Love lays embedded deeply within the practice of deception. We immerse ourselves quickly in new realities much like a curious journalism student getting a job at a BDSM club but starts to uncover things aren't quite as they appeared originally on th...
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"So, what's got Grumpy's knickers in a twist?" Niall drops an elbow down on the bartop, caging me in as soon as I enter the area after exiting the stage out of breath and struggling to regain my senses after a long performance.
He trapped me in place with a wide smile curled over his face while awaiting an answer as though I should know it, my brows raised in surprise obviously not expecting to be suddenly forced to stop in my tracks. "Harry?" I assumed despite knowing deep down who he was talking about, there was only one person I had seen being actively grumpy tonight.
Niall's face contorts into a 'no shit' expression, and I am about ready to roll my eyes. "He was just here fucking moping about the place like I fucking kicked him."
"Well, did you kick him?" I laughed gently, deciding to pull myself to sit on the bartop which caused him to need to tilt his head back to look up at me now with the height advantage. "How am I supposed to know what's up with him?" My question made him frown.
"I don't know." He was practically pouting.
Part of me had the anxiety he'd seen something between myself and Harry and that was why he thought I could know why he was being grumpy but I truly had no idea why he was in a slightly bad mood. He's been sulking around the club, lingering behind the bar but hardly saying anything as he holds his crystal glass of whiskey in a tight grip. I'm surprised he hasn't ended up shattering the glass if I'm being honest, he seems extremely tense.
It's been three days since we went to the library together, a memory that feels like it just happened and I've been feeling on cloud nine every time I relive certain parts of that day. Especially, from lunch where we sat opposite one another and I got to watch him attempt at suppressing smiles every time our eyes caught causing his cheeks to hint the lightest blushed pink.
He'd kick at my foot afterwards when Scarlett would peek over confused by what we were doing and why I was randomly giggling and her Dad was turning bright red.
But, after that day I didn't get paid any random visits to my apartment and as much as I'd previously said about me being annoyed he thought he could come as he pleased, I found myself missing him appearing simply because he felt the need to see me.
Learning things about Harry has allowed me to figure out more about him, his guard seems to have slipped a lot when he's around me but adding others to the equation is seemingly why he's lingering. I think he wants to come and speak to me considering we haven't had many opportunities since we were at the cafe together, even then we both were weary of his daughter listening in.
"You don't know if you kicked him?" I teased him over not answering my first question just my secondary one.
His eyes squinted up at me unamused but it only made me smile brighter down at him knowing I got that pout wiped away even if he was just a tiny bit pissed, well, pretending to be pissed. He could never actually be annoyed with me, we're too good of friends.
