Getting Caught in the Rain

Harry calls Caroline and they schedule a trial day for her to watch Olivia. She comes over on a Tuesday morning, just before Harry is leaving for work. "Hello," she says when he answers the door.

"Hi," Harry says, somewhat frantically. "Er, come on in." He stands aside and ushers her inside their apartment.

"Are you all right?" she asks, a little concerned. "You look tired."

"Uh, no, I'm okay." He's exhausted, actually, but he won't admit that. He'd stayed up for half the night worrying about leaving Olivia. Granted, it's only a trial day, and he did a background check on Caroline and called all of her references and yeah, she's a solid person, but still. He's a single dad, and he hasn't been separated from his kid like this before. It's nerve-wracking.

Olivia, of course, is totally oblivious, singing Disney tunes at the top of her lungs as she runs around the house in her pink tutu. Caroline is supposed to take her shopping for school supplies, since it starts in two weeks. It's Olivia's first year of primary school and she's extremely excited.

"Livvy!" Harry calls, shutting the door behind him. "Come say hello to Caroline."

Olivia comes skipping in, and there's milk on her face and down the front of her clothes, but before Harry can tell her to stop, she cries, "Caroline!" and launches herself into her arms.

Caroline, thankfully, laughs and says, "Hi, Olivia. It's nice to see you again!" like they're old friends instead of only having met once.

"Babe," Harry says weakly. "You've got milk all over you, come on, let me clean you up." He glances at the clock. "I've got to leave in a few minutes, here . . ."

"I can clean her," Caroline offers. "Don't worry about it. It's just a little milk."

"All right," Harry sighs. "Okay, so, I've left a list of emergency numbers on the counter. It's mine, my friends' Liam, Zayn, Louis, and Niall, my mum's, Olivia's mother . . . Olivia's allowed to have two cookies after she eats all of her lunch. She's not allergic to any foods. She'll eat basically any fruit but she doesn't like tomatoes, peppers, tuna, or green beans so I would avoid those. Her school supply list is hung up on the fridge. I should be back by six-thirty. If there's anything you need, please don't hesitate to contact me. I'll check up on you every few hours or so, if that's okay." Even if it isn't okay, Harry's going to do it anyway.

Caroline smiles a little. "That sounds fine, Mr. Styles."

"Call me Harry, please," Harry insists. She's like the same age as him; having her address him that way is weird. "Right, so that covers about everything, do you have any questions?"

"I think I've got it all," Caroline says, nodding.

"Okay, then, I'll be off," Harry says. This is the moment. He says, a little quieter so Olivia won't hear, "Olivia doesn't like it when I leave for work, so she'll be sad for a little bit, but she'll get over it pretty quickly. Just try to occupy her and then she'll be fine."

Caroline nods and sets Olivia on her feet. "You wanna say good-bye to Daddy?"

Harry crouches down so he's at eye-level with his daughter. "Okay, honey, Daddy's gotta go to work."

Sure enough, Olivia's blue eyes widen and her bottom lip begins to tremble. "You're leaving me?"

"I have to go to work, baby," Harry says, tucking some of her hair behind her ear. "I'll be back soon."

"I don't want you to go, Daddy," Olivia whimpers.

"I know," he says soothingly. "But Caroline's gonna stay and play with you until I get back, okay? She's gonna make you lunch and take you shopping for school. Maybe she'll even watch some TV with you. Doesn't that sound fun?"

Olivia sniffs. "Yes."

"So I need you to be a good girl until I come home, okay? Then you can tell me all about your day. Can you do that for me?"

Olivia nods, and Harry leans in and presses kisses all over her face, making her laugh a little. "Good. I'll call later and you can talk to me then, does that sound good?"

"Okay," she agrees. She hugs him then, nuzzling her little face into his neck. "I love you, Daddy, and I'll miss you while you're gone." Harry smiles then, closing his eyes, because oh, man, he just really loves his kid.

"I love you too, sweetheart. Have fun." He stands up then and faces Caroline. "Thank you so much for doing this. I really appreciate it."

"It's no problem. Have a good day at work!" She waves, and Olivia looks up at her before copying her movements.

"Bye, ladies," Harry says before he shuts the door. He makes it downstairs, down the street, and to the Tube station. It's when he's sitting on the train that he starts to feel the separation anxiety kicking in. He pulls out his phone. "Liam," he says when his friend answers.

"Haz, what's wrong?" Liam asks. He sounds out of breath; Harry assumes he just taught a class.

"Caroline is with Olivia today," he mumbles.

"Oh," Liam says, comprehending. "C'mon, man, it'll be okay. Caroline's responsible, she's not gonna let anything happen to her."

"I know," Harry sighs. "I just . . . Olivia and I haven't been separated like this before. Like, she's either with me, or Cara, or one of our mums or something. It just feels weird."

"She'll be fine," Liam says. "The more you think about it, the worse it'll be. Relax."

"Yeah, okay," Harry says. He's right, after all. "Thanks. I'll see you later."

"All right, man. Take it easy." They hang up, and Harry jiggles his leg the entire way to work.

He does his best to focus, as he's got a meeting with a client and three reports to hand in to his boss, but all he can think about is what Olivia and Caroline are doing right now.

It's not that he doesn't trust Caroline; he knows she's very reliable and responsible. But Olivia was born when he was only nineteen years old. He's given up so much of his life to provide for her and be a good guardian for her. And it's not like he regrets it; of course he doesn't. Olivia is his favorite person in the whole universe, and maybe that's why he's so nervous. He just wants her to be happy.

His lunch break cannot come fast enough.

When it does, he practically sprints out of his cubicule, calling, "I'll be back in half an hour!" He hurries to the coffee shop down the street where he always buys his lunch and finds a booth in the corner. After he gets his coffee and his turkey and cheese melt, he calls Caroline.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Caroline. It's, er, Harry. I'm on my lunch break and I just wanted to see how things were." He tries to keep his voice casual.

"Hi! Everything's going great. We're just sitting down for lunch. Do you want to speak to her?" Caroline asks, and he can tell she's smiling.

"That would be great, thanks." He can hear her saying, Olivia, Daddy's on the phone, do you want to say hi? There's some rustling and then Olivia's voice fills his ear.

"Daddy, guess what? Guess what we're having for lunch?"

"What?" He feels relieved just from hearing her voice, which is dumb, because it's not like Caroline was going to kill her or anything.

"Mac and cheese," Olivia all but screams. "We're having mac and cheese!" She says it like she's never had it before, even though Harry made it for her a few weeks ago.

"That sounds awesome, babe," Harry says. "Are you eating some fruit, too?"

"Yeah," Olivia says. "Caroline cut up some apples for me and put peanut butter on them and they taste really good, Daddy."

Apples with peanut butter. Huh. Harry makes a mental note to write that down. "Yummy. Are you going shopping after lunch?"

"Yeah," Olivia says. "We're gonna go get stuff for school, and I'm gonna get a pink pencil case, okay, Daddy? It's gonna be so much fun."

"I'm glad you're having a good time, sweetie. I'll see you when I get home, okay? Can you put Caroline back on?"

"Yes," Olivia says. "I love you."

"I love you too." There's more rustling, and then Caroline says, "Hi."

"Hey. Sounds like everything's going well. I just wanted to say hello."

"Of course."

"Right, well, I'll be getting back to my work now. Don't let her go too overboard with the pink, okay?"

Caroline laughs. It's a very nice laugh, not that Harry was noticing or anything. "I'll try my best. See you later, Harry." She hangs up, and Harry slumps back in his seat, sighing. His nerves are eased a little bit, but not too much. He glances at the clock: four and a half more hours until he gets off work.

It's going to be a long day.