Chasing Empty Spaces

Chapter 3

“Harry Styles,” He greeted, barely attempting to cover his miserable attitude with a smile. “M’ here to pick up Miss Faye Mason.”

“Of course, Sir,” She nodded and opened the door wider in invitation. The maid gestured for him to come inside, “Miss Mason will be down in just a mo’.”

Harry nodded and stepped to the side of the foyer. His eyes raked over the entryway and he wasn’t slightly surprised to see that it was an almost perfect mirror to his own home. Everything was lavish and everything was useless.

You have things, Harry.

As Louis’ voice rolled through his senses, Harry clenched his hands into fists and dug his fingernails into his palms. His skin crawled with the innate desire to see Louis again, even if just for a handful of minutes. While he couldn’t reason his feelings, Harry knew that he had to speak to the other man before he was past the point of being forgiven for his behavior. With every passing hour of the day, Harry had a sick feeling that Louis was slipping out of reach. He was aware that he shouldn’t care about the friendship of a simple mechanic, but the sinking feeling of his gut was too intense to ignore or make sense of.

“Harry?”

Snapping out of his thoughts, Harry directed his attention towards the bottom of a pearly staircase where Faye was watching him with a questioning tilt of her head. A champagne colored dress hung from her slender frame, the thin material kissing the lip of the stair she was on. Teardrop pearls glimmered from her earlobes and a haughty rope of pearls was wrapped around her neck. Harry offered a tiny grin and slightly bowed his head in respect.

When he lifted his chin, Harry mumbled, “Evening.”

A toothy grin spread over Faye’s mouth and then she was skipping over towards Harry. She circled her arm through Harry’s, promptly dragging him in the direction of the front door.

“C’mon,” Faye urged with a whine, “We gotta hurry or Daddy will wanna talk to ya for ages.”

Harry kept his hands in tight fists and allowed Faye to tow him outside. Faye didn’t let go of his arm until he had opened the passenger door and ushered for her to climb in the truck. Steeling a breath and smoothing out the wrinkles from where she clawed his suit jacket, Harry walked to the driver’s side and clambered inside.

The drive to Blossoms was filled with the constant buzz of Faye’s voice. Harry didn’t manage a single moment to interject fake commentary because Faye didn’t bother to let him. He wondered when she took the time to breathe, but thought better than to dwell upon it. Keeping his eyes on the road and replacing Faye’s voice with Louis’ from that morning, Harry drove them to the restaurant.

“Can you just believe Bobby’s nerve, Harry?”

Harry turned his head to the sound of his name to see that Faye was keenly staring at him

“Wait, um,” Harry flinched at her pointedly raised brows, “Did you actually want me to answer that?”

“Are you payin’ attention to me?’ Faye rolled her eyes and unnecessarily swatted his shoulder. “He tried to take me on a date!”

Harry flinched at the weak slap and pulled into the filling parking lot attached to Blossoms. He turned off the engine and counted to five inside his head.

“How dare he do that,” Harry droned, turning to look at Faye.

Faye beamed back at his blatant glower, “Exactly!” She dramatically huffed, “I mean, obviously you and I are goin’ steady now, so –”

“We’re what?!” Harry squeaked, his eyes widening to the size of saucers.

“Don’t interrupt me, it’s rude,” Faye snipped and opened the passenger door to slip out.