6:00pm. Sunday.
I checked my watch for the thousandth time in the four seconds I stood across the street of my cafe store. I had inherited it from my family when I turned eighteen, best birthday present of my life. I've been managing it for nearly a year.
Crowding around my cafe was a hoard of teenage girls. Like it was an army, I have no idea how long I stood there gawking at my place. Many of them holding cameras, phone or whatever else took pictures nowadays. I frowned, how the hell was I supposed to get through, and why were there so many people. I didn't understand. It was Sunday, a regular one, and I'm sure nothing important was happening. Especially at my cafe, where I held up good business, had good regulars and such. It wasn't much of a big deal..
What was so special about today?
To my left I saw paparazzi like a block away... What the eff...
It was safe to say I was completely confused. Who was so important that from the amounts of people around, it seemed like the president was there. Well, that would've been a shocker.
"Excuse me," I cut into a conversation of two girls off to my right, they were talking about Taylor Swift. One of them looked at me expectantly. "Who's in there?"
I pointed to my cafe.
"Taylor Swift and Harry Styles," one of them gushed with a smile, and ignored me.
Right... Those two names were very familiar. Everyone knew Taylor Swift and Harry Styles. Se was the famed country-pop singer, she was pretty, to say in the least. Not really my genre of music, and Harry Styles. His names stirred something in my memories, but I simply pushed it away. It was probably just because I've seen them on TV. One of the five boys from the band One Direction. They were well known, that's for sure. My roommate had their CDs and would blast their music every other day. I didn't mind, I'm was an open person to music. They had good vocals and harmonies, their songs were very catchy too.
Now, my question was, how was I going to get through the fangirls. The street I was on wasn't horrible, or busy. It actually was on a pedestrian street. At the moment that meant bad news for me. Meaning they wouldn't get run over by cars and wouldn't leave. I've been to concerts before, not One Direction, but it was as crazy as now. I knew how to deal, somewhat. I sucked in a breath and started my trek through the fan girls.
What consisted of what I said was a mix of excuse me, move, I need to get through, etc. Surprisingly, many did let me through and others pushed me back. I had found myself stuck in the middle of a sea of them. I sighed, not knowing what I had gotten myself into.
"How long have they been in there?" I asked a random girl next to me.
"About five minutes, according to people up ahead, they've decided to stay and eat," I nodded at her thanks and prepped myself.
I was going to get through. People have said that when I wanted, I had a loud voice. I guess it came with my heritage, Brazilians tended to be loud like it was nobodies business.
"Everyone move!" I shouted at the top of my lungs, and their chatted ceased immediately, kind of threw me off for a few seconds.
Apparently no one was expecting that and I was able to push through to the front, but I came face to face with a security guard, blocking my path to the door.
People stared at me, more in curiosity than anything. I faced the security guard with a brave front.
"I need to get into my cafe, I own it. It's mine, and I live here, my apartment is above the cafe," I said in a semi-authorized voice.
He looked at me like he's heard that before.
"What's it gonna prove that I own it?" I narrowed my eyes at him and crossed my arms.
"We got word that the name of the owner is Leah Santos, " he said, in a gruff tone. "Show some valid ID and I'll let you through."
I pulled my out drivers license and shoved it in his face. He took it and read it, hesitantly.
"That's me, I own Cozy Nook , now if you please, I want to check up on how everything is, and actually go to work," I snatched my license back and trudged past him." Thank you very much."
I entered the wonderfully warm cafe, and sighed contently. Outside was freezing. You could imagine my confusion when I wasn't greeted by my six o'clock regulars. My eyes raked the small cafe, I spotted the causes for the commotion. The place was deserted like the freaking desert, save for my workers and five people and a baby.
"What the fuck is this?" I snapped, in Portuguese, walking past the only people in the cafe, it was a relatively small cafe I tell you, and I narrowed my eyes at my roommate who was behind the counter at the back, near the occupied booth.
They all turned to look at me as I ignored them.
"I'm sorry Lee!" Claire spluttered out, in Portuguese as well. "These guys came in and their security kicked everyone out, and you weren't here and I didn't know what to do and I got pissed and there was shouting and now there's no one."
She rambled off in a tangent of Portuguese, earning confused looks from my only customers, and ran off into the kitchen. I exhaled and walked around the counter. I placed my things in their place and took my jacket off, and got comfortable. When I looked up they shifted their eyes from me, and went back to eating. I took my waist apron and walked over to them.
"Okay, could somebody please explain to me why there isn't anyone but you guys in here?" I said calmly. "Cuz' I sure as hell am confused."
"I'm sorry we're taking up your cafe," a pretty lady with a light grey- lilac hair apologized, she had a British accent. "We'll make sure to leave a tip big enough to cover your afternoon."
I noticed she shot Harry and Taylor a look. They had similar sheepish looks.
"Yeah I'll cover any business that you've lost," Harry gave me an apologetic look.
I stared at him for a few seconds. That. Accent. What the hell, I'm sure that it was illegal to have an accent that attractive and those eyes that I felt as if they priced through me. Sue me, I appreciated a good looking guy when I saw one. This Harry Styles oozed charm, like a plague.
"Fine, whatever floats your boat," I shrugged, not really caring if they payed tip or not.
People only paid tip from time to time.
"I'm curious," a voice cut in, it was a guy who was feeding the baby girl. I looked at him, acknowledging that he spoke to me. "What language were you speaking before?"
"Portuguese, from Brazil," I smiled slightly. "I'm Brazilian." Then a realization dawned on me. "Ugh I'm sorry, where are my manners? I'm Leah Santos, I'm the owner of this lovely place. Welcome to my lovely corner of the city. Nice to meet all of you. Sorry for sounding brash."
"To you as well!" The lady smiled at me. "I'm Lou Teasdale and this is my fiancé Tom and my daughter Lux."
I waved and smiled at the little girl.
"Hello to you too as well," I nodded at Harry and Taylor.
Harry winked with a smirk, and Taylor didn't look too happy.
"Okay, what do you want?" Taylor spoke up for the first time.
My eyebrows shot up, in confusion. This was also news for the others sitting at the table. Mind you, she did say it politely, but still...
"Excuse me?" I questioned, now with a frown.
"Do you want an autograph?" was her question, she narrowed her eyes a bit, but managed to keep her tone at a nice level.
I nearly scoffed, but refrained from doing so.
"No I'm good. I'm just doing the right thing and being polite, seeing as you guys are the only customers I have. My cafe is a welcoming place. Sorry if you mistook my friendliness and turned it around, towards your star dome," I rolled my eyes and shot her a look. "Honestly, have some sense and don't think that it's all about your fame. That means nothing to me."
I muttered a farewell and walked away, towards the front of the cafe, I opened the door and called over the security guard. I gave him a look.
"If you can't get rid of these teenage girls in the next ten minutes, I'm calling the police to solve this," I glared at him and waved my hand slightly around. "Because this is crazy. I just want my regular business back. No pubescent girls hovering around. Don't think I'm not serious."
Surely they were able to clear off the street, and the fangirls disappeared. How? I still didn't know to this day.
"Impressive trick, " a voice tore me out if my thoughts.
Harry Styles of course.
"Nobody wants the police involved," I shrugged and turned to the owner of the raspy low voice. "Food was good?"
He nodded and smiled a dimpled smile. "Yes, it was really good. Sorry about Taylor, she's annoyed because fans were following us everywhere all day. She's actually a sweetheart."
"It's alright, I'm sure it gets annoying, but it does come with the job," I remarked looking up at him.
"That it does," Harry stated agreeing, then he switched around the conversation. "So you're Brazilian?"
God, the way he said Brazilian. Now that was something.
"Yup, though I was born here, but I have a citizenship there," I said and leaned against the bar counter, yes we had a mini bar in the cafe. "I always love going there, to visit family and just relax it's amazing."
"Whoa," he seemed genuinely interested, "I've always wanted to go. I think next tour we're going to South America. It's exciting."
"Good, Brazil is truly an amazing country. I love it. I love my culture, I love my people and the ambiance of it all, trust me. It's one of a kind," I said, longingly.
"Maybe you can tell me more later," Harry blurted out.
I gawked at him and smirked.
"What are you trying to say?" I raised an eyebrow at him. "and what about Miss country over there? She really seems to think you guys ave something going on."
Really, Taylor was looking at me with hidden malice, I thought she was a nice person, despite her rudeness. Jealously was coursing through her, it took a girl to see it easily. Jealousy did things to a person.
Harry laughed, it was beautiful, and shook his head, curls flayed everywhere.
"No, she's just a friend to me, and I know what you mean. I'm perfectly a single pringle, as my friend Niall put it," he said lightly, but I could tell there was a inside joke hidden somewhere there.
He was a actually giving me an expectant look.
"You want my number?" I raised an eyebrow at him.
He gave me a smirk.
"I can give you mine, but the result would be the same." A cheeky grin enshrouded he features.
"Well, I can but isn't there some international charge? Because you're not from around here?" I said, and pulled out my phone.
"There is but, I'll worry about that later," he said simply.
Psh celebrities.
I unlocked my phone and he took it, and imputed his number into it and saved it.
Out of the corner of my eye I noticed two girls outside the cafe window staring at us with wide eyes, but Harry handed me back my phone and broke me out of my trance. He had saved his number as Harold Styles. I laughed and changed it to Popstar.
"Much better," I showed it to him.
Harry laughed and pushed some hair out of his eyes.
"Whatever works for you," he smiled. "How bout' once they're ready to leave," he motioned to the others in the booth. "You come with us?"
I gave him a curious look.
"Aren't you guys headed back to the hotel?" I said, stating as if it was obvious.
"We are yeah, do you want to come and hang with us?" He stated curiously, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
I wanted to say yes, I really did. Even though I didn't necessarily had to work in the cafe, I wanted to. It's how I got by and how I lived. At least I had to work until ten, and then I was free.
"I'm sorry, I have to work till ten," I finally said. "Wish I could though!"
A look crossed of smugness over his features.
"I'll stay with you and them we'll head over to the hotel!" Harry said, seemingly as if he solved all the worlds problems.
"We don't even know each other," I argued, pointing out the fact that I just met him.
Harry sighed and gave me a look, like he was expecting me to remember something.
"Why don't we just start now?" His face lit up and he stuck out his hand. "I'm Harry Styles, and it's nice to meet you, love."
"Leah Santos," I humored him and shook his hand.
He shuffled a bit closer to me and got to my eye level.
"Good, now that we got those introductions out of the way," he smirked, I eyed him and tried not to gulp at the fact that he was so close to me. Our proximity felt too familiar. "and you come along with me later on and we can get to know each other better."
I'm not so sure if he meant that suggestively or not...
"Well, then sure," I gave in, I mean really, who wouldn't? "Just stay back and don't interfere when people come in. I don't need a ruckus here."
Harry grinned and walked back over to his friends. Surely, after they left he stayed behind.
"Do you think I could work the registrar?" He asked, dimples showing their form.
I bit my lip, maybe people who'd come in wouldn't make so much noise over the fact that Harry was there. Maybe. God knows how Claire would react if she knew that Harry had stayed behind. Turns out that him staying wasn't a big deal. The security, or bodyguards had left, begrudgingly. A few fans did come in and asked for pictures and autographs from him and he obliged happily. I was getting ready to close up for the night, since it was Sunday, ten was my closing time.
"Why do I recognize her..." I heard Harry mutter, as I closed the blinds.
The tables were now clean, thanks to Harry's help, and I let my employees go for the night, it was nearing ten o'clock already. Claire had left to go on a date with some guy she had met yesterday, I don't know. She'd tell me about it later. The girl didn't even come back into the café so she didn't see Harry.
"Sorry what was that?" I pulled up a stool next to Harry, who was now sitting on one behind the counter.
He looked at me, his green eyes clouded with thoughtfulness.
"It's been bothering me," he said and tousled his hair slightly. "I think I've met you before.."
I narrowed my eyes at him.
"If I met you before, I think I would've remembered your cheeky face," I scrunched up my nose.
Seconds later Harry seemed to have an epiphany.
"Yes! Two weeks ago I met you, you were piss drunk, and I wasn't better off myself," he said and looked at me with wide eyes.
"How..." I looked at him confused.
Harry now looked like he actually knew me, recognition sparked in his eyes.
"We slept together," Harry said in a slow tone, maybe he thought the information would sink in faster.
I gawked at him and probably looked like a fish out of water. My eyes widened and I snapped my jaw shut. Harry did seem like my type, but I thought I would've remembered him.
"Whoa, so you came here?" I motioned at the bar, my memory of that night, nearly drinking myself into oblivion was very vague.
"Yes, your flat is above here. There are secret stairs at the back, in the kitchen," he recited easily. "They lead up to your flat. I left through the back exit before you woke up. Sorry about that, the lads and I had an interview and I was nearly late.." Harry also pulled out his phone and scrolled through something quickly and shoved it in my face. "You also gave me your number, randomly mind you and I saved you under Little Bird, since you didn't tell me your name, and you kept on singing Ed's song," he gave me the phone.
I blushed to the core. It was just sinking in that I had slept with the Harry Styles. I frowned and gave him back his phone, where was Claire during all of this.
"Wow, I'm sorry my memory of that night is practically nonexistent," I shifted my hands through my long curly mane of hair. "Sometimes if I really think about it, I can kind of remember being with someone and that someone helping me. The rest is black."
Harry stared at me as I finished closing up the shop and then turned to the registrar and counted the days expenses and put them in a little bag. I was going to have to do the count later and grabbed my stuff.
"I just have to put these things upstairs, I'm done for the night," I smiled and walked towards the kitchen door.
Harry grinned and grabbed his jacket and followed after me.

Notes

Thanks for reading! Posting next chapter soon.
xx