Paparazzi

Chapter 4

The next day is absolute chaos. It's Saturday and Louis is actually free, but that doesn't stop Luke from calling him again and again. But Louis is tired and sitting on the sofa, holding onto his coffee cup, which he has now filled for the third time. Louis knows why his boss calls so often, he was already online and has read the many articles about last night's fiasco. The media has pounced on the story like vultures as some patrons of the restaurant filmed the incident on their cellphones. From different angles everyone can see Harry pouring the wine all over his shirt, Louis' lack of reaction - just staring down at himself and the singer's proud departure back to his own table.

The media all agree - the blame for Harry's freak out is of course entirely the evil paparazzi. Although they contradict themselves with their headlines in terms of the content of their text. They quote the visitors that the stranger, in this case Louis, even led his date back to the table to give Harry Styles his privacy. After five articles, Louis has given up reading any more and instead sits on the sofa staring at the wall. He thinks about how it could come so far and how he should continue his job. Luke probably even wants to tell him that he's fired.

After all, he too has a reputation to uphold and he's certainly not keen on the drama. In addition to Luke, calls from his mother, his sisters and Niall keep coming in, but he doesn't feel able to answer any of them right now. Louis thinks this is a time in his life when he needs a cigarette and makes his way to the balcony where he always has a pack. Leaning on the railing, he inhales the smoke with relish and mentally braces himself for the day. While the cigarette relaxes him, he decides to face Luke first. If necessary, he will apologize a thousand times just to keep his job, which he actually loves so much. He takes the last few puffs very consciously because he doesn't want to start smoking again with this chaos in his life and when he finally puts the cigarette out, he has enough courage to call Luke back.

He drops into his lounge chair on the balcony, pulls the phone out of his pocket and hovers his thumb over Luke's contact. He takes a deep breath, presses call and listens intently to the tooting.

"Louis."

"Luke," Louis murmurs back uncertainty, narrowing his eyes tightly and hoping his boss isn't too mad.

"What the hell happened last night? It's a disaster," Luke says and Louis opens his eyes again when he hears the almost tired tone in his voice. He doesn't sound mad and that's a small win for Louis.

"I don't know. My date turned out to be a huge Styles fan and when I was in the bathroom she must have seized the moment and went to see him. You know we don't like each other and it was the perfect opportunity for Harry to lash out on me. You have to believe me that I really tried to follow your advice and not engage in any further discussion with him. But, um, he's driving me crazy. He provokes, I provoke back and yes... then it escalates.  Every fucking time," Louis tries to describe the situation.

"Louis, I believe you that he is not a simple person. Even if I don't get it, because everyone I've talked to about it, met Harry Styles in a very different way. His management is pretty calm by the way, they even sent an email half an hour ago," Luke tells him.

"And what did they write?" Louis braces himself for whatever Luke is about to tell him.

"Wait, I'll read it to you," Luke murmurs, the keyboard clicking in the background. "Hello Flashbulb-Team, all press is good press - at least that's what they say. Like the incident last night with Mr. Styles and your employee Mr. Tomlinson. However, we would ask that another colleague take care of Mr. Styles' photos from now on if working with Mr. Tomlinson should continue to be difficult in the future. We hope that there is other photo material from last night that we can use to distract from the little scandal. We need this asap so our publicists can start working with it. Also, Mr. Styles asked us to send an apology to Mr. Tomlinson. He will pay for the cleaning or replacement of your employee's shirt. Please give us a quick feedback about the further procedure as well as the pictures. Sincerely, blah blah blah. Well Louis, what do you say to all this?"