Part 2 of: (MEET-UGLY) Boss Harry (Patreon)

HIIIII :D OKAY IT HAS COME TO MY ATTENTION THAT MY DUMB SELF DID NOT make it clear that this was a meet-ugly, so instead of a meet-cute like bumping into each other at an animal adoption center, or accidentally grabbing for the last of the same item and then sharing it -- they meet in an ugly way! Like one character accidentally punches the other when they're talking with their hands, or one slams into the other when they're drunk and mad after a first date

HARRY ISN'T UGLY! IT'S NOT MEET AN UGLY BOSS HARRY OMGOFDMGD

I'M SORRY I SHOULD HAVE BEEN CLEARER!!

ANY WAY HERE IS PART 2 :D I THINK THE SMUT BETWEEN THEM WOULD BE FUN HEHE

OHHHH and !!! im going to post an a/o/b part in the next couple of days BUT COMMENT WHAT YOU GUYS ARE INTERESTED IN SEEING!! I KNOW THERES UNFINISHED BLURBIES ON HERE but if nobody talks about them for a while i assume you guys want other stuff!! BUT IF YOU WANT ANYONE BACK OR AN UPDATE JUST LET ME KNOW!! i wanna make you happy :-) )

part 1

ii.

It turns out, for absolutely no other reason but to cause her tremendous distress, she crosses paths with Harry way more often than she thinks any worker should pass their boss. 

Seriously, everywhere she turned, Mr. Styles was there. That first day, she thought it was maybe because she’d been following Adam around, since Adam seemed to be close to Harry and was the floor manager (she couldn’t decide if this was borderline nepotism or what, but she didn’t investigate). It would make sense why Adam’s path would cross his more often than not, and if Y/N was following him around all day while he oriented her to the floor and what she’d be doing, then obviously she’d see a lot of Harry. She did everything within her power to avoid eye contact, and if there were ever a moment that Adam needed to stop by Harry’s office, she would suddenly need to use the bathroom. (“I drink a lot of water,” she told Adam, who shrugged and said, “Really, you don’t need an excuse; I barely like hearing myself talk. Whenever you need a break, just tell me.”)

But, beyond the initial greeting, that was all she saw from Harry that day. She left a couple hours earlier than everyone else because that was her schedule for the first week; to slowly integrate herself onto the floor, she would only have 5-hour days opposed to 8-hour days. She was very grateful because that limited the amount of time she might run into Harry, especially if she accidentally parked beside him in the garage or something. 

The second day was much of the same, only she was following someone called Rosemary more than she was following Adam, because Rosemary did more of what Y/N would be doing in terms of marketing and communications. Rosemary was very sweet and close to Y/N’s age despite having the name of someone who might struggle with computers. They listened to some of the same music, she found out, and Rosemary was mid-tangent on a promised new album when Adam had swung around to remind her that, “You’re supposed to be teaching her how to use the site, not indoctrinating her into your weird underground cult.” 

“Shut up, she’s already been indoctrinated.” 

The floor she works on seems pretty chill, all things considered. She’s a little confused why the CEO would be on a marketing and communications floor to begin with, but when she asks, the only answer she gets is, “Uh, I think he just liked the view better than the other floors.” Apparently this is where he’d been since the start of it. Y/N suspects that he probably just wanted to be close to Adam or something, since they were friends. If she and Niall worked together, A. Nothing would get done, and B. She would also choose a space where they could be near one another more often than not. 

It wasn’t until her fourth day that she was forced to confront what had happened that night at the club. 

She gets out early on Thursday, and after saying bye to everyone and clocking out, she leisurely makes her way down to the elevator. Y/N was getting a little too used to these 5-hour days; once she did her first 8-hour day, she would probably be struggling. For now, she was enjoying herself, though. She was debating if she wanted to treat herself to a coffee or a strawberry and cream croissant. And with a giddy giggle and smile to herself, she’d just decided that she was going to do both when she stepped into the elevator. 

Before the door could shut, though, a voice called out, “Wait!” And Y/N, being the kind, sweet person she is, slid her hand between the two closing doors and risked getting it crushed to keep it open. Maybe she would have been less kind and sweet if she’d realized who was about to appear in her line of sight.

Because lo and behold, her boss – the man that she’d held a taser to the other night – is who steps into the elevator, nods his head toward her, “Thank you.” He smiles, gentle and kind. Y/N feels like she probably does not deserve this but is thankful that he’s not being a dick either. Actually, much like Y/N, he’s pretending as though they’d never met in the first place, which she hopes he keeps up. If he does, then he might be the one rich person that Y/N doesn’t mind that much. 

And they probably would have been fine. Y/N cleared her throat, “Uh – did – um, what floor?”

“The garage, please.” 

She swallows hard – so it seems like they’re going to the same floor. That’s okay though, five floors go by pretty quickly in an elevator. Especially if he pretends she’s literally anywhere else but here. 

Or, well, it would’ve been okay if the elevator didn’t stop. 

This is something that Y/N has always feared might happen to her but eventually had convinced herself that there was no way it could. That she was just being paranoid, and the statistics for someone to get stuck in an elevator are probably like 1 in every 1000 rides or something, so she’s totally fine. And she definitely wouldn’t be stuck in there with her boss, who she barely knows but had an outrageously horrible first meeting with where she called him a prick and accused him of being a creep.

“Oh, wow,” Harry let out a breathless laugh, “This has never happened to me before, I – do we wait for it to drop or –” 

“Oh my god,” Y/N holds her face in her hands – this shit is going to plummet the next 3 floors, she knows it, “Oh my god, oh my god.” 

The panic in her voice must tweak something in him, because he stops laughing, “Wait, it’s – no, we’re going to be okay, that was a bad joke,” he takes a step toward the buttons, and when Y/N peeks out to look at him, she sees him click the emergency one, “Here, I’ll – we’ll get this sorted.” 

Y/N is quiet and panicking while Harry speaks to the dispatch operator over the phone, who assures them that they’ll send help as soon as possible. Despite the reassurance, Y/N wants to pry the doors open herself and try to crawl out without having to wait. Even more so when Harry turns around, makes eye contact with her, and smiles a little, “I guess you and I can’t have a normal meeting, huh?” 

God, of course he’d bring it up now! 

“I’m so sorry,” Y/N finally apologizes, her hands clasped together in front of her, “I – I seriously like never get that drunk, or if I do I’m not in public, so you don’t have to worry about me making a fool of myself and like jeopardizing the company somehow. And I’m sorry for holding a taser at you and cursing at you; like, I seriously wouldn’t have done any of that if I’d known you were going to be my freaking boss, but I won’t – um, I mean I understand if you don’t want to work with me because –” 

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Harry cuts her off, “Hey! It’s okay, I’m not concerned at all with anything that happened.” Y/N hadn’t realized she’d closed her eyes; only when she peeks them open to look at him, “That was you in your free time, right? I have no place to tell you how you should or shouldn’t act when you aren’t at work.” 

“. . .Really?” 

“Really,” he nods, smiling, “I mean, I’d prefer if you didn’t call me a prick during work hours, but –” 

“I won’t! I’m usually so much nicer to strangers, really, especially ones who are trying to help me. I’m just. . .I’m so embarrassed that that was your first impression of me.” She presses the heels of her palms into her eyes, groaning, “I was just on such a bad date, and I got drunk because I was so upset, and then was just not. . .not me. I’m so sorry.” 

Harry is sweet, at least, lying a gentle, reassuring hand on her shoulder and squeezing, “Seriously, don’t worry about it, yeah? We’ve all been there.” He tells her, “One time I got so trashed after a bad date, I passed out in front of a Tesco, and my sister had to come drag me into the back of her car.” His hand falls away from her. “And, ah – I probably shouldn’t be telling you that, but I just want you to know that I definitely get it. We’re all human, yeah? Sometimes you gotta get wasted after a bad date, and whether or not you run into your new boss during that shouldn’t matter.” 

She frowns, “You’re like, almost way too nice,” she tells him, “But thank you so much. I. . .do you think maybe we could keep that between us? Like. . .not even Adam, until I can at least make a decent impression first?” 

Harry, cutely, holds out his pinky. It’s almost comical, really, seeing a man in a suit with gelled-down hair and a stereotypically businessman briefcase in his other hand – holding out his pinky to her. But Y/N locks their fingers together, feeling a little giddy when their pinkies hook. His nail is clean, well-trimmed, and looks soft around the cuticles. His smile at her is genuine and quite nice; his lips are a little chapped, like he’d been nibbling on them throughout the day. 

“Just between us,” he promises, “I might tell my sister during our weekly call, but only because she’s bored of hearing about the company stats. This might give her something to be interested in.” 

“Fair enough,” Y/N squeezed his pinky one more good time before letting go, “Um. . .I’m glad we cleared that up, but I’m getting kind of scared about being stuck.” 

Harry waves his hand. “It’ll be okay, probably.” He drops his briefcase in the corner with a sigh, sliding down the side of the elevator until he’s sitting on the ground. His trousers ruck up a little, showing off his socks in the fancy loafers he wears. They almost twinkle in the overhead lights. Y/N can’t believe he’s sitting on the floor of an elevator in what she’s pretty sure is a Louis Vuitton suit, checking the time on what looks like the most expensive ass confusing watch she’s ever seen. She feels severely underdressed in comparison, but sort of likes the imagery of a rich guy being on the floor while she’s standing. 

Not enough to keep standing herself, though, when she slides down the opposite end of the elevator to sit. “Um, you’re leaving kind of early,” Y/N noted softly, “Do you have somewhere to go or –” 

“Ugh, a meeting,” he sighed again, thudding his head back against the wall, “Can’t stand the in-person 'drinks' type of meetings, but most of our partners love that so I go on like way too many. That’s actually why I was there that night, when you and I ran into each other.” 

“Ah, really?” Y/N inquires. 

“Yeah. I hate places like that; I wouldn’t be in there otherwise.” Y/N smiles a little to herself – that’s nice, at least. They agree on the dislike for the smarmy ass club. “How are you liking it here so far? Are the others good to you?” 

Y/N grins, “Yes! Yes, I really like it so far. Everyone's been pretty nice.” 

“Good. They tend to eat their young, y’know? I’ve gotten on them for it a couple of times,” Y/N’s grin warps into a shocked mouth, and Harry’s eyes get wide, “Oh! But – that’s not me trying to scare you! If they were going to do that, they would’ve started fussing already. I haven’t heard any complaints about you!” 

Y/N rubs her chest a little, “Ah, okay, that’s – I mean, I’m glad nobody has complained about me,” she tells him, “I am a little nervous though now.” 

“God, I’m sorry, seriously I don’t –” Harry is cut off because the elevator decides then to jerk. It jolts, drops a little, then stops again – enough to make Y/N’s belly flop. She screams, and Harry yelps a little. Y/N, who had been sitting on the other side, quickly scurries to the other side with Harry. She doesn’t know why, just knows that being on her side of the elevator alone seemed way too fucking scary! 

Harry welcomes her, shoving his suitcase off to the side so that she can be right next to him. This is crazy – she’s way too fucking close to him, probably, but she’s not thinking with her logical brain right now. She’s thinking with her instinctual, scared, animal brain who definitely does not want to plunge in a freaking elevator! 

“Mr. Styles, I’m going to freak the fuck out.” 

“It’s okay!” His voice cracks, “Ah, it’s – um –” He’s clearly scared too, but he’s trying his best to comfort her, “What, we called like ten minutes ago? The fire department is only 12 minutes away, and they’ll get here soon! I don’t think there’s anything wrong with like – the wiring or the pulleys or anything – that didn’t feel like that, y’know? It felt more like the computer system glitched, and it started to move before glitching out again, right?” 

She nods quickly, willing to believe anything, “Yeah, yeah, that’s – yeah, sure.” Y/N doesn’t realize that she’s gripping onto his arm until then, and flinches away like he burns her. This could not be worse! 

There was some truth to what Harry said, though. They were in there, trying to comfort each other with words about what could possibly be happening with the elevator and how it definitely wasn’t going to go down – for about five more minutes. Then there was a loud sound; the doors were being pried open in front of them, and it revealed that they were a little in between one floor and the next. There was a large enough gap that they could fit comfortably, but they would have to be heaved up from the elevator. 

“Hey guys,” the firemen greeted them, “We’re g’na get you out of there, okay? Are you guys alright?” 

“Yeah,” Harry started to stand, holding out his hand for Y/N to grab, and it was only then that Y/N realized his hands were shaking too, “Come on, you go first.” He ushered her toward the doors, and one of the firemen was crouched down. Y/N looked back at Harry, “Ah, do you think – would you be able to help me get up? I don’t have a lot of upper body strength.” 

Harry nodded, and when Y/N placed her hands on the floor outside of the elevator, Harry grabbed her hips. Between him and the fireman, they heaved her up and out. Y/N gasped a little, her heart flip-flopped in her chest, and her belly did a thing because Harry is actually way stronger than he looks in his suits. He did most of the work, lifting her by her hips, and she thinks he could probably throw her around the bed easily, or even hold someone up against a wall and not lose any –

God, what the fuck, she needs to chill out! What the hell is this thought process? She scrambles out of the way and turns around, watching Harry do most of the work, heaving himself out of the elevator after tossing her purse and his briefcase out first. Y/N’s heart races watching him mostly pull himself out, the fireman holding up under his armpit just in case. He gets out too, safely, and Y/N lets out a big sigh. They were only held up for like ten minutes, but it feels like it’d been days of them locked away together. 

She’s a little dramatic, sure, but – well, he was sweet in there! He took care of her for those 10 minutes, and he’s strong, and it’s never been that hard for Y/N to develop a crush. 

A crush. . .on her boss. 

Which is just destined to be depressing because it won’t go anywhere. 

“Thank god,” he breathed out, “I was really scared, actually! I’ll treat our floor to lunch tomorrow since we made it out.” 

Well. . .at least she’ll have eye candy to encourage her to come to work.