Chapter 88 : "Love"

T A T E

"Oh Harry I am so happy to see you again!" I watch as Harry's mother hug him tight with his step father standing right next to her.

I stand here, nervous as fuck to be actually standing right in front of his parents while I was still bothered about what Mrs. Summers told me a while ago. I still can't help it not to get focused on this dinner I'm having with them.

"Tate?" Harry calls out.

I snapped myself out from it and walked closer to Harry's arm as he laced it around me.

"Mum, this is Tate Kavanaugh." Harry says while he was looking at me with a smile.

"My girlfriend." He adds.

I smile nervously at him then moved my head towards Harry's mother and stepdad. She looks at me for a while then happily smiled.

"I have been wanting to meet you dear." She unexpectedly hugged me and rubbed my back.

She releases me and adds, "I never thought Harry would get into another serious relationship again after what happened. I'm so happy you came into his life."

I laugh softly. "I am so thrilled to be meeting you too."

She smiles.

"This is my stepdad, Robin Twist." Harry gestured to the man next to his mother.

He was kind enough to hug me too, "We are so honored to have you around."

I laugh nervously again as he releases me. "You don't have to be shy with us around okay? Feel yourself at home."

"And of course you've met my sister Gemma before." Harry gestured lastly to his sister.

Gemma looks at me impassively and smiled tightlipped. She unexpectedly hugged me too but just too quick. "I remember her." She says.

I smiled at her to be nice. "I'm happy to be seeing you again Gemma."

"Are you really?" She arched her eyebrow at me.

"Gemma." Harry snaps.

She rolls her eyes at him and walks towards the dining room I presume, "The table is all set, shall we head to eat?" She asks.

"Lovely. Let's all go?" Mrs. Anne smiles at me and nods before she walked with Robin to where Gemma headed.

"Perfect. I'm famished." Harry chimes.

We began to walk lastly towards the dining room while my feet were feeling heavy as if chains were locked around it. Harry runs my right shoulder as he kept his arm laced around me. I looked up to him and he smiled at me warmly. Almost making my heart ache because whenever I look at him, I hear what Mrs. Summers told me a while ago. It won't leave me because the more I look at him, the more I worry for his future if he will risk everything for me.

"I told you my parents will love you." He smiles and kisses my temple.

I exhale nervously. "You have a lovely home Harry. And your parents are truly welcoming."

"I told you." He smiles.

Harry pauses and looks at me worriedly. "Tell me honestly. Are you really alright?"

I nod. "I am. Just nervous." And troubled.

I exhale once we entered the dining table where I see his family already sitting down. The table was perfectly set. It was filled with so much foods and all of it looked very delicious. Harry pulled a chair for me where I sat right across Gemma while Harry takes the seat that was next to me. Gemma looks at me intently while she takes a sip from her glass of water.

"I hope you will love the dishes Tate." Mrs. Anne says to me with a smile.

"I'm so sure I'll love it, Mrs. Anne. Just by looking at it, I think they're all delicious." I answer her but as I glance at Gemma she was rolling her eyes at me.

I exhale heavily and heard Harry coughing dramatically which caught Gemma's attention. They looked at each other, as if talking to each other through their eyes, then Harry smiles at me once he caught me staring at him.

"Mum's a very great cook." Harry speaks. "Ain't I right mum?" He smiled cheekily.

I glared at Mrs. Anne and she was blushing while giggling. "Oh Harry. Don't trust him Tate, he's only saying that."

"I mean it mum. Gemma and I always love your cookings. Gotta try everything sweetheart. Trust me. Mum's just being humble." Harry says.

We began to laugh together and then eventually started to eat. But Harry was actually right, everything on the table tasted really great. We talked about everything Harry's parents could think of. They asked me what course I took, what university I'm going to, why I took my course, asked me about my family and how they felt bad for my loss. Mr. Robin even cheered me up and made a joke that cracked all of us up.

The night turned out really cool and really chill almost for all of us except for Gemma being uptight since I came here. It was the kind of night I didn't expected it to be. We had a couple glasses of wine and it was the most delicious wine I've ever tasted. Mrs. Anne showed me pictures of Harry when he was a kid until he grew up. It was very funny because Harry had tons of embarrassing photos of himself that his mother kept from him. I laughed with Mrs. Anne and Mr. Robin while looking through it.

"Mom when are you stopping on showing Tate my embarrassing photos?" Harry groans while he holds a glass of wine as he stands there next to the fireplace with Gemma next to him.

"They're not embarrassing Harry." Mrs. Anne answered him. "Look at this one Tate."

I bursted into laughter. "Oh my God. Sweetheart you look so cute here." I cooed.

Harry runs his hand over his face. "Mum, I think I don't have anything left to face my girlfriend after a series of embarrassing baby photos of me that you've kept."

"Harry, they're not really that embarrassing. And we all have embarrassing photos since we were a kid." I tell him as I flip to the next page of the photo album.

I stare at a photo of Harry when he was a little boy. He was smiling so happily wearing nothing but his trunks on and a swimming cap on his head. Mrs. Anne looks at it too and tells me, "I love that photo of Harry."

I smile at her. "I love it too."

I pulled my head up and stared at Harry who has been looking at me intently. "I love it because Harry's smile never changed. This little boy on the photo still is the same Harry Styles despite everything he had accomplished in life."

Harry begins to smile at me.

"This little boy on the photo is the same man that I love right now. I can see it through the green eyes." I added.

Harry walks towards me and kissed the top of my hair. "I love you." He says to my ear.

"I love you too." I answer him.

Mrs. Anne and Mr. Robin held onto each other while smiling as they look at me. "I'm so happy for you, son." She says to Harry.

"Thank you mum." He answers.

Harry reaches for a new photo album, "Enough photos of me, how about some embarrassing photos of Gemma Styles this time?" He grins.

Gemma drops her jaws open. "Don't you even dare Harry!" She exclaims.

"Relax. Everyone has embarrassing baby photos of them." Harry says my line which made their parents laugh louder.

After showing photos of each other, I helped Mrs. Anne washed and dried the dishes she used for the crime brûlée she made for all of us.

"Thank you very much for today Mrs. Anne. I am very very happy. I must admit I was nervous upon meeting you but Harry was right. You're all so nice and welcoming." I smile.

She smiles back. "Oh darling, we only want Harry to be happy and you clearly make him happy. He has never brought anyone here aside from Anastasia."

I smile ruefully.

"Has Harry mentioned her to you? I don't want the two of you fighting about it." She adds.

"Don't worry Mrs. Anne. Harry told me everything about her. He even mentioned them almost having a son together. I felt bad for them when I knew about it." I say softly.

Suddenly she holds my hand, "You must be that important to my son. He must really love you and trust you. I am so happy to see him happy again. I've been wanting him to date someone seriously and I am so happy it's you Tate.

I smile and felt my heart warming.

"Promise me don't hurt him. Don't leave him. Don't make him regret that falling in love all over again isn't something horrible. Make him see that love is the most beautiful thing on this planet." She tells me and I'm even more torn.

My tears suddenly dropped to my cheeks and Mrs. Anne smiles at me as she wipes my tears.

"You clearly make my son happy so I want you to stay with him no matter what." She adds.

I nod.

Mrs. Anne wraps her arms around me and holds me tight. I held back onto her and it felt like I just had a mother again. I felt so welcomed when she welcomed me the first thing I stepped into their house. She finally releases me and smiled as she pushes my hair off my face.

"Stay with him. My son has been through a lot in life and he's still so young." She says.

I nod. "I will."

"Well, enough of the drama. How about you join Harry and Gemma at the backyard? I'll just be upstairs. I need to get some rest." She says.

"Thank you for everything tonight Mrs. Anne."

"Oh please Tate, call me mum." She smiles so happily at me.

"Mum." I shyly say it.

She kisses my cheek and said, "Goodnight. You can always sleep here for the night okay? We have extra rooms around."

Mrs. Anne briefly hugged me again before she left and walked out of the kitchen. So I began to pave my way to the backyard where Harry and Gemma was. As I sneakily reached the threshold, I see Harry and Gemma having cans of beers next to them while they were looking at the pool and noticed that they were having a serious talk that I didn't wanted to interrupt. As I was about to leave, their topic caught me.

"Does mum even know that you're no longer renewing your contract?" Gemma asks.

I hid behind the sliding wooden door.

"No. I don't think I want to continue to be a part of the band anymore." Harry answers.

"What?" She gapes.

Gemma scoffs. "But you've had done too much sacrifices for what you've accomplished. You love to perform Harry. You were born to perform. You told me you love what you do and you'll still be doing it even after twenty years if you had to. But now you're... You're giving up?"

Harry takes a long drink from his can of beer and took a long pause too. "I love to sing. I love my fans. I love the band. I just... I worry for Tate. I love her more than anything in this world that could offer me."

Gemma sighs. "You're willing to give up everything that you've worked on so hard for years just for her?"

"Gemma I love her." Harry spat.

"That's why I hate you so much when you're in love. You're always so willing to do everything for the one you love. Look what happened to you and Anastasia. Haven't you learned your lesson?"

Harry pushes his hair off his face. "Tate makes me happy Gemma. She's everything to me. I am willing to give up everything I have for her."

"Even being a part of One Direction?"

Harry pauses and my tears are now filling my eyes again. I shake my head, he can't be this serious with this. He can't give up everything for me. He can't do that to himself.

"Yes." Harry answers.

Gemma laughs humorlessly. "Why? Why are you doing this? Why aren't you renewing your contract? There are tons of other management that would want to have you, you can't quit what you love to do. Why are you willing to give up everything for her?"

"I worry for her." He answers normally.

My heart pains. I don't want him to have this decision and blame it on me soon.

"I realized a lot of things lately. If I will continue to be the Harry Styles that everyone knows from One Direction, I can't be with her. I can't be with Tate in public as much as I want to show her off to the world because my fans will hate her. I don't want my fans to hate her. I don't want the media to invade her privacy Gemma. I wanna show her off so bad that I have the most beautiful woman in the world, but I can't because I don't want her to be receiving hate and death threats."

"Harry..." Gemma speaks softly.

"And the management talked to me earlier, they really want me to break up with her or else they will get in between me and Tate. I don't care if I'm losing some advertisements or whatsoever, I don't care anymore. Money can't make you happy. I don't wanna let her go. She's all I got. And I can only be with her if I give up being famous. I can be with her as much as I want to if I quit being in the band." Harry continues.

"What about your fans? What about your best mates? Have you thought about what Louis, Liam and Niall are gonna say to this? They'll eventually hate you Harry. You started this with them." Gemma advices.

Harry takes a quick drink from his beer and answered, "They'll understand my decision"

"Don't be like Zayn." She worries.

"But look at Zayn now. He's free. He can be with someone he wants and not the ones that the management wants him to date. Zayn's free and he can do probably anything he wants and I want that with Tate." Harry answers.

I kept my head down low and placed my hand over my aching heart. My tears kept falling and falling over my cheeks. I can't believe Harry can really do this all for me.

"I'm sick of being told what to do Gemma. I'm sick of Modest. I'm sick of... Being famous. I wanna live lowkey with Tate somewhere and just be with her. No management to tear us apart and tells me what to do. No fans that will hate her for dating me." Harry continued.

"Is she worth it Harry? Is she worth this all?"

Harry looks intently at his sister and my heart felt how he was so serious with this.

"Yes." Harry answers.