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"I cannot believe we're doing this," Ryan grumbles again as we approach the restaurant, kicking a pebble on the sidewalk as he keeps his head down, hands in his pockets.
"I don't think we'll do it for long. Harry got us into this, he should be able to get us out," I assure him, having faith in my boyfriend.
Ryan opens the front door of the restaurant for me to enter, slouching in behind me as we head for the kitchen.
I'd do anything to spend time with Harry, but I'll gladly pass on working in a restaurant.
"He better get us out of it, I did not ask to work at a restaurant, let alone with whoever that idiot last night was that treated me like shit— oh, and speak of the devil," Ryan bids a fake smile as Caleb comes our way with two black waist aprons in hand, a smirk on his lips.
"Morning newbies, here's this," he tosses them over at us. "Go put your belongings in the kitchen, then you can join the others in cleaning and prepping tables, got it?"
"Oh joy, I love being on cleaning duty," Ryan feigns sincerity, holding the apron dear to his chest.
"You look like you fit the part too, now get to work."
I hear my friend mumbling curses at Caleb while we enter the kitchen, opening the door to see many cooks at work prepping their cooking stations, a buzz of chatter in the room until a familiar voice is raised, silencing every single open mouth.
"Do you guys call spotted glasses clean?"
Harry's ring-clad fingers raise a glass up to his eye, twirling it as he glares at the spots on it. He's standing near the sink, scowling at the item, then at his staff. He is the only one not wearing work attire, but rather dressed in dress pants and a button up that if I look closely upon, I can see hints of his tattoos.
"Boss is stressed today," I hear Caleb whistle behind us, passing us to go to a cooking station and sharpen knives.
"Wash all the fucking glasses with spots again and dry them, is that clear?" He detests, shoving the glass over to someone right in their chest and marching away from them, his roaring, commanding attitude resonating with us all.
I had never seen him mad in such a boss type of way, and it was kind of a turn on.
"Why do I kind of want him to yell in my face a little bit?" Ryan remarks in a questioning tone into my ear, understanding exactly what I'm feeling.
The two of us try to refrain from snickering at the thought of Harry doing that, until we notice Caleb's narrowed eyes for us to keep quiet.
"You and you," Harry calls over to us with that strong tone of his, curling his finger for us to come over and follow him to some closet.
Caleb huffs in a sarcastic way, assuming that we're in trouble, and Ryan sends him a hardened, disdainful glare as we're singled out in the kitchen.
We stand close together and obey orders, feeling guilty for no reason at all, as if we're about to be reprimanded.
I take note of how people treat Harry here as we trail behind him to the closet. He has an authoritative air around him that people seem to respect him by, clearing the path for him to take us to our destination, returning to their duties afterward.
As we walk into this small closet holding the employee's belongings, Harry shuts the door behind us.
"Okay. Calling your girlfriend 'you'," I begin, a growing smirk on my lips as I cross my arms over my chest, "that doesn't get you any boyfriend points."
The deep-seated flatline on his lips from outside in the kitchen transforms into a chipper grin when he pulls me into his arms and into one hell of a kiss, leaving plenty of peppered kisses around my lips afterward before pulling back, taking my breath away.
"Does that help my case?"
"That's... wow, that's much better," I grin widely, caught off guard.
The sappy man in front of me I missed terribly contrasts drastically from the boss he was moments ago when he gives me an eskimo kiss and bids me a soft good morning.
"Well, fuck me," we hear Ryan puff out beside us, Harry and I laughing when we remember we're not alone in this break room.
"Sorry, mate, I wouldn't forget about you," Harry tells him mid-laugh, giving him a hug, both of them smiling into each other's arms.
"Hey don't apologize. I said it in more of a 'fuck me, you guys are really cute and I can't wait to die alone' kind of way."
"We are, aren't we?" Harry dramatically flicks back his short curls in a proud manner, pursing his lips out as I lean up to kiss his cheek when his arm rests around my waist.
"Do you know what would also be very cute?" Ryan questions, pushing his glasses up his face wearing an intellectual expression.
"What's that?"
"If we weren't pretend-working in a restaurant without even getting paid."
Harry lets out a sigh, dipping his head down before turning to me for any input.
"Can't say I disagree with, Ry. This wasn't what I had in mind of what to do when we got back together."
"I know, baby. Look guys, I promise I'll get you out of this, but for today, could you at least put up with it while I figure out what to do?" He begs, placing his hands together in plea.
"Why did you lie in the first place?" my friend wonders, frustrated by this whole ordeal. "Are you like, ashamed of us or something?"
"Of course not. Look, if the circumstance between us was different, seeing as you're my girlfriend and friend who are really here to arrest me, then I wouldn't have much to lie about, would I? And if it wasn't my obnoxious roommate of a friend that walked in—"
"You have a roommate?" I gasp, almost entertained at the idea of Harry willingly sharing his home.
At the same time, Ryan crosses his arms and inquires, "That Caleb dude is your friend?"
"He's really not a bad guy, he just would make a big fuss out of it—"
Someone opens the door behind us, once again another explanation of Harry's interrupted, and this time, the boss man snaps.
"What are you doing? Get to work!"
The employee flees and Ryan and I glance at each other, wide eyed and intimidated at Harry's outburst.
"I'll explain everything later," he whispers as he continues with us, speaking in a quieter, nicer way. "Right now, just go and clean the dining area, please."
"Yes, Chef Ramsay," my friend and I chide in sync, each of us walking around Harry out of the room, avoiding his eye contact, and putting our aprons on.
We can feel Caleb's prying eyes when Ryan and I sneak out of the kitchen, joining several waiters and waitresses already setting up the dining area for the lunch opening.
"Well, where the hell is the cleaning stuff?"
Ryan and I start to search around, but I find a tub filled with clean rags for me to wipe the tables down, and Ryan decides to set the tables with napkins and condiments instead.
I approach my first table that hasn't been touched yet, setting the rag down before trying to take down the heavy chairs from on top of it, wincing.
"Fuck, babe—" Ryan is the first to notice my struggle, hurrying from his table to help me with it, quietly reminding, "You're pregnant, not Wonder Woman for fuck's sake."
He proceeds to handle the chairs from that table and the next one, and I thank him before he resumes his chore. I take the cleaning spray and soak the table, bending over the table to wipe it, though the fume of the cleaner suddenly hits me.
I stand up immediately and cough, the processed citrus smell agitating my sensitive senses so much that I start to feel queasy.
"Ryan..." I make a shushed plea for help, getting his attention.
"I can't deal with the smell, please can we switch?"
I see him let out a heavy sigh, though he nods and kindly agrees to take my chore since he understands, with months of dealing with a pregnant Caroline prone to vomiting, how triggered my senses get with any number of certain smells.
"Why don't I slip in there and get you some water, okay?" Ryan whispers his plan in my ear, tottering off to the kitchen to retrieve me a water bottle from the break room's refrigerator.
Meanwhile, I take Ryan's work and set the tables, placing salt and pepper shakers in the middle, the fancy bottles of condiments around them, and the stack of cutlery wrapped in a cloth napkins on a tray next to me falls almost empty as I wait for my bottle of water for what feels like ages.
A couple more minutes pass until he walks out of the kitchen, angry, handing me over the bottle with a clenched jaw.
"Let me just give you a heads up," Ryan leans in, his voice rather sharp, "Caleb is onto us. He asked if I knew Harry and I had to lie, and then he asked me why I took your cleaning job. He is watching us like a fucking hawk!"
"Wait, you didn't tell him I'm pregnant, did you?"
If he knows, he could tell Harry, and this could get ugly.
"No, that seems to be a secret only I get to know about, unfortunately," he seethes, returning to his work, still pissed that I haven't told Harry.
Soon enough when the dining room is ready, the Saturday lunch rush begins, and the restaurant fills to the rim. Harry had apparently assigned us to do the easy work and follow around other employees for "training", the two of us finding out when two women came up to us and asked if we were ready to train. Inside we were thankful, Ryan and I not having to do very difficult work at all aside from learn stuff we really weren't going to ever use again.
That is, unless Harry doesn't get us out of this, and we're stuck here. I know Ryan would make a fuss and dramatically quit the job in front of everyone, and judging by his growing hatred for Caleb, it would involve throwing a drink in his face.
I would probably do the same thing if I wasn't so empathetic from my hormones.
"Caroline, will you go give this order to the kitchen? You can take a bit of a break if you need to," Kristen, the waitress training me, hands me over the ticket and smiles. I was kind enough to have someone as laid back as her to follow today.
"Sure thing," I reply with my British accent I've been working on perfecting since last night when I dumbly decided to lie with it.
Maybe Ryan had a point when he said the best friend was always right... he did right by not choosing to use a stupid accent.
I open the door to the kitchen, my first time re-entering it since we first did, and I find myself drowning from the mixture of smells emitting from all the stations, creating one stench that immediately has me gagging— really gagging.
Deep breaths.
I breathe in and out through my mouth, struggling with not inhaling too much the awful concoction. My mind knows that they're great dishes, but my heightened senses know they seriously don't mix. I grip tightly on the ticket, speed-walking to Caleb who seems to be waiting for it.
"You alright?" He inquires, a suspicious glint in his eye as I hand him the ticket.
"Mmhm," I reply with a forced grin, not daring to open my mouth to take in the scent.
I start to scan in panic for the bathroom right as I turn away from him, noticing the restroom sign on the door to the right on the landing of the narrow staircase, located on the side of the room. I make a sharp left and walk around the focused cooks up the stairs to the vacant bathroom to my relief.
Right when I lock the door, I double over on the toilet and finally let myself throw up, everything from morning sickness, the massive change my body feels from the time difference, and the kitchen's stench igniting me to puke and let it out. A few tears escape my eyes, having a hard time holding my hair back and handling my stomach that is practically imploding inside of me.
Once it's all out of my system, I cough relentlessly, a little light headed. After flushing the toilet, I immediately spam Ryan with texts asking for help, my body slightly shaking, something that tends to happen after I get sick. In minutes a knock sounds on the door, and I hear my phone ding, not bothering to check it as I crawl over to the door and unlock it.
"Caroline! Are you alright?"
Ryan shuts the door behind him and locks it again, getting on my level with a water bottle, and a mint. My life saver lets me rest my back on him, blowing some air on my face to cool me down and make me relaxed.
I drink up much of the water, nursing myself back to health.
"Is this just the morning sickness, or what?"
"That and all the food, the smell of the food mixed and I couldn't take it," I explain, resuming my deep breaths from before. "I don't think I can do this act much longer, the baby is giving me away."
"Babe, I'm so sorry," he kisses my forehead and hugs me closely.
I cuddle onto his arm around me. "I wish Harry was in here," I admit, a sentence I used to say all the time the last few months.
"Well, now that he's actually in the vicinity, I can get him—"
"No... he can't know. I really just want to get out of this kitchen."
"I think I know something that can solve both of those problems," Ryan cuddles me close, and I slowly tilt my head to look up at him.
"Yeah?"
"Mhm, it's called, 'Telling Harry you're pregnant and that you can't handle this job, so we can both get out of here and spend our vacation the right way'."
"Not yet. I just need to see how he is feeling about me and us first, and I need to mentally prepare myself, okay? A baby... it's a big step," I groan, looking away from him so I don't feel guilty.
I know I need to tell him, but it is going to be when I want to, and on my terms. Ryan needs to understand that. I've seen Harry for less than twenty-four hours, that's barely any time with him at all. I haven't really talked to him, and to spring the pregnancy on him like that could be fatal.
I just want to see how we can mend our relationship, and then I want to find out how he feels about having a baby together.
That will definitely be a really interesting conversation.
"Have it your way," he submissively retracts himself, hands up in surrender.
"Yeah, I will, it's my baby. Now will you help me up? I don't want people to get suspicious of why we're in here."
Ryan stands up first, sets aside his frustration, and reaches down to help me, saying, "Correction, we don't want Caleb to be suspicious. That fucking idiot."
My best friend keeps close while I stumble over to the sink and splash a little water on my face, wash out my mouth, popping the mint in my mouth he got me as I head for the door.
"I'll walk out first, then you wait a while and go, okay?"
"Fine, go on ahead," Ryan gestures the door for me and I go ahead and open it, only to walk right into someone's chest.
"Oh, hey! C-Chef Styles," I step back, letting Ryan know I've run into the man himself, as I'm sure he's got his ear to the bathroom door.
My "boss's" wandering eyes tell me there is something more going on in his mind when he questions, "May I have a word with you in private, Miss Forbes?"
I try to read his expression when I hesitantly nod my head, and he opens the door behind him to an office that I did not know he had, letting me walk in before him, hearing the door shut.
I scan the decent sized room set above the kitchen. It's decorated simply with a leather chair in front of a nice, large desk, a coat hanger, and a book shelf filled with recipe books. The lights are off aside from the small window high up on the wall near the desk, and the lamp in the corner by the door that creates a dim mood light of sorts, reflecting off the deep red of the walls.
"Wow, an entire office all to yourself? I didn't know you were this successful," I gawk with a raised brow, my finger trailing its way on the sleek wood of the desk.
My boyfriend strides over to me, standing regally, and gives me a chilling once over, his arms crossed in a cocky way that makes him look buff and oddly professional, a look I never thought I'd see on him.
It's a look I am really liking.
He gives an effortless shrug and smirks, "Just a little privacy for the head chef, that's all."
Harry leaves a tickling kiss below my ear tauntingly, passing me by to sit down on his office chair, peering up at me with dark, jade eyes that magnetically have me take step closer to him.
"My office is also where I go to unwind and take a break from work during the day for a few minutes. Those employees of mine can be rather testing of my patience," he leans forward and reaches for my hands, moving me directly in front of him.
"You're a whole other man when you're around them; it's cute to see you all bossy and strict like that," I start to smile as I tease him, knowing that I was always the bossy one, which really enticed him, but now the tables have turned.
Harry tugs me forward hungrily, his bottom lip bit roughly by his front teeth, the man beckoning me onto his lap. I set a leg bent around each of his hips so that I'm straddling him, an action I hadn't realized how much I loved doing.
"Cute isn't quite what I'm looking for, darling," he dispels in a hoarse voice, really snaking my attention when his hands on my lower back pull me up right over to his stiff pelvis. His forehead rests on mine, his tongue poking out as he breathes heavily.
I force myself out of this to join the reality where I am pregnant and he doesn't know yet.
As his hands descend from my lower back even lower, I begin to stutter, "S-So, you needed a word with me?"
"You know I need more with you than just a word," Harry says in a low, seductive tone, taking my hands away from the arm rests of the chair to place them on his chest, over the see-through blouse. He returns his own large hands back down to their previous position, squeezing me.
"Trying to get your new waitress to report you for sexual assault, are we?"
"Fuck, you know I love it when you talk law enforcement to me," he moans against my neck, leaving, long, teasing kisses on the skin below my jaw before pulling away to see how I'm reacting.
His dreamy stare and sultry desire tempt my inner conflict and I retry, "Harry, you're at the workplace, and I think it's better to just be patient and wait—"
"All of these days I haven't laid eyes on another woman and waited patiently, thinking of how it would feel to have and take you again, Caroline," he hushes me with the words I so desperately wanted to hear.
"You're here now, and we've barely seen or spoken to each other. I take the blame for that last night, making this lie up, and it's time I make up for what we missed out on in bed."
Returning his focus to sucking at my neck, seconds pass until he suddenly pulls his head back and accuses, "Have you not been feeling the same way about me?"
"Of course I feel the same way," I promise him, washing away any trace of doubt between us when I rub my hands over his chest. "You are the only person I ever want to be with. I can't even explain how much I missed you."
His lips purse out as he tries to hide his pleased smile, "Good, I missed you too. Now let's continue."
Harry's gentle touch I craved heavily whisks away the hair on my neck to one side, exposing the other for his lips to latch onto, causing me to shudder into mush on top of him, my posture relaxing, as does the restraint I'm trying ever so hard to keep up.
"Harry—"
Without warning, he thrusts his hips up from the seat and causes my protest to fail as my breath hitches in the back of my throat, my weakness making him chuckle. Still occupied with my neck, he pops the buttons open on my blouse, but I catch on and stop his hands from going any further than my bra.
"We're in public; I don't know if it's a good idea," I repeat my excuse, meeting his eyes with concerned ones.
"That's the fun of it," he attempts at selling me on it, an enigmatic expression on his face. "We're in public, this is wrong, and yet, we will do it anyway, because I haven't touched or seen my girlfriend in three months and you're here, in front of me like a temptation, and I think I'm losing it. I mean, haven't you ever wanted to get a little dirty with me on those interrogation tables back home? Those handcuffs you have, they just latch right on to those tables..."
"Harry..." I tilt my head to the side at him and sigh at this adorable begging he's doing, eyes wide and hopeful that I'll cave in to this fantasy.
"C'mon, I've locked the door. You'll sit on top just like this, looking so unbelievably beautiful on me, and no one ever has to know a thing."
His desperation matches mine that I'm really failing to hide as he starts unbuttoning my pants and his before I can even answer, dipping his head down to suck at the skin he exposed from undoing half of my shirt just a minute ago.
Against my attempts, I lean my head back and shut my eyes, Harry humming against my soft skin as his lips travel up again, leaving a wet trail. He's suddenly firmly grabbing my hair and crashing his lips into mine, rubbing himself against me for friction.
"We can't," I say breathlessly into his mouth, though my body acts oppositely by tugging at his shirt, losing control.
"Let go," he replies, though it's when his hands return to my shirt to finish the job that my restraint comes back into play over my rising libido.
"Harry, I.. I don't want to go that far here." I plea a little more sternly, holding his wrists so he won't unbutton the shirt with a couple more buttons and expose my pregnant belly.
Our lips an inch apart, we both try and catch our breath, though his disappointment visibly seeps through. I hope to dismiss it with a far more delicate kiss than how we kissed before, combing the cute little curls around his ear as I smile into my actions that he returns.
We start to simply make out, his hand cupping my cheek sweetly, though his other one travels down to the open hem of my pants, tracing the sensitive skin down there. I let myself move up against him and wrap my arms around his neck so that way he can't stick his hand between us and possibly touch my tummy.
"What the fuck are you doing?" I hear Ryan's voice outside the door, a buzz kill.
Harry and I freeze mid-kiss, opening our eyes and looking at each other as if we've been caught.
"Trying to see why my mate has actually locked the door on his office with your friend and hasn't come out in ten minutes," Caleb's amused voice sounds as well, and when I turn my head around, I spot two pairs of feet at the door.
Uh oh.
"Why don't you give him some privacy?" Ryan asks in a clipped tone.
"Why don't you fuck off?"
"Talk to me like that again and see where it gets you, dickhead," my best friend challenges him.
"I'll do more than talk if you tempt me," Caleb hisses. "Go and sod off, this doesn't concern you, waiter."
"Harry's business doesn't concern you either, hotshot."
"Since when do you call him Harry? Thought you said you didn't know him?"
The man below me groans, his head leaning back on the seat as the vein in his forehead that tends to appear when he's upset grows prominent. I see it's my time to get off of him, the moment long gone, but I can't say I'm not relieved.
There was no more resistance in me left against him.
As I do up my blouse and pants, Harry doesn't even dare to hide his wrinkled clothes, messy hair, or his obvious hard-on as he stomps up to the door and opens it angrily, though enough thankfully to hide his bottom half.
I hide myself from sight so no one will see me as Harry glares at the two men with tight fists at his side, and yet Ryan and Caleb seem as if they are about to tear each other apart.
"Nice hair, Harry. Going for that post-sex look? What a legend, having sex in his office." Caleb chastises Harry, but I hear him wince, assuming Ryan must've hit him.
"Stop it. Neither of you should be concerned in my bloody business, nor call me by my name in the work place, understood? Go and get back to work, now!" He grits his teeth, voice echoing in the entire kitchen before he slams the door, letting out a heavy breath to calm himself down.
"Look what you did, you pissed him off," Caleb blames Ryan as their footsteps head further away.
"No I did not!" They begin to argue over something else, and Harry stands with a hand at his hip, another pinching the bridge of his nose in annoyance.
I stand a few feet in front of him, messing with my wavy hair, unsure of what to do with myself.
"I think I'm going to go, your friend Caleb has been suspicious of Ryan and I all day. We need to set things straight and either just tell him, or come up with a way to keep a lie that honestly, I don't really want to keep," my words comes out a little coldly, and I head towards the door, Harry nodding in understanding.
"Hey, I love you," I detour and peck him on the cheek, instantly causing his deep dimples to arise.
He takes my hand and pulls me to him before I can leave. "I love you too. I promise we won't have to keep hiding our relationship for long. I know we had enough of that in Pebblebrook, and I'm tired of not being able to be with you."
"I know."
He lets me go, and I make it back downstairs only to jump in fright as Ryan pops out of nowhere at my side.
"Don't scare me like that!" I shove at his shoulder.
"What the hell happened in there? What did he say? More importantly, what did you both do?" He inquires, trying to refrain from smirking as we head out of the kitchen back to our "jobs".
"I don't even want to talk about it. I just had to reject my boyfriend who wanted to have sex with me on his leather office chair, and I hate myself for it." I pretend to shoot myself, Ryan laughing at my expense that from delaying the baby news to Harry, I am in fact suffering.
"Karma is a bitch..." He sings in my ear, the two of us parting ways to return to our trainers.
As the lunch rush starts to end, Ryan aids by making sure I never have to go into the kitchen again while they are cooking by taking all of my tickets in there. The two of us power through the end of lunch, getting ordered to clean the dining tables and get them prepped for dinner.
I tackle the task of setting the tables again, asked by Kristen to bring in the tray stacked with new wrapped cutlery. Once I find it in the kitchen's storage room, my arms already ache at the sight of how heavy it looks.
My hands try to pick it up as best as I can, but it starts to slip from my grip until another pair of hands saves me from pure embarrassment.
"Need a hand, love?" Caleb charms in the nick of time, the white of his teeth from his smile contrasting his dark tanned skin.
"Please, if you don't mind," I take his lending hand, reminding myself not to force the British accent so hard.
"Oh it's no problem at all. Caleb to the rescue!"
I spot a slight shine in his obscure eyes, returning a nervous smile back to him.
"Whereabouts are you from?" He strikes up a conversation as I follow him out of storage and into the kitchen. "Your accent is quite different."
"I— erm," panic ensues, Ryan catching me in the kitchen with a an almost betrayed reaction at why I'm walking with Caleb, and soften my look at him before I spit out a lie.
"I lived here for a while when I was younger but my family moved to America, so my accent is a bit all over the place..."
A strong sense comes over me, like I'm being watched, and I'm right when I peek up and see Harry's intrigued gaze following Caleb and I from the stairs by his office.
"Uh huh..." Caleb gives me a side eye, and I start to understand what Ryan meant by him being suspicious of us.
"You just moved back then? Bet things have changed around here then since you last saw them."
"Tell me about it, I am practically a stranger here, I don't know my way around," I chuckle the ironic statement as I hold the kitchen door for him, entering the dining area.
Caleb grunts lightly, his bulging muscles flexing on display as he sets down the heavy tray to table, looking down at it in thought, before flicking his stare to me.
"May I ask you a question?"
"Shoot."
"You're a beautiful woman, are you involved with anyone?" The tips of his fingers brush against the surface of the table as his body turns to face mine.
"Um, it's complicated..." Maintaining eye contact proves as a struggle, especially when he takes a step towards me.
"Is it your obnoxious friend in the kitchen?"
I tuck the bottom and top of my lip in my mouth and shake my head. "He and I are just friends. I'm not his preference."
"I see. And Harry? Or, I mean, Chef Styles. You were in his office earlier."
"He just needed to have a word with me..." the goosebumps on my arms want to give me away, and I rub at my skin to make them disappear.
"Then... he wouldn't be upset if I asked to take you out and show you the town, would he?"
"I—"
"Yes, he would," Harry's presence startles the both of us, looking back to see him towering with stiff posture and not the happiest expression several feet away from us.
"Both of you, in my office, now."
My brows knit together, confounded, but Harry leans forward and grabs my hand, Caleb sporting a winning smirk following the two of us. Ryan walks out of the kitchen as we're about to enter and Harry stops him.
"You too, Ryan. Office, now."
"What did he do now?" Ryan instantly blames Caleb for our walk of shame up to the office, but Harry ignores him.
We each step into his office, all three of us standing together with myself in the middle as Harry shuts and locks the door, facing us as he massages his temple and releases a soft sigh.
"Caroline, c'mere," he calls out to me, and I take a few steps over to him, only for him to wrap a protective arm around my waist.
"I fucking knew it!" Caleb shouts, pointing at Harry and stomping his foot on the floor like he just won the lottery.
"Congrats, Sherlock," Ryan insults him, rolling his eyes.
"Okay, yes, Caleb," Harry, exhausted, finally spills the beans. "You can stop the detective work that is interrupting your actual work. This is Caroline, she's my girlfriend, and this is our friend Ryan."
"You must be the American one!" Caleb loudly gasps, making a connection. "I knew something was up, I could tell from that fake accent of yours."
"Was it really that bad of an accent?" I tilt my head to Harry, and he gives me a look.
"It was pretty shit, darling," he starts laughing, kissing the top of my forehead when I frown.
"I can't believe you're the woman he's been obsessed with. Like, you're here in the flesh— I almost thought you weren't real if I'm honest."
"'Obsessed with', hm?" I look to my boyfriend, quirking up a brow as the tips of his cheeks and ears redden.
All this time he's really been thinking about me, just like I have with him.
"For the sake of his sex and dating life, it's such a pleasure to meet you, Caroline," Caleb steps forward to shake my hand, a goofy grin plastered on his face. "I'm Harry's best mate and roommate, Caleb Ahmad—"
"Uh," Ryan holds up a finger, interjecting with a fake laugh. "Excuse me, I'm Harry's best friend."
"Believe what you want, Bryan."
"It's Ryan, you ignorant sack of shit—"
"Hey!" Harry aggressively shouts between them, the intense roar in his voice causing me to tighten my hold on him.
The two men appallingly glance to Harry, the duel about to set off between them ending before it could even start.
"Act like grown adults, would you? Why don't we all just... just go out for a nice dinner? We can get to know each other and finally catch up; it'll be on me. I owe my woman, and both of my friends, a good night."
a/n: i was honestly way too excited to write this chapter... WAY too excited for that lil' caroline and harry moment... did you like it?
if you did, you're in luck, there's more of that to come ;)
also, yes i did see harry this past week in concert and in my journal book i described how it went if you wanna read it! here he is:
leave a vote/comment if you enjoyed, next chapter will be eventful!