The Parent Plan » Harry Styles

Chapter 18

– Athena & Harry –

     Pushing. It's a helpful guide to urge someone into doing something, something that they want to do but tend to second guess themselves about doing it. Whether it'd be telling your crush that you fancy them, where your friend will urge you to tell him or her or simply just push you into them. Or some other example. Either way, everyone always needs a little push in their life. For Harry, Louis gave him those pushes.

     "We had a great time, so good to get away from the same old same old," Louis says, a grin present in his voice. "I wish we've could've spent more time there."

     "You were on your honeymoon for a month," Harry deadpans, his fingers fiddling with his keys as he sat at the table. Dinner had just ended, Athena was in the living room watching Spongebob, but when Harry was about to wash the dishes, Louis had called. So far, he had moped about missing the private island he and his wife went to on their honeymoon because after a few months being back home, Louis realized how much he loved spending every waking moment with his wife and it's kind of hard to do that now since she has a job.

     "Anyways," Louis drawls, ignoring his former bandmate. "Liam and Niall tell me there's a girl?"

     "Seriously, when did they become such gossip girls?" Harry muttered to himself before sighing. It wasn't as if he wasn't going to tell Louis about Monica at all, he just wanted to make sure that Monica wasn't just someone he'd meet and then never speak too again – this has happened various times – and though Harry had yet to confront Monica about their almost kiss a few weeks ago, Harry knew she'd stick around.

     "They've always been gossip girls," Louis tells him with a chuckle. "But seriously, who's the girl? I kind of feel deprived of my matchmaking skills."

     "Her name is Monica, meet her when I was dropping Athena off for her first day of school," Harry begins. "She was late, something she tends to do a lot, to drop of her son Jake who is in fact, Athena's best friend. It was inevitable that we'd meet."

     "Is she married or..?"

     "No," Harry said almost immediately. "The Father... he's, uh, not in the picture. And if he was, no way would I try anything with her – I'm not that type of man."

     "Have you tried anything with her?" Louis asked with doubt. Sometimes Harry was too scared to make a move, the lads found it a tad humourous that the fans would call him 'cocky' and 'bold' because in fact, he's an awkward, hesitant guy – at least when it comes to making the first step. When Katelyn had intrigued Harry the first day they met, he was a jumbling mess especially when it came to getting her number.

     "Um, I've been having dance lessons with her." Cue Louis' laughter because 'Haz, you can't dance at all.' "Hey, I've improved quite a lot. Anyways, I guess it doesn't really count since she's been cancelling my lessons." He pauses, basically feeling Louis' disappointment. "We almost kissed," he says matter-of-factly knowing exactly what Louis was thinking, which was probably along the lines of 'this pussy hasn't made a move'.

     "Yeah, and who leaned in?"

     Harry stayed silent.

     "That's what I thought." The grin was evident in his voice. "How long ago was this?"

     "A few weeks..." He trails off before adding, "I know what you're thinking – make a move. But that's kind of hard to do when she's avoiding me."

     "Okay, but why was it an almost kiss? Who leaned away?"

     "I did." Knowing Louis was about to chide him, he continues, "But I couldn't do it. Not before I talked to Katelyn about all this. It was honestly so hard to lean away but I had to, I couldn't kiss Monica without talking to Katelyn. You have no idea how much I wanted to kiss her. I wish she would stop avoiding me."