ᴛᴡᴇɴᴛʏ-sᴇᴠᴇɴᴛʜ ɪɴᴛᴇʀᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴ.

"What are you guys ordering?" - Gemma asked a few minutes after we sat at the restaurant table.

"I think I want some pasta." - Harry said.

"Can I order a burger with fries?" - I asked.

"Yes, Lou." - Harry giggled. - "You can."

"I'll tell our orders to the chef." - Gemma said, standing up from the table and walking away.

Harry, who was sitting by my side, guided his hand up to my nape, pulling me to him to peck my lips.

I placed my hand on his cheek, staring right into his pretty eyes which were looking at me fondly.

"Did you have any predictions about today?"

"No."

"Well, I have one."

"Yeah?" - He asked, confused.

"Yes. Want to know?" - I smirked and he nodded. - "We are going to be alright." - I smiled again, leaning over to steal another kiss from him.

Just then Gemma returned and this time she was talking vividly with Mae. They both sat down in front of us with a smile.

"Hello love." - Mae said to Harry. - "Hello Louis."

"I'd appreciate it if you just call me Harry, please." - Harry said politely.

Mae furrowed her eyebrows but then nodded.

"Sure."

"So, Harry. Mae and I have been thinking." - Gemma started. - "And we have a few ideas that maybe we can try to save the business."

"For starters, we want you to move back to London." - Mae said. - "Gemma noticed you're uncomfortable here, and our house is still waiting for you." - She smiled at him.

"Our house?" - Harry laughed. - "Sure. Look, I'm not uncomfortable here, at least not anymore. So, it's a no, thanks. What else?"

"Harry, don't be rude." - Gemma said.

"You're kidding me right?" - He said and Gemma scolded him with her eyes. - "Whatever, what's the idea?"

"We need a minimum of two months of employment payment to keep everything working and to be able to start making money again. So we thought of a bank loan to cover the payments."

"There's no way a bank will give us that amount of money. Besides, even if they do, we are never going to be able to repay them."

"Yes we will, we are the greatest chain of hotels in the country." - Gemma replied.

"Gemms, this place was sinking even before dad stole the money. It had been sinking since mom died."

"Well, yes. But I still think we can relive this. We owe this to her."

And then the waiter came with our orders, we politely thanked him and he walked away.
I started biting on my burger as I continued hearing their conversation.

"That plan isn't going to work. We need like two billions only to pay this month of work to all of our employees around the country. That's money we don't have, and that isn't going to pay in either. We haven't had any guests since they announced our bankruptcy. The hotel is empty, and not just this one. People are not going to choose us anymore, even if we put it to work again." - Harry said.

"That's why we want you to move back with me." - Mae said.

"Sorry." - I said, interrupting. - "I don't see how Harry moving with you is going to help the situation."

"Shut up, farm boy. You don't know anything."

"Don't talk to him like that." - Harry stepped in.

"How the hell do you know I have a farm?" - I asked instead.

She shrugged and turned to look at Harry.

"Harry, if we do this like Gemma said, and it works, you can put everything in your name and win all the royalties, you can be the only owner. You wanted that, remember? You like the idea of running this place on your own."

I stood up from my chair because I got tired of all their manipulation.

"No, he doesn't. He hates this place, he hates this job, and you're too blind to see it. I'm done keeping silent. This job is making him angry, frustrated and sad all the time, and you're dragging him more and more into that feeling." - I said to both of them and then turned just to speak to Mae. - "And You, I don't even know what you're doing here. After breaking up with him on his lowest, while he was grieving his mother's death, really? What's going on with your brain? And what do you want now? Get him back for the money opportunity? Maybe an opportunity to go in the media? Tell me, because you're not here to help and that's for sure. If you really wanted to help you would have seen Harry doesn't want any of this life.
And yeah, I'm a farm boy, what's the problem in that? At least I have fucking empathy." - I said without even stopping for a breath. Then I turned to Harry, changing my voice tone to a calmer one. - "And Harry, baby. I'm not who to tell you what to do next, or to force you to do anything, that's something you need to decide on your own. But I know you don't want to be here, you don't want to do this anymore. We both know it. And I'm sure you can find somewhere you'll feel like you belong, find a profession that will make you feel proud of yourself. I know it, because you have it all in you. And here is just not where you're meant to be. But again, I want you to evaluate things and to do this for yourself, not for me, not for your sister, not for your mother. For yourself." - I sat down again, letting my contained air out of my lungs. - "That's it."

"Lou…"

"Harry." - Gemma said sharply, getting his attention back. - "I like Louis, don't get me wrong. But Harry, you can't let him decide for you. This is important. Our whole business is falling into pieces and we need to do something."

"Your business Gemma! It's your business, not mine! Louis is right, I'm miserable here, and your plan has a lot of holes, what if it doesn't work? Then we would be bankrupt and in debt with the Bank, what if the employees sue us for not giving them their deserved salaries?" - Harry sighed and squeezed my knee. - "Our best choice is to sell the hotels to somebody with enough money. There must be a lot of people waiting for us to give up, ready to steal them all from us."

"We can't do that. We can't leave people jobless."

"But we don't have money to pay them either! Gemma aren't you paying attention?!"

"I can't sell all of this. Our parents built this from zero, and you want to throw it all away."

"Gemma." - Harry said, exasperatedly. - "Our own father stole from us. He doesn't deserve us to continue with this."

"What about mom?"

"She's dead."

I was taken aback by Harry's answer, forcing me to look at him in confusion. I placed my hand over his' on my knee, rubbing his palm with my thumb.

"I can't leave all these people behind." - She concluded.

"I…" - I interrupted. - "Sorry… I think that if you sell the place you can actually ask the next owner to keep the employees, that way you don't have to leave all those people without a job."

"He's right." - Harry said.

"I don't like it." - Mae replied.

"You don't have to like it." - I said. - "I'm pretty sure this is up to Harry and Gemma."

Mae rolled her eyes and I gave her a fake smile.

"You really think selling is the best option?" - Gemma asked Harry.

"Yes. If you don't agree and you want to continue, then you're on your own, I'll quit."

"You really don't want to work here, huh?"

"I never did."

"You should have said something."

"You never gave me the chance to."

Gemma looked down at her barely touched food, not answering to her brother's words.
Harry then turned to me and smiled.

"Want to go back? I think we're done here."

"You sure?" - I asked, still waiting for something else to happen.

"Yes." - He grinned at me, leaning over and kissing my cheek. - "I'll ask the waiter to wrap our food, we can continue eating in my living room."

"Okay." - I shrugged.

Harry told the waiter to wrap the food and when he returned and handed us the package, we left the place.

When we were going back to the penthouse Harry stopped us before we reached the door, turning me to face him.

"Lou, can I tell you something?"

"Yes?"

"No one has ever stood up for me like you did today. It was amazing. So, thank you."

"I'd do it all over again if necessary." - I smiled.

"And I also loved watching you that angry and... fearless. The things you said… It was inspiring."

"And I'm proud of you for standing up for yourself." - I said.

"I needed to do it eventually." - He said, shyly.

"You didn't take that decision just because I said it, right?"

"No, It was the right call. I know it."

"Even if you had chosen Gemma's plan of continuing, I'd still be by your side, supporting you. You know that, right?"

"Yes."

"Okay." - I smiled. - "C'mon, I want to finish that burger."

After Harry and I ate the rest of our lunch in the quiet of his living room, I checked my phone just to see five missed calls from Lottie and a couple of threatening messages for leaving her alone to do all the chores again.

"Baby I have to go back to the farm. I need to help the girls at home, Lottie is going to kill me."

"I'll drive you."

"Thanks."

"I wish I could stay there with you though, but I have to finish things here with my sister. Maybe I can go over tomorrow and introduce myself as your proper boyfriend, what do you say?"

"I think it's a brilliant idea." - I smiled and pecked his lips.