Hello?" Laura answered her phone without even bothering to look at the number.
"Is that Laura?"
She stopped trying to ram items back into her bag and sat up straight. "Yes – who's this?" She pulled the phone away from her ear to glance quickly at the number. She didn't recognize it and sighed a little. Who had got her phone number now?
"It's Harry – Harry Styles. I hope you don't mind – I asked Callum for your number."
Laura did another double take at the number on her phone. Harry Styles? One Direction's Harry Styles? She heard his voice again and quickly put her phone back to her ear.
"Laura? Are you still there?"
"Yes – sorry. Hi, Harry."
"You didn't mind me getting your number?" Harry's voice sounded anxious (and a little bit sexy because of it!).
"No, of course not. Are you okay?"
"Yes fine, thanks. What about you?"
"I'm great – what is it I can do for you?" Laura asked. She sat down at her dining room table, her concentration now entirely on her phone call. So, she knew a few famous people through her brother who was really making a name for himself as a producer. He'd recently opened his own record label and had new people signed on every day. Laura had helped Callum a lot along the way and she was building up quite a catalogue of songs that she'd written. It worked really well – she wrote a song – Callum got an artist interested and then either signed them up or if they were already signed – he might just produce the record for them.
Three of Laura's songs had been chart hits – one hitting the top spot, so she'd finally been able to give up her day job in a large office and concentrate full time on her song writing. She had now started receiving invites to various shows and awards and meeting celebrities was becoming a regular thing for her.
Not that receiving a personal phone call from Harry Styles wasn't still impressive. She wasn't that blasé about her new life yet!
"Well, I'm ringing for a favour…actually several favours…" Harry's gave a little chuckle.
"Sounds interesting…"
"We've been asked to do the single for Comic Relief, again! It's the first time anyone has been asked to do it twice," Harry explained. "It has to be amazing, obviously, after how well 'One Way or Another' did and because of our fame in America, they think it might be the biggest seller yet. This time they want an original song."
Laura smiled down the phone. "That's brilliant! How can I help?"
"We would like you to work with us to write it."
Laura almost dropped the phone and scrambled to stop it hitting the table. "You want me to write it?" she asked, incredulously. She heard Harry laugh at the other end of the phone.
"That is what you do, isn't it? Write songs?"
Laura smiled at herself. "Of course but you're putting a lot of trust in me, for a huge project like the Comic Relief single. It's not like I'm an established song writer or anything."
"We love your songs and not just the ones that have hit the charts. Callum played us some of your other stuff – it's great!" Harry coughed. "Will you consider it then?"
Laura nodded, even though he couldn't see her. "Of course – I'm really glad you asked me."
Harry gave her a number to contact them on and said he'd hope to hear from her in a couple of days. Laura ended the call and then stared at her phone for a few moments. What the hell had just happened?
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She spent the next 48 hours almost entirely on her piano. This was pressure! She was going to say yes, of course she was! But before she did, she wanted to have an idea what to write. Not a proper song, of course because the boys had to be involved, but she wanted to have something prepared.
Once she was satisfied with her ideas, she rang the number that Harry had left her and waited, feeling a little apprehensive.
"One Direction Management – how may I help you?" A female, efficient sounding voice answered the phone and Laura cleared her throat.
"Errr…..would I be able to speak to Harry Styles, please?" she asked, feeling ridiculous even saying those words. She could almost hear the receptionist's response before she spoke.
"Well, can I ask what it's concerning, please?"
"He rang me a few days ago. I'm returning his call, I need to confirm something with him." Laura paused, not wanting to ramble.
"I see. We wouldn't usually be able to put you through, so maybe I could take your number and details?"
"Well, I suppose that would be okay," Laura hesitated. "If he's there, would you mind asking him if he'll take the call?" She didn't want to wait for a return call. Now she'd made up her mind, she wanted to get the ball rolling.
"I'm not sure who is here but I can check for you. Can I take your name please?" The receptionist was remaining polite but Laura could tell that she must have handled hundreds of phone calls just like this one and had become an expert at batting them away.
"Yes – it's Laura Caprice."
"Hold the line please."
Unsurprisingly, a One Direction song stared playing down the phone and Laura chuckled to herself. It seemed to take quite a while but she waited patiently until she heard the woman's voice again.
"Miss Caprice?"
"Yes."
"I'm sorry to have kept you waiting; I'm putting you through now."
Laura sat up straight, surprised by the sudden positive response. Harry must have been there then! The One Direction song came on again for a few seconds before a male voice answered.
"Hello?" A male voice said. She could tell it wasn't Harry, though.
"Hi, I wanted to speak to Harry Styles. The receptionist put me through, this is Laura Caprice."
"Hey Laura – Harry isn't here. This is Liam."
Laura took a deep breath, trying to remain calm. Now she was speaking to another member of the band, not that it really mattered who she spoke to…..
"Hi Liam," she said. "I was calling back about the Comic Relief single."
"Great!" she heard him say. His voice was deep and smooth and it sounded lovely, with a slight Midlands accent. "Well, it's great if you're saying you'll help us….." he joked.
Laura laughed, pleased with his friendly, easy-going response. "Yes – of course that's why I'm ringing. I'd love to write the song with you."
"We were a bit worried as you'd taken the full two days to get back to us," Liam said. Laura blinked rapidly, staring at a spot on the wall. There was something about Liam's voice that made her want to sigh.
"I'm sorry – I was always going to do it, but I wanted to prepare some material and ideas first….." she stopped, wondering if she was explaining unnecessarily.
"That's great news – we really wanted you to do it….."
Suddenly there was a noise on the phone and another voice spoke.
"Yeah! Bloody fantastic news! Thank you!"
Laura laughed again, not sure who this was on the phone now but enjoying their enthusiasm. "Thanks for asking me."
"I'll put you back to Li, but wanted to say how happy I am that you've agreed," the voice said. "Oh! This is Louis, by the way."
Laura was giggling now. "Thanks, Louis!"
"Excuse my crazy band mates," Liam's deep tone was back. "So, I'll tell the tech guys here and Paul. Someone will be in touch to arrange dates…"
Laura laughed again. "Really? I thought this was going to be a professional relationship."
She heard Liam chuckle and, for some explicable reason, she felt a small thrill. "I meant convenient dates for us to meet here and start writing but the other sort of date sounds better actually."
Laura felt like she hadn't stopped laughing since she'd got on the phone and she giggled again. "Sorry, you fed me the line….."
"Don't apologise. You'll need a sense of humour to work with us! I can't wait to meet you, Laura. It's been lovely speaking to you," Liam said.
"Oh, yes, me too…."
After she'd finished her conversation, she found herself re-running it in her head to the point that she was annoying herself. She decided that without having ever met them, that she really liked them already. Harry had been charming and sweet, Louis sounded crazy but lovely and Liam…she wasn't sure how to describe him, but she liked him the best. He'd been so easy going and he had spoken to her so kindly but with a sense of humour. She couldn't wait to meet them all.
Chapter 2 up soon.
