7 December 2018
9 days left in Operation Mistletoe

"Have you done it yet?"

I was beginning to grow very tired of the question. It had been a question that Courtney had been asking me every hour since last night. Every time she saw me in the hallways between classes, it was the same question again and again. I kept telling her that I didn't have his number but it seemed to fall on somewhat deaf ears. Apparently overnight Courtney had decided that she was now Harry's biggest fan and needed to get the two of us back on speaking terms.

"I haven't seen him yet," I said in annoyance punching my timesheet into the machine hearing the satisfying click in response.

"Well once you do you better apologize." She stated with a wink before clocking in as well.

Rolling my eyes, I grabbed my nametag and headed out onto the floor. A buzz in my pocket diverted my attention and checking my phone it was hard to hide the smile that crossed my face.

Finally got to see lady liberty herself. I can't believe it took this long, darn flu.

It was accompanied by a picture of about the top third of Louis' head with the statue of liberty behind him. We had been texting since the night before apparently, his business trip was in New York and he'd never been due to having the flu during the tenth-grade trip that all Connecticut students take to the big apple.

Does she live up to her name? I sent in reply.

I was by no means good at texting frequently getting told that I either took too long to reply or that my peculiar dialect of wit didn't translate well over text but Louis didn't seem to care. Texting with him was, but I hadn't decided yet if we were doing anything more than making conversation. I knew that Courtney would freak which is why I was once again attempting to keep things from her.

Pocketing my phone, I took my rounds of the floor helping mothers looking for last minute Christmas presents or attempting to refold some of the piles that seemed a little direr than the others. The entire time it felt like someone was watching me the hairs on the back of my head standing up like some sort of sixth sense. But every time I looked around there was nothing out of the ordinary just shoppers and harried staff. Part of me knew it was because every other second out of the corner of my eye I would think that I saw the one person that I had been looking for. But everytime that my head snapped around he wasn't there.

In fact, it wasn't until I went to time out for my fifteen-minute break that I managed to get a glance of the tall, lanky boy. Standing in the hallway on his phone Harry seemed tense and preoccupied. He had a look of worry across his face as he frantically typed something onto his phone before shoving it into his pocket and running his fingers through his hair.

"Is everything okay?" I asked as I approached him slowly and cautiously like I caged animal.

He apparently hadn't noticed me as his head immediately looked up and his gaze met mine. There was something like hurt and emotion I couldn't identify in his eyes before he gave a long sigh and shook his head.

"Yeah, everything is just peachy." He muttered pushing off of the wall. "Can I help you with anything."

I hadn't expected this. I didn't know this side of Harry with very few exceptions he had always seemed so harmless, even if all I had to base that on was a long walk.

"Um, I was actually just wanting to talk to you," I said quietly picking at my cuticles in a nervous habit.

"Talk?" Harry said questioningly. "I didn't know we had anything to talk about."

"Well, I mean the other night," I said not knowing where I was going with this.

"What about the other night?" Harry asked.

I honestly had no idea what to do or to say. I wanted to apologize, but I was also wondering if he was going to make me spell it out for him. That was when I realized that Harry was smirking at me like something was funny. He was teasing me the bastard.

"I don't know," I stated sarcastically back at him earning another quirk of his lips.

"Oh, you don't know," Harry said as he walked towards me causing me to take a step back. "In that case, I don't think that we have anything to talk about."

With that, he stopped and gave another one of his shrugs before going to turn away again.

"Wait! I mean..." Harry just gave me a glance mischief very clear in his eyes. "I mean we should talk about it."

"It?"

"You know what happened."

"you're going to have to remind me," Harry smirked before he took another step forward cornering me against the wall.

I didn't know where this side of Harry was coming from. He'd been nothing but sweet if a little awkward at the party but now he stood in front of me like he knew exactly what he was doing to me. Like he could hear my heart racing inside of my chest. So instead of answering I just looked up into his eyes that were staring at me questioningly.

"Does this seem a little familiar." He said with a rough edge to his voice.

"Yes," I squeaked even though there was nothing familiar about this.

"Oh really?" He stated.

"I mean yes, I mean no, I mean...." My rambling earned a laugh from him this time a Harry tilted back his head a bit some of the tension releasing from his shoulders. It was like he needed something to make him laugh.

"Relax, I'm just teasing you," Harry stated his breath hot against my earlobe as he leaned down again.

I know that I should have pushed him away. We were in one of the most traveled hallways at the back of the store, and the rational part of my brain was questioning the appropriateness of Harry's behavior. But instead, I just stood there gazing into Harry's eyes. I could the same battle going on in his head as his gaze kept dropping from my eyes to my lips before returning, but all we could do was stare neither one of us wanting to move a muscle. Giving in I started to move the short distance between his lips and mine my eyes fluttering to a close. But before I could once again feel his lips against mine, a loud clattering broke me from my reverie.

"Holy freaking hell! What is going on?" Came the exclamation.

Harry pulled away from me like I was on fire as I turned to see Courtney at the end of the hallway a pile of hangers discarded at her feet. She had caught us at the worst moment possible, and all she could do was stare between the two of us. Turning back to Harry he just gave me a kind of amused shrug before raising two fingers.

"Ladies." He said with a two finger salute in our direction before turning and loping his way down the hallway his hands stuffed into his pockets.

"Harry wait! About that talk."

Harry didn't hear me or didn't turn around at least as he exited the doors to the outside of the mall leaving me gaping after him. Turning to Courtney, I knew that I was going to be in a bit of trouble explaining myself. But her look was just as gaping as mine as she raised a finger towards the door.

"Harry?" She managed to choke out.

"Yeah," I admitted sheepishly before shrugging my shoulders in an attempt to tone down the situation.

"I mean I told you to go apologize but holy hell what was that? I didn't tell you to kiss him in the middle of the hallway. You didn't tell me that he was so smooth I thought that he was a little awkward."

"Well, he was," I admitted. "I mean I'm as shocked as you, it's like some kind of college player showed up in his place I mean I didn't even get the chance to apologize before he cornered me and I mean you saw where it was going from there. I don't even know if I wanted to kiss him again."

"Oh no, you definitely did," Courtney stated hooking her arm through mine. "He wasn't the one leaning in this time."

I gave her a scathing look as she worked on grabbing all of the hangers off of the floor. I knew I should help her, but something about her comment had me freaking out inside. Was I really the one who wanted to kiss him this time? Another buzz from my pocket interrupted me and had me pulling my phone out.

She certainly did. Hey! I get back Friday night, would you want to meet up Saturday and do something?

Notes