#atthesametime

Meet cute: a scene in films or television series, where a future romantic couple first meet.

She’d heard that definition in a movie she saw once, she doesn’t even remember which one it was now. It was definitely a cheesy romantic comedy, though, and she was never a big fan of those.

Well, unbeknownst to her, today she had one of those meet cutes that only existed in those kind of movies.

A meet cute never happens where you’d meet someone normally. No, that would be boring, and definitely not cute. That’s why she didn’t meet him at her best friend’s birthday party last night. That’s why he wasn’t that blind date her coworker set her up on last week, that ended horribly. He certainly wasn’t sitting across from her on the tube, and he most positively wasn’t the creepy guy that followed her once from school three years ago. That would make for a very different movie, one without a very happy ending. And he most definitely was her happy ending.

She met him across the street from her apartment building.

She was rushing to get to work, late as always, holding her huge overflowing bag, that she didn’t have time to zip up properly, with both hands. She crossed the street in a hurry, not even bothering to look both ways, knowing that her street was probably the least busy one in the whole of London. That’s why she chose to live there in the first place. She craved peace and quiet more than any girl her age. Her friends joked that she was a gran trapped in a young woman’s body. She knew that wasn’t true, she was just an introverted person. Constant human interaction exhausted her, and she needed to be completely alone to re-energize. She worked in a law firm that hired her fresh out of university as an intern. She mostly had to get coffees and copy things, but everyone was nice to her, and she was free to ask them questions that they would happily answer, eager to teach her the ways of the law, that they all knew by heart. She couldn’t wait to practice law on her own, her passion being Environmental law, hoping that one day she could work on passing new laws against climate change. But that was all in the far future. For now, just being in the presence of seasoned lawyers was enough for her.

She didn’t even notice someone was in her way, in all that hurry. And of course  she ran into him, her bag slipping away from her small hands, its contents spilling all over the concrete pavement. She couldn’t help but feel irritated with the person for stopping her reckless movements, even though she knew it was her fault for not seeing where she was going. She huffed, sounding annoyed, despite her best efforts to remain calm, and then mumbled a halfhearted apology towards the person’s way, not even looking up in her haste to get out of there.

In a classic meet cute way, she reached for her bag at the same time he did, their hands briefly touching.

“Such a cliché”, she thought to herself, and she couldn’t help but smile.

She was about to make a joke about it, trying to be friendly with the person, to make an awkward situation a bit more lighthearted, but when she finally looked up, she was greeted by two piercing green eyes, holding her gaze firmly. She didn’t even realize who it was at first, she couldn’t see past those eyes that stared at her so intensely, as if they were looking deep into her soul, learning all her secrets, making her stop in her tracks.

And then he spoke. His voice low and husky, his speech a bit slurred and unexpectedly slow.

“I’m sorry, let me help you.”

The realization hit her all of a sudden. She knew this person. Hell, everyone in the world probably knew who this person was. It was Harry Styles.

Of course it had to be Harry Styles. A meet cute never happened between two ordinary people. As a matter of fact, it always happened between two extraordinary people, so extraordinary that they were most definitely the protagonists of the movie.

Harry Styles was standing in front of her, alive and in the flesh. She couldn’t believe her bad luck. In her almost always vacant street, she had to literally ran into Harry Styles of all people. She thought she must’ve looked like a crazy person to him, running around in her heels with a huge bag.

Suddenly, she moved her hand away as if it was hit by an electric current. She got up and dusted herself off. She felt herself blushing in embarrassment as she watched him gathering her stuff and putting them back in her bag. Her hands ran nervously over her straight brown hair, trying to smooth them over, in a desperate attempt to look presentable.

Even though she didn’t notice him before that moment, he had spotted her already as she was crossing the street. He was fazed by her hazardous crossing, fearing for her safety while she nearly ran across without even looking. When he was sure that she had crossed safely he turned back to his car, that he had parked on the side of the street, opening the door to get in. He didn’t give her a second thought, or even a proper look for that matter. He himself was in a hurry, after leaving his friend’s house, having only ten minutes to get back to his place to get ready for an event he had to attend to around lunch time.

What Harry didn’t know though, was that he was destined to meet her, so being late for his fancy lunch was inevitable.

He heard the sound of her heels tapping on the pavement, before he felt her body knocking onto his, causing him to fall backwards into his open door. Thankfully, he didn’t fall with much force to cause any damage, other than the dirt that was visible on his black jeans.

He heard her mumble something and turned around to look at her. She was wearing a grey pencil skirt, a black coat over a white collared shirt and black heels. Her outfit was in contrast with her youthful face, it looked too professional somehow. She had straight dark brown hair, that went a bit past her shoulders. Her skin was smooth, her features accentuated by a minimal amount of makeup. Her lips were plump, but not exactly what you would describe as big. His first thought was that they looked kissable. He shook his head at that, stopping himself from picturing kissing a stranger.

He noticed that her things were scattered all over the place, and he leaned forward to pick her bag up. Their hands brushed together for a fleeting moment. Her eyes caught his attention, then. They were the most peculiar shade of brown. As the light caught them they looked almost yellow to him, but in the shade they looked like liquid honey. He found himself staring at them, his gaze never leaving hers. What he felt was foreign to him. It was almost like a sense of familiarity, like he knew her all his life, or rather that he was meant to know her for the rest of it.

He forced himself to say something, afraid that he would scare her with his intense stare. As soon as he spoke, recognition flashed in her eyes. He knew that look, he got it everywhere he went, but he was never bothered by it. Just this one time, though, he wished she didn’t know who he was. He turned away from her strange eyes and gathered her things from the pavement, placing them carefully in her bag. He got up and offered her the bag. She took it from him, saying “Thank you”, in a high-pitched tone, revealing how nervous she was.

He extended his arm to her in greeting, and she took it. Her hand was icy cold, her tiny fingers not even able to wrap around his palm.

His hand was everything she thought it would be, warm and comforting.

“My name’s Harry, nice to meet you.”, he said, knowing that introductions were pointless on his part, but dying to know her name.

He spoke with confidence, his smile lighting up his face, his eyes sparkling in the rare sunlight of the London morning. She felt her lips curl up in a smile, involuntarily, butterflies flying in her stomach.

“Iris”, she said simply, not finding the courage to say more than her name.

Harry thought her name was fitting, for he was sure he would think of the strange colour of her irises for many sleepless nights to follow.

Here’s Part 2 for you if you want to check it out

SO THIS IS MY FIRST FIC HERE AND I LOVE IT AND I HOPE YOU LOVE IT TOO AND I WANT TO MAKE IT A SERIES AND IM SO EXCITED K BYE xx