Light Me Up [H.S]

27

I was peacefully researching how to get a live flamingo for a book release party, when the door to my office was opened forcefully and Harry and Louis strode in. I looked up and furrowed my brows at them. 

"What the fuck? Can you knock?" I asked and gave them an annoyed look. A loud, goose-like honk sounded from my computer screen, where I was watching a YouTube video about flamingos. 

Harry arched an eyebrow at me, while Louis settled down and watched the video. 

"We just went to the panel for knobhead's book," Harry said as he toyed with a sand-painting on my desk. He picked it up and shook it.

"Don't!" I yelled "...do that." I put it back down and rolled my eyes at him. He picked up a magic 8 ball instead. "Okay, so you went. How did it go?" 

Harry shook the magic 8 ball and turned it. "My sources say no," he read out loud with a snigger. 

Louis laughed and looked away from the flamingos. "It was a hoot. Do you know that Greta girl?" 

"They put Greta in charge? Of course they did. She's like catnip to a bunch of feral tomcats. Were you mean to her, Harry?" I gave him a stern look. 

"No, I wasn't," he huffed. "It's not her fault that the book is a piece of shit literature. Morgan, they cannot publish that fucking book. Seriously." 

Louis nodded in agreement and looked at me. "I have no feelings involved, but I found it disturbing literature for this century." 

I smiled at his mention of having feelings involved and looked cheekily at Harry, who shook the 8 ball again and looked at the answer. He was very obviously trying to avoid getting further into that with me, but I was going to get him to admit something soon enough. 

"So what do you want to do?" I asked Harry. 

"We can't publish him on Stone Publishing, and I need you to tell me who to talk to," he said and looked at me, his expression serious. 

"Because of the bad publicity it will be to publish a book with a very misogynistic angle?" I asked, looking at him. 

He looked me in the eyes and rolled his eyes. "Yes. Because it's bad publicity." He looked away and I was about to let it go, when he added "...and because it's a load of bullshit that she doesn't deserve coming out under Stone Publishing imprint." 

I grabbed the 8 ball from him and shook it for a while. "Is my brother falling for my best friend?" I asked and turned it to get my answer. Harry tried to snatch it from me, but he was unsuccessful. "It is decidedly so", I read out loud and smiled at him. Louis chuckled and shrugged when Harry gave him the death stare. "We need to talk to dad, I guess. He can make the call to pull the plug on Ethan's book." Harry walked straight over to my work phone and picked up the receiver and held it between his shoulder and ear. He asked to be put through to our father and waited for him to pick up.