Aquarelle [h.s]

thirty-nine

After that night, I didn't see Harry for a few days.

He called me in the morning to cancel his modelling appointment and after that, I didn't hear from him for a couple of days at least.

I gave him some space, knowing that he was busy with work, ignoring the voice in my head that told him not to check on him not to seem overbearing. If I wanted whatever was going on between us to work, I had to start trusting that he would've come to me if there was a real problem. Considering our past, though, it definitely wasn't that easy to do that.

Thankfully, though, I ended up doing the right thing, because after those few days he called again, asking if I wanted to spend the evening of the following day with him. Naturally, I said yes.

The next day, I ended up finishing my last job of the day a bit earlier than I'd anticipated and, considering Harry and I were supposed to spend the evening together, I decided to go meet Harry at his workplace, just like he'd done with me some time before.

I left my car at my apartment and got a taxi to the publishing company Harry worked at, stopping for a quick coffee at the café on the other side of the street not to end up going inside too early and bothering him while he was working.

When I was sure he was on his last fifteen minutes I took a deep breath and entered the building he worked at, being stopped by a woman that was sitting behind the reception desk almost immediately.

"Hi, how can I help you?" She asked kindly looking at me, not moving an inch as she waited for me to speak.

"I'm here to see Harry?" I replied, my voice sounding dubious as I wondered if she even knew who I was talking about. "Styles."

Her eyes lit up in the second I mentioned his name. "Oh, Harry? Sure!" She replied immediately, no hesitation in her voice.

"Do you know him?" I asked her curiously, a bit confused. I hadn't expected her to know him. After all, he was just one of the many editors that I was sure worked in that place, and he didn't seem like the kind of person that enjoyed making friends, especially at his workplace.

She gave me an obvious look, as if she was wondering if my question was actually real. "Come on, have you looked at him? Who doesn't!" She replied, a smile on her lips. "He's a bit quiet, though. Minds his business a lot. He's been working here for months, but I think I've seen him at a dinner only once." She went silent for some seconds, before seeming to remember I was still standing there, waiting for something. "Can I ask you who you are?"

"Uh, I'm kind of dating him?" I replied, trying not to make my reply sound awkward and miserably failing. I didn't really know how to describe what was going on between us, but I figured that was the best way to make sure people would've understood and not asked awkward topics on the topic. I should've probably talked to Harry about that soon, since it would've been nice to know where we were standing precisely.

"Oh" she said, and a little awkward since fell over us before she cleared her throat and went on speaking. "Well, I shouldn't allow you to go up, but I can make an exception. Upstairs, it should be the third office on the right, you can't miss it."

"Thank you" I replied, giving her a little nod and going up the stairs she'd pointed me towards, immediately starting to rethink what I was doing but knowing that I couldn't back out of it anymore.

What if I'd ended up doing something awkward, or embarrassing? I was specialised in that kind of thing, and I would've never forgiven myself if I'd ended up doing something like that at Harry's workplace.

I reached the upper floor and opened the glass door I found in front of me, stepping into the corridor right behind it.

A couple of people that were walking by immediately gave me a weird look, and it didn't take me long to understand why.