Dead Beautiful (A Harrison Wells Fanfic) *ON HOLD*

CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 11.
The One In Which I Get Interrupted Mid-Kiss (Damn You, Raymond!)

The elevator took us till the third floor, after which we had to take the stairs to wherever the hell Harrison was taking me.

“We’re here,” he announced when we reached a door at the top of the stairs. He looked kind of nervous, which I thought was cute. “I hope you don’t think it’s too cheesy.” He opened the door, and when I saw what he had planned, I actually froze right there at the doorway.

First off, the location was perfect. We were on the terrace of STAR Labs, and since the lab was situated on the outskirts of the city, the absence of any noise and air pollution meant a serene space ideal for a date, under a clear, star-studded sky. The view of the city, with its twinkling bright lights, was breathtaking. And in the middle of all that, on the terrace floor, was the most magnificent picnic spread ever, lit up with beautiful, glowing jars and cute little fairy lights.

“Oh, wow,” I breathed. “Harry, this is amazing.” I turned around to look at him. “Um, would you mind if I call you Harry? Your name’s kind of a mouthful. No offense.”

“Honestly, at this point, you can probably call me anything you want and I won’t mind,” he said, giving me a wink. “Come on.”

We sat down on the picnic cloth, and Harrison opened the hamper, taking out a few cans of Red Bull from it (my favourite drink; how the hell did he know?) “I’ve heard that you don’t drink, so I didn’t bring any alcohol.”
Huh. I was impressed. The guy had actually taken the time to do his research. And he was not going to drink tonight because of me? Awww. “Oh, that’s okay, I really wouldn’t have minded if you wanted to have a drink tonight.” I gave an embarrassed cough. “And, um, this is probably a really bad time to be telling you this, but, uh, I’m vegetarian.”

Harrison smiled assuringly at me. “I know. That’s why I bought this.” He began taking out bowls of packed food from the hamper one by one, and on one of the bowls I spied the stylized logo of the Michelin-starred restaurant, Kajitsu.

“Holy shit,” I exclaimed, my eyes widening at the sight of the logo. “How the hell did you manage to get food from Kajitsu in four freakin’ hours? It’s impossible to get a reservation there unless you do it, like, three weeks earlier. Trust me, I’ve tried. It’s supposed to be one of the best vegan restaurants in the city, after all. And I thought they didn’t do take-outs.”

“They don’t, but they made an exception for me,” Harrison explained, a tad cockily. “The head chef there is a good friend of mine.”

I raised an eyebrow. “For someone as asocial as you are, you sure have a lot of friends in a lot of places, don’t you?”

Harrison looked amused. “Who said I was asocial?”

“Your biography. Or Barry did, to be exact.” I sighed. “He wouldn’t talk about anything else after he read that thing. Which is why I’m afraid I know a disturbing lot about you.”

“I wouldn’t feel too bad about that if I were you,” Harrison said, looking slightly abashed. “I’m afraid I might have grilled your friend Iris about you, too. That’s how I came to know that you like Red Bull, and that you’re a vegetarian and love Japanese food – well, now I know why.” He nodded toward the food spread between us. “Why don’t you dig in?”

“Don’t mind if I do,” I said, as though I wasn’t just dying to rip the seals off of those bowls. Oh man, the fragrance coming out from them was just heavenly. Harrison handed me a plate and proceeded to open up the bowls. It was all I could do not to drool.