Twice Shy {h.s. au}

III.

Finals week at the coffee house was busy. Students were in and out all day getting the caffeine they needed to keep studying, groups of people were tucked into plush chairs and sitting by the fireplace with textbooks, laptops and pages of notes spread out before them.

Harry had studying of his own to get done. He had two finals, two papers, and a final project due this week, but his studying would come after his shift. He was stressing out about all the work he wasn't able to do while he took orders behind the counter or made drinks for everyone else who got to study. He'd made a schedule last week in anticipation of this, it was the only way he thought he could make finals week work. Maggie had laughed at him when she saw the neatly drawn out schedule pinned to the corkboard above his desk among all his pictures, but then she asked for one too, giving him her schedule and telling him to line it up with his the best he could.

Maggie. She was everywhere now that classes were officially over. She studied at the coffee house in Harry's normal spot at the bay window while he worked, she hung out with him in his room—though not often because Harry didn't like spending much time there himself—she even managed to drag him up to her room in her house on Greek Row. He never got used to the giggles that followed him if anyone else there at the time saw him. Maggie insisted it was because he was so annoyingly handsome, but he quietly agreed to disagree on that front.

She was taking a final now, something to do with chemistry. She'd tried explaining it to Harry the few times he'd seen her study for it, but math and science weren't really Harry's strongest subjects, and his eyes glazed over whenever she said something remotely complicated.

They spent most of their time at the coffee house studying, drinking coffee and eating pastries, and more studying. Harry had worried that Maggie might serve as a distraction when it came to getting things done, but she had finals and projects of her own that needed to be finished and stuck to the schedule he made for her. She did pencil in a little section that read "Free Time" in big bold letters where their schedules lined up. He'd asked what it was on the walk up the stairs to her room, and she answered him by pulling him over to her bed, ditching articles of clothing as she went.

Blushing at the "Free Time" that had occurred just before his shift at the coffee house, Harry shook his head and got back to frothing milk for someone's latte. He'd spent the night at her place for the first time since starting this...thing between them, the only time they'd spent a night together being the first. Harry had never been so sexually attracted to anyone before. He liked Maggie before she knew he even existed, and he thought she was the most beautiful being to ever walk the earth, but his infatuation was pretty innocent before they kissed and did everything else.

They still hadn't had sex, but that decision was mostly Harry's. She'd wanted to, multiple times, but respected Harry's decision whenever he wanted to slow down. It made her ask if he was a virgin, which he quickly denied.

Maggie still didn't know the extent of his feelings, and he thought that she had the impression that this was merely casual. Because finals week was around the corner when this thing between them started, and now that it was actually here, there wasn't much time to go on dates or anything like that, Harry understood that. But they never shared anything personal. She knew he had two mums and three sisters, but not much more than that.

Aside from her school schedule and her drink order at the coffee house, Harry didn't really know anything about Maggie, and her lack of sharing made him bottle things about himself as well, like how he was moving out of his dorm room and into a new one to get away from his perpetually high roommate, or how he'd been in love with her for longer than he cared to admit. It was easy to pretend that his feelings were at the same level as Maggie's when the alternative was admitting them to her and scaring her away. Their relationship outside of studying together was pretty much purely physical, and that had to be enough for Harry. It had to be.