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revisionaryhistory · 3 years

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Three Days ~ 64

~*~Emma~*~

Lunch with the girls had been fun. The talk and laughter were a nice decompression from the last couple of days. They were all coming to the game tonight. Tomorrow I'd finish packing up my room and by dinnertime tomorrow I'd be with Sebastian.

Back in my room I turned on some music and started pulling words off the wall. My heart positively leaped when I heard Sebastian's voice behind me. Over twenty-four hours had shrunk to seconds. When I turned to see my gorgeous boyfriend wearing the polka dot mouse ears and holding the flowers I sent him, I wanted to fling myself at him, cover him in kisses, and tell him I was in love with him.

But Sebastian beat me to it. When I touched him, his expression changed from happy to surprise to something more. He told me I was beautiful then said, "Fuck... I love you." I don't think he'd expected to say it, maybe he didn't know he felt it until right then.

Either way, it was the most genuine and romantic thing I'd ever heard. I'd practiced the words until I knew they were perfect. The way he looked at me when I said them with his name the way he liked best, I would never forget. He could say the words a thousand times and they'd never come close to the intensity in his eyes.

Thirty minutes later sitting in a Target parking lot Sebastian showed me a picture Mallory took. Somehow, she'd caught that same look on both our faces.

Not that I'd forget the story behind the picture but the addition of those silly ears that he forgot he was wearing, marked the moment. It couldn't have been more perfect.

Driving home he was awfully interested in his phone. I could see Spotify open. "What are you doing?"

Sebastian looked over like a kid with his hand caught in a cookie jar. "Refining a playlist. To seduce you."

"Seduce me? That sounds fun." It wouldn't take much to seduce me, but I was excited to see where he was going. I watched him turn off his display and put his phone in the console between us. "Done?"

He nodded with raised eyebrows and a smile, "It's short. I’m not anticipating much resistance."

I reached over for his hand, "Smart man."

He kissed my hand then held it between his. "You're beautiful." One of his hands moved my hair away from my face. "About the blonder and tanner."

"I tan easy."

"Then why'd you'd have me cover you in sunscreen at the tournament?”

I laughed, "I'd like to say just to get your hands on me, but for real, a farmer's tan is not the look I want."

"Good point." I could feel his eyes on me and he was playing with my fingers.

"What's the real color of your hair?" I nearly got whiplash with how quickly he reversed, "If it wasn't this very natural-looking color." He grimaced and kissed my hand again.

"This is my natural color. I don’t have blonde highlights. I have brown low lights. Sun and chlorine strip out the brown."

"Really?" He made a humming noise, "I've been blonde twice. Hated it both times."

"I don't hate it, but the brown gives it more depth. I leave it alone in the summer because I like pools."

We were at the stoplight turning onto my road. Sebastian leaned in. I turned my head and kissed him. He stayed close, "Do I need to lengthen my playlist?"

Was he crazy? Since he was still close, I rubbed my nose against his. Somewhere in his past was an over sensitive girlfriend. "Nope."

I grabbed the Target bags and Sebastian grabbed his luggage. We were barely inside the door before he had me pressed to the wall kissing me. He left the kiss, but kept me pinned, "Good memories of this wall." I felt my cheeks heat up. "So fucking cute." He kissed me again. "I need five minutes. Stay here. I'll come get you." He took the stairs two at a time.

I leaned into the stairwell, looking up. "Where are your dirty clothes?"

"Laundry bag in the suitcase. Thank you."

I laid his suitcase on the floor and opened it. I dumped the two hotel laundry bags on the counter in the laundry room. Socks, underwear, and a lone t-shirt joined his new stuff in the washer. I smiled. This was very domestic. I liked this feeling, taking care of him. My phone going off pulled me out of my domestic bliss.

Mallory ~ Skip volleyball. Stay home and play with him.

Emma ~ I can do both

I'd just put the last of the groceries in the fridge when I heard him coming down the stairs.

Jeans, t-shirt, and bare feet. He looked just as sexy as he had when he opened his door in New York. I liked the way he was looking at me. His eyes were so blue. The slight curve of his mouth. He loves me.

Sebastian reached for me, putting his hand on my face. I laid my head over. The gentle caress of his fingers drifted back, lacing into my hair. A slight pull brought me closer. I slid my hands from his waist around to his back. His arm around my shoulder pulled me in. When he kissed me, it was so soft, a gentle press of his lips with only the briefest touch of tongue. He moved far enough away to look into my eyes. "Te iubesc.”

Sounded more natural when he said it. I had the pronunciation, but not the correct intonation. I’d have to practice. I said it back, "Te iubesc. "

He pulled me closer again, stopping a hairsbreadth from my lips, "I want to make love to you."

"How's that going to be different than what we've been doing?" In reality, my feelings weren’t all that different, it was just having said the words out loud.

"I don’t know, but we're about to find out." His voice, the softness, combined with his kiss made my knees weak. I held onto him. When he took a step back, he took my hand, “Come on.”

I stayed close behind him going up the stairs and down the hall. Not once did he look back. It felt like he had a purpose and was focused. My heart was racing. Not sure why. Everything I thought about it not being different feels like bullshit. This feels more. We’ve not lacked intensity, but I was finding it hard to breathe. More.

Inside my bedroom, Sebastian touched his phone which was on my chest of drawers. The song we’d danced to the other night, the one I’d not heard before, started playing. He kept walking until we were in the middle of the space. Blinds were closed, decorative pillows on the chair, and the bed was pulled down. I hadn’t thought about what his “give me five minutes” comment was about. I’m glad I hadn’t. This was incredibly sweet and pulled hard at my heart.

Sebastian turned, curled his arm to hold my hand on his chest, his other arm snaking around me to hold me close. I held onto his shoulder and moved with him. His eyes were holding me closer than his arms. I smiled, licked my lips, and bit my bottom lip.

His mouth curved, “What’s that about?”

“So I don’t scream.”

He nodded in a way that only made it worse before he kissed me. Gentle. Soft. Never breaking with the rhythm of the song. His eyes met mine again, “On our first date I thought I could fall in love with you. The first time we kissed I knew I could. Later that I night I knew I was. Every time I see you, every time we talk, I want you more. I just wanted to surprise you today. When you turned around it was like everything came together. No more falling, I was there, am there, completely in love with you.”

I moved the hand on his shoulder to the back of his head, threading my fingers into his hair. Sebastian's eyes closed with the contact. "I was less than a block from your apartment when I wanted to turn back and tell you I loved you. But I couldn't have stayed and I couldn't have left. So I held onto how safe, cherished, and loved you make me feel until I was back with you. Even though we hadn't said it, I felt it when you look at me." I stretched up and pulled him down. "I want to crawl inside you and I don't think that's going to be close enough."

He looked the way I felt. "Emma." My name was all he said. His lips were parted in a smile, his blue eyes shining.

"Sebasti-an." I returned his smile and pressed my lips to his.

He let go of my hand to pull me closer. Pressed against him wasn't close enough, but it was better. It was being able to feel the rise and fall of his chest with each breath that I loved most. The feel of his reaction. The growing hardness against my hip was a reaction too, but it was binary. Hard or soft. Sebastian's breathing was much more nuanced. Right now, it was slow and steady.

Sebastian’s fingers dug into me when I went under his shirt. His breath hitched and he moved his mouth to my neck. Soft wet kisses raised my heart rate. He knew just how to send goosebumps over my skin. He leaned back a little and I watched him reach behind him to pull his shirt off. My mouth watered looking at his chest and stomach. I took hold of the hem of my shirt and took it over my head. Sebastian's hand followed my shirt, stopping to undo the clasp on my bra. He was pushing it over my shoulders before my arms were down.

Skin was Sebastian's thing. A strip peeking out from a stretch or designed into clothing. Like this, naked in front of him, he liked to look. I waited, letting him take in the tan lines from my bikini top. Touching would even better.

His hand reached out and traced the dark to light skin before even that wasn't enough and he returned to kisses. I followed the line of muscles where ever I could reach. Across his shoulders, his bicep, and my favorite the contours of his back. I let my fingernails scrape his skin and heard the prettiest moan from where his tongue was indeed licking a tan line. I played in his hair a moment before running my fingers along his beard, to under his chin. I pulled him back up, loving the glazed over look in his eyes. I watched my fingers on his chest and stomach. I left a hand dangerously close to the spot that made him shake and moved behind him. My mouth retraced where my fingers had been and I moved my hand between his legs. Sebastian put his hand over mine, increasing the pressure.

"I love how you touch me." Sebastian's voice broke the silence. I took my hand from him to undo his jeans. Hooking his boxers with my thumbs I took everything down, including myself. I kissed his thighs while getting his clothes over his feet, licked from the back of his knee up the back of his thigh, and over the curve of his ass before pushing him to turn around.

Sebastian touched my cheek before making sure my hair was out of the way. I looked up at him while licking the slit at the tip of his cook. My dirty smile matched his. I sucked his head into my mouth and used my tongue along the edges. The soft underside of my tongue against him got the strongest reaction. His hand fisted in my hair, not to guide, but to have something to hold onto. I held onto the back of his thigh with my fingers stroking the edge where his leg met his ass.

I felt his leg shake and let his cock fall from my mouth. If I'd kept going, he'd be no use to me. I needed to feel him inside me. Sebastian took my hands when I put them on his hips, guiding me to stand. He leaned over to meet me. We were kissing before my legs were straight. His mouth caught my moans as his hand went between my legs. Fingers rubbed over and dipped inside. I held tight to his shoulders, breaking from the kiss with a gasp when a jolt of pleasure ran through me. I dropped my head to his shoulder, "Oh god."

Before I knew what was happening Sebastian swept me off my feet and laid me on the bed. Our eyes locked as I scooted into the middle of the bed. His normal predatory look was tempered by a different kind of desire. He kept his eyes on mine while kissing up the inside of my leg. He was on his hands and knees kissing my stomach, when I sat up, taking his face in my hands. I kissed him gently before smiling, "I love you."

He kissed me, not quite as gently. I let go of his face and laid back down. More kisses were laid on my stomach while he settled between my legs. I sighed with the first sensation of his mouth on me. He dove straight in with tiny licks on my clit, so gentle that I almost couldn't feel him. Until I could. I shook all over. My fingertips ran through his hair and over to the side of his face. He turned his head, kissing my fingers, before returning between my legs. The momentary interruption in contact was enough that his tongue back on me had me arching off the bed. I felt his hand, his fingers, reach for me. I tangled my fingers with his, holding tighter, and calling his name when I came.

I tried to push him away, too sensitive right after an orgasm, but Sebastian wasn't having it. He backed off my clit. His tongue was... everywhere. Occasionally, he'd swipe across my clit, but didn't focus there until he heard me moan from the contact.

I squirmed until Sebastian's grip on my hips stilled me. Not long after he sat back on his knees and reached for the condom. I took it away, rolling it on while we kissed. I took him with me, pulling him on top of me. I loved the weight of him. Loved the unrestricted access from shoulders to ass when he was on top. I could caress and hold on while he stroked inside me. My hips rose to meet him.

I initiated the position change. Sebastian had done such a good job working me up again, but I needed I different angle to keep it going. Plus I liked to lay my hand on his stomach while I rode him. To feel the twitches. He enjoyed the view. He looked relaxed and happy flat on his back. His hands held onto my hips or ran over my thighs. I controlled his angle and depth, making him hit the right spots.

Sebastian held onto my waist, stopping my movement. "Emma, baby, I need to be closer." He sat up, holding onto me to keep us joined while he redistributed our weight. I pulled my legs up tight against his hips and wrapped my arms around his shoulders. We didn't move for a while, reverting to simple kisses and touches.

His fingers blazed a trail down either side of my spine to my ass, where he gently lifted, encouraging me to move. I made small movements, rising and falling on his cock while circling my hips. I kissed along his neck, sucking and licking the tendon that ran on the side his neck. He growled when I sucked a pulse point. That sent his heart rate up. "This is my favorite position with you. I can see you and touch every inch of you." He reached behind me to ruin his hand from my foot, up my leg, over my hip, up my back, and over my shoulder to my breasts and stomach. He played with my breast before dipping his head to kiss them. He wrapped his arms around my waist taking over. He used his legs to lift me and his arms to bring me down. "Look at me."

I lifted my head, shifting my eyes to his, "I'm close."

"I wanna see you." He kissed me again.

When our eyes met everything else fell away. There was nothing, but Sebastian and I. I could hear his breathing, feel the air against my skin. Hear the noises he made. Sighs, moans, catches. See him. His face showing pleasure, his body damp with sweat, and his eyes saying everything. I felt warm all over. More than the physicality of us making love, I felt him. Lost in the heat of the moment, with him moving in me. There was nothing else.

As the intensity increased, I lost track of where I ended and he began. Everywhere we touched was blurred. I couldn't have taken my eyes from his if I tried. "Bastian." His name was a whisper on my last breath before my orgasm.

He smiled and held me down on him, "Em’."

We rode out our orgasms, not breaking eye contact until the very end when we kissed just as slow and gentle as when we'd started. Sebastian loosened his grip and ran his hands over my back. I stroked his face before resting my hands on his chest.

"Well... " Sebastian looked mischievous. "Guess that’s how it's different."

“We need to figure out how to do it again."

"Oh yeah." He kissed me then laughed. "I should tell you something. I hate being called Bastian."

I gasped in absolute horror, "Sebastian!"

His fingers over my mouth silenced me, "Except when you do it. Don't ever stop."

"You told me. It was in your list of names." When he introduced himself. I could not believe him.

He shook his head, almost laughing. "I know. I was nervous. It’s a close second behind Sebasti-an." He laid down, keeping me with him. I felt him slip out of me. He frowned, "That makes me sad."

I sat up, scooting down on his thighs to get rid of the condom, then laid down half on him. My fingers played on his chest and his were on my shoulder. I lay there soaking in his warmth and feeling wonderfully content I kissed his chest before moving up to kiss his lips. "I don't know how it could get any better than right now."

"Being me is pretty damn good."

I put a hand in the middle of his chest and pushed myself up, "I'll be right back." I ran downstairs to more his laundry and brought back a bottle of water.

I handed the bottle to Sebastian while I crawled back in bed. Settling against him, I threw an arm and a leg over him.

After putting the bottle on the nightstand, he tickled along my arm as I did the same on his chest. "What time do we need to be at school tomorrow?"

"No set time. Packed and labeled before Friday. When's your mom want us to come over?" Before he could answer I added. "We were supposed to be at your place and you need to work."

Sebastian smiled and kissed me, "I didn't fully think this out. Nothing past getting back to you." He switched from tickling my arm to tickling the side of my breast. I was going to lose him soon.

Since he was playing, I moved my hand from his chest to as low on his stomach I could go and still call it his stomach. "How about we spend Friday with your family. Go back to yours that night or Saturday. You work. I'll amuse myself. Eli has a gig Saturday night. Spend Sunday in bed. I'll come home Monday or Tuesday. Game on Wednesday. Leave for Paris on Friday." While I'd been talking, I skimmed my fingers over his skin, even brushing where his hardening cock stood up from his body.

His hand left my breast to rub his face. "You know I'll agree to anything you say right now, right? I know you've been saying words, but I might have missed some."

I think he's exaggerating. Cute, though. "You think on it."

"Yeah. That's what I'm going to do. Think on it." He rolled onto me to reach into the nightstand on his side of the bed. "I'll just put this on."

I licked my lips, "You think better wearing a condom?"

He made a face and nodded once before shaking his head no. "Absolutely."

A pair of orgasms later we jumped into the shower and were out of the house by five. On the way to pick up Mallory, he called his mom to tell her we'd be over Friday. The rest of my proposed timeline worked for him too.

Mallory jumped in the back seat, "Sweet, a chauffeur!"

"We prefer driver now." He said with a smile. He reached over and rubbed my leg, "Show her the picture she took." Looking in the rearview mirror he met her eyes, "Drinks are on me tonight."

I unlocked my phone and handed it to Mallory with the last picture, the posed one, showing. Mallory pouted, "Aw, so cute. Guess you figured out I took more." She scrolled back and from her eyes I knew when she got to the one, "I love this!”

"We do too."

"I took a photography class a couple of years ago. An adult continuing ed thing. It's insane how good some camera phones are now."

For the rest of the drive Mallory and Sebastian talked photography. In the parking lot he said something about taking pictures of me. He grimaced, "Did that sound as creepy as I think?"

Mallory and I laughed, "Yeah."

The court was in front of the bar on the corner of two streets. High nets were hung all the way around. We walked around from the parking lot in the back. Sebastian slung his arm around my shoulder, "This is a dive."

I laughed, "Oh yeah."

"You get the paperwork. Mallory and I will get tables."

By the time I got back to them, they'd pulled tables closer to the railing. Samantha, Sebastian, and Mallory had taken the middle most chairs on the rail. I hugged Lindsey before Sebastian gave me his seat and I hugged Sam. The rest of the team, Nia, Dawn, and Cindy got there while I was filling out our form.

Becky signed before asking me, "How was Georgia?"

I rolled my eyes and stuck out my tongue, "Amy and I had a great time hanging out together and with some old friends. Argued with my mother almost every day including on the way to the airport." I felt Sebastian's hand on my lower back. Silent support like the after the tournament. I hadn't told him about the drive to the airport. I turned my head toward him, "Everything we talked about I said out loud."

"Sorry.” He cringed and kissed me, “But she did have an interesting spa visit."

I appreciated him diverting the conversation and laughed.

Scott came walking up carrying a cardboard box. He was looking at Sebastian. "I've been waiting for you to come back. I got a Cricut."

Others looked in the box and Sebastian shook his head, "I don't know what that is."

Usually Scott would use the moment for a sarcastic comment, but not today. Well, not to Sebastian. "It's a machine to cut out designs then you can use a heat press to make t-shirts." He pulled out a blue t-shirt that matched our team shirts. "I made a bunch. Some better than others." He tossed the one he held to Sebastian while everyone else grabbed from the pile.

Sebastian held it up, "This is great, Scott." He turned it around, "I was hoping beer bitch was on the back."

Sam glared at him, "I wouldn’t wear that."

"I would." Sebastian took off his newly laundered shirt and turned to give it to me.

While his back was turned Cindy dropped her mouth open and pointed both index fingers at him, then mouthed, "Oh my god."

Sebastian walked over and hugged Scott, "Thank you."

Mallory leaned into my ear and whispered, "How many orgasms have you had since he got here?"

I smiled and held up three fingers.

Sam stood up, "Don't tell the spa story until I get back. I'm going to change inside like civilized people."

Sebastian looked at her, "Perks of being a man."

She yelled back as she walked away, "One of the few." The other women followed Sam.

Part of me wished I could watch the game up here listening to them snark at each other. Mallory would have to fill me in. Cindy, Dawn, and Mallory were back quickly. I could see Nick checking out Cindy. I asked him about the climbing trip he'd taken a few weekends ago. The one I already knew all about. Everyone got in on the conversation, but Cindy got interested.

Sam showed back up with a couple of buckets of beer. I turned the offered bottle down. "I don't want a whole. I'll drink some of his."

Sebastian had the bottle turned up. He widened his eyes and brought the bottle down, nearly half gone. I wouldn’t have been surprised had he spit part of it back. "Here ya go, babe."

Mallory said, "I want to hear about the spa."

Sebastian smiled, "It's not the spa as much as the champagne drunk FaceTime I got later."

I laughed, "I only remember parts of the call. Awesome salt scrub then they wrapped me in seaweed."

Several people said, "Seaweed?"

Sebastian chimed in, "Then they left her to . . . marinade." He drew out the last word and everyone laughed.

"They have this specialty two-person massage, which I didn't like. I sent one away." I looked at him, "Did I tell you I felt like I was being prepped as a sacrifice?"

He nodded, "A virgin sacrifice." There was snickering. Sebastian talked to the snickerers. "She got annoyed with me when I said she wasn't a virgin. Told me I didn't know that."

Jeff spit beer, "Sorry."

"I told her I really kinda did."

"I hope so." Jeff laughed.

"Then she slid off the bed head first." Laughter erupted. From me too.

"Well, on that note we should go warm up."

Sebastian turned and we hugged. He moved his hands to my face, kissing me sweetly, "Good luck and I love you."

I smiled, "I love you too."

Mallory grinned and grabbed my hand as I walked by.

FYI ~ Emma’s Instagram has pictures. I need visuals as I describe things and send entirely too long researching what I want.

#sebastian stan #sebastian stan fanfiction #fanfiction #sebastian stan X ofc #marvel actor fanfiction

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noahfence1d · 7 years

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On a muggy May morning in a penthouse in Battersea, southwest London, the delectable self-styled “chef and food consultant” Tess Ward is slumped on an enormous grey sofa, cradling a cup of peppermint tea and musing on the downsides of social media.

“Snapchat I’ve deleted, Twitter — don’t really do it,” she says wearily, her home counties accent as sharp as mandolined celeriac. “I’m even a little bit out of love with Instagram. At the moment I’m getting a lot of direct messages there, but I respectfully choose not to reply to them, because they’re all, like, er . . . interesting. I want a break,” she wails, her tones turning mock-northern. “I just want a break.”

Why is Ward so disillusioned? She’s a key member of today’s cohort of gorgeous, uber-connected food writers/chefs/wellbeing gurus (think “Deliciously” Ella Mills of the Sainsbury dynasty and former models Jasmine and Melissa Hemsley), following the favoured career path for upper-crust pretty things, whom the satirical website the Daily Mash unkindly categorised under the headline “Sexy posh girls unveil bullshit fad diet”.

As in all their cases, Instagram has been key to building Ward’s brand: she has nearly 130,000 followers, mesmerised by her soft-focus lifestyley/foodie shots of toasted almonds and beetroot salad, Ward doing yoga on a Yucatan beach, sweet potato and avocado brunches, Ward sunbathing on the shores of Lake Como and looking foxy at the polo in a bright-red floral Gucci shirt . . .

This last shot, posted early last week, nearly broke social media, not to mention a million teenage hearts — and brought her an additional 50,000 followers. It was apparent confirmation that Ward was — as had been rumoured for days — going out with Harry Styles of the boyband One Direction. Only four days earlier he had been seen about town in an identical £530 shirt.

That same day Ward was papped in the passenger seat of an Audi being driven by Styles, whose first solo album was about to be released. Instantly, she became a 21st-century Yoko Ono, loathed by loyal Directioners who are notorious for making voodoo dolls and sending death threats to any woman with whom their idols are spotted socialising.

They started trolling Ward’s social media. An innocuous Instagram snap of her mango and honey ice cream (dairy-free, obvs) attracted more than 3,000 comments along the lines of “Go awaaay”, “Ew”, “This looks disgusting” and “social climber”.

On Amazon her cookbook The Naked Diet, which had so far received about a dozen four and five-star reviews, overnight attracted a tranche of one-star write-ups, along the lines of “boring” and “unoriginal”.

“It’s been so weird, the hate messages . . . very bizarre,” Ward sighs, her fragile frame hunched. “I’m not the kind of person who’s interested in fame and if you’re put in an environment which you don’t understand and you can’t control and you don’t want, it’s horrible.”

She bites her lip; her doll-like, tanned face bleak. “Reporters have turned up at my mum’s house several times, at my old house. I just want to do what I love and that’s cook, it really is.”

So what’s going on? Is Ward, 27, going out with Styles, 23?

“I literally don’t have anything to say about that,” she sighs, as her PR snaps: “My clients don’t talk about their personal lives.”

Many distraught Directioners are convinced there’s nothing to talk about because this is all a publicity stunt to flog cookbooks (although what’s in it for Styles is less clear). Last weekend, Ward attended his “secret” London gig until, according to one fan who claimed on Twitter to have been standing near by, she was told by Styles’s people: “That’s enough, you can leave now.” In other words, her presence had been noted, job done.

If this is all a ploy to boost Ward’s profile, I doubt she would be so visibly shaken. Shortly after we meet, Ward disables her Instagram messaging facility, posting: “For everyone following and messaging me, I am thankful but please be kind to me. All I want is to share beautiful food with you all.”

Assuming there is a relationship, then Styles, who is refusing to comment, is a lucky chap. Because, even compared to his arm-long list of exes (Taylor Swift, Kendall Jenner, Caroline Flack, Pixie Geldof, Rod Stewart’s daughter and someone from Made in Chelsea), Ward is a catch, ridiculously pretty in frayed jeans and an embroidered denim jacket, bobbed fair hair, endearingly darker at the roots, framing an angelic face — a testament to the power of good genes and quinoa.

She’s also — when not brooding on her role as Britain’s most-hated woman — extremely likeable: voluble and friendly with a dry sense of humour.

“People can be so weird,” she continues on the social media theme. “You post a salad and they’re like, ‘That’s not nutritionally balanced.’ I like to be playful. There’s a slight puritanism about the way a lot of people post about food — they’ll be like, ‘I’m eating this salmon bowl and it’s got all these omegas, it’s perfect for getting your skin to glow.’ I’m like, ‘I don’t care! It’s a f***ing salmon salad!’ ” She frowns as she scrolls through comments on her Instagram feed. “Here’s this pasta recipe I’ve written. ‘Even if it’s not perfect it’s good when it’s made with love’ — that’s a bit too earnest. I was like, ‘Ew! God, far too nice for me.’ ”

Part of London’s It crowd (she is forever being snapped at parties with minor royals and the models Suki Waterhouse and Amber Le Bon and was, allegedly, introduced to Styles via “mutual friends”), Ward has walked here in Battersea from the house she shares in west London. “I used to live alone, but when you cook, you need people around to offload the food.” She’s looking to buy in hipper Stoke Newington, nearer the buzzing bars and restaurants.

Her parents — she has a brother, who’s a student — divorced when she was ten. Her father, who lives between west London and Oxfordshire, works for a multinational property company. “Dad’s a bit nuts; he wears tweed suits and bright purple shirts and odd socks always,” she says, smiling, scrolling through her phone to find a picture. “Look, here he is going to a fancy-dress party, dressed as bouillon, so in a chicken hat.”

Her mother, who lives in Oxford, is a yoga teacher. “She’s very spiritual, she sends me pictures of her in her crystal healing area. So cute. I have the best parents. They’re very progressive, bohemian, they’ve always been like, ‘Do whatever you like, it’s your body, it’s your life’, but everything has consequences and as a result I’ve always been very responsible.”

Ward was a tomboyish child, happiest helping her maternal grandfather, a farmer, to “pluck pheasants and gut fish’’. She attended a Quaker boarding school, then a small private day school for girls in Oxford. “I hated it. I was disruptive and got in so much trouble. I really didn’t feel the cookie-cutter school system was for me.”

However, she flourished at the local private sixth form college and ended up following a classic upper-middle-class path of reading history of art at the University of Leeds where, with a lot of free time, she held “a lot of dinner parties”.

On graduating, she did some modelling “but that didn’t sing for me”, so studied classical French cooking at Le Cordon Bleu, before working at various establishments including the Ritz and River Cottage.

“Cooking for people didn’t really do it for me. You’re always making the same stuff, and in a restaurant the hours are long and it’s hard physical labour. You’re on your feet for at least 14 hours a day and I’m not very big — my parents were like, ‘You’re quite pale and weathered.’ ”

She started reviewing restaurants for Grazia magazine, consulting brands such as Fortnum & Mason and Grey Goose. In the future she is hoping to open a restaurant and write a sequel to The Naked Diet, whose title reflects Ward’s “stripped back” approach to unprocessed food.

Like Ella Mills, Ward has been “mindful” of what she eats as a result of health issues — travelling alone around India on her gap year she picked up a parasite that was eventually cured by a clinical nutritionist (she has done an online course at the Institute of Integrative Nutrition). She’s allergic to soya and avoids wheat: “It gives me a stomach ache.” She doesn’t eat dessert much because “I don’t have a terribly sweet tooth” and dislikes melted cheese — “so pizza’s out”. She has just given up red meat “more for the planet than for dietary reasons. Other than that, I’m pretty relaxed.”

The #avotoast world is an increasingly crowded one and can be bitchy. Last year she had a skirmish with the Bake Off finalist Ruby Tandoh, after Ward tweeted: “Let’s all make baking books and wonder why the world has health and sugar addiction problems.” Tandoh lashed back calling her a “denizen of the weight loss industry” on Twitter, screenshotting a reference to a “Skinny Bitch” cooking class Ward had hosted.

“A lot of girls in food aren’t so nice,” Ward says. “Though the Hemsleys really are good girls. I went to their first book launch when I was submitting my first draft, looked around and thought, ‘This is the beginning of a thing, isn’t it?’

“Ella’s book was coming out, it became a wave and the media lumped us into one category. But I was very aware that these were girls telling people what they should eat. I’m not a qualified nutritionist, I’m a chef — my standpoint is food being delicious primarily and secondarily what’s good for you.

“Healthy living is a trend and that’s more my thing than clean eating, which is a fad and something I feel I was pulled into. The vegan and the clean can perpetuate a lot of other problems, which aren’t good.”

#tess ward #Harry Styles #some good PR person is managing this mess #I'm reserving judgment at this time

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