.divide.

.four.

HARRY's POV

The rattling of a container in front of my face broke my concentration. I blinked a few times and removed my headphones as I turned to look at Jill. She raised her eyebrows at me and shook the container again.

"Secret Santa, now pick a name." The way she said it made me think she'd probably said it to me already, but I had been lost in my own world.

"Oh, right. Sorry," I reached into the container and pulled out a tightly folded piece of paper.

"Get one for Liam too, he's not here yet," She gestured to Liam's empty desk.

It was midday already, where was that lazy fucker? I grabbed another piece of paper and smiled at Jill as she walked off, ready to shove the container under some other poor bastard's nose.

Before I looked at my piece of paper I grabbed my phone and sent Liam a message. He replied almost instantly saying he was on his way in with Vietnamese for lunch for both of us. I knew I was going to get bad news when he arrived; he never bought me lunch.

I returned my attention back to the small piece of paper in my hands and unfolded it to reveal the name Meg Nolan. Who the fuck was Meg Nolan? I unfolded Liam's piece of paper. Barry Dingle. No thanks, Liam could keep Barry.

"Good morning team!" Liam's voice was extra cheery as he entered our pod. I turned to face him and narrowed my eyes as I spotted his black eye.

"What the fuck is that?" I couldn't help the accusing tone to my question.

"It's a lemongrass beef rice noodle bowl. You're welcome, sheesh," He placed the take away container on my desk and sat down in his chair.

"You know that's not what I'm talking about," I leant over and poked the bruise around his eye.

"Ow, fuckhead, that hurt!" He shoved me back as I laughed. "Dickwad. Jesus. Why'd you do that for?"

"Tell me how you got it," I opened my lunch container. Vietnamese food was my weakness and he knew it. "Oh, and PS. You got Barry Dingle for Secret Santa. Suck shit."

"Fuck. Swap with me?"

"Piss off, how'd you get a black eye?"

"Stop swearing so much you two," Jill walked past our desks on her way back to her desk in reception.

"Sorry Jill!" I flashed her a big smile. She rolled her eyes in response and disappeared around the corner.

"Stop fucking avoiding my question asshole," I hissed as soon as she was out of earshot. "Thanks for lunch."

"Geez, you're welcome," Liam scoffed. "And I got it during boxing training at the gym."

"I'm calling bullshit. Louis has been texting me all weekend. Stupid shit too. What did you two do?" I shoved a large forkful of food into my mouth and silently groaned. I realised I hadn't eaten any breakfast this morning, so this tasted even better than it usually did.

"We just went back to Pop, that's all. He's probably giddy with love sickness over the ginger he's obsessed with, that's all," Liam shrugged and pressed a soft finger to his bruised eye.

"You guys went back? Did you see any Ikati? Liam fucking Payne!" My voice was a low hiss now. "What did you do to them?!"

His dark brown eyes looked at mine with a flash of guilt, but I could tell he was quite proud of himself.

"We just sent a message back to their leaders," He shrugged and shoved a huge mouthful of food into his mouth. "Don't worry, their heads were intact." He talked around his full mouth.

"You are truly revolting," I scrunched up my nose at him and picked up my phone to send a text to Louis.

I hope you have a black eye too, and I hope it hurts.

A response from Louis came back almost instantly - a row of laughing emojis. That asshole.

My phone pinged again. How's your Vietnamese?

I hate you both. I responded.

***

Five p.m was creeping closer and I was still no closer to finding out who Meg Nolan was. I had exactly one week to buy her a present for the Christmas party and I was clueless.

"Hey, Barry," I addressed the older gentleman next to me in the kitchen.

"Harry, hi!" He seemed genuinely surprised that I had spoken to him.

I took a deep breath as he beamed at me. I felt sorry for the dude; he genuinely had no idea that people barely tolerated him.

"Yeah, hi," I rushed on before he could navigate the conversation to his favourite topic - the weather - "Listen, I'm about to leave for the day, but I was wondering if you knew who Meg Nolan was?"

"Sure, why?" He asked, cleaning out his coffee cup.

"Uh ... because ... I have a meeting with her tomorrow ... and I - I need to know what she looks like ...?" I was honestly the worst liar in the world.

"Hi Barry!" A cheery voice interrupted us.

"Hi Meg, Harry here was just asking me about you," Barry spoke up, gesturing towards me with his wet coffee cup, spilling the residue water all over the floor.

I turned around and came face to face with the girl I bumped into last week. You have got to be kidding me.

"Was he asking about how he can make it up to me for spilling coffee all over me?" Meg laughed softly.

"No, he said he has a meeting -" I cut Barry off before I got caught out.

"That's right, a meeting with you to discuss how I can make up for ruining your shirt," I interrupted, far too loudly.

"No, you said you didn't know what she looked like," Barry seemed genuinely confused. His lack of reading social cues was killing me.

Meg regarded me in confusion and for the second time in her presence, I wished the ground would swallow me whole.

***

It was late by the time Liam and I arrived at The Terrace. We headed towards our usual booth at the back and I was surprised to see Zayn sitting with Louis and Niall, normally he didn't join us until service was over.

"You need more burgers, mate," Niall suggested as he looked up from the menu on the table.

Zayn rolled his eyes as he slipped his apron over his head and rolled it into a ball before throwing it on the bench next to him. I slid into the booth next to Zayn and picked up the menu. It was covered in scribbles.

"I'm changing up the menu," Zayn offered an explanation. I nodded and looked back at the menu. "And no, I don't need more burgers, Niall. I need more allergy friendly food, actually."

"Fine, gluten free burgers," Niall shrugged and grabbed a handful of fries from the basket in front of him.

"What kind of allergy friendly?" I inquired, swiping the fries away from Niall. "Gluten free, dairy free, vegan ...?"

"Vegan isn't an allergy," Louis scoffed, rolling his eyes.

"I know that, I was offering suggestions which is more than I can say for you," I pointed out. "How's your ginger going?"

The way his blue eyes lit up was actually kind of cute. I had to remind myself that I was pissed at him and Liam still.

"Mate, so good. So, so good. Her name is Ruby and ..." Louis was interrupted by Zayn snorting. "Do you have something to say, Zayn?"

"You know Ruby isn't her real name, right?" Zayn asked, raising an eyebrow at Louis.

Louis's brows furrowed slightly. "What do you mean?"

"Look mate, she works as a stripper - no judgment - but they always have cutesy stage names like flowers, cars, Disney princesses ... and gemstones. It's part of the appeal," Zayn shrugged. "Plus, they have to protect their identity somehow. I can only imagine the weirdo's they meet every day ... like you."

"Fuck off," was Louis's response. I could see he was deep in thought for a moment before pushing Zayn. "Move."

"Hey, where are you going?!" Liam spoke up, finally looking up from the menu covered in scribble.

"To find out Ruby's real name, now if you'll excuse me ..." And with that he was gone.

***