The Way We Feel

Chapter 2

Two years later...

Today was the day. The day we'd waited for—the day we'd planned for. And I walked with a skip in my step down the Los Angeles streets, happy to be out of my meetings, but happier still to know what awaited me at home.

Streaks of pink, purple, and Madelyn's favorite shade of orange bled into each other at the horizon as I walked to my car. I'd been out longer than I'd thought I would be. But it had been a productive day. An important one. One that set up the next several months of my life.

Our lives.

And now...

"Are you even listening to me?"

I looked at Jeff, walking beside me on my right. "Hm?"

He rolled his eyes even as a smile pulled at the corners of his lips. "Guess I can't blame you." That smile turned into a smirk. "You've got a lot on your mind these days."

"Harry!" a voice screeched, interrupting the one-sided conversation we were having.

I faced forward again to find a young man and woman only a few feet ahead of us where they seemed to be entering a restaurant. He was looking at me like I was rather unimpressive, but she was quite pretty with her long, dark hair in braids, and deep brown skin. It was her great, big, completely incredulous smile that made me slow as we reached them.

"Hello," I said, trying to subdue my own smile when she started hyperventilating.

The young woman grabbed onto the guy's arm with a grip that looked painful, and from the way he tried to shake her off, but couldn't, I had to assume that it was.

"Hi," she said, giggling now with that infectious smile and looking up at me like she was afraid I'd disappear.

"How are you today?" I asked, no longer able to suppress my smile.

She looked at the man beside her with pure excitement flickering in her dark eyes, and even he couldn't keep from grinning at the expression. "It's Harry Styles!" she exclaimed to him.

"I can see that," he said with a wide smile of his own. He met my eye then. "It's good to meet you, man." When he stuck out his hand, I gripped it firmly, giving it a shake.

"It's nice to meet you both."

"Could I get a picture?" the woman exclaimed, still beaming as she slipped her phone out of her pocket.

She was tapping away at it, her whole body shaking in that way that tended to happen to so many fans when I met them, when I asked, "Could I get your name first?"

The look in her eyes then was unmatched as of yet. It was as if I'd just given her ten million dollars, and kissed her afterwards. "Oh my God. Oh my God, oh my God," she nodded then, trying to get a hold of herself, and swallowed, "Keisha." She nodded again, and repeated, "It's Keisha. Sorry, I—I should've said that first."

"No worries," I said with a smirk. "It's nice to meet you, Keisha, and...?"

"Garrett," the man said, still smiling softly, his hand now on Keisha's back.

She was giggling again.

"Garrett," I repeated. "Lovely to meet you both." Jeff cleared his throat pointedly then, in that all too familiar way. "Let's take a picture, shall we?"

Keisha hopped to my side, and was practically bouncing beneath the arm I slung around her shoulders. Gary held her phone up and snapped the photo, and before I could say much more to either of them, another few people had spotted us.