Selfless (Sequel to "Left and Right in The Dark") - A Julian Casablancas Fanfic

Chapter 3 - Part 2: A Face I Know So Well (Sophie's POV)

Sophie's POV:

'It's him. It's actually him.'

"Wow," I say softly, my eyes getting wide. "It's been so long."

"Yeah, it has," he replies. There is a soft fry in his voice, but it's not a 'tired' kind of fry. It's an attractive fry that lingers through that soothing voice that takes me back to when I first met him.

I look at his face. It still looks the same, with the same kind eyes that I was captivated by six years ago. The only difference I can notice is his hairstyle. His hair is dyed black like it was back then, but now it's grown out and cut into layers. I also notice a dyed orange-blonde streak of hair on the right side of his head. The new style looks really cool on him.

"Oh, sorry, we should probably take care of this first," his attention quickly diverts as he looks down at the spill.

"Yeah," I agree.

Both of us get up to get some tissues before cleaning the small puddle of coffee. After a few moments of cleaning up and getting our distractions out of the way, he turns back to me. I give him a warm smile.

"Um, this might be a bit too late in the moment, but can I hug you?" I ask, a little awkwardly.

I notice a wide smile immediately bloom on his face.

"That shouldn't even be a question for me, Sophie," he says before quickly pulling me into a long hug (but a great kind of long). I laugh in happiness as we hug each other tightly. I hear him chuckle as well as we slowly sway our bodies from side to side. After a while, we pull away from the hug.

"Here, let me get you another coffee," he offers.

"Oh, Jules, you don't have to-" I try to stop him.

"No, it's perfectly fine. I'll get you one."

"Ok, thanks. But do you know what flavor I like?"

"Hazelnut, how could I forget?" he smiles, making me smile back.

Julian soon comes back with two hazelnut coffees and we both sit on some lounge chairs.

"So, let's pick up on where we left off. What have you been doing over the last six years?"

"Well, after finishing college, I went to the University of Toronto and graduated with a finance degree. I ended up graduating from there a year early because I took advanced classes in college, so I got a lot of university credits out of the way. Then, I decided to move to New York. So, I finished my post-Grad studies here and now I work for Citibank as a Financial Analyst."

"Damn," he smiles, quickly raising and lowering his eyebrows. "You never cease to amaze me with how brilliant you truly are."

"It can be kind of stressful at times. I do get a great salary out of it though, and I don't have to work on weekends, so I guess those are a few positives," I say, laughing a little bit at the end.

"I can kinda relate to that. Mostly the stress, because of traveling to different places almost every day, and going from country to country. Don't get me wrong, touring is such a fun experience, and meeting my fans and traveling around is great, but jetlag can be a huge problem."

"I hear you," I nod before taking a sip of my coffee.

"Do you still play music?"

"Of course! You know that music runs through my family."

"How's your family?"

"They're good! Alex finished his post-Grad as well and he's back in Canada with our parents."