A café in London

The Monday

"Would you stop shaking your leg!" Hayden laughed at me.

I was so nervous! Harry was going to be here soon.

"Oh no way there he is!" He gasped.

Sure enough Harry was leaning against the wall outside my café with his arms folded and one leg balancing him on the wall. He looked like Troy Bolton when he was waiting outside his homeroom class for Gabriella to come out. Didn't she look awful in the skirt and cardigan she was wearing? Anyway, that's besides the point. He was early! I had no idea how long he was going to stay for.

"Go get him." Hayden smirked once I punched him in the arm and got out. He drove away.

"Good morning Charlotte." Harry said happily. His face perked up once he saw me.

" Hey Harry!" I replied, pulling out my keys from my bag.

"How are you? Did you have a good Sunday?" He held the door open for me once I unlocked it.

"I did thanks. Did you? I watched the video last night! You were hilarious, easily the funniest out of all of you." I gestured to a table close to the counter. I was going to be bustling around. I wanted him to be closer to me.

"You thought so? Vik told me I was being a little mean once it was over..." He sighed.

"Oh honestly you had me in stitches! You know just the level of humor to provide without going to far. And if you do go too far," I started and he looked at me nervously, "Only the people who find the joke funny deserve to be your mates."

" Good point. You speak facts," He chuckled, " Your dress is nice!"

I gave a small twirl in my summery dress. I normally wore a dress to work on the warm days and a jump suit on the days where it was maybe colder. I did end up getting more cold daily but it was worth it. I kept a hoodie and trackies in the back just in case I needed to put them on before going outside at the end of the day. We did have good heating after all and obviously because I stayed in the kitchen the majority of the day, we had hot ovens on. 

"So what is it like?" I asked, "Being a part of such a well known... gang if you will."

"Amazing and awful. You have a lot of responsibility to create good content for millions of people but we all know that people aren't all going to like what you come up with. We get constant hate from people who don't know us."

"But you have so many supporters who love you for you Harry, you have more supporters than haters. You should focus on them." 

"I know I should. And I do! Just sometimes it's harder than other times. The boys are very good for helping one another during tough times like that. It helps being in a big group. As bad as it sounds it gives the haters more space to move around, if you know what I mean. Like they won't focus on you entirely. They'll spread it out so we can all laugh at them instead of one of us suffering alone." 

"I saw some negative comments about Vik last night. Why don't people like him as much as others?" I asked, passing him a cup of tea. He took a sip thoughtfully before answering. 

"I think it's because people think he's not as funny as some of us but I disagree. Yeah he's a complete know it all," Harry laughed, " But he's kind and loving and he can make me laugh so much sometimes. he's just as funny as the rest of us. A lot of people think Josh is boring as well which bothers me. He isn't boring at all. I'm just younger, I have a lot more energy than the rest of them."

"Ahhh."

I took out a bucket and mop. I had left the cleaning over the weekend because it always makes me feel more productive on the Monday morning by cleaning and have a fresh place to start creating things once I was finished. I dunked the mop in the water and started scrubbing the ground. It never got too dirty but I hated when it got a small layer of dust as the day went on so I made one of my workers clean up over the course of the day.

"Charlotte careful!" I heard Harry shout just before I stepped back onto a puddle of water I had spilled. I felt my leg give out from under me and I began to collapse to the floor. I closed my eyes, at the angle I was falling my head was going to hit the ground and I didn't want to have my eyes open to watch the world spinning around me while that happened. 

I heard a chair fall to the ground. Suddenly, my body stopped moving. I hadn't hit the ground though. I opened my eyes in confusion to see Harry's face inches away from mine with his arms supporting me.

" I uhm..." He struggled to speak, "I didn't want you to get hurt."

"Thank you." I breathed a heavy breath. I had wanted him close to me before but I didn't expect him to get this close.

"You're actually-" He began but the door opened.

"Woah! Should I come back later?" Paxton barged into the cafe. Harry and I stood up fast and separated ourselves. 

"No it's alright." I blushed, picking up Harry's chair for him and leading Paxton into the kitchen.