BILLS, BOOZE & BETRAYAL | LARRY AU

CHAPTER 13

BILLS, BOOZE & BETRAYAL | CHAPTER 13

"Are you absolutely sure about this?" Harry asks me again for the fifth time in the last ten minutes and I nod with a sigh.

"I should be asking you that. You don't have to do it if you're not comfortable with going out with me." I say as I pull the car into a quiet alleyway and let it stay there until we can talk this through. I did come up with the plan and Harry did immediately agree with me, claiming that he was okay with it if it helped me get even with Mark, but the fact that he was putting himself on the line for me crossed my mind relatively later than it should have.

"That's not the part I'm uncomfortable with, Lou." He said and I smile a little before doing something I'd never do in a normal circumstance. I extend my hand over the centre console and grab his. Harry quips an eyebrow when he looks at me but tightens his grip nonetheless.

"You don't have to do this if you're not sure about it. I wouldn't want our first date to be forced on you." I say and my voice turns into a whisper towards the end of the statement.

"Then it's a good thing it's not." Harry says with a smile and I wonder, for the umpteenth time, what it is about this man that I didn't like. There is nothing wrong with him and I've still always been rude to him for practically no reason at all.

"Are you sure?" I ask again and he huffs in fake annoyance.

"Yes! Now, come on, let's stir some trouble."

I smile and shake my head at how much he sounds like me, before reversing the car onto the road and leading us to the restaurant. I can already see some of the paps standing around the corners of the restaurant – they're always following me around, anyway – and I make sure to hold Harry's hand and try and shield his face as much as I can from the cameras.

It's for pretend but it is our first date. I keep telling myself that statement over and over again. It's our first date. Dates have never meant this much to me in life – it was usually always a pit stop on the way during a night that would eventually lead to sex, and then the joyful walk of shame back home. Now, it felt different.

It felt as if I should actually be paying attention here – to what he says, what he's wearing, what we eats, what we talk about – and store them like precious gems as one of the most private, and most beautiful memories. And who would've thought that I'd be feeling like this for none other than Harry Styles?

"What're you thinking on and on about?" Harry says, pulling me out of my thoughts, as we sit down on our table in the far corner of the cosy, little restaurant and I shake my head to get rid of my thoughts and focus back on the present. On him.

"Just how weird this is."

"The date?"

"Partly, yeah. I mean, I've never been one to care about dates, anyway, and it's a bit... shocking that I'd start to care about them when it's with you."

"Well, I'm glad you care about it. You know, your behaviour tonight is starting to make me think that you care more about the date than stirring things up on the tabloids." He says with a smirk on his face as he rests both his elbows on the table, folded together, and leans in on them. I open and close my mouth like a bloody goldfish before taking a deep breath and imitating his pose, bringing our faces only about 2 feet apart.

"That might be true." I whisper.

"It might be true?" he cockily repeats while still leaning closer and I roll my eyes before sitting back in my chair, making him pout in disappointment and giving me a second to actually breathe. I constantly seem to forget how to do that when I'm around him.