Gray Suit

Too Good to be True?

You hit a wall.

The books and folders you were carrying slipped from your hands. Well, it was a wall made of flesh and beauty.

Then the most handsome man you've seen on campus was apologizing to you. He crouched down to pick-up your things from the floor, and you tried to help him. Your hand accidentally brushed against his over the last book on the floor.

You quickly retracted your hand and mumbled a sorry.

He stood up, as did you. He's tall, taller than you by a few good inches. He's wearing a double-breasted gray suit, a pair of glasses, and his hair was perfectly combed in place. It looks like he came straight out of a suit catalog.

He apologized once again, yet it was probably your fault that you bumped into him. You were occupied thinking about the things you need to do, their deadlines, and who would cover your shifts at work, but now he's all you could think of.

"It's okay. I guess it was also kind of my fault. I'm sorry." You looked down, smiled, and you tucked your hair behind your ear. You looked back up at him and he flashed you a smile before he excused himself. He really seemed like he was in a rush.

With the way he walked and that tailored suit, there was no doubt that he's a model from a magazine or a catalog. You turned to watch him walk away, and you saw him enter the lecture hall beside the one you were just in.

Your eyes widened.

And you mentally facepalmed yourself.

'Of course, he's a professor! Who walks around the campus in a suit like that? Duh!' You were slightly horrified that you almost tried to flirt with a professor.

At the very least, he's not your professor. You got excited by the idea that you're going to see him every day. It's just a harmless little crush, you said to yourself.

And you left the campus smiling.

While waiting for Professor Arnold, Harry was thinking about that girl he bumped into.

He didn't know how to tell you it was really his fault. He already saw you from afar. A face of an angel, lost deep in her thoughts, walking straight ahead.

It might be an exaggeration, but to him, you were the most beautiful woman he has ever seen.

He could've dodged you, stepped aside, and let you pass by. But as you were lost inside your mind, he felt like an arrow went straight through his heart.

He was never one for clichés, but suddenly he didn't know how to introduce himself. His years of training seemingly went out of the window. And he doesn't want to simply let you pass by without knowing your name or seeing your smile. So, he did the ungentlemanly thing and let himself collide against you and pretend like it was an accident. Yet he still failed to introduce himself, or ask for your name.

Harry heard the door open and it snapped him out of his thoughts.

The next day, Harry was outside waiting for you.

"Hello." You heard a familiar voice. You turned to your right and there he was, the professor from yesterday, leaning against the wall.

"I forgot to introduce myself and ask for your name." Harry stood straight and walked towards you. "Do you mind?" and he extended his hand. "Harry Hart." "(Y/FN) (Y/LN)." And you shook it.

"Can I walk with you?" Harry asked. You wanted to say yes, but... "Can you? I mean, isn't that, you know, against the rules?"

"Sorry, rules of what?" Harry paused. "Ah."

He chuckled. "Sorry to give you the wrong impression, but I don't teach here. Well, I am not a professor here or anywhere else for that matter."

"That's a relief." And then it was your turn to chuckle.

You and Harry continued the conversation as you left the campus. It was when the dusk started to settle that you realized you two were walking around aimlessly.

"So, you live around here?" Harry probably had that realization too. "Uh, no. Do you?" "No, I do not. And here I thought I was walking you home like a proper gentleman." And as fate would have it, the two of you happened to stop in front of a quaint café.

"Since we're here, how about we grab something to eat?" Harry asked you.

It was a casual dinner; the conversations came naturally. You could talk to him for days and it would be impossible to run out of things to talk about. You've only just known him for a few hours but it feels like you've already known him for years.

When it was starting to get late, you knew you needed to head home even though you didn't want to part with him just yet.

Over the next few days, Harry was always outside the campus waiting. Although he never revealed anything about his actual job, he would tell you when he's going to be busy with his work as a tailor and wouldn't be able to see you.

Harry knows how to respect your time and your space. Even if you're busy, he'd still wait for you outside your college or your work, sometimes with a single rose or a bouquet of flowers just to say hi, and then get you a cab. And whenever you need him, he is almost always there for you.

This continued for weeks. The dates, the flowers, him waiting for you, until the waving good-bye when parting turned into hugs.

He just seems too perfect to be real, but the smell of his perfume, his aftershave, and his warm hugs are proof that he is as real as he could be.

It's been months and your friends were bugging you to spill the details about your boyfriend, but he wasn't your boyfriend, not yet anyway.

You said to yourself that if he's not going to make the first move, then it's up to you. You invited him over to your place. You told him you have something important to finish and just really wanted to see him. But you were actually planning to cook for him and maybe take the relationship to the next level.

Harry arrived in his navy-blue pinstriped suit, still looking perfect after a day's work. He was surprised. "Well, you weren't lying, you really had something important to do." He smiled and gave you a hug and a kiss on your forehead.

After dinner, he helped you clean up and volunteered to wash the dishes. He took off his suit jacket and rolled the sleeves of his white shirt.

Harry Hart's sexiness just went up a different level, and you thought he has already maxed that.

He looks so adorable while doing the dishes, that you couldn't wait any longer. Once you placed the last plate you dried on the rack, you took the glass he was holding and placed it back on the sink.

He looked at you slightly confused.

You stood on your tiptoes and wrapped your arms around his neck.

He leaned into you slowly.

You closed your eyes and anticipated his lips.

But Harry opened his eyes.

He looked around; a number of medical equipment was attached to him. A buzzer was placed near his hand, which he pressed once the reality set in.

You've heard about the explosion at the campus over social media when you arrived home that day. You asked your friends about it and about that professor you bumped into. Apparently, there was only one casualty, it was Professor Arnold. Poor guy, he seemed like a really smart and somewhat cool professor.

Yet no one seemed to know who the man in the gray suit was.

Months later, on your last day for the semester. Your heart skipped a beat. You saw a familiar figure in a gray suit standing at the end of the hallway. Once you reached the end, there he was, waiting.

"Hello." He was not a ghost or a figment of your imagination.