Rise To The Top ➳ l.s. | n.h.

Chapter Fourty One

He had her hand and stroked his thumb over her knuckles. He chuckled, but it was feigned and awkward. Cara sighed and looked down to her iced tea. She wanted this date to end, but there was still another half an hour before the two could depart soundly.

"I need to get on a plane in a few hours," Cara explained. "I'm stressing a little."

"You're fine. You'll be fine."

"The thing is though I still need to pack. It's been chaos this week. Michelle is yelling at me for organizing this trip so soon," She said. 

"I wish I could take Louis to the Bahamas."

"Maybe you could. Paul doesn't care what you do while I'm gone, unless it's something to do with Louis of course."

"I don't know," Harry muttered. "Louis has been stressed lately. I think if I could just ask Paul to put some blockaging on the publicity, maybe I can get Louis to chill down and stop acting like... just... yeah."

Cara pulled a baffled expression. "What was that?"

"What?"

"Like... just.... yeah...? What were you going to say?"

"Nothing."

"Harry, I'm not daft."

Harry shook his head and eyed his cutlery, letting go of Cara's hand and exhaling. "Louis is just... he's acting like a brat, a selfish one. He's not taking into consideration that I'm also here and that I havea job, and that I matter too."

"What do you mean?" Cara asked. "Did he start a fight again?"

"Yeah," Harry acknowledged. "And this time he's going out of the square. He wants to go to CK about that thing that happened a few weeks ago and to try go against them for discrimination."

"Wow--"

"Yes, it's a fucking stupid idea if you asked me. It'll split us apart, and it would also ruin the modelling image I have right now. I don't want to lose that! I've worked hard to be here and just because he wants something to happen, doesn't mean I can just let him walk all over me to get it."

Cara sipped at her drink through the straw, playing with it without a direct glare to Harry. "I think he should do it."

"What?" Harry hissed with offence. "Didn't you just hear me? Do you want me to lose what I've got? What if someone told you Michelle was going to risk your career to buy a new puppy?"

"It's not like that, Harry. You obviously haven't thought about it enough."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Look, Louis is going to do this. You love him, right? Louis wants this to happen because he truly thinks that this could help you out. I'm not blind to see that this isn't working, you and I, for you and him. He probably thinks that you're heading off secretly to places."

"Yeah."

"Michelle's the same, don't worry," Cara smiled. "Just listen to him, Harry. Besides, if you lose your job, Louis can work for you anyways? You and him could settle down, and Louis would keep doing what he does best and you could be doing something you also love doing."

"B-But," Harry stammered. "I love modelling."

Cara frowned. "Isn't there something else that you love too? Maybe something more easier?"

"I love cooking," Harry told her. "Maybe child care? Teaching? I don't know Cara, Top Model was my option to go and see if I could become something big in the world. Since when do people get recognized for their cooking job?"