crescent [h.s]

58

Harry Styles

As Aurora has a client at to the house in order to pick up their painting, I leave the office early in order to pick Dove up from pre-school.

I shut the door to my office and turn the sign next to my name over, signaling me no longer being here. I catch Elijah walking into the elevator as it opens, looking guilty as fuck as he obviously just came from Delilah's office. I walk inside of the elevator and laugh to myself, Elijah pressing the ground floor for me, "Wanna explain why you–"

His brows crease as his face scrunches up in humour, "No."

We both laugh and as the elevator dings back at his office level, he turns to me and points, "You just focus on going to Milan with my wife in the next few days." I laugh harder as he gets out of the confined box, smiling as he adds, "Have a good evening."

I wave him off through my laughter, "You too."

I'm still laughing to myself as the doors to the ground level open, a body slamming into mine as I go to leave the elevator and they try to come in. I raise my hands and look down to see who walked into me, the voice inside my head cursing as I recognise the one colleague that I particularly don't like. Claire.

Her face laughs up as she giggles, "Oops. Sorry Harry, don't know how I didn't see you!"

I roll my lips into my mouth and nod, stepping to the side and pushing past her, "Okay."

She calls out to me but I purposely ignore her, my blood running cold as she shouts to me, "Um, okay then! I'll see you in Milan!"

I turn to see her as I'm walking through the glass doors, catching her smirking face. I search for my bag, pulling my phone out and calling Delilah as soon as I make it to my car, the call quickly connecting through bluetooth as I start my route onto getting Dove, "Heyyy, about what you think you saw–"

I shake my head, "No, Delilah, I'm not calling about that. I was winding Elijah up, I don't actually care what you were doing. But I have a question for you about Milan."

"Oh!" She sounds surprised and hums, "Okay. What's your question?"

"Please for the love of god, tell me Claire isn't going."

She pauses, "Which Claire? Stuart or Williams?"

"Uhhh? I have no idea? The annoying one who always hits on me and is rude to Aurora. Doesn't understand I'm married, judged me and Aurora when she was pregnant with Dove–"

"Oh yeah, that's Williams. And she is, but I can create a fake shoot here if you don't want her coming with us. Only because you're family."

I laugh and slam on my breaks as someone pulls out right in front of me, "Wow people round here cannot drive–" Delilah laughs and I answer her original question, "and yes, please, if you can. She makes me so uncomfortable, I don't want to go to Italy with her, I don't want the trip to be ruined or to hear any more judgemental comments about my wife coming from her."

I can sense Delilah nodding as I get closer to the pre-school, "Of course, sorry I completely forgot about her weirdness with you, I wouldn't have offered her the trip otherwise. Do you want me to subtly mention you're married, again, and that's not going to change? Believe it or not but I can be quite stealthy if I want to be."

I'm nodding before she's even finished her sentence, "Yes please, seriously please do. If that doesn't work I'm just gonna get a photo of me and Aurora kissing on our wedding day plastered all over my office door."

She cackles, "Fuck me I would love to see that. Everyone would think you've gone mad."

I can't help but laugh, "I'm starting to feel it!"