Follow the Stars

chapter one

It was a beautiful cloudy morning right on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in a small town of just about 600 people called Portifino. People walked around town, going about their mornings, heading to work, including 23 year old Harry Styles who owns a small bookstore and coffee shop.

Harry ran inside and quickly closed his umbrella as it was lightly raining outside. Rain is not uncommon in Portifino and after a few years of living here you get quite used to it. A rainy day is still just like every other day, people still go out on their boats and walk around the tiny town. June is one of the nicer months however, it rains for about half the day about four days a week and if you are lucky it will be at night.

Harry threw his umbrella in a small tin bin next to the door that is perched on a wooden stool that writes, 'rain, rain go away'. He placed his keys under the cashier desk in a special place just like he does everyday because when he first opened the place and he lost his keys three days in a row. Harry sprinted over to the small pile of books he left on the floor the night before and tried to stack them to look presentable. He looked at his watch which read, 8:58, two minutes until opening and he still had to pick which book should be the 'book of the day'. He ended up just picking a random book off the shelf and ran over to the front table to its new display and ran over to the door to flip the sign from 'closed' to 'open'. 9:00, nailed it. Harry knows that most coffee shops open early, at like 5am, but he can not drag himself out of bed before 8:30, considering he practically has to sprint to work everyday.

As soon as the sign flips to open a older lady, probably about her 70's walks in. It's Dakota, everyone in the town knows her and she always comes to the coffee shop at the same time everyday to get her morning coffee.

   "Harry darling, smooth out your shirt, what is a nice man comes in the store today and your shirt is all wrinkly." Dakota exclaims. Most people in this town are Italian but most still speak English most the time.

   "If a nice man walks in today and decides that I am his soulmate he should love me weather or not my black hawaiian t-shirt with flamingos is wrinkled, "Harry responses, "anyway you want the usual?"

"Of course I do! I've been coming in here everyday for three years and I've got the same thing every time, so yes Harry I do."

"Ok ok coming right up."

The shop was slow this particular morning, and was pretty quiet. Harry was thankful, he had been up reading last night until one am and slept terribly. All of his quiet peacefulness with just Dakota in the stop went out the window when a short brunette ran into the store and fell onto the nearest chair.

"Ahh crap!" he screamed as he ran in.

He looked exhausted and soaked from rain. He was holding a suitcase, a duffel bag and had a Lululemon crossover bag around him. He wore cuffed jeans and a black t-shirt with tiny holes in it. He sat there with his head laying on the table, panting, for a few moments before he jumped up and walked over to Harry behind the cash register. Harry thoughtful himself that he was smoking hot.

"Sorry lad didn't mean to run in like that, I'm in town visiting for a couple weeks and apparently me mate forgot to mention there are no streets that cars can drive on in town so I had to walk here from where my cab dropped me off, I swear it was like 10 miles and all of the sudden it starts raining and I don't know which direction my mates flat is at and then I saw this place that says, 'coffee/bookshop that also has flowers' and I thought that would be a good place to hide so now I'm here," the man explains very fast, "So hi, also your shirt is wrinkled," he added and chuckled.

"I told you Harry!" Dakota yelled from behind her magazine.

   "Told him what?"

   "Nothing, Dakota shut it!" Harry exclaimed, "Well umm hi welcome to Portifino, who's house it you are looking for? There is only so many people who live here I probably know them."