The Underground

Chapter 53: Mystery Guest

"Well, yeah," he said, giving me a sheepish little smile. "I really wanted to say this."

I motioned for him to have a seat by the counter while he continued talking.

"First of all, Ashten, I am very sorry for talking Louis into that stupid idea of making you a conquest." Then he turned to address Louis. "I'm sorry, man. That was just a stupid thing to do. It seemed kind of funny at the time, but now I see how much hurt I've caused."

I crossed my arms. "That's only part of what you did."

Louis jumped in. "I put Harry up to giving you a scare at the club, remember?"

"Yeah," I said, casting a glance sideways towards Harry. "But he ran with it."

"God, I'm sorry," Harry said. "I hardly remember that night, but I guess I was a really jerk, huh?"

"Yup," I said. "You were."

"I'm sorry. Really."

I finally said, "I forgive you, Harry. But I hope you've changed your ways."

"Trying," he said with a genuine smile. "But honestly, who wears a $5000 bracelet to a dive like The Underground?"

"Five thousand?!" Carly asked, her jaw dropping open.

"Yeah," I said, sheepishly. "I thought I was dressing down."

"Well, let me borrow some of your everyday jewelry then," Carly replied with a laugh.

Louis turned towards Harry and said, "It took a lot for you to come here and say this to us. I forgive you, too, man. But the fact remains that I was the one who followed your dumb-ass advice. And thankfully, Ashten has forgiven me, too," he said, squeezing my shoulders.

I wrapped my arms around his waist.

Carly stood there with her jaw still hanging open while she listened to all of this. I could tell that she was impressed by Harry's apology. "Cocoa's ready," she said happily. "Would you like some, Harry?"

"Sounds lovely," he said smiling widely at her. Harry was quite handsome when he wasn't being a jerk.

Carly set Izzy down and he ran back to Louis, who scooped him up again. She was pouring hot cocoa into mugs, and I dug out a platter to arrange some cookies.

"Where's Niall?" I asked, suddenly realizing that there wasn't much noise coming from either him or the kids. 

"Here," I heard his Irish brogue. He strode into the kitchen, carrying Mimi. "My girl and I were just waltzing to some Christmas music."