For Fair Love

Back in Manchester, Harry gets orders to go straight to Karen’s office. He goes there and finds Karen at her desk, looking exasperated, as her phones ring endlessly.
“Karen?” Harry opens the door.
Karen looks up and motions her index to tell Harry to wait. She speaks on the phone and then yells.
“Yeah, well you know the hell what? Piss off and tell your editor he can kiss my ass!” Karen yells, aggravated. Harry shifts on his feet and knows Karen is not in a good state. As soon as she puts the phone down, she reaches for the power plug and unplug everything. Then the ringing and beeping noises stop. Karen sighs, “Wankstain.”
She stares Harry down for a good minute and a half before she says anything. Harry, feeling rather uneasy, as he’s never seen Karen this angry, tries to think of a good joke.
“So, why did the chicken cross the road?”
“Because I’m going to chop your head off!” Karen keeps yelling. “Harry? What the hell do you think your doing? Do you have any idea what I’ve been through in the last twenty-four hours? Trying to clear your name as usual. But this, Harry? This can’t be undone!”
Harry frowns and shoves his hands in his pockets.
“What are you talking about?” Harry asks.
Karen points at her desk where piles of magazines lie, flashing Harry on the cover… with a girl. He takes a moment to analyse some of them.
“This morning, you are on every major cover of every magazine in the U.K. and in matters of seconds, other magazines are picking up the scoop. It’s spreading faster than a blink of a bloody eye! Harry, why? I already warned you. No girls!”
“But, this is Chas,” Harry says, frowning at the covers. “No, no. It’s really not what it looks like. I was simply helping a friend.”
Karen picks up a few gossip magazines and reads, “Harry takes a new girl in his hotel. Harry’s hotel party. When will Harry learn? Harry and girl number 5. Who’s Harry’s new play mate? Spotted, Harry with a new girlfriend. Mysterious girl spends the night, Harry style.”
“They are pretty creative,” Harry can’t help but find the last one funny.
Karen gives him a furious look and slaps the magazines back on her desk.
“Harry, this isn’t a joke! This is serious. This is going to bring the band down and make you look really bad. I’ve already spoken to Simon! He’s demanding that you all go back to London. Vacation’s over! I tried all this morning to call the magazine companies to pull you off the covers, but they’ve been giving me complete shit! They say it’s always the same with you,” Karen yells until her face turns red.
“Karen, chill out. It’ll blow over.”
She takes a long sigh and rubs her head, looking around her messy office. Karen is a real trade’s woman. She never has things out of place. She’s a woman of control. It’s her job to keep things under control for goodness sakes. But today, Harry’s really done it. She slowly shakes her head at her thoughts.
“Not this time, Harry. This is critical. People are starting to criticize you. And I’m not talking about petty magazine editors. I’m talking about people in the management,” Karen says in a more normal tone, “It’s not good for you or for the band. This isn’t the image they signed you for. You know that. For the years, I have to admit, they have been pretty forgiving. But they won’t be if this keeps happening. We have to fix this. We have to fix this quickly.”
“What do you have in mind we do?” Harry asks.
She sighs again and rapidly says, “I’ll think of something… Will Bloomfield is on his way right now. Board meeting as soon as he arrives.”
With that, Karen walks out the office, leaving Harry to fret. He knows when manager Will’s name is mentioned all hell breaks loose.

“So, Styles, we’ll cut right to the chase,” Will says robotically. Harry, Karen, and Will all sit at a round table. “I’ve heard the news. You better have a good explanation.”
“I do,” Harry starts, “I went to a bar just a have a few drinks. I was with Marco, but he left early. I know this girl and I saw her being harassed by some twit. The guy got her drunk, I presume because she doesn’t look like the type to drink. I had to help her out. So I took her to my hotel. She just passed out. But nothing happened. In the morning I took her straight to her home.”
“You say you met her before?” Karen asks.
Harry nods, “Yeah, she’s from Bradford. Zayn knows her too. She’s a nice girl. She’s not a model or an actress, or anything really.”
“Hm. I guess that’s why the magazines don’t know who she is,” Karen says, looking down at the magazines, flipping through pages of pictures. She looks over to a very serious faced Will and says, “So, perhaps if we let Harry explain to the media what really happened… They’ll probably even sympathize with him.”
Will clicks his pen a few times, not thrilled in any way.
“Do you really think they’ll believe such story?” Will asks, rhetorically.
Karen shuts her mouth. There is no arguing with Will. He continues clicking his pen.
“Harry, the only way the media is going to forgive you is if you side with them instead of fighting them.”
“What do you mean, sir?”
“I mean give them what they can’t attack you with. They can’t attack your image if you be the image they’d admire. If you can just simply be in an exclusive relationship—Take Zayn, and Liam, and Louis, and Niall for example. They all have girlfriends and show that they’re in a committed relationship. What have you been doing? Feeding the paparazzi with your nonsense and empty flirts with other celebrities. You’re always getting yourself in this kind of mess, and frankly, I’m sick of it. I mean at first it got you lots of buzz, which is good sometimes. But at this point, Styles, you’re in it too deep with this ‘player’ image. Therefore, my verdict is that this girl in the magazine… You find her. You get her. And you bring her to London.”
Harry frowns and tries to protest, “But—”
“But what, Styles?” Will cuts him off, carrying a lofty smile.
Harry retains his words.
“N-nothing,” Harry says instead.
His head lowers and he looks at the ground, steaming.
“Well then, in that case, do I make myself clear?” Will finishes his speech.
Karen nods for Harry’s sake, “We’ll do our best.”
“The sooner the better,” Will says before exiting the room.