Twice Shy {h.s. au}

VI.

Seeing Maggie at the coffee house was never an easy thing.

She'd started coming in about a week after Harry saw her at that party—after which Harry declined all offers from Eric to go out on the off chance that he would run into her again. The first time was painfully awkward; Harry could barely look Maggie in the eye as he rang her up, made her drink, and eventually passed it to her over the counter. He didn't wait around to hear if she said anything after that, just shuffled back to the cash register to help the next person. He hoped that this awkwardness was just temporary, that over time he would be able to look at her and not completely flush with shame, but after a whole week of their new routine, and then two, Harry was slowly giving up hope of it ever happening.

Then months went by, and things seemed to be better. He never spoke to Maggie, and she went back to just thanking him for her drink, but he no longer flushed with shame whenever he had to take her order. Except for when their fingers brushed as he passed over her iced coffee and it felt like his whole arm was shocked with electricity. It had taken a couple of days to recover from that the first time, but he managed, and then they were back to their new normal.

If he saw Maggie on campus, he didn't immediately turn and speed walk in the opposite direction—he did put his phone to his ear and pretend like he was talking on the phone, but improvement was improvement. Part of him wanted to speak to Maggie. He wanted to ask how her day was going, what classes she was taking this semester, if she thought they could at least be friends. He kept his inquiries to himself, though, directing his focus elsewhere.

Like right now. He was leaving his last class of the day and standing right outside the large red brick building he'd just stepped out of, patting his pockets and looking for his headphones when someone tapped his shoulder. "Hey, you left these in class. Thought you might want them back."

It was Eva, the girl who sat behind him in his Film and Literature class. Harry had talked to her quite a bit this semester, as their professor often had them pairing up and discussing one thing or another during class. He and Eva had turned to each other the first day, and they'd been kind of friends ever since. Sometimes they would even coordinate days to watch their assigned film for that week, sitting on his bed and taking notes while the movie played on his laptop.

Eva was cute, there really wasn't any other way to describe her. She had a button nose that was always dusted with a corally pink blush, short curly brown hair, and hazel eyes that were always accentuated by winged eyeliner and pastel eyeshadow. Harry enjoyed hanging out with Eva, both inside the classroom and outside it. She was a little on the quiet side like him, but she made comments that made him laugh when they watched their movie, and her nose crinkled with amusement at the things he said too.

Looking at Eva now, something small fluttered in Harry's chest. "Thanks," he said, taking the headphone case from her outstretched hand.

"So...I was thinking we could do something different this weekend," she said, gripping the straps of her backpack hard enough to make her knuckles white.

Harry looked at her curiously. "What do you mean? Do you not like the snacks? Because I can always get something different."

"It's not the snacks," Eva said, and Harry noticed the barest trace of a hitch in her voice. She was nervous, he realized. "I just thought, you know, we could, like, go to an actual movie theater for a change?"

Harry almost told her that their film assignment wouldn't be available in theaters, but he stopped himself. He thought about how Maggie once told him how oblivious he was to people taking an interest in him. This had to be one of those times, right?

At the thought of Maggie, though, his heart did a lot more than flutter. He'd hoped that by now his feelings would go away, but they hadn't. He remembered wishing things would go back to the way they were before he'd properly met her, and he'd pretty much gotten his wish. Maggie would smile at him at the coffee house, but something about it looked pinched. That didn't stop him from daydreaming about her, though. He felt like his heart grew two sizes whenever the bell chimed on the door and she came in, his eyes turning into cartoon hearts when he looked at her.

"I...I, um..." Harry struggled to form a coherent enough sentence to respond to Eva's question. On the one hand, he'd never really been asked out on a date before, and the prospect of going out with Eva seemed like it could be fun; but on the other hand, he felt like he'd just be using her to get over Maggie, and he didn't think that was fair to Eva.

"You don't have to answer right now," she said when she saw Harry struggling to come up with something to say. "I just thought it could be fun, you know? To change things up."

Not having to give Eva an answer almost made Harry sag with relief. He nodded and stumbled his way through a response, thanking her again for bringing him his headphones. Eva smiled up at him. Her cheeks were flushed, but Harry could tell it wasn't from the makeup she wore. Rising up to her tiptoes, she leaned forward and kissed his cheek. "I'll see you on Wednesday, Harry," she said, and then she was walking off towards one of the dining halls.

Harry stood there stunned, his feet cemented to the ground beneath him. He was not anticipating her to kiss his cheek at all. Eva had looked as nervous as he felt after asking him out that he wasn't expecting her to kiss him. He could still smell the vanilla scent of her perfume from when she'd leaned close. Sweet, like her.

When he felt able to move again, Harry turned so he could rush over to the coffee house, Eva and his momentary paralysis now making him late for his shift. He'd taken one step when his eyes landed on someone, someone who was already staring at him.

He couldn't read the look on Maggie's face as she stared a few paces away. She was surrounded by a group of friends, the same one Harry often saw with her in the coffee house. They were all talking to each other, but Maggie's mouth was pressed in a firm line, her blue eyes trained on Harry. He didn't know what to make of her gaze, but he could feel it right down to the soles of his shoes, every cell in his body filling up with warmth.

As Maggie took a step forward, Harry's phone buzzed. It was a notification, a reminder that his shift started in fifteen minutes. "Shit," he breathed. The coffee house was across campus, he had to leave now if he wanted to be less than ten minutes late. Harry rushed off without looking at Maggie, his usual leisurely gait turning into a near jog. He didn't have time to think about what she would've done or said if he had just a little more time. It wasn't lost on him that she was coming over to potentially say something after she saw him talking to Eva, after she saw Eva kiss his cheek.

He didn't have time to think about any of that, though, because when he made it to the coffee house, there was a line nearly going out the door. Cursing, he shrugged off his backpack, shoved it under the counter, and tied his apron around his waist, getting to work immediately.