The Reinvention of Harry Styles (Completed)

Chapter 37

Molly sat in her mother's apartment trying to think. She had been sitting at the table for a couple of hours now, and still had no idea how to fix this issue of the rumor about Harry's 'mysterious girlfriend'. Well, she had come up with a couple of ideas, but nothing she was willing to go through with.

There was what Molly called the 'Jeff' response: set Harry up with some random girl looking to get some free press (maybe a model) and let the fans go crazy with that, while Molly layed low and remained anonymous.

Then, there was what was probably the easiest response: doing nothing and hoping it went away. Molly knew that probably wouldn't work. She'd been in the fandom when something like this had happened, and she knew they wouldn't let this slip away so easily. Unless, they had some kind of distraction: if something bigger came up, they might forget about the girlfriend.

Lastly, there was the option Molly refused to entertain, and had possibly broken Harry's heart by suggesting she'd rather leave him than do this: go public with their relationship. It was out of the question, for obvious reasons.

Molly also had the task of trying to fix Harry's possibly broken heart, and prove that she was not actually going to break up with him over something like that. Romance was not Molly's forte, and she racked her brain for any idea of how to make it up to him, but came up empty.

"What's on your mind, honey," her mom asked and joined her at the table when she returned from work. Molly sighed and recounted her thought process from that afternoon and the two issues she was trying to fix. Perhaps saying it out loud would spark an idea, or maybe her mom would have some input.

Luckily, she did have an idea. "Well, I don't know what to do about the first thing - and I'm sure Harry's manager is hard at work trying to fix that one. But I have a few suggestions for the second one."

"Really?" Molly asked, though she wasn't too surprised.

"Yes," Deb smiled and leaned forward to rest her elbows on the table. "I think you two need to have a romantic night. Go all out with candles, flowers, dinner - lingerie..." She added with a wink.

"Well, I don't really have any of that," Molly blushed and looked down at her hands.

"Then we need to go shopping," Deb stood up and grabbed her purse. "Come on, the store is only open until 7."

"It's 4:30, mom, how long is this going to take?" Molly followed her mother out the door, and Deb just laughed at her daughter's question.

"Oh, honey, you are too much like your father sometimes."

Deborah brought Molly to a fancy lingerie store, and was greeted - by name - by all the staff.

"Debbie, what can we do for you today?" A woman about her age approached them.

"I'm actually here for my daughter, this time," Deb wrapped her arm around Molly's shoulders. "She's going to have her boyfriend over for the evening, and I want to make sure she shows him a good time."

Molly's cheeks turned every shade of red, and she could have sworn she even felt her scalp tingling as she blushed all the way up through her hairline. "Mom..." she groaned.

"No problem, we have just the thing." The attendant smiled and turned to Molly. "What's your size?"

Back at his hotel room, Harry awaited a call from his manager. They had spoken several times that day as she and his team worked to fix this PR issue. Molly's words rang in his head every time Jocelyn mentioned the idea of him just telling the truth and going public.

"No, no, I told you I'm not doing that," Harry repeated for what felt like the hundredth time.

"No, you're not listening, Harry. You don't need to tell the world you have a girlfriend, or say anything about Molly." Jocelyn sounded like her patience had run out hours ago and was not trying to hide the annoyance in her tone. "Just issue a statement - on twitter or whatever - that you would like some privacy."