Half a heart

Chapter 7

Louis took a long shower since he was up so early. Nightmares of the past plagued him and once he had had one, he could never go back to sleep. He was afraid - terrified - that the next time he opened his eyes it would be reality again. He wouldn't be in his luxury flat... he would be back in the old, cold one.

He dressed for work, pulling on a pair of black trousers and a plain blue button up. With his shoes on his feet and his hair swept up into a quiff, he grabbed his keys, wallet, phone, and the pink wrapped gift and left the flat.

The drive to the bakery took him twenty minutes because of the morning traffic. When he pulled up, one of the employees was just switching on the sign. He locked his car and walked inside, going up to the counter where fresh pastries were on display.

"Hi, can I help you?" Katie, the girl standing behind the counter, asked with a too flirty grin.

"Yeah, do you know if Anne is here?" Louis questioned.

"She just got in, did you need to talk to her?" Katie asked leaning against her hands on the counter still smiling.

"Yeah." Louis answered looking over Katie's shoulder into the kitchen where he saw dark hair pulled into a pony tail. "Anne!" he called out and the woman turned at the sound of her name.

Anne waved him back and Louis moved around the counter into the kitchen, ignoring Katie completely.

"Hello Louis, what brings you here?" Anne questioned from the counter where she was making frosting.

"I have a question for you that I'm really hoping you can answer." Louis said reaching over as Anne finished a batch of frosting to glide his finger over the attachment that was covered in frosting once she lifted it out of the bowl.

Anne immediately brought her hand up to slap Louis' hand away.

"Some things never change." She muttered removing the attachment and knocking as much frosting as she could off before handing it to Louis with a roll of her eyes just like she used to do years ago. "What's your question?"

Louis accepted the attachment and used his fingers to get the little bit of icing that was left on it before speaking, "I was wondering what Scarlet's favourite flower is?"

Anne quirked her eye and looked over at him from where she was dumping the frosting into its proper container.

"Any particular reason?" She questioned curiously.

"Well, I got her a get well present and I wanted to send her flowers too but I realized I didn't know what her favourite was because I know nothing about her. Anyways, I figured I'd ask you because you would probably know and I could trust that you wouldn't tell Harry it was from me. I um... I was gonna have it delivered to them but I don't know where they live so I was thinking I could leave it here and you could send it to them, I'd pay for it of course." Louis rambled and Anne laughed.

"Louis. Slow down dear. You can leave the gift and flowers here and I'll give them to Harry and tell him somebody left them here for Scarlet because they knew he worked here." Anne said moving to rinse and wash the mixing bowl. "And her favourite flowers are Sweet Peas."

"I'll have to get them after work. Um, what time does Harry leave?" Louis questioned glancing at his watch.

"He leaves to pick up Scarlet from his friend's house around five. I'll just ask him to drop by the bakery with her so I can see her and I'll give them the gift and flowers then if you can get them here." Anne looked over at Louis for confirmation.

"Yeah, I can definitely do that. Thank you for telling me." Louis replied quietly giving her a tight smile. "I know you must hate me for what I did to him... and... I'm sorry, truly."