Black

Chapter 4

"I'll just see her out. Sit here, Hales." Dad whispers to me and I nod.

When Dad and Kaitlyn go out of his private office, I take a seat on the chair in front of his. I look around his office and then my eyes land on a white envelope poking out of my father's side drawer. I had nothing to do, might as well? I get up off the seat and walk to a shaker maple chest of drawers. The envelope inside has the name Harry Styles neatly imprinted on it. Something inside me sparks my curiosity.

What was dad doing with his file? Shouldn't this be with at the head office with the rest of the employee files?

This is gonna be interesting. Maybe the envelope Harry gave my dad at dinner is related to this. I remove the white envelope form the drawer and open it. The file has all of Harry's personal information, where he grew up, where he worked before, nothing too interesting. And then I see a separate document named CONFIDENTIAL. Of course, I open it.

This is what I see:

Name: Harry Edward Styles

Age: 24

Occupation: Staff at C.A.T

Dear Mr. Frank,

We have accepted your application and will send your appliances through ag. Harry Styles immediately. We appreciate your patience and will make sure you get top quality equipment.

Regards,

Thomas Hugh

What was this for? What is C.A.T and why was Harry working for it? What 'equipment' did dad need? Why was this bugging me? Maybe it was just equipment for the rooftop parties he usually throws. I don't know, this was confusing me. It's as though 'appliances' is a code name for something and I will find out what. I quickly click a picture of the letter before hearing something outside.

I hear footsteps outside and I panic. I don't have enough time to clear up my act. My heart is beating fast as I plan my next move quickly. Everything is moving too fast and the next moment I see dad enter the office. I look up innocently, holding my file instead of Harry's.

"Haley, what are you doing? Why are you going through my stuff?" Dad raises his voice, surprising me. He never raised his voice with me.

"I was just going through my file." I say quietly.

"Oh, I...I thought you were looking at one of my staff's file, I...I'm sorry." He mumbles awkwardly. He scratches the back of his head as I put my file back in his drawer.

I wonder why he got so upset at that. He's definitely hiding something.

"So, Haley, what are you doing here?"

"I just wanted to talk to you, catch up with you. You've been so...distant." I take a seat in front of his, "What's up?"

He sighs deeply and walks in silence towards his chair. He sits down and shuffles around his chair for a second before sighing again. I feel like he's going to tell me something, something revealing.

"I'm just..." Just tell me already.

"I'm just caught up with work, that's all." He smiles weakly. 

I relax my muscles. Part of me wants to say, "Come on, dad. What were you going to say? Just tell me". 

I sigh, but I know he isn't going to tell me anything. 

"You know how it is, Haley." He tries to be gentle.

"I know. I just, I feel like you need to step up your game with Lorraine." I say, to which he hums lightly, "You know, ask her out on a date. Just talk to her." 

He furrows his eyebrows at his laptop screen which makes me slightly irritated. 

"You need to communicate with her. With us." I say, trying to be patient with him. He types something into his laptop, ignoring me.

I get up off my chair in anger and he finally notices me walking. 

"Haley!" He calls. I whip around, facing his sea blue eyes. 

"Just don't shut her out like you did mom, okay? You don't know if she will last for long." I feel tears sting my eyes.

"Haley." He sighs again, massaging his forehead, "It wasn't my fault your mother...isn't here toda-."

"She died because she was sick. And you made her sick. You infected her mind. You neglected her and ignored her when she needed you the most. And I don't want that to happen to someone else too." 

"I know that discussing your mother made you want to blame everyone, Haley, but you can't do this anymore. You can't pin this on me." He stands up from his chair.

"I can and I will. We both know how you treated mom during the last few years of her life." A tear rolls down my eye. 

I turn back around and am almost out the door when dad says something. 

"Haley, wait. I'm sorry." I don't turn around at him but stop in my tracks.

"I know I shouldn't have treated your mom the way I did, okay? Just...don't do anything that can get you into danger." He says and I turn around. There's something in his eyes that makes me shiver. Not malice, not love but fear.

*

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*

The rest of the day is awkward, the silence between me and Harry is unsettling. After the day ends, Zayn meets me at my desk. I feel Harry's eyes on me the whole time Zayn walks me through the doors of the office. Once I gather all my things, Zayn and I walk to the elevator.

"Where do you wanna go grab coffee?" 

"I don't know, what's the closest coffee place near Russell street?"

"Uh...There's a Starbucks at Mariposa Street that's like, five minutes away."

"Okay, yeah." I smile. Zayn obviously knew San Francisco more than me. During the little conversation we had at lunch, he told me he was born in Bradford, in the UK but his family moved to California because his father got a great job offer here. 

We hop into Zayn's car because he seems to know where the place is. As soon as I enter Zayn's car, I get a hit by the smell of cologne and a little bit of cigarette smoke. Even though I don't smoke and I hate when people do it, I like the smell of Zayn's car. It smells very manly. 

Zayn and I make small talk and within minutes, we pull up at a Starbucks.