Sugar (Harry Styles)

21.

A/N for next chap I'll need 4 comments on this chap and 14 votes thanks :D

By day 9 Harry was miserable. He had received a few calls but nothing seemed to make sense. Someone from London called and said they saw a girl near Buckingham Palace that looked like Daphne. Another call came from Bristol who claimed to have arrested a girl with auburn hair but the rest of the description didn’t match. There were a few emails from other small villages but nothing that connected to Daphne in the way he needed.

At day 10 Harry wondered if she was even in the country. He was worried that he’d get a call that she was dead in a ditch somewhere wrapped in one of her simple cotton dresses. The thought alone made Harry want to cry, his throat tightening.

He would go out every day and drive around to different towns, hoping maybe to see her car or maybe some sign that she was there, some sign that love was alive. Every day he would go out and every night he would come home empty handed, his heart in pain.

By the 14th day Harry had decided to go to the bakery. He was running out of funds to search for Daphne and the shop was still in ill-repair. He knew that he had to work to get money in order to fund the search for her. He wondered if he could keep baking without that lovely creature by his side every morning. He didn’t know if it was possible, life without Daphne seemed pointless. Life without love was pointless.

Harry strode along the sidewalk, his hands shoved deep in the pockets of his peacoat, head casted down towards the ground. As he came in view of the bakery he saw a womanly figure leaning against the boarded storefront. She was blonde and tall, her form seemed to immediately draw him to her. It didn’t take long for Harry to realize who it was; he remembered the eyes that looked up at him, and the playful smile on her pouty lips.

“I was wondering when you would get here,” the woman said coolly as she tucked her hands into the pockets of her long wool coat. The white color of the jacket offset the beautiful gray-blue of her eyes and the bright yellow of her hair.

Harry stopped in front of the woman, his eyes scanning over her form. Sometimes you needed a miracle. Sometimes you just needed that stroke of magic from God… or in this case Goddess.

“Aphrodite?” Harry asked his thick brows furrowed causing the woman to laugh musically in the cool winter air.

“You can call me Apple.” She replied with a soft tone, her smile wide, “I believe that was what Daphne’s father called me.”

“Where is she?” Harry asked with a watery tone, amazed that this woman was smiling when he was hurting so deeply.

“She’s safe,” The woman said, her tone changing to something firm and sharp. She held her hand out to the bakery’s door. “May we take this inside?” She asked.

Harry was relieved to hear that Daphne was safe but it still didn’t fix the fact that Daphne wasn’t home. He couldn’t feel her in his arms, smell her hair, or taste her lips. He wanted more answers and this person… Goddess was going to help him. Harry nodded slowly to Aphrodite’s request and fished the keys from his pocket and opened the door to the bakery, allowing the woman in first before he followed behind her.

“Good manners,” Aphrodite commented as she walked over the threshold of the bakery and immediately was taken aback by the foul language that was still painted on the powder blue walls of the bakery. She clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth as she removed her coat and tossed it over one of the tables.

Harry quickly moved to toss his coat over the cash register before he looked over at the beautiful Goddess who seemed to circle the small shop space, taking into consideration each of the words painted on the walls by Evan’s hand. Harry was silent; he wasn’t quite sure how to strike up a conversation with a Greek Goddess. He admired her however, finding so much of Daphne in each of her small movements. He felt relieved for the first time in weeks; the pain in his bones and heart alleviating for a short moment. He would take the relief even though he knew that the pain would return, he just needed answers, he needed help.