Red Balloon [Liam Payne AU]

vi. What to Do, What to Do

Juliette

“Are you serious?” Beth’s voice, shrill and annoying, cut into my ear, interrupting my thoughts. Someone from the next table over gave her a rude look, so she lowered her voice and repeated softer, “Are you serious?”

Sighing, I nodded as I halfheartedly stirred my tea. As soon as I saw the results for Liam, I knew that I had to tell someone, someone who would understand. Beth was my best friend, so naturally she was on the top of my list. Up until ten minutes ago, she had no idea who Liam Payne was, until I connected the dots for her and told her everything, starting with our consultation and admitting that he was the one I ran away from at the club.

“Juliette, how can someone have no matches? Are you sure you filled his database in correctly? What about you? Don’t you normally match people in your head? Why is this any different?”

“Yes, I’m sure I entered his information in correctly. I just…I don’t know what’s different this time, Beth. Believe me, I wish I did. That’s the craziest thing- I couldn’t match him mentally. Not a single person came to mind.”

She sat back and stared at me, coffee forgotten. “Damn. What are you going to do?”

I bit my lip. “That’s where I’m stuck. I need your help. What can I do?”

Beth leaned forward, fingers drumming on the table. “You could always set him up with that model, Katya, right? How many matches did she have?”

“Three. But you’re right, that could work. Should I tell him?”

Beth scoffed. “What, that he’s a bastard with no chance at love? Not unless you want to break his little heart, Juliette. Where does he work?”

“He’s a journalist, I think.”

“Exactly.” She nodded. “If he found out, he would run you as a front page story in no time. No way can he ever find out.” She took her hair out of her ponytail, a clear sign that she had something to tell me. I knew Beth well enough to know that changing her hairstyle always meant news.

“Juliette, remember when we went out to that club? You know, that one where you ran away from the loveless Liam?”

“How could I forget?” I replied dryly. “I don’t think you’ll ever let me live that down.”

She smirked, adding sugar to her coffee. “Well, you may not remember, seeing as you were so focused on your embarrassment, but I met someone that night. And I would have stayed longer and danced more with him, probably leading up to us having smoking hot sex in a back alley while I-“

“Okay,” I cut in. “I get it. Please spare me the details.”

“So I gave him my number before I left.”

“Your real number or a fake one?”

Beth raised her eyebrows at me, sending a coy smile. “Real.”

“Seriously?” this caught my attention. Beth never gave away her real number, preferring to ‘leave as little emotional baggage behind as possible’. Her words, not mine. She had only given her real number to one other person since I’d known her, and that was her ex-boyfriend, Jeremy.

“Yeah, why not?” Beth sipped the last of her coffee, set it down on the table, and began to gather her coat and bag. Doing the same, I paid the bill, and together we left the shop and flagged a cab, heading towards my apartment. Once we were in the cab, safe from the freezing weather, I turned to Beth. “Alright. Give me details. Who is he, and what makes him different than every other guy you’ve hooked up with?”