Noras looked at each other fixedly; Noras' eyes were full of defiance and barely hidden shame, and Henris's were as flat as ever. It was somewhat disconcerting. He should have been furious.

“You managed to set our kitchen on fire in less than a week since you moved in," he finally said. “Incredible. Mrs. Jennifer could potentially kill you.”

“Am I a woman of many talents?" Noras tried. She shifted her weight from one foot to the other, embarrassed, with her hands clasped behind her back. She had flour on her cheeks and egg in her hair and she thought it was probably the wor situation she had ever been in. It was even worse than when she found herself one-on-one with him.

“Come here," he said, finally.

She moved timidly towards him, her eyes fixed on the floor. “I'm sorry. I will call someone tomorrow, ask for a quote and I will do whatever it takes to get the...

“Never, ever try to cook again. Do you understand?”

Noras sighed. “But I wanted to cook dinner for you.”

Then Henris pulled her towards him by the half-burned shirt until they were separated by only a few centimeters. Her hands landed on Noras' hips and he exerted a slight pressure, and it was so familiar and so unintimidating that she felt herself collapse with relief. “Never again.’

Noras was not surprised to hear his flat voice. “You can't tell me what I have to do.”

“You just burned down my kitchen,” he said, amused. He drew her even closer to him and the smell of his cologne combined with that of the smoke was something she didn't want to forget. “I think I definitely have the right to tell you what you need to do for a while”

Considering the fact that he didn't kick her out, that he didn't break up with her or that he didn't even yell at her, she did want to contradict him. “Okay,” she pouted, crossing her arms over her chest.

Henris approached slowly, and Noras could hear her heart pounding in her ears, the adrenaline in her system was still strongly present in her veins, increasing the sensation of Henris' hands on her. He stopped just before their lips met, and Noras let out a nervous little laugh.

A smirk appeared on his lips, of course, as he looked into her eyes. “Good. Now we're going to go take a shower because you're a real mess.’

And, really, even if he hadn't burned down half of their kitchen, he wouldn't have argued with him about it.

September 2016. Jace and Louis new house.

So, it's not that Noras was completely terrified.

After almost three years of knowing Louis, and therefore after having lived through three of Louis’ birthdays, she thought she had surpassed the feeling of love that invades Louis when the big events arrive. She thought Louis's birthday was as bad as it could be.

In a way, Louis Boyfriend was worse.

Louis’ fiancée was a tornado of stress and excitement that drove him into a planning frenzy that no one could stand. He was everywhere, excited and full of energy, always planning, always loving, always excited and happy. It was terrifying.

So receiving a text from Jace two days before the wedding saying “come, bring some cheetos and your boyfriend” couldn’ mean that something good was going to happen. Besides, without Henris's moral support because of some stupid international business meeting or other, she would have to fend for herself.

That's why Noras found herself standing in front of the door, thinking about starting to do some relaxing yoga on their porch, despite the fact that she could barely touch her toes because of her non-flexibility and that she had never tried yoga in her life.

However, the door opened before she could get into the warrior position. Louis gave her a big smile, his hair still wet fron the shower, wearing an old T-shirt. Jace is not in sight. “Hello,” he said. He was suspiciously calm. Noras should probably run away.

“Hello?”

Her smile widened. “Hello.”

“How are they... things?"

“Great,” Louis said. He was the quietest she had seen since the day of the marriage proposal. “Is Henris with you?"

Noras tightened his grip on the Cheetos. The work. Jace told me to come here and you're not, strangely, freaking out. Why aren't you freaking out?’ Noras made a face for herself. “Not that you should. I'm saying I'm freaking out. You shouldn't. B why?"

“Why should 1?" Louis asks, leaning on the threshold of the door. “I'm getting married in a few days and I've planned everything perfectly. I have the four best witnesses I could wish for. It's going to be perfect. Perfect things are perfect. Perfection everywhere. Cheers.’

She narrowed her eyes.

Louis tried to hold back a giggle.

“They brought you some grass, didn't they?"He sighed.

Louis burst out laughing.

“Oh my God,” Noras said as she processed everything in her head, because, of course, the guys had come and made Louis smoke so much weed before his wedding and it was so brilliant that she couldn't even pretend to be angry. “Why didn't v think about this before?”

“It just happened,” Louis chuckled into the palm of his hand. “Are you coming in? I think Jace is ordering a pizza or something. Maybe Chinese. Maybe both. I hope for both."

“Of course I want pizza,” she sighs and she follows Louis into the house, where she finds the other three men sitting on tf sofa, Nia, inexplicably, upside down, with a FIFA game on the screen and what is certainly Beyonce full on the speakers. Jace took his eyes off the TV just long enough to smile at her, his lazy smile and his bright eyes. “You have come!”

“I thought Louis was in the middle of a hysterical fit, she said, sitting down next to him. “I almost started doing yoga on t porch’. It's much better than I expected.”

"Definitely," Jace said. “Can you give me some Cheetos? I want to eat but I can't stop playing because — damn, Zayn, it was perfect pass, you need to pull yourself together! I'm not going to lose to the stupid, stupid Liam. And Denied. Stupid Nia and Liam. Long live the Zayn and Jace team. Zace. Cheeto?”

Noras sighed and considered all the life choices that had led her to the point of giving Cheerios to her best friend two da before her wedding. But in retrospect, there was no other place she would have wanted to be.

january 2077. Steve Enterprises, London office.

“Wow,” Noras says, stopping in the doorway and thus sending Perrie crashing into his back. “Just when I was starting to think that the three of you were, in fact, working."

The office was transformed into a kind of football field, all the furniture being pushed against the walls, with baskets as goals and what was probably an intern with a whistle around his neck and a flag in his hand. The three businessmen froz in the middle of the game.

There was a moment of silence, Nia looked back and forward between everyone, before hitting the ball. He rolled slowly the floor, right next to Henris's black leather boots, and into the empty basket. The intern waved the flag weakly. “And Horan takes the advantage with an incredible shot, making it 4-3"

Henris looked ready to kill, and Noras didn't know if it was the fact that an intern was speaking in his presence or the fac that the intern had counted which was clearly an invalid goal. “Nia paid you, didn't she?" He said slowly.

The false referee was terrified under his fixed gaze. Noras felt empathy. For a second she was afraid that everything woul be ruined, but Nia spat out a protest and all attention shifted to him. “That's wrong” Nia said, annoyed, adjusting his tie. “Fair and honest game, always. Work hard, play hard?"

I saw you paying for it, Zayn said.

Nia rolled her eyes and pulled on a cigar that seemed to have come out of nowhere. “That's not true, Malik. You're just angry because I won the first game.”

“Thanks to a fucking fault.”

“You have been harassing me”

zayn narrowed his eyes. “You tried to strangle me with your ridiculous tie

Nia didn't seem offended at all. “My tie is not ridiculous, beggar”

It's actually quite ridiculous,” Noras added with a shrug. It had a pattern in shades of purple with golden flowers. The problem is that it shouldn't have been haute couture, but it was. It sounded like Nia's description. “I work for Vogue, I should know about it”

“What is it2"he complains, crossing his arms in defiance. “Engaged couples day against Nia? I didn't pay for this, OK, you 2 disgust me. I'm leaving, there's too much romance. I'm leaving. Intern, come with me. We'll go skydiving and I'll propose t you!"

As usual, he left doing the show, slapping Zayn lightly and throwing the forgotten ball to Henris. He bowed to Perrie and kissed her hand, then stuck his tongue out at Noras before wrapping her in one of his bear hugs before she could protest Then he dropped her on the floor, addressed a general greeting to everyone and left.

“Do you think he's really going to propose?"Errie asked when the door closed.

Everything is possible with Nia Horan,” Noras said, approaching Henris. Her hair was falling over her forehead, and her costume, once smooth and perfect, was crumpled. It was a mixture of professionalism and playfulness that made her thir that she couldn't love him more. “Hi.”

He stooped down to kiss her, his voice lowered into a sigh just for the two of them. “Hey, baby."

“I see that your business trip is going very well”

“Things are going like clockwork,” she says with a smile on her lips, interlacing her fingers with Noras’s without a thought her fingers without a single ring. They had disappeared from her fingers since the marriage proposal because Noras’ oversized diamond left no room for her assortment of rings when they held hands. It made her strangely confident. “Wha have you and Perrie done?”

“Look at the clothes. Don't tell Jace. He'll kill me if he finds out I went without him."

Henris kissed her again, smiling. “I wouldn't dare.”

“Good,” she shook his hand. “We are back because we are hungry. Putting on and taking off these clothes is like going to the gym. So. Food? Please?”

“Let me call Lou and tell him we're going out”Holding a hand tightly entwined in his, he brought his iPhone to his ear. “Louise,” he says firmly, but his eyes are amused and he chuckles. “We have completed the meeting and everything has been resolved”’A pause. “Yes, we have reviewed all the documents, and Zayn agrees tooAnother pause. “We can't play football in an office, Louise. Don't be ridiculous. We are businessmen.”

June 2019. Steve's residence.

“Oh my God, Henris, my love, the zipper is not going up. The zipper does not go up.”

Henris got down on his knees by her side in a matter of seconds, his hands gently caressing Noras's little belly while tryir to solve the problem. He pulled her up but she didn't move, still stuck halfway on his side. “Look, honey, I don't think so. “It's going to go up’, she says, frustrated, “It has to go up”.

Henris pressed his Lips to the still exposed strip of skin. My love, if I try again, it will eventually break, he said. Be damnec for exploiting Noras’ love for beautiful Chanel dresses. “Can't you wear something else?”

Noras closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. “I want to cry over everything."

“Baby, she said affectionately, softly. His use of affectionate names seems to have increased exponentially since the discovery. “What do you think of the beige you bought a few days ago?”

“Ok,” he said, exhaling. “Yeah, OKAY. Am I also really in the mood for a cinnamon roll?"

“Ym going to tell someone to go get the cinnamon rolls,” Henris said without wasting a moment, which only made her wa to cry even more. “All right? Where's the other dress? I'll go get it for you.”

The other dress slipped better and the zipper went up without being interrupted by anything. Henris kissed the back of h neck before resting his chin on Noras’ shoulder. Her hands wrapped around her waist and opened on her abdomen, warn and reassuring.

Noras looked at his reflection in the mirror. “We are so grown-up, you know?”

“I know," he agreed. There were more wrinkles around his mouth and eyes when he smiled now; they only made him even more attractive. Knowing Henris, he would eventually follow in the footsteps of George Clooney and somehow become sexier than ever at the age of 50.

“What do we say about wine and men?”She asked suddenly. “Like, “men and wine get better with time’? Something like that?”

Henris laughed against Noras's neck. “Something like that."

“Hm,” she said, placing her hands on Henris’ and interlacing them together on her abdomen. They shared incredulous smiles through the mirror and she didn't even think about moving from that position, until a scream was heard from the kitchen. “Zayn?"She tried.

Henris lowered his head to the side when the person screamed again. “I think it's Liam. Ready?”

“No,” Noras replied, turning and resting her forehead against Henris's, while he passed his warm palms over her stomach one last time and she moved her chin forward until their lips met. “Ok, let's go.”

They found themselves, not only Liam, but also half of their friends, all crammed into their new and larger kitchen, munching on the food that Mrs. Jennifer helped them prepare while talking loudly. It was a familiar scene, less frequent than before, but still one of his favorites.

Noras greeted them all with kisses on the cheeks and hugs, and all this time Henris hovered behind her with one hand or her lower back, sometimes wrapping his arm around her hip, until he touched her little belly, as if he couldn't help it. They had all planned to sit down to eat and make a toast to the entire group, but Noras refused a glass of wine and chao: set in. It was Jace, of course, who noticed this, just tilting his head to the side, he said “You're pregnant’, as if it was an obvious fact.

“Maybe I don't want wine."Noras defended herself, at the same moment Henris put his hand on her abdomen.

Jace looked at her as if she had just announced that wearing socks with sandals was socially acceptable. “Shut up. You're pregnant.”

And after that, everyone rushed to kiss him, Henris practically pushing everyone away. There were kisses from all his friends, Liam put his head directly against his stomach to talk to them together and Perrie’s relaxed looks towards Zayn. There was Jace crying with happiness. There was wine for everyone and water for Noras.

When everyone had sat down at the huge table, she ventured into the kitchen, placing her hands on the counter and taki deep breaths to calm down. Everything is suddenly very, very real. She took a shuddering breath, trying not to think abou it too much.

That's how Henris found her a few minutes later. He didn't say anything, just leaned against the wardrobe next to her anc waited. Anxious, Noras was staring at the small drop of water in the tap, waiting for it to fall. “Are you afraid?"She asked, when he finally fell.

“Yes,” Henris replied, smiling. “You may, in fact, have to learn to cook. Absolutely terrified.”

She smiled at him weakly. “Your jokes have not improved at all, Mr. Steve.”

He shrugged his shoulders and moved closer to her. Noras relaxed against him, her forehead against the center of his che and her hands on the flat surface of his abdomen. He whispered softly. “Not even your cooking skills."

She pinched his side. “It was you who forbade me access to the kitchen.”

“You're the one who set it on fire, baby."

“Valid argument,” she agreed. “I'm going to focus on the jokes and you on the culinary stuff, then.”

Henris looked pleased, he was smiling at her. “Look at these negotiating skills. You could run a business, baby." “Yeah!Noras got up on her toes to kiss the corner of her mouth, then slipped out of her grip and headed for the dining room, Henris immediately behind her. “Income, investments and firing everyone who looks at me askance. I got it."

Nia whistled when they came out of the kitchen and everyone laughed when Henris gave them an annoyed look. When th took their seats, Jace smiled and put his hand briefly on hers, squeezing it reassuringly, before removing it and taking a s of wine.

They were all much more alive then. They have appointments with their husbands and don't go clubbing every Friday anc saturday. Sometimes they even end up working while they are at work. She may not know how to cook yet, but Henris do and that must count for something.

There really was nothing to be afraid of, after all.

END