goodnight, good morning [l.p. au one-shot]

// goodnight, good morning //

"Hold the lift, please!"

Leaping forward while juggling two carriers full of caffeinated beverages, Nita Pearce catches the right elevator door with her foot just seconds before it meets the left. As the automatic setting pulls the doors open again, she's rewarded with the grateful smile of Liam Payne as he steps into the elevator car to join her.

"Thanks," he says, bowing his head towards her in gratitude as his broad shoulders shuffle around in his coat, this immaculate, caramel-colored one that tapers to his frame in such a nice way that if Nita hadn't already spent much of her time working at Central Plaza fantasizing about the man stood before her, the way he's dressed today would've set some serious daydreams in motion.

"You're welcome," Nita replies, still balancing multiple coffee orders in her arms (that luckily haven't spilled) while her oversized handbag threatens to slip from her shoulder.

In the midst of her struggle, she shifts both carriers awkwardly to clutch at with one arm, the carriers pressed to her chest and jostling about as she tries to yank up the straps of her bag with her other hand. Still, she manages what she hopes comes across as a polite smile, giving Liam a once-over while trying to keep her less-than-sensible thoughts in check.

Everybody knows Liam—he's the soul and sound of the NightTime Mix, FREE 95.1's late night radio show. A British import settled into the lights and sounds of Chicago, Liam and his smooth radio voice and cleverly compiled playlists helped put FREE 95.1 and the NightTime Mix back on the map when he took over its open DJ slot nearly three years ago.

Nita's been listening to the station since her family uprooted to Chicago when she was in her sophomore year of high school, and she quickly became a fan of FREE 95.1's popular nighttime show, where they played all the latest hits and talked music and lifestyle and pop culture until late into the night. She would stay up late just to listen in as people called into the station to make requests, weigh in on the world's happenings, or ask for advice from longtime radio legend Quentin Howard, host of the NightTime Mix.

It was during the summer between her sophomore and junior years of college when Quentin Howard announced his departure from the show, and then the NightTime Mix fell into a bit of a slump as the station went through DJ after DJ, trying to find someone with the same charisma as Howard to fill the slot and boost listening traffic. It took well over a year of misses before things began to look up.

By that time, Nita was in her final year, close to finishing her degree. She was up late—on her second cup of coffee with her nose buried in her books—the first time she caught the sound of Liam's voice on the airwaves, and she'd instantly found herself unable to turn the dial. She'll admit, the accent alone was easy on the ears, but it became quite apparent during his first few weeks on the air that the station had finally found a good fit for the NightTime Mix. Liam was personable, funny, and had a great ear for music. From sound alone, radio listeners like Nita Pearce were eating him up.

And the first time she'd had the opportunity to match a face to the voice on the radio, Nita had nearly snapped her neck doing a double-take as she passed by a poster on a street corner near campus advertising 'The New Face of the NightTime Mix'. Above the large-lettered tagline was a picture of DJ Liam Payne, and he was...well, damn, he was fine. Liam's looks didn't quit, with his head of thick, dark hair, a well-defined jawline peppered with stubble that paired nicely with the bass of his radio voice, and brown eyes with a depth to them that even on a goddamned street poster seemed endless enough, a girl could drown in them; there were many, Nita reckoned, who probably had.

Nita's been out of college for two years now, and after working odds-and-ends jobs while trying to land her dream job in radio, she's found herself employed in an entry-level position filing papers and running errands for FREE 95.1's Mega Morning show. It's not where she wants to be, but no one ever gets where they want to be without having to climb a few ladders, and while she might be on the bottom rung of this ladder, it's one she's quite interested in climbing. She's got one foot in the door, and at the moment, that's more than enough.