Meet Up on Another Page {narry} **discontinued**

Chapter 17

Harry’s POV

“There is nothing better in this world than having a day off.” Niall says from my bed, lying on his back with his arm under his head and staring up at the ceiling.

“Please stop talking.” I tease at him as I button up my shirt, halfway meaning it because unlike Niall, I don’t have the day off today. It’ll be one of my first days working both without Niall and as the only supervisor in the restaurant. I guess I’m just lucky it’s only an 8 hour shift.

I walk over to the side of the bed to see him smiling up at me. He sits up and grabs my hands, gently brushing his lips on the back of one. “Stay home with me?” He looks up at me through his lashes.

“Niall. You’re the one who scheduled me to work without you today.” I smile at him, wanting to pull away so I’m not actually tempted to skip out on work.

“Only because you have to start working by yourself sometime, so that there’s always a manager in the restaurant. But, I really don’t care about that right now.” He lets out a small laugh. “Stay home.”

“I can’t, Ni. Stop tempting me.” I pull my hands out of his and lean down to kiss his forehead.

Niall groans and falls back onto the pillows as dramatically as possible.

“Just remember that this is your fault!” I playfully call as I walk out the front door of my flat.

-

As fate would have it, on the day that I work without Niall everything has to go wrong. I’ve already called him 6 times about people not showing up and several broken appliances in the kitchen and I’ve only been here for 3 hours.

“Mary, I have to cut your break short. I’m sorry but without Travis and Lily we’re too short staffed today.” I lean out the back door to call to Mary. She rolls her eyes and stomps past me into the restaurant. I can tell no one takes me seriously as a leader but luckily they don’t disobey me.

As I’m helping finish up the multitude of orders we have piled up in the kitchen, I hear one of the hosts call my name.

“What could it possibly be now?” I say mostly to myself as I wipe my hands on my apron and walk out to the front waiting area.

I see a petite blonde standing with the host and immediately something feels off.

“Harry, this woman named Abby is here to see you. She says she’s old friends with you and Niall?”

Abby. My stomach immediately knots up and I give the host a tight smile trying to mask whatever it is I’m feeling.

“Right, uh, Abby. Uh, come with me.” I’m barely able look at her face as I talk to her, immediately turning and walking towards a small quiet area of the restaurant.

“Can I help you?” I ask as we reach the area, far enough away so no one can hear us.

“I came here looking for Niall, that guy said you’d know where he is.” She stands, folding her arms across her chest.

“He’s off today, I-I’m assuming he’s at home.” I stutter.

“Can you take me to wherever it is he lives?” She asks, annoyance clear in her voice.

“I still have another 5 hours left in my shift, I can’t leave.”

Abby rolls her eyes at me and unfolds her arms. “Can you tell me where he lives then?”

“Uh, I’m not sure I can just give that information out.” I mumble, trying to think of anything to get her out of here and nowhere near Niall.

“Harry, you know who I am. I’m not just some random stranger asking for Niall’s address.”

“For all intents and purposes, you are a stranger to me.”

“But not to Niall. Come on.” Abby slightly stomps her foot like a toddler not getting her way.

“I’m not giving you Niall’s address.” I fold my arms, feeling more confident than I had at the start of this conversation.

“Fine. I guess I’ll just wait here until you’re off. Get me a table.” Abby arrogantly smirks at me.

“For 5 hours? You can’t be serious.”

“Or you could just give me Niall’s address. It’s as simple as that.”

“I’m going home after my shift, it’s not like you can follow me to Niall’s if I’m not even going there.”

“I guess we'll just have to see.” Abby smiles and walks back up to the host who seats her soon after.

For the remaining 5 hours of my shift Abby makes what would have been a shift from hell anyway even worse. At first, she sat for an hour sipping water and playing on her phone but after that her entertainment came from tormenting the staff. She constantly asked for a certain dish then sent it back claiming it was all wrong. She complained about slow service and not receiving items she had never ordered in the first place. She tripped 2 workers as they walked past her table and she’s “accidentally” spilled her water 3 times. I don’t know why she’s set on making my life hell but I can’t take it anymore.

“I’m done in 10 minutes. Is there any way you can just go wait in your car or anything that gets you out of here?”

“I’ve been ready to leave since I sat down. This place sucks.” Abby smirks and quickly stands, knocking over her glass once again. I groan and cover my face with my hand, taking a deep breath and letting it out before going to clean up the water, thankful she had been drinking water all not and nothing with alcohol or full of sugar.

-

“There’s seriously no need to follow me. I’m just going home.” I say in the direction of Abby, who’s walking behind me as I exit the restaurant.

“I heard that you and Niall are really close. Figured it’s worth a shot anyway.”

“Good luck with that.” I say right before I get into my car and watch her get into hers. Fuck, I completely forgot to text Niall to tell him to leave. Shit. Hopefully if I text him now he’ll be able to leave in time. I quickly send him a text saying, “don’t ask why but go home – ill explain later” and hope it’s enough. I take my time getting situated in the car and putting on my seat belt before finally pulling out of the lot. I take the long way, making a few circles along the way to kill time.

As much time as I thought I killed on the way here, as I pull into my spot in front of my flat Niall is just getting into his rover. I groan before killing the car and getting out.

Niall looks at me with confusion on his face as I mouth at him to not get close to me. I move my eyes in the direction of Abby’s car and watch as the confusion morphs into surprise and then back into confusion. He looks back at me as Abby steps out of her car and towards us. I give him a small shrug just before she reaches us.

“Hi Niall.”

-

Uh oh, Abby's back. What's gonna happen? ;)

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