The Best Man {h.s.}

9

The morning starts off with my alarm as I slowly get myself out of bed and into the shower. I take longer than usual because the scolding hot water feels better than it usually does on my shoulders. As I get out and wrap a towel around my hair, I go to the living room to plug my phone in to my surround sound to start blaring my Third Eye Blind station on Pandora throughout my apartment. Monday's are the worst, so there's nothing better than dancing around in my underwear to at least start my day off on a positive note. It also keeps me busy so I don't have to think about yesterday at least until I leave the apartment. I dance my way into the kitchen to start the Keurig and work my way back to the bedroom to pick out my outfit for the day.

I pick a black pencil skirt with a red, sleeveless blouse and black heels. As soon as I'm done doing my hair and applying makeup, I grab my phone and my coffee and head out the door. When I get down the stairs I step backwards out of my building so I can make sure the door locks behind me and my breathing stops when I turn around to see the most familiar set of tattoos in front of me.

Harry stands at the bottom of the steps with his hands in his pockets. He's wearing his seemingly typical black t-shirt and black jeans and he looks gorgeous as ever. He looks me up and down, admiring my outfit before snapping out of his thoughts. I try to keep a straight face, but in reality I sort of love that he's checking me out and I'm also a little excited to see him despite every feeling of doubt that took over me last night.

"Can we talk?" He asks and I nod and start walking next to him on my way to work.

"Listen, Emma," Harry begins to say as he looks down at me and sighs. It's sort of nice to see a vulnerable side of him.

"I don't know what your sister told you, and truth be told I don't really care."

Before he continues I look at him confused. Why wouldn't he want to know what people say about him? I get that you shouldn't care what the world thinks of you, but if it were me I would at least be a little bit curious. I look back towards the sidewalk and keep walking.

"I just don't want anyone to get in your head and give you an impression of me without you figuring it out for yourself." He looks so defeated, so sad, almost like he assumes that I've made up my mind and want nothing to do with him. It makes me want to wrap my arms around him and never let him go.

"I-" He cuts me off before I can speak and grabs my hands to turn me towards him.

"There's something so different about you. I realized it Friday night when I met you and I haven't stopped thinking about it since." He looks at me with so much desperation that it might kill me. "You can choose to walk away and forget about me if that's what you really want but I have a gut feeling that it's not, and I don't want to have to stop getting to know you just because of someone's opinion of me that isn't even your own."

I open my mouth to speak but he cuts me off again, almost as if he's afraid of hearing what I have to say.

"Look, if you want me to leave you alone, I'll back off. We will see each other for wedding stuff and then you never have to see me again. But I can't agree to it if you won't at least think it over." Harry lets go of my hands and starts walking in the opposite direction. I stand there like a stone and watch him walk away. I want to tell him what I'm thinking, but I'm frozen, holding onto the words he said like they're my lifeline.

Speak up, you idiot!

"Harry!" I yell before he gets too far. He turns around and the complete look of hope is enough to make me melt. I walk towards him, refusing to break eye contact.

"Are you busy Thursday night?" I smirk and he lets out a huge sigh of relief like he was holding his breath. He shakes his head and lets a small hint of a smile appear.

"Well," I begin to say as I walk closer to him, "in case you forgot, we were supposed to meet yesterday to discuss Chloe and Ben's party. So, since Friday is July 4th and neither one of us will have work that day, I was thinking that we could go look at some possible locations the night before and maybe have a few drinks along the way."

His nerves seem to have calmed and his smile has returned. He steps even closer to me and I can feel my heart rate increase.

"That sounds perfect," he says quietly as he leans in to kiss my cheek. I close my eyes and fully embrace the moment and, when I open my eyes again, he pulls away and flashes me another smile before walking away.

I let out a sigh and turn around to start walking towards work again. I replay the past few minutes and a small part of me is still thinking that it might not be a good idea, but clearly when he's standing in front of me that idea seems to disappear. I may end up getting more hurt than I ever wanted to be, but when I'm around him I feel something that I haven't felt before. I have no idea what that something is, but I want more than anything to find out.

As I open the massive doors to my work, I place those thoughts to the side as I see Ava and our coworker, Jeremy, smiling curiously as they watch me walk in.