The Maiden in Winter // Harry Styles Series #4

TWENTY EIGHT

~A~

I got a big surprise on New Year's Eve.

Bean was with me at the store when the year's final issue of People came in. As I unwrapped the magazines he let out a great gasp.

"Alex, look, it's Harold!"

'Harry Styles Returns' read the headline, above a photo taken on the final night of the tour. I flipped open to the article, where the Christmas picture filled an entire page, followed by three pages of old photos and old news, including two paragraphs about Olivia, their relationship, and the split a year earlier. There was also a lot of speculation on why he had slipped out of the public's eye, where the family had been for the holidays, and when the world would see him again.

"I knew I met Harold before! I met him in magazines and on TV! He's FAMOUS!"

It was time to do some damage control.

"Bean, I need you to sit up here on the counter and look at me, ok?"

He climbed up, feet swinging, eyes bright.

"Yes, Harold is famous. Very famous. And like a lot of famous people, he's here in Janesport to rest and have some quiet, private time. And we are going to try really hard to help him do that."

"Ok. I haven't told anyone else that he's your boyfriend, just Mrs. Pritchard and Mikey and Michelle. Have you told anyone?"

That Harry Styles was my boyfriend? No. I wasn't exactly sure of it myself.

"Andy, Ed and Lizzy, and Lisha know he's here. Here's the thing, I know I told you that Harry is a nickname for Harold, but Harold's real name is Harry, kind of the opposite. But I think it's really important to keep calling him Harold around people like the Murphys and Mrs. Pritchard now. It's really important that no one else finds out he's here, so that he can rest a little while longer."

"Ok. That's easy, because in my brain that's his name."

"Perfect."

Bean was examining the blown up beach shot in the open magazine, running his finger over the figures. "Alex, look!" He was tapping his fingertip on the page, just over Darren's shoulder.

"What is it, big guy?"

"It's me!"

Damned if he wasn't right. There was a blurry towhead boy behind the group, down the beach. Probably unrecognizable to anyone other than the seven of us who had been there, but it was Bean nonetheless. A potential problem? Hopefully not. I was confident that we could keep the situation under control.

I hadn't taken Michelle Murphy, and my own frustration with her, into consideration.

***

Harry called a little later that day. "Are you busy?"

"No, just me and Bean, playing a mean game of Go Fish."

"Have you seen it?"

"I've got ten of them right here. Want me to save you one?"

"Very funny. You know Jeff's already got a hundred stuffed in some corner of his office. We all wish they'd kept her name out of it, but we really couldn't expect them to. It's ok."

I was really encouraged by how much easier it was for him to talk about her lately. "Why don't you and George come get some lunch? Ed's coming over too. I'll make shrimp po' boys."

"Sounds good. Be there in five."

After lunch Bean went out to make some sidewalk chalk art while the rest of us perused the article.