pretty please (with sugar on top) - larry stylinson

5

The restaurant was a cozy place on the water, all dark wood and sleek designs. It was romantic in an understated, masculine sort of way, and Harry was a fan of the three vanilla candles in the middle of the table. The scent complimented the aroma of the salty air rolling in off the waves, and distracted from the room of people.

Their table was in a location that was secluded enough that Harry wasn't bothered by the overpowering scents of posturing alphas in the restaurant. He was able to enjoy Louis' fragrance without any distractions, and it made his mouth water.

"Alright?"

"Oh! Yeah, sorry," Harry apologized, a blush heating his cheeks. He hadn't realized he was staring until Louis called him out. Usually he was better at this. Instead of saying the common What were you saying, again? he opted to own up to his distraction in a way that would hopefully be received as complimentary. He let his voice fall a little deeper, turn a little more sultry. "You're just very distracting."

The alpha's brows raised before he laughed out loud.

The sound was pleasant and Harry partly wanted to say something else to make him laugh more, but the majority of him was a little baffled that his flirting didn't have the desired effect. Apparently, he would have to try harder.

"Sorry, sorry," Louis said, waving his hands. "I'm not laughing at you. It's just, don't worry about that. You don't have to do that. I'm hoping we can both be ourselves here?"

Harry's brows furrowed as he stared down at the smooth, rustic wood of the table. "Don't have to do what?"

The alpha gestured vaguely, and Harry followed his hands with his eyes. "I mean, you don't have to use that voice on me or even look at me like that. I'd rather we be genuine with each other."

Harry sat back in his seat, a bit astounded. He was being genuine, maybe for the first time in his life. Louis thought he was playing him or something? Pretending to be into him? It wasn't the first time an alpha had insisted they be real with each other, but usually that just meant they wanted Harry to try even harder to pretend to be into them, so it didn't seem as forced.

This was different. Harry liked Louis already. So far, he seemed like exactly the sweet, kind alpha Harry would've pined after in any other situation. He wasn't acting; his attraction wasn't a lie. So the fact that Louis thought he was being disingenuous was kind of horrifying.

"Um, okay," he said slowly, not sure how else to go about it. "I like genuine."

"Good," Louis smiled, eyes crinkling. It was very cute. He took a sip of his beer, something expensive and foreign, something Harry had never heard of before. "Me too."

Now feeling completely derailed, Harry had trouble picking a new thread of conversation that would get everything back on track. Usually all he had to do was mention cars, golf, or something work-related, and the alpha would take over, ranting all about how great they were and how stupid everyone else was. That was what made Harry's job easy—for the most part, all he had to do was prop his head on his hand, listen, and insert appropriate reactions every so often like a comforting I know exactly what you mean and I agree or a breathless wow, you're so talented.

None of this worked with Louis, though, because he didn't seem to want to talk about himself. He wanted to talk about Harry, to find out more about his life and who he was, why he was here, and Harry was unprepared. He'd never run into this problem before and he didn't know how to deal with it. Every time he tried to return the conversation back to Louis, Louis would flip it right back to him.

"You must love having a house here. The weather is perfect," Harry commented dreamily, expecting the typical complaints about the traffic and tourists.

Instead, "It is beautiful. Did you grow up somewhere warm?"

"Um, sort of," Harry said awkwardly. He didn't want to talk about his past. He wanted to find out more about Louis; he wanted Louis to fall in love with him. "So Niall told me you're in the music industry? That seems fascinating."

"I am," Louis agreed. "It's great. I love my job. I get to search for talent and mentor new artists which is incredibly rewarding. And I got to meet Niall, which obviously makes everything worth it." He laughed again, and Harry smiled with him. "And how did you meet Niall?"

"A dinner party," he said, and it wasn't a lie. He tucked a curl behind his ear, trying to look coy. It was hard to tell if it was working. "We both drank too much wine and went out for some fresh air, and there was an omega walking her dog. A big fluffy mastiff, gosh, so cute. You know, the dog that kind of looks like a bear. Anyway, we both realized we abandoned our dates to cuddle with a big dog, and we started talking, and that was that."

"A fellow dog lover?"

Harry perked up. He nodded enthusiastically. "Do you have dogs?"

"One, not here though. Back home. His name is Clifford, he's a labradoodle. Wanna see pictures?"

"Yes, please!"

Harry gladly accepted the alpha's phone, scrolling through the photo album. His smile grew as he flipped from picture to picture, a black labradoodle with curly fur featured in each one. Running in a park under cloudy skies, chewing on a bone beside the window, cuddling with Louis on the couch.

"Where is home for you?"

"I'm sort of all over the place, but I go between LA, Chicago, and New York the most. Come here for vacation, or to do business. My family's in England, though. Doncaster. That's home."

Finally, an informative answer, without a question that turned it back on the omega. Harry felt better, like the balance of the universe was restored. He smiled over the pictures, but secretly wondered what Louis' life was like, when he wasn't having dinner by the seaside with pretty omegas like Harry.

"You're very handsome in these, especially this one," Harry said, returning Louis' phone to him with the picture of him and Clifford cuddling on the screen.

"You sound like my mum," he laughed, and that definitely wasn't what Harry was going for.

Harry pouted and picked up his menu, searching for something good to eat. He couldn't decide what he was in the mood for. Everything listed looked very decadent, and it reminded Harry of a date he went on with a sugar daddy in Paris. It was the most expensive restaurant in France, the kind of place people went to not because the food was good but because they wanted to show off their wealth. It was the kind of place where, if you leaned forward in your chair to stand up, one of the staff would run over to move your chair for you.

After that dinner in Paris, the alpha gave him the super cliche line about you have to come see the art in my apartment and brought him back to the top floor of a luxurious place overlooking the city. The alpha knotted him against the window, obviously.

"Need any suggestions? This is my favorite place to bring friends, so I know the menu pretty well."

Harry realized he had been staring off into space for too long, thinking about sex. He snapped himself out of it, reminding himself that he only needed to wait a few hours longer and then he would be satisfied again. He accepted Louis' offer for help and they ended up in an entertaining and enlightening conversation about foods they liked and didn't like. Ultimately, they decided to order three different dishes to share.

Louis also ordered a bottle of '89 Dom Perignon to celebrate the beginning of their vacation together. Apparently 1989 was a good year for wine. Harry didn't know much about wine, because the topic bored him, just like cars did too, but he knew enough from sugar dating to know that the alpha just spent at least a thousand dollars on 750 milliliters of alcohol that would be gone within the next few hours. Rich people, honestly. Harry could just roll his eyes.

Dinner was good, though, and the wine was great. They got desert afterwards, a lavish chocolate concoction that made his mouth water. Harry even had the pleasure of jokingly feeding Louis a bit of desert by the forkfull, making them both giggle.

The world melted away when Louis laughed and there were moments where Harry forgot he was here for money. It felt much more like a real date than Harry had ever experienced before.