Best Friend's Dad!Harry

He's Not You

Summary: The aftermath of Harry's bright idea has some downfalls and he didn't expect to feel this way.

Word Count: 7.8k

Warning: Angst, emotional cheating, lying, age gap, alcohol consumption, mature themes, 18+ only please!

. . .

Harry didn't know what to do. Or if he should do anything. One thing life taught him was that people needed time to process any kind of upsetting news and pushing was not the answer. He'd give you time. He'd let you think about what he said but he wouldn't give you too much time because he needed you to know he was still there. He was still yours if you wanted him. 24 hours. Then he'd reach out to you. Okay. So maybe he wasn't giving you that much time. But he needed to make sure you two were okay. Because he certainly wasn't.

And besides, not knowing if you were okay hurt him more than anything else. And he'd totally misjudged the whole thing. He knew you might not like it but it blew up in his face. He hadn't expected you to be that upset about it.

And your reaction had him devasted. He didn't even expect his own response. Eyes full of tears, unable to move from your building's parking lot for nearly fifteen minutes while he retraced the whole thing in his mind and cried. Over and over again he thought about how he said it and how you responded and the way your little tears fell over your cheeks and your lip jutted out in upset. He hated himself. He'd really done nothing right at all. For the entire course of your relationship. It started with him pursuing you. And the rest was just the domino effect. But now he was so enamored by you, so crazy for you he couldn't imagine being the one to break it off.

You'd need to break up with him if that were ever to happen. He'd never be able to call it off. He could think of no scenario that had him breaking up with you. None. Not even if you told his wife about the affair. He couldn't.

. . .

You didn't go to work that night. You called off and cried in every room of your apartment. You were feeling absolutely sunken. You didn't even hate Harry. You understood it. Knew what he was trying to do and understood that he was only thinking of you. But that did nothing to make you feel better. Because then it was glaring. Your whole relationship and what it really was, laid out bare for you to see.

You obsessively raked over the details. His suggestion for you to date someone else. To try and have a normal life outside of him. But yet still see him in private.

That wasn't what you wanted. You wanted to really be with Mr. Styles. Wanted to flaunt it to everyone, shout it from the rooftops, tell the whole world all about your man. But that was just a dream. A fantasy.

And what he wanted for you was his way of offering you something that resembled normalcy. Because what else could he do? Other than breaking it off with you. Which, if you were honest with yourself, breaking up with him would be the best way to go about things. If he broke up with you that would be the kindest thing for everyone involved. You'd be devasted but you'd get over him eventually as one does after enough time to heal a broken heart.

But you were thankful he wasn't breaking up with you. He was just offering you an alternative to that. Because you did need something normal. Though you weren't quite convinced dating someone else was the answer.

. . .

Harry had called you the following day to check-in. You were just getting out of the shower before you had to get ready for work. His words comforted you. His tone made you feel like you were still his. Like he still wanted you. You felt yourself smile for the first time in a whole day.