Red

Chapter 3

A two hour car drive home alone, was even worse after my encounter with Harry, which I cannot stop thinking about.
After lounging around all morning, I finally got up to the sound of my phone ringing flashing with an unknown number.

"Hello?" I answer with my eyebrows knitted together.

"Naveah, it's Mr. Vogel." He pauses. "Can you come down to the bar as soon as you can. Just want to have a quick chat."

"Ye-yes sir, I'll be there soon." I stutter.

"Don't be nervous Naveah, you haven't done anything wrong." He reassures me.

I'm soon in my car and driving to the bar, where Mr. Vogel wants to meet. I park the car and nervously walk through the front seeing very few people hanging around and Harry sits in a booth at the back with, Mr. Vogel. I sigh, walking to the booth where they're both sat.

"Ah, Naveah." Mr. Vogel greets me. "Sit, sit." Harry moves to the far side of the booth leaving room for me to sit next to him.

"Now, as you know I've recently bought a place in London for an extension of my business." He explains as I nod, surely following but slightly confused on where he is going with this conversation.

"Sorry sir, but what do I have to do with this?" I cautiously ask and he chuckles.

"I was wondering if you would like to take place as a bar manager there, kind of like a promotion." He continues to explain. "And I know, in the new year, you will be moving to London to study as you have told me not too long ago."

"Um, yeah. Erm." the words I'm trying to speak get caught in my throat. "Wow, thank you Sir. Can I think about it?"

"Of course, let me know by the end of the week, if possible." He nods and removes himself from the booth leaving Harry, my thoughts and I alone.

"Hey, are you alright?" He places his hand on my back. I nod and look at him.

And I leave the booth. 

A couple of hours later, I'm back at the bar for my shift and Harry, Micah and Mr. Degray are the only ones in and I notice Harry's arms around a girl's waist as he chats with Micah as I walk into the room.

"Naveah, you weren't in on Saturday?" Mr. Degray greets me with a sad smile.

"No, sorry Mr. Degray. I was in Carlisle with my family for the weekend." I explain.

"Oh." He grumbles. "Colette wasn't as good company as you usually are, love."

I chuckle lightly.

"I can imagine." I smile and he chuckles. I see the girl whom Harry's arm was around only minutes ago walking towards the bar and  greet her with a small smile, as she simply smiles back.

"Can I please get two beers and an apple cider?" She asks politely. I nod and leave to fetch her drinks soon returning to bring them to the girl. She thanks me before awkwardly telling me that Harry said to put them down on a tab.

"No worries." I say as she turns and walks back to the booth.

An hour or so later, Harry, the mystery girl and Micah leave, and Mr. Degray soon follows and the bar is empty. I check the clock to see its 8:32 pm, and I continue to clean some glasses before grabbing a magazine from under the bar and sitting in a stool leaning against the back counter.

"Kim, Taylor and Kanye, all in controversial arugment on twitter. Is Taylor playing the 'victim' once again?"

I roll my eyes at the news story, and turn the page continuing to read other news stories before the bar door swings open. I look up to see Harry walking towards the bar.

"Hey." He says before taking a seat on one of the many stools.

I close the magazine and put in on the bar top.

"Hi." I ask and he hums softly.

"I figured you might be a little lonely so I came back." He shrugs. "Look, I wanted to apologise for my behavior the other day. I feel guilty about how rude I was towards you."

I look down at my finger nails.

"It doesn't matter. Nothing out of the ordinary, you're always rude." He sighs.

"Did you not just hear me?"  He snaps.

"Yes Harry, I did. It's fine." I spit, as I get up off my stool muttering that I'll be back before walking to the back room. I sigh as I put my hands onto the counter top trying not to work myself up over something minor.

I roll my eyes before returning to the bar where Harry sits with a pint of beer.

I grab the same I had magazine before and continue to read it.

"Are you going to say something?" He asks. I just shrug.

"Wouldn't want to ruin your reputation now would I?" My eyes never leave the page I'm reading.

"I said I'm sorry." He sighs. "What else do you want?"

"I don't want anything from you Harry." This time I look up at him so he understands I'm serious.

Not long later I'm bored with the magazine and decide I should try to make conversation if he's staying here.

"Harry, I've worked here for a year now, how come I never seen you?" I ask and he shrugs.

"I moved to London a few years ago, came back 4 months ago. Never really interested me what my step-father did. Never came in." He says and I nod. He passes me the empty glass and I pick it up taking it to re-fill it.

Being as clumsy as I am, on my way back to hand the glass to Harry, the beer runs down the side of the glass causing me to lose grip and it to smash on the floor, beer spreading itself around my shoes. I groan as I look down at the broken glass shards and a puddle of beer.

"I see you're having a smashing time over there?" Harry jokes causing me to roll my eyes at his terrible pun.

"Stop!" I whine like a child making him chuckle before helping me clean up the glass shards.

I pick up the last large piece of glass as Harry gets a broom the clean the rest up. Before he returns I feel a small piece of glass slice into my finger making me wince. I hold a finger of the cut, attempting to stop the bleeding and Harry returns with a broom.

He doesn't notice my small wound as he continues to clean the mess up so I take the chance to find the First Aid kit in the back in which results in me falling over a few boxes attempting to retrieve the kit. I hear Harry's footsteps from behind me as tries to cover his mouth.

"Are you alright?" He stops laughing and helps me up.

"Erm, yeah. I just need a band aid." I chuckle like its nothing.

"What?" I show him my finger and he cusses. "Why didn't you tell me?" He asks as I shrug.

"Didn't want to make it a big deal."