trepidation | h.s

part nine

me updating within just over a day? unheard of.

Lydia Styles

"Are you sure you about this?" Harry asks, the both of us sitting in the car right in front of the diner.

"Harry, we're already here." I chuckle under my breath.

"Yeah but we can back out. If you're not comfortable we can just go home, they don't need me here." he says.

I grab his shoulder and look him in the eye, smiling at his consideration. It was sweet.

"I promise you, I'm okay." I say to him softly. He brings my hand to his lips and plants a quick peck on it, his eyes not breaking contact with mine.

"Let's go, then." he says, dropping my hand and undoing his seatbelt. "But—if you feel like we need to leave, just tell me, okay?"

I nod and get out of the car with him. Louis, Niall and Eliza all carpooled together and had just arrived moments before us.

Harry drapes his arm over my shoulder, walking us into the diner together. I haven't been in here in forever.

It was sort of haunting. The decor was the same, but I didn't recognize any of the staff.

No Wendy. No Tina. No James.

I blink and shake my head, not allowing myself to remain in the past.

Across the checkerboard floor, I saw Niall, Louis and Eliza all sitting at a big booth—the one we used when big groups came in to eat.

Louis and Eliza were next to each other, while Niall sat across from them.

Harry takes his arm from my shoulder and grabs my hand, walking in front of me and stopping at the booth.

"Where's Nick?" Harry furrows his brows as he allows me to step into the booth first. I scooch in next to Eliza and Harry sits down next to me.

"He's on his way." Louis says, looking down at his phone.

Moments later, we hear the chime of the front door open, making us all turn our heads in that direction.

In walked a big, tall man with a mustache and beard. He was in a wife beater tank top and a flannel with plain denim jeans. It had to be him.

He smiles in our direction and heads over.

For some reason, I was expecting him to come in here decked out in the usual red and black leather jacket attire. But I guess that would be a dead give away.

Harry stands up momentarily to greet him, going to shake his hand but Nick pulls him in for a hug instead.

He lets go of Harry and slides into the booth next to Niall.

"It's been a while since I've seen the three of you." he smiles. He had bright green eyes that were almost similar to Harry's color, and light brown hair that was styled similar to Niall's.

I've never formally met Nick, but I think I may have seen him once at a party when Harry and I first got together.

Eventually, he greeted Eliza and I with handshakes and casual small talk, asking how our days were and things like that.

A waitress came to our table and took our orders. The guys didn't start talking business until we all had our food so they knew we'd be left alone from that point on.

"Our numbers are doing really well." Nick says as he carves into a thick slab of steak. "I don't know what the Phantoms are like number wise right now but," he chews, "if anything were to happen, we're more than prepared."