Perfect

HARRY
I glance at Louis sitting a couple of tables away from us and Pierre smiles. I was hoping I’d find some kind of emotion on the man’s face but he looks just as unintelligible as he did earlier that day when Jamie and I met him at the fundraiser. He’s not even wearing the same clothes so I imagine he’s had some time to rest while I’m still in the suit I wore then which by now I can’t wait to take off. But between Jamie’s flight and Pierre’s phone call there wasn’t much time to give myself a change of clothes. Besides, Pierre told me he wasn’t bringing Natalie I wasn’t worried about looking less than flawless in front of Pierre.
“Good thinking,” Pierre says, sipping his century old scotch. “Having your friend come along just in case something happens.”
“You mean Louis?” I say, acting as though I just noticed it. “He’s just here because we’re supposed to have drinks later.”
“I find that hard to believe,” Pierre says. “Considering you have three close friends and you chose to bring the one with muscles and who looks like he must be seven feet tall.”
“Does it bother you that he’s here?”
“Not at all. Doesn’t affect me in the least.”
“What did you want to talk to me about, Pierre?”
Pierre reaches for his drink again. “This is good whiskey,” he says. “You don’t like it?”
“Why would you think that?”
“Because you haven’t touched yours.”
I can’t tell him I’m afraid everyone is interested in drugging me so I try to find something to say but I can’t come up with anything. “It’s been a weird day,” I say. “I just don’t feel like drinking right now.”
“How weird?”
“I’d rather not talk about it.”
“You seemed fine at the fundraiser,” he says. “You and that girl—”
“Jamie.”
“Jamie, yes. You two looked like you were having a good time.”
“Yeah,” I say, feeling a little nostalgic. “We were.”
“Were you really, Harry?”
The question is unexpected. “Excuse me?”
“The whole thing with Jamie,” Pierre says. “It was just for show, wasn’t it? You were just trying to get my wife jealous.”
Well, here it comes. I glance towards Louis and hope he hasn’t been drinking too much. Anytime now, I will have to come to blows with this guy and I will need all the help I can get. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Harry,” Pierre says. “Look at me. Do I look like the kind of person who would be clueless about his wife sleeping around?”
I look at his face and I suppose he has a point. But he still looks as calm and unpredictable as always. “Pierre, I don’t know what you’ve heard…” Pierre shoves his phone in my direction. When I glance at the screen, I recognize the website’s color scheme.
They say that love is madness. No one knows that better than Harry Styles. It has been brought to the attention of the Hashtag staff that the sole heir of the Styles Empire, aka the resident bad boy, is suffering from this great disease which has driven people to madness for centuries. But should we really feel bad for this rich, spoilt, brat who has done nothing but break hearts for years? #HT wants to know what you think. #HarryStylesInLoveOrMadness

And then there are pictures of me and Natalie in compromising positions. I almost can’t believe what I’m seeing. No one is supposed to see this, no one. And now, thanks to some asshole sitting in their mother’s basement the whole world is looking at it. More importantly, the whole of Springvale, Indiana is looking at it.
My mother is looking at it.
I don’t even know where to begin denying the evidence.
“Pierre,” I try to speak but Pierre puts up a hand to quiet me.
“I don’t want you to deny it,” he says. “I know Natalie. She loves me but I know she has needs that go beyond me, I’m not stupid. But I also know that this thing with you means nothing to her.”
“I don’t know, Pierre. She seemed pretty into me when I fucked her the other night.”
Pierre laughs. “Wow, she’s really done a number on you, hasn’t she?” he stops laughing and clears his throat. Then he leans over so he can talk in a lower voice and so I can hear him better. “You think this is the first time I’m sitting across from some hormonal idiot, trying to talk sense into him?” he asks. “At least this time she chose someone who wasn’t trash. But you know what it’s easier to handle those morons because at least they listen to the sound of my money. You, on the other hand, I have no idea how to handle to be honest because you actually think you’re in love with her.”
“I wouldn’t go that far.”
“Oh please,” Pierre says. “I can see it in your eyes. How much it’s killing you that you can’t be with her. If you could you would get me out of the way. What you did this evening at the fundraiser, that’s not something a normal person would do. You went to great lengths to convince her she belonged with you and what did that get you, Harry? She still sent you that breakup text.”
The brutal words of that text start echoing in my brain and I’m unable to stop them. Louis is looking over at me and gestures to me what’s going on so I force myself to smile to make him think everything is okay. “If you know everything,” I say. “Then what do you want from me?”
“Damage control,” Pierre says.
“I don’t understand.”
“Springvale is my home,” Pierre explains. “It’s where I grew up. I have family there and Natalie and I, we have a life there. It’s not a place I’m willing to leave. We all know the damage this rotten tabloid is capable of doing. For some stupid reason, people seem to care what #Hashtag has to say.”
“I’m a victim too, you know. This news affects me just the same.”
“Yes,” Pierre says. “But you’re not the cuckold bastard who stood by while a halfwit with a younger penis pissed all over his marriage.”
“Look,” I say. “What exactly do you expect me to do? I don’t own the magazine! It’s not like I can just go and tell them what to write!”
“You don’t have to,” Pierre says. “In case you haven’t noticed, #Hashtag has been obsessed with you and your family for years. We both know Natalie was cannon fodder. This person, whoever they are, has a beef with you, Harry.”
“You say that like it’s a good thing, like I’m supposed to be happy about it!”
“Are you seriously that dense?” Pierre says.
“Could you stop with the fucking riddles already? What do you want from me?”
“If that person wants to defame you this bad,” Pierre says. “Then they will do anything to make sure they run any sort of news they think is going to achieve that goal. A new piece of news to follow means people have something new they can sink their teeth into and there’s a good chance the scandal with Natalie will be forgotten in time. Especially, if the news is juicy enough.”
“You want me to feed them fake news?”
“You can’t feed fake news to these people, Harry. You think #Hashtag became #Hashtag because they don’t confirm their news and release whatever crap people feed them? No. The news has to be real. Something that can take the place of the socialite-screwing.”
“I don’t know Pierre. Socialite-screwing seems kind of hard to top.”
“What makes you think you can joke about this, Harry?”
The sentence is all threat.
Almost without thinking, I glance at Louis.
“And if you think I came here without some tall muscular friends of my own, then you’re seriously mistaken,” Pierre says. “Not to forget outnumbered.”
“Well maybe we should go outside and give #Hashtag the news they want.” I don’t know what comes over me sometimes, why I say things like this because half the time that lands me in nothing but trouble.
Pierre looks at me and this time he looks more serious than ever. “Harry,” he says. “I love Natalie. Whoever she is, whatever our problems, I love her. I don’t want to see her get hurt. I know you feel something for her, I know it. How can you not? Natalie just does something to you; it’s like some spell that you can’t shake off no matter how hard you try. For you, she’s a passing thing, some desperate housewife fantasy come true, but for me she’s everything. Someday, I hope you will feel that way about someone. It would be someone without whom you won’t even be able to imagine life. And that person won’t be perfect but you’ll still love them from the bottom of your heart. Natalie is that person for me, Harry. And I implore you to help me. If you’ve felt even a tiny bit of what you claim you feel for her, then please do this, Harry.”
I don’t know why but I feel that darkness taking over me again that I thought had left along with Natalie. “Pierre,” I say, getting up from my chair. “You won’t lose her. I always wished she loved me as she loved you, but I know now it was wrong of me to even expect something like that. I know I don’t mean a thing to her and that’s fine. But she still means something to me.”
“So you’ll do it?”
“I’ll find something juicy enough for #Hashtag.”
I’m about to leave when Pierre stops me. “I know this isn’t a normal situation, Harry. But if it was, I would tell you that you’re a good kid. Your heart is in the right place, you just need to be careful who you fall in love with. There are some things you can’t bounce back from.”
I force another smile. “I’ll try and keep that in mind.”
“You have your whole life ahead of you, Harry.”
“Yeah. That’s what they keep telling me.”
I start walking away and leave Pierre behind.
“Harry!” Pierre calls out but I don’t go back. What difference does it make what he has to say? He loves Natalie and clearly Natalie loves him.
I was nothing more than a joke to her.
And somehow, I have to get used to that fact.
“How’d it go?” Louis asks when I sit next to him and order a few drinks right away.
“He knows,” I tell him.
“I figured,” Louis says and takes out his phone, holds it up for me to see. “Does it have anything to do with this?”
The same #Hashtag post that Pierre showed me is now on Louis’s phone. “How did they get those pictures?”
“These people have their ways,” Louis says. “But more importantly, how’re you doing with all that?”
“What difference does it make?”
“Harry. Natalie’s a fucking bitch.”
“Louis.”
“Look,” he says. “I know you don’t like hearing this stuff about her, but dude she changed you.”
“So what? I’m not supposed to change?”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“Fuck it,” I say. “It doesn’t matter. We’re done. So.”
“What now?”
“I’m too fucked to do anything right now,” I say. “But tomorrow, I’ll call Max and see if he can help me in some way.”
“What’s Max the bodyguard going to do?”
“Max isn’t just a bodyguard, you know that.”
“I know but still,” Louis says. “What exactly do you in mind?”
“Right now,” I confess. “Nothing. I’ll wake up tomorrow morning and see what I can do about this mess.”
“Harry,” Louis says. “You know there’s someone else you’ll have to deal with as well.”
“I know.”
“Have you thought about what you’re going to say to her?”
“You mean have I figured out what to tell my mother about the fact that I’m fucking her friend? No, Louis. I haven’t thought about it! In case you haven’t noticed I’ve been a little busy!”
Louis slides a full glass of bourbon in front of me. “Drink up,” he says. “You’re going to need it.”

Notes