In love from the outside

March 2029 - I DON'T LIKE ANTICIPATING MY FACE IN A RED FLUSH

March 2029

St. Barth's / New York

Harry S: What are you up to? You girls ok?.

What he really wants to text her is that he misses her, misses them. 

He wishes he could share with her how torn he feels between his fear of losing her and the hope that they can overcome whatever comes next together. But he does not know if it is too soon.

Tay: working on Leah's cake icing skills. - And attached a picture of both of them in the kitchen, wearing twin flour-stained aprons, grinning widely, icing spots on their cheeks.

He smiles, staring at it for a long time, his heart warming at the sight.

"Harry, are you ready?" he hears his assistant calling him, "photographers are in position." He nods.

He feels awful having to do this, jumping into the water and pretending to have fun in someone else's company when the only place he wants to be is in that kitchen with them.

*

Harry S: For a change, will you sing me to sleep tonight?

Tay: In your dreams, Styles.

Harry S: You mean in my wildest dreams.

Tay: In those too.

Harry S: C'mon, just a little bit.

Tay: Are you drunk?

Harry S: Do you think if I were drunk I would be asking you to SING to me? You offend me, babe. There are many other things that come to mind.

Tay: Like what?

His breath hitches, and his mouth dries.

Harry S: Don't mess with me like this.

Tay: Come home soon, Styles. Xx

The following day, against schedule, the pictures he had been not-posing for the day before, get leaked to the press.

New York

She is scrolling through her phone IG when she sees the news then. Why does she keep finding things out this way? Wait, he is on a romantic holiday, in St. Barth's?? She thought he was recording somewhere, or in castings, or in some work meeting or commitment. She did not even think of asking. Why should she? She had trusted him.

She sits on the nearest chair she can find. Totally in shock. How stupid had she been? So they had been texting, while he was with her?

She replays his words in her mind, "I am not leaving you again, whatever this is, whatever happens". Disappointment and years-long accumulated mistrust overwhelm her.

Her phone buzzes then. Harry.

She ignores the message. This one, and all the rest that come. She ignores them all. Archiving his conversation, so she doesn't have to see them.

That night, Leah starts asking for Harry again. It is hard to explain to her that she cannot talk to him because he is on a romantic holiday.

So she explains to her that he is working in a different country again, and she cannot talk to him for a while. She cries, she hits her. "Leah!" she exclaims in shock, her eyes already filling with tears.