Rebel Rebel |harry styles| - ongoing

THIRTY-THREE

Queen: Don't Stop Me Now

Harry

This tour would be a completely different experience for all of us, it seemed. Most countries still had safety protocols in place which meant we'd have to cut our audience in half, and which subsequently led to us thinking about doing two concerts in each city instead of just one. I don't know if we were prepared for the exhaustion it would cause, but I knew none of us wanted to disappoint the people that bought tickets to come see us play. The team would plan out the calendar and check with all venues to see if they could have us for two concerts instead of one. More importantly, I needed to share the new plan with Essie.

"Hey love! How has your day been?", I sat on the floor and played with Bono while Ess cooked lunch.

"I took him out for a walk, I have to tell you our neighbours are incredibly pleased there will be no more renovations for the foreseeable future. Then I called your mum and then I edited those Gucci photos that Alessandro asked for. What about you? How did the meeting with Jeff go?", she drained the pasta and continued stirring the sauce.

"What did mum say? Does the plan work for her?"

"Yeah, it works fine, I told her you'd drive over and get her. What about the meeting, Harry?", I wasn't avoiding it, but this new arrangement meant the tour would extend for a lot longer than it was originally planned, so I wasn't sure if she'd still want to come.

"Okay, I'll call her to see what day suits her best.", I got up off the floor to set the table, "As far as the meeting goes, nothing... we'll have to do two concerts instead of one in almost all the cities, because of the capacity restrictions, which means it'll drag out for longer than intended.".

"Oh, but you can do it, right?"

"Yes, Jeff is talking to all the venue managers right now, to figure out how, if at all, the new plan fits with their schedule. I don't want to cancel anything, because we've all been waiting for such a long time to finally be able to sing and dance and enjoy ourselves, safely. It wouldn't be fair to the half that wouldn't be able to come, and I also wonder who would choose which half gets booted. There are a lot of questions floating around my head, and I only know I really wouldn't want to be in Jeff's shoes right now.", I studied her face for a second, hoping to read her reaction and figure out what she thought of this new plan.

"Gosh, that really sucks, Harry. And you're right, it would be incredibly unfair to those that end up not being able to attend. Is there any chance your team will decide to postpone until the time comes that everybody can attend?", her sympathetic eyes somehow always managed to make any shit situation a bit better.

"I haven't thought about it if I'm being honest... I'll have to ask Jeff. But you'd still want to come, even if it ends up being twice as long?"

"Of course, I'm coming because I'm a part of the team as well. Besides, I'm your girlfriend, and nothing would make me happier than seeing you on stage again.", hearing those words lifted a weight off my shoulders because I was really worried she'd think it was too long, too much work or far too complicated for her.

"It makes me happy to hear you feel that way, because you are a part of the team and I wouldn't have it any other way. It would be way too hard being gone from you for so long.", Ess fixed us two plates of pasta and we sat at our beautiful new dining table. The house still felt brand new after the reno, like I'd never been here before. Unreal what a bit of demolition and some new pieces of furniture can do to a place.

Essie

Harry insisted that his mother wouldn't have any special requests regarding food or drinks, but I still took it upon myself to ask Gemma for advice. She assured me that if we had tea and milk, Anne would be satisfied. I gave the house a good once over, discovering decorations I hadn't yet seen while I picked up. Harry and Anne were on their way back from Holmes Chapel which meant my palms were sweaty and I moved the same vase a few centimetres to the left and then back to its original location more than seven times.