The Neighbors

2.19 Getting Warmer

I studied the picture for a very long time. There was no doubt that it was Harry. And as much as I despised the idea of him kissing another woman, I knew there had to be a logical explanation. I looked at every single detail – the people surrounding them, the dishes on the table, the expression on his face, the color of the woman's hair. I stared at her hair for a long time. She had long, brown hair. And I could make out enough of the profile of her face that I knew I had seen her somewhere before. But how could I possibly know her? And why would she be kissing my husband in a restaurant in Miami?

I'm sure I sat there for an hour, scrutinizing every detail, and then it hit me. Long, brown hair. That's how the secretary at the school had described the woman who was asking about my kids.

And then another realization dawned on me. I clicked through all the previous pictures of Harry from various tabloids until I got to the one of Harry being kissed by some unknown fan just after Thanksgiving. Sure enough, she had exactly the same long, brown hair. And when I say long, I mean it was at least down to her waist, and it was a dark caramel brown. I no longer doubted that this was the same woman who was kissing Harry in the Miami photo.

But Harry said he didn't even remember someone kissing him in LA. He wouldn't get away with that explanation this time. It was obvious from the Miami picture that he was a willing participant in the kiss. So, that could only mean one of two things: either Harry was cheating on me and had lied about the kiss in LA to cover his ass. OR the woman in the picture was Cortin Valow – I knew she'd been following Harry this whole time, and it's possible that she was able to sneak a "fanly" kiss when so many people were crowded around him in LA, but how did she get him to kiss her back in this most recent photo?

I hoped and prayed that it was the second possibility. It wouldn't bring me much comfort to know that Cortin Valow was so close to Harry when she had already threatened his life. But I was more comfortable with that explanation than to think Harry might be cheating on me.

The details were tumbling over and over and over in my head as I tried to make some sense of it all. The ringing of my phone startled me and I let out a slight yelp before answering it.

"Hello?"

"I was drunk," Harry began.

I didn't say anything. That didn't seem like a great beginning to whatever he was going to tell me.

"Lise?" He asked.

"Yes, Harry, I'm here. I'm waiting for the rest of the explanation because, where I come from, 'I was drunk' isn't enough of an excuse to kiss another woman."

"I know it looks bad-"

"You're damn right it looks bad, Harry!" I interrupted, quickly losing my patience and fearing that Harry might really be cheating on me, or at least testing the grass on the other side of the fence.

"Can I tell you the rest of the story?" He pleaded.

"Please do," I said, a bit too sarcastically.

"I went out with some of the crew after the concert last night in Miami. I had a little too much to drink, so as I said, I was drunk. That was completely my fault. My friends had left the booth to go and get another round of drinks and this woman came and sat down next to me. She asked if I was Harry Styles and I said yes. Then she asked if she could get a picture with me. I agreed and the next thing I knew she grabbed my face, kissed me and someone else took the picture. By the time my eyes adjusted after the flash, she and the photographer were gone."

I stayed quiet, wondering if he was really telling me the truth.

"Lise," he whispered desperately. "That's really what happened. And I promise you, that's all that happened. Do you see her hand on my face?"