all the love // H.S au (university series)

the beginning

THE BEGINING
"I'll have a medium chai latte with soy please." I say to the barista of my favorite little café. She punched in my order and took my cash as I stuffed some extra change into her tip jar with freshly manicured nails. She smiled so generously I felt like we were celebrating thanksgiving back in the states.

While waiting for my drink to warm me up in the gloomy, cold, and dreary weather of London, the door opened behind me which allowed a gush of cool air which sent a shiver down my spine. The guy who entered was a good foot taller than me, given I'm only 5 ft, and he stood very close behind me, which made me shift in my shoes slightly uncomfortably. He was close enough to see the hairs standing up on my skin due to the cold weather.

with his hands awkwardly stuffed in his pockets he murmured "Sorry, didn't want to make you chilly love." His accent threw me off because I'm so used to hearing exaggerated O's back in Minnesota. But here in England, everyone spoke with a slightly different tongue.

The guy reached for a menu from the deli bar in front of me and put more distance between us. My breathing evened after that and my feet stood sturdy.

"It's okay, I should be getting used to the weather over here by now." I said, grabbing my latte from the counter in response to the englishman.

"Are you from out of town?" He asked bluntly, looking up from his menu. I saw him for the first time, and I had to tell you, my eyes liked what I saw. He basically checked off everything on my attractive appearance list. Tall, check. Curly hair, check. Brunette, check. Fucking British, chECK! I couldn't help but blush at my instant attraction to him.

"I'm actually from the states, I moved here last December."

"Nice, Nice. well I've lived here my entire life, as you can probably infer." He said, placing the menu back on the counter, suddenly losing interest in it and gaining more interest in our conversation.

"Yeah, your voice kind of gives it away. What part of England are you from?" I asked, noticing his tone was slightly different than the rest of the Londoners. It's just something you pick up on, I guess.

"Cheshire." He said swiftly, sending me a grin.

"Like the Cheshire Cat! Alice in wonderland is one of my favorite books. I love how it just makes no sense and the author truly intended it to be that way. there's no deep, philosophical meaning behind it, like the Inferno or something. It's simply a childish, meaningless load of nonsense. But I love it because of that."

The guy's rich grin had stretched his whole face, enough to make an adorable dimple appear on the left side of his face. My eyes widened at how much I just nerded out right there in front of the cutest guy ever. Wow, way to go Isabelle. I'm sure a deep dark Crimson had reached my cheeks by now. I nervously pushed away my long brown locks from my face, just to give my hands something to do. I shuffled my feet so they wouldn't get too jittery, too.

"If you allow me to be blunt, I must say you're adorable. What's your name?"

"Isabelle Lombardo. What is yours?" Oh great, now I'm blushing even harder.

"Harry Styles." The cutie with curls extended his hand for me to shake, and I slipped my hand in his politely.

"sorry I just went off on a weird little tangent."

"Don't apologize, love. I actually enjoy literature quite a bit; I could talk about books all day."

"Really? thank god because if any other non-literature loving person had that conversation with me, I would've been toast."

"So tell me, Isabelle. That's a beautiful name, by the way. Tell me what some of your favorite books are." Harry said, sitting down at the nearest table & gesturing for me to sit with him. I shyly took the hint and sat down across from him.

"First off, thank you. I enjoy my name a lot too." I said, pushing strands of hair behind my ear to give my hands something to do. "And asking what my favorite books are has to be the most impossible thing out there, for me at least. you tell me your favorites first and I'll let you know if anything comes to mind, yeah?"

I noticed Harry playing with his long fingers, and he was biting his lip in thought. Wow, was that a sight to see or what. Suddenly his sharp green eyes met mine and they seemed to glint with a hint of a smirk.

"Where the sidewalk ends. I've loved that book since I was a little kid, and my mum would absolutely have to read a poem to me every night or else I'd throw a fit." Harry admitted.

"Shel Silverstein, he's great. I agree. Certainly not yor favorite poet though?" I question.

"No. But who is your favorite poet, Isabelle?" Harry asked me. Why does he insist on knowing my literature preferences? Its not that I dislike talking about myself or anything, it's just i'd rather learn more about him. But I guess I'll just answer his questions.

After giving it some though, I said the only poet that stuck out in my mind.
"Not to be like all the other people in the world who are like 'omg bukowski'... but oh my god Bukowski. Contemporary poet, at least." I say with enthusiasm and take a sip of my latte.

"Bukowski is bloody brilliant, so what if he's super popular. Popularity just means a lot of people knows what's up."

"Exactly! I really dislike the stigma that everything popular is bad. Like
damn, let me listen to Katy Perry every once in a while!" I exclaimed, playing along with Harry's energy.

"Not going to lie to you, Katy Perry is the shit."

"She's super catchy, no shame in loving her." I said, giggling slightly at him.

Conversations like this went on for about another hour between a few more chai lattes and black coffees, until I realized I needed to be back at my aunts apartment before her shift ended at her restaurant. It was pretty convenient for her because the restaurant was directly below our apartment. During breaks I would go down and help bus tables or run food to customers, just to make an extra buck.

"Harry, I'm sorry I've got to split. My aunt is going to freak out if I'm not at hers when she gets home." I say, apologetically looking at him and gathering my winter belongings.

"No problem, really. It was great chatting with you today though." Harry said, standing up and extending his arms. I seriously got lightheaded from his actions.

"It really was. Thanks for listening to me babble about Shakespeare for like an hour." I said into Harry's chest. He enclosed his large arms around my petite frame, and oh my god. He was so warm and he smelled so nice. he smelled like a lumberjack, a nice mix of a must and fresh air and pine trees and mint. 

"Thanks for listening to me rant about parsing through blank verse poetry." Harry said, finally pulling away and outstretch of his arms as if he's trying to get a good look at me.

I smiled at him, and all the sudden his face was coming closer to mine. I kinda freaked out on the inside, but my exterior remained calm and collected. It had to be. He seemed as if he was moving in slow motion, but he was actually quite swift when he planted a quick kiss on the side of my cheek. Of course I blushed after his kind gesture. It was friendly and appreciative, and super genuine.

"I'll see you around?" Harry asked after s few moments of not saying anything.

"Oh, yeah of course!" I said, coming back down from my head in the clouds "Bye Harry, take care!"

I quickly slipped on my mittens, looked back to send harry, who was now getting ready to leave, another smile. He waved back at me and I took off to walk back to my aunts apartment with a lighter spring to my step and a faint smile across my lips.