Bookseller / Harry Styles

Chapter 37

"So, you think this will work?" Harry asks his, hands resting on the back of my chair. "It seems like a recipe for disaster." 

"No, trust me, I've been there a thousand times this week. Their camera don't work and I doubt that they got them repaired today. I was there just this morning." 

Zayn takes his bag of tobacco and starts rolling a few thin cigarettes. He places one between his lips and another one is stashed near his ear. His hair is now freshly buzzed, making him look even less trust worthy. 

"Why would a shop that sells such expensive jewelry stay open when their camera don't work?" I point out the obvious. 

"Well, exactly, that's a very good question. But you see, when you own so many stores of this kind you neglect tracking everything, including mistakes like this. There are two employees there, this guy who's much more attentive and this girl I've chatted up and she told me all about the cameras." 

Harry paces around the room, I see that he's thinking about the possibilities of everything going wrong with Zayn's plan. I look through my windows, the sun begins to come down, my apartment getting darker progressively. Both Harry and Zayn came unannounced about an hour ago. 

I look at Harry's shirt, white and with a few buttons unbuttoned as always, his hair freshly washed, there's something very official and even fancy to his look today, very different to what I've had on my bathroom floor just yesterday. 

"Can't it just be me, though?" He says, playing with a silver watch on his hand. "I don't want us to get Sara into trouble." 

"Dude, she's crucial to the plan. Do I need to go over it again?" Zayn sighs. "Both of you better give me an answer right now because there's only one hour left because the store closes down and I don't want to lose this window of opportunity." 

I bite my lips, knowing that it's something that I shouldn't get involved in. A lot of things could go wrong. Yet, the reward might be worth the trouble. Maybe if we get it right, Harry will find something else to do and him doing his usual -not so usual- job will become a thing of the past. Not that stealing is much more admirable. 

"If you say that it's better for me to join you, I will." I say and I look at Harry, his eyes catching mine in a matter of seconds. 

"I told you Sara will be cool with it." Zayn says, a smile plastered on his face and the cigarette rolling to the corner of his mouth. "You're cooler than he thinks you are." Zayn whispers to me and I laugh a bit at his statement. 

No, cool is definitely is not the correct use of that word. Dumb? Yes. Dreamer? Yes. Cool? Never. But Harry rolls his eyes and leaves his glass on the table with a thud. 

I get up and change into something more formal, as formal as my closet can go. So I choose a turtleneck, more fitted to my body than most of my clothes usually are. If I look nice from the top up then the rest is fine. 

"Okay, let's go then." Zayn affirms when he sees me leaving the bedroom. 

The three of us leave my apartment, getting into Harry's car and driving for a total of ten minutes before he parks near the same park where we went ice skating. I look for the lights of the ring, but I'm unable to see them through the branches of the trees. Harry's been reserved the whole time, rarely looking at me. 

I wonder if something from our discussion pushed him further and if what I'm doing tonight it's just plain stupid. It sure doesn't seem that he gets any thrill from Zayn's plan. 

"See you." Zayn crosses the street, his silhouette disappearing in a matter of minutes. 

I walk around with Harry, him leading the way, as I'm not so sure where this store should be. I'm not exactly the kind to pay attention to businesses. The air feels tight between us and the silence weighs more than I was expecting. I want to say something, but he stops and I notice the brightly lit window shop exposing different rings, bracelets and earrings, silver, gold, with brightly colored diamonds. I think they're diamonds.