Labels || H.S. [#Wattys2020]

N I N E T Y

Lydia tapped her long, manicured fingernails upon her wooden mahogany desk. Reagan could hear the seconds on the clock ticking away, the beat of her heart rapidly accelerating. She was petrified, utterly, and completely frozen to the spot. She had mentally prepared herself for this, but it was completely different from actually facing one of her greatest fears. She thought of Hailey, of how she basically had Reagan's entire reputation in the palms of her freshly manicured hands. She thought of Harry, of how she knew it was worth it, but at the same time of how scared she was to lose everything on something that wasn't completely for sure. She could feel herself sweating bullets, and prayed that the boys would miraculously show up on time today so that Lydia wouldn't be able to yell at her for an entire hour.

"Reagan?" Lydia said calmly, too calmly.

"Yes?"

"Why did I open my twitter feed to find nothing on Harry's date with Hailey?"

Reagan shrugged, knowing that as Harry had told her the night before, she had to play stupid. If Lydia knew that she knew that Harry had not gone through with his job, then she would be getting the brunt of the blame, not him, "I don't know. I was actually going to ask you the same. I contacted the paparazzi this morning that we contracted, and they told me that they hadn't gotten any shots of them together because they had left separately."

Lydia's eyes narrowed, "They left separately?"

"I've been trying to contact both of them," Lies, utter necessary lies, "But neither would answer. I don't know what's going on."

Lydia sighed loudly, trying to compose herself.

"That Harry." Lydia muttered, shaking her head and lifting her mug to take a swig of coffee. The pungent odor made Reagan's stomach turn, "He always wants to do whatever the bloody hell he feels is right. I should be paid triple for dealing with him."

Reagan nodded sympathetically, completely understanding where Lydia was coming from. There was a reason the boys could never keep their PR people around, and its name was Harry Styles. Lydia though, Lydia was the toughest they had, and as much as Harry pushed her buttons, she also had a soft spot for him. She understood that underneath it all he just wanted the freedom to be himself, and as much as it may have cost her extra work, she didn't mind it as much as long as he didn't make too much of a muck of things.

This particular situation though, Reagan knew this would be Lydia's breaking point. She had been cutting Harry so much slack this year, but when she found out that he and Reagan were...

"Reagan, I'll call Hailey-"

"No!" Reagan said, a little too loudly, Lydia looked at her taken aback. "I um, I'll do it. It might be easier for me to do it since we're friends, you know?"

Lydia nodded, "Yes, we still do need her to continue working with the label, even if we can't get Harry to go out on a date with her. Maybe we can set her up with Niall?"

Reagan tried to restrain herself from laughing, "Yeah. I mean if Harry can't do it, I'm sure Niall will get her the exposure she needs."

Lydia shook her head, "I should have never trusted Harry to do this job. Never should have forced him either." She rolled her eyes, "Heaven knows that boy does whatever he pleases."

"So what are we going to do?"

"We try to convince him to reconsider-"

"Is that really..."

"No, he's not going to reconsider. But it never hurts to try. "

Reagan furrowed her brow, she couldn't believe that it was this easy. If she ever tried to defy order like Harry did she would be fired. Then again, she didn't pay Lydia's salary.

"At least Hailey seems like the understanding type. Maybe she won't mind if we just change our strategy a bit. Niall is a nice boy after all, once you get past his...strangeness." Lydia continued on, almost trying to convince herself that it would be okay. Reagan wished she could be half as optimistic.

"Do you want me to call Hailey then?" She asked, almost hoping Lydia would say no.

"She hasn't called you?"

"No."

"I would've expected dozens of calls from her by now. I thought she was really looking forward to going on this date with Harry, even if he didn't think it was real. Poor thing, probably got her hopes up. I did think Harry would fall for this one though."

"Why is that?"

"Don't they just look perfect together?" Lydia asked, a smile spreading across her face, "Every PR agent's dream."

Reagan held back her eye roll, "I'll leave you to your work." She said curtly.

"Send Harry in when he gets here."

Speak of the devil, Harry managed to walk in right as Reagan closed the door to Lydia's office behind her. He took one look at Reagan and his face flushed completely.

"Hey." He said, almost shyly. The fact that he looked so coy struck Reagan too hard, had her equally, if not more, shy than he was.

"Hi." She said, avoiding looking at him, "Lydia wanted to talk to you."

He nodded, "I thought she would."

"Yeah." She replied, placing a strand of hair behind her ear.

Harry shook his head, walking toward her, "Don't do this, Rae. This isn't us."

"What?"

"This whole awkward thing."

"You started it." She said, looking at him pointedly.

"Yeah, well..." His lips curled into a very potent and dangerous smile, "I had one glance at you and immediately remembered last night."

She blushed furiously, "Oh god." She covered her face.

He winked as he passed by her, "See you later." And into the office he went, surely to be yelled at to no end.

While Reagan caught her breath her head and her heart whirred with a flurry of emotions she didn't even know how to process.

"Need a moment?" Louis asked as he walked out of the studio, a smirk very apparent upon his face.

"Weren't you busy?" She asked, hoping she didn't sound like she was completely and totally out of it.

He shrugged, "Taking a break and getting some tea, need something to calm me down." Louis showed her the mug in his hand, "Do you want one?"

"Do I look that bad?"

He chuckled, "Harry has that effect on all of us."

"Even you?"

"I'm immune. Clearly." He replied.

"If only it were that easy." She said, breathing out loudly.

"If it were easy we both know it wouldn't be half as fun, love." He smirked as he looked at her.

"Just go make the tea."

"Because I'm British?"

"Because you offered?"

"That doesn't sound like me, fatherhood must be changing me."

Reagan laughed, "Change is never bad."

With a smug, knowing look he replied, "Aha, you remember that then. Change is going be coming towards us fast, Reagan Bailey."