Public Sphere | H.S. | #Wattys2016

Chapter XXI

Author's note: Thank you for reading and happy Oscar Sunday! Also, sorry about the late update! It's a bit short and mostly a filler, but it's moving the story along. Enjoy, x. ALL THE LOVE, FOLKS.

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To Kendall's displeasure, I decided to fly back home not long after I figured out what was going on between me and Harry.

I figured that I needed space from Harry, but after a few days, here I was with Harry, again.

"So," I stared at him as he stared right back at me.

"It'll be fun, trust me," he said with a goofy smile.

We were on a plane heading towards somewhere Harry wanted to take me. He wouldn't tell me where we were going. All he promised me was that it was one of his favorite places in the world, and that there would be no paparazzi.

I peered out of the plane window to see that we landed. I was still not too sure where we were until I saw the license plate of the car that had come to pick us up. We were in Minnesota.

After a thirty-minute drive, we arrived at a quaint coffee shop. It looked nice.

"Harry," the woman behind the register greeted him.

"Lucy," he smiled at her.

I looked around the coffee shop, it was full of people but no one bothered to look at me or Harry.

The woman took us to the back where there was a secluded spot with a few chairs and a table.

"I'm Lucy," she stuck out her hand for me.

"Jess," I smiled at her as I shook her hand.

"She owns this place," Harry said as he took a seat in one of the comfy chairs.

"It's really nice," I said admiring her as she looked pretty young to be the owner of a successful coffee shop.

"Thank you," she said before excusing herself.

"So Minneapolis," I laughed.

"They have killer coffee here," he said as he smiled at me.

"How did you find this place?" I asked because I knew it was hard for him to find new places like these.

"Do you know who Michael Clifford is?" he asked.

I shook my head 'no,' although the name did sound fairly familiar.

"He's a lad from the band 5 Seconds of Summer," he said and it instantaneously clicked in my head. Michael Clifford was the guy with the crazy-colored hair. "He told me about it."

I nodded then asked, "How did he found it?"

"His girlfriend owns the place," he said as Lucy reappeared with a few drinks on a tray.

"I know what Harry likes, but wasn't sure what you would like, so I brought a cup of tea, a coffee and just water," she said with a sweet smile.

"I will take the coffee," I responded back. "Why don't you join us?"

She looked surprised but took a seat next to me.

"This place is quite nice," I complimented her as she sipped on the cup of tea.

"It's my baby," she laughed as Harry joined in.

"How did you end up opening up a coffee shop? You look quite young," I asked interested in how this place came to be.

"I was about to graduate college, and I figured the timing was as good as any, so I took the plunge with my best friend. We're pretty lucky that it panned out," Lucy looked around the place with a proud smile on her face. "And I guess having the 5SOS boys hanging out here once in awhile is good for business, too."

"How do you do it?" I asked her wanting to know how she kept a private life while being in the public one with her famous boyfriend.

"It's hard, especially because he's on tour now. And then there are also some fans that come into the shop just to take pictures of me to post onto Tumblr and Twitter once in awhile, but I mean they're buying stuff. But other than that, it's usually fine. I mean, I'm not the one who's famous, I just happen to be dating someone famous," she explained as she laughed lightly.

She probably was one of the most genuine people I had ever met. It seemed like her having a famous boyfriend didn't really affect her one bit. Even as she told me stories about the craziest things that had happened at her shop due to her boyfriend's career, she was laughing at the hilarity of the situation.

Once Harry excused himself to use the restroom, she asked, "Do you have feelings for him?"

I just stared at her because I couldn't deny it.

"If you're scared to date him because of how the public will react, I wouldn't worry too much," she said. "I know Harry is a lot more famous than Michael, but you have to know that feelings are feelings, whomever they belong to. Just because Harry's life is in the public sphere of things, that shouldn't put you off from expressing your feelings toward him."

I looked at her with a quizzical look because she definitely knew more than I thought.

"It comes with the job title. Being a barista is like being a bartender, people tell me their problems all the time," she laughed as she confirmed that Harry told her personal things that I barely knew about. "But I'm serious. I was extremely hesitant to date Michael, because hello, their fans are crazy in the best way possible. So yeah, it was intimidating at first, but it's all worth it; I cannot imagine my life without him."

I didn't have a chance to respond to Lucy as Harry had come back from the restroom.

"What are you ladies chatting about?" he asked as I looked at Lucy nervously.

"I believe you two have things to talk about, and I have a job to do, so I'm going to go back to the front of the house," Lucy slyly grinned at me as she excused herself.

"What was that?" he looked at me confusingly.

I only shrugged because I wasn't ready to admit anything to Harry. But I did excuse myself, telling Harry that I was going to use the restroom, but I wanted to talk to Lucy.

"What did he tell you?" I asked her while she was whipping up some lattes.

"I'm not saying, but you should talk to him," she smiled as she called up some people to grab their orders.

I went into the bathroom and paced around the cramped space. I wasn't sure what to think, and I sure as hell didn't know what to say to him. So I just paced for a bit until I decided that it would be embarrassing if I was in the bathroom for too long.

"Hey," his whole face brightened up when he saw me.

We talked for a bit. The conversation was light and dismissive. We then decided that it was time to head back home. We said our goodbyes to Lucy and boarded the private jet again.

"So," Harry said looking at me.

Harry Styles thought the short plane ride would be the best place to discuss important things.