A lot like love

8

"Pitch and go. Pitch and go, keep up the pace. It's not a big deal. I'm sorry. It actually is quite a big deal. But don't go too fast. Harry, you get really jittery when you go too fast. And I need to make sure that you don't speed through the whole thing in such a way that nobody understands exactly what you're saying. Because we invested a lot of time, and everything that we're do..." Harry's business partner rambled as they were heading to their meeting.

"Niall, I need you to shut up. All right? This is exactly what I'm talkin' about. You're driving me crazy." Harry grunted.

They headed to the meeting, both nervous. Harry stood in front of a couple of men in suits. He gulped nervously.
"So... ...the baby... The... Client. The client inputs the child's data and the baby actually track its growth. So when it's time to move up to a bigger size... There it is. Bam. Just on your doorstep. No hassle, no fuss."

"Does the virtual baby has a name?" One of the men asked.

"Does the baby have a name? Yes. What were we saying for the baby's name?" Harry turned to Niall.

"Freddy." Niall threw out the first name he could think of.

"Freddy." The man said, like he tasted the name. He didn't seem to like it.

"It doesn't have to be Fred. Gabe... was another choice that we came up with. Gabe the babe." Harry hurried to say. The man seemed to like that suggestion better. Harry continued. "My point is, is that there are 10 000 babies born every hour. That's 252 000 babies a day. And somebody's gotta figure out where to put all that shit. I wanna be that guy."

"10 000 babies an hour. Wouldn't that be 240 000 babies a day?" One of the other men asked.

Harry flipped through his papers.
"Yes."

When they left the meeting Niall tried to boost his confidence.
"It was good, Harry. You were great. I mean, there was that one little thing, but I don't think it was a big deal. How about you? You think it was good?"

Harry's cellphone started ringing so he didn't reply. He picked it up.
"Hello?"

"Harry? Are you still in Dublin?" Louis asked.

"Yes." Harry confirmed. He could help but smile at the sound of Louis' voice.

"I need you to do something for me." Louis pleaded.

Harry immediately agreed when he heard what it was. He bought some flowers and headed to the cemetery and called Louis.
"I'm here." He said softly as soon as Louis answered.

"How does it look?" Louis asked in a small voice.

"It looks good." Harry replied, eyeing the grave. "She was young, huh?"

"Yeah. What kind of flowers did you get?" Louis asked.

Harry looked at the bouquet and sat down next to the grave.
"Blue."

"That's perfect. Today's her birthday. Talk to me." Louis requested.

"I don't know what to say." Harry sighed.

"It doesn't matter." Louis said softly.

"All right. There's... There's this kid, okay? And he's in his backyard and he's digging a hole. And the neighbor lady looks over the fence and says, "What are you doing over there, little Johnny?" And the kid looks really sad and he says, "Well, my goldfish died. "And so I'm having a funeral for it." And the lady says, "Well, that's an awfully big hole for a goldfish." And little Johnny says. "Well, that's because he's inside your stupid cat."

Louis burst out in a fit of giggles.
"You know, that's terrible. Thank you."

Harry met up with Niall at the airport to fly back to Scotland. Niall could see that he had something on his mind.
"What's going on, Harry?"

Harry took a deep breath.
"He lives in London and my work is in Scotland. So, that's... And look, if this VC money comes in, we're gonna be swamped anyway, so... But it's like, that's just... And how can I be there for him if I don't even have my thing figured out? You know? I can't. And I was clear with him right from the top that... Like, the first day that we met I told him that I had to have my things, my work, and stuff that..."

"That rough, but Harry. In a couple of hours, you'll be rich. You'll meet someone. Just watch this." Niall grinned and turned to a girl sitting next to him.
"Hi, I'm Niall."

"I'm Nathalie." The girl smiled.

"You know, in about four hours I'm gonna be rich." Niall grinned and Harry rolled his eyes at him behind his back.

"Really?" Nathalie giggled.

"Yeah, filthy rich. Can I get your number?" Niall winked.

The girl gave him her number before she walked away.
"See?" Niall said to Harry.

"Louis doesn't care about money." Harry muttered.

"Well, does he wanna move to Scotland then?" Niall wondered.

"No." Harry sighed.

"I'm sorry, mate." Niall said compassionately.

Harry's cellphone rang.
"Harry Styles speaking. Yes, sir. You won't be sorry. Thank you." He turned to Niall. "We got it."

Niall raised his arms over his head and screamed.
"WE GOT IT, BABY! Woohoo! We're gonna be rich!"