I showed Harry around Steamboat Springs. I remember coming here one year when I was younger because Eleanor had a soccer tournament. There's an ice cream shop in this small town that sells some of the best ice cream you've ever tried. But with it already being below freezing outside, I figured we should skip that and move on to something else.
Currently, he and I stood in the gift shop, laughing at a pair of weed socks.
"Should I buy them?" Harry asks, looking over at me. His face was glowing, even in the poor and dull lighting of the small shop.
"If you'd like," I say, laughing.
He looks them over for a second before slipping them off the hook. "I like them."
He was going to buy them. I shook my head and walked over to the wall of hoodies and t-shirts, all with 'Steamboat Springs' printed across the front of them. Harry is soon stepping to my side, looking up at the merchandise as well.
"We should get matching t-shirts," he suggests, stepping closer to me.
"Really?" I laugh, looking up at him. He nods vigorously, his dimples on display. "Alright. Let's pick one out then."
We looked over the options for a few moments, even moving around the store a bit. I didn't see any that I would actually want to buy, and I don't think Harry did either. I honestly was getting frustrated, because he seemed pretty excited about getting matching shirts.
"Hey ba-" Harry called from across the shop before stopping himself. He clears his throat before retrying the sentence. "Lili, come here. I think I found one."
I make my way over to him, only to be stopped once I see what tee he had picked out.
"Harry," I say in a disappointed tone, rolling my eyes and shaking my head playfully.
"What?" He laughs as if there wasn't anything wrong with the t-shirts he had picked out.
"You really want to walk around wearing a shirt with a giant weed leaf on it?" I ask, giggling slightly.
"Yeah, why not?" He asks, shrugging. He takes one off the rack and hands the hanger to me.
"You sure seem to say that a lot," I point out, looking over the ridiculous shirt.
"I do," he agrees. "But only because that's how I'm trying to live my life right now. I just don't want any regrets, you know?"
"Yeah, must be nice," I say, raising my eyebrows and looking down at the ground.
"Hey, hey," Harry says in a soft voice, "why are you being so negative?"
"I don't know," I say, not daring to make eye contact with him, "I just have a lot of regrets I guess."
"Well there are some things you just need to let go of," he states, gently taking ahold of my hand and giving in a comforting squeeze. "The past is the past, and you can't change it. If you were to go back and change it, you wouldn't be exactly where you are now. And aren't you proud of how far you've come?"
"I mean, yeah I guess." I shrug. "But I feel like that's so easy for you to say. You've done and accomplished all these amazing things all while helping so many people, and you're only 25!"
"Just because I'm successful in that way doesn't mean you're any less successful than I am in what you're doing," he says. "You can afford to put a roof of you and Jess's heads as well as provide food for yourself. I think that's all success really is. The rest of the materialistic stuff is just extra fluff."
"Harry," I say, finally looking up at him, he hums in response, "Do you think you'd be a different person if you didn't have everything you do right now?"
"I should say no," he admits, "but I'm never going to lie to you. So honestly, I think I would be. But not in the way you'd think."
"What do you mean?" I ask, even more intrigued than before.
"I think I'd be more stuck up if I didn't have what I do now, which is the total opposite of what you would expect," he explains. "I think now that I do have everything, I've known what it's like to not. And I think that makes me ten times more grateful."
I was slightly taken back by his words. He talked about this like it was something he's explained a million times before. Or maybe it was something that he constantly thought about.
"You're so...down-to-Earth," I think out loud.
"What, did you think I wasn't?" He laughs. I bite my lip, not saying anything. "You...did, didn't you?"
"Well the media always paints celebrities to be such stuck up and arrogant people," I tell him honestly, "I didn't want to believe that you were like that...but it was hard not to."
"I get that," he says, nodding knowingly.
He paused for a moment, inhaling a sharp breath, almost like he was about to get emotional. He looked out the window at the dark winter afternoon.
"Do..." He takes a deep breath again, "Do you still think I'm arrogant?"
"Well, I mean you said so in To Be So Lonely," I joke, laughing nervously. Harry didn't. A smile didn't even creep across his lips.
At that exact moment, I knew I had said the wrong thing. I have the worst possible timing.
He continues to look at me with squinted, glossy eyes, waiting for a real answer. I quickly shake my head.
"No. I don't think you're arrogant at all," I tell him truthfully. He just nods and looks down at the ground, sniffing. I knew he didn't believe me.
I felt the need to make things right. There was obviously something deeper going on in his head. To him, this wasn't just me quoting lyrics of his song.
"Do you want to go check out? We can get these shirts and you can get your socks and then we can just go home," I offer, gesturing toward the older man working the cash register.
"You know what, you're right. It is ugly," he says bluntly, placing the hook of the hanger back on the rack. He also set the socks down on a nearby stack of graphic tees. "Let's just go home."
"Yeah, okay," I say quietly, looking around for the exit. I begin walking toward said exit once I spotted it, Harry trailing closely behind.
We were almost to the door when we both stopped, hearing a voice calling after the two of us.
"I hate to eavesdrop," the old cashier says in a Southern accent, "but where exactly is home?"
I found it a little weird that this random stranger was asking where I lived. Not only was it strange as is, but it was a little suspicious considering the fact that Harry was a celebrity that the paparazzi was always on the hunt for.
"Why do you ask?" I turn around to get a glimpse of him. He didn't seem sketchy, he seemed like a perfectly sweet and innocent older gentleman. And I didn't really expect someone living in such a small town as Steamboat Springs to even know who Harry is. But you can never be too careful.
"Because I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but if home is anywhere near Denver, you're not going to be getting there anytime soon," he informs.
My heart dropped to my stomach. What did he mean we "wouldn't be getting there anytime soon"?
"And why not?" I ask him further, walking around Harry to approach the man behind the counter.
"There's a huge snowstorm rolling through the canyon. They aren't lettin' anybody through," he explains. "You two'd be better off to just stay the night here. There are a few hotels just down the road from here, I'm sure at least one of em has a room available."
"So they aren't letting anybody through?" I ask to make sure I heard him correctly, he nods in response. "Like no exceptions whatsoever?"
"I'd assume not. I just heard it on the radio," he gestures to the small, old-fashioned radio sitting on a wooden stool behind him, "they said they've closed down the entrance. Storms supposed to be real bad. They're just trying to keep everyone safe."
"I get that," I say understandingly.
I sigh and turn around to face Harry, plastering a fake, closed-lip smile across my face.
"I guess we're staying here tonight," I say, walking away from the counter to be closer to him.
"You should make sure you let Jess know," he advises. "We wouldn't want her to think we died."
"Or worse, abandoned her," I add, laughing.
"I would inform this Jess sooner rather than later," the old worker suggests. "The storm should be rolling in any minute now."
With his advice, I pulled my phone out of my pocket to quickly send Jess a message.
Lili: we ended up driving all the way to steamboat. there's a storm about to hit the canyon, so we're going to stay here tonight. hopefully, we'll be home sometime tomorrow!!
After pressing send, I shove it back into my pocket, relieved that was now taken care of.
"Well thank you so much for informing us, you're a literal lifesaver," I say gratefully to the man. "We're going to go find a room now."
"No problem, sweets," he says kindly. "Wouldn't have wanted you to show up only to have to turn back around."
"So true," I say, beginning to walk away. "But thanks again!"
And with that, Harry and I left the gift shop to go find a hotel room to stay in for the night.
Together.
Alone.