This Love

Chapter 9

HARRY STYLES

"Oh my God, that's such a fucking wimpy drink!" Scarlett shrieks and points at my glass. "That doesn't count!"

"It's straight fucking whiskey!" I argue. "It's exactly what you've been drinking!"

"Yeah, but look how much ice you have in it! God, just–lemme do it."

"Scarlett–" I stutter to apologize to the men sitting on either side of her as she uses their shoulders as leverage to get on top of the bar in her micro shorts and tall boots. But who am I kidding? They're far from angry about the view of her climbing and bending over in front of them.

"Okay," she takes the drink I made for myself and swallows it in two gulps before she pours me another without any ice at all. "This is a proper drink.

"You are so–"

"Down the hatch, let's go, Styles," she raises it to my lips as if I'm a child and can't drink for myself, and I have no choice but to take it back before it can spill down my chest. The last thing I ate today was toast for breakfast this morning. That was eight hours ago. So, that's great.

"There he is," she giggles as I make a face and slap the glass upside down on the bar. "I'm glad to see that you're not totally incapable of having fun."

"Alright, I've had my drink," I reach around her to steal one of her chips. "Go sing your song so I can get back to work."

"Yes, sir," she salutes to me before whipping around to leave the bar the proper way, and I watch with great curiosity as she makes determined strides to the stage so that she can be the first one to take the microphone from Tom and Jessie.

Now everyone's watching her scroll through the TV with the small remote for the right song. It could be anything, but I'm not even a little surprised when I hear the unmistakable first notes of Shania Twain's Man! I Feel Like A Woman. This song was written for her.

The whole venue breaks out in whistles and cheers before Scarlett even opens her mouth, and she's eating all the attention right up as if it's the fuel she needs to survive. And, of course, she doesn't skip a beat in clearing her throat in the microphone to dramatically say, "Let's go girls," earning only more claps from the crowd. It reminds me of the first time I did karaoke with her four years ago. She chose Shania then too.

***

"Baby, I am way too gone for this," I slurred, letting her drag me to the stage.

"That's the perfect time to do karaoke, silly," she kissed my cheek and stole the TV remote from the stool on stage to start scrolling through all of our options. I laughed at the sound of our friends yelling our names over the chatter in the pub, and the next thing I knew, "You're Still The One" was playing.

Scarlett whipped around to face me with a big smile and handed me a microphone. "Ready?"

I took the mic. "No."

She laughed excitedly and glanced at the TV to start singing at the right time. "Looks like we made it, look how far we've come, my baby...we mighta took the long way, we knew we'd get there someday...they said, 'I'll bet they'll never make it", but just look at us holding on, we're still together, still going strong."

Partially laughing at how overly dramatic she was being by holding my cheek with one hand, I chimed in to drunkenly harmonize with her for the chorus. "You're still the one I run to, the one that I belong to, you're still the one I want for life."

"You're still the one!" She took the collar of my T-shirt in her fist to bring me closer, so I dropped the mic before I could laugh into it, then continued while she cracked up laughing at me instead.