Hey Jude (Harry Styles fanfic)

3. Love Life

November passed and December was quickly on its way with being over, but not soon enough. Christmas was only a week away and I managed to acquire a job at a small boutique store at the mall called Love Life that sells young women's clothes, lingerie, accessories, and perfumes. I was not lost on the irony of the stores name, but I needed a job nonetheless. There are only two other employees besides our manager, Doreen, who is a rather strange, but sweet woman in her mid forties. I met all my co- workers on my first day, Chad and Linzee, who are around the same age as me. Linzee is strawberry blonde, and she can be a little clueless at times, but she is a friend's first kind of person. Chad is a cute tanned, brown eyed, slender type, who happened to be gay and was not shy about it. He on the other hand took a while to warm up to me and Linzee said it was because he gets threatened by pretty girls and I didn't know whether to take that as a compliment or a insult, but eventually he warmed up to me after finding my lack of interest in any guy.

It was 3:40pm on a Friday and my shift was almost over. It had been Chad and me holding down the fort and Linzee was springing me at four. It had been pretty slow considering Christmas was around the corner, and I was so desperate to go home already. Linzee came in early and started mindlessly chatting about her afternoon, and her run in with her ex at the food court. "I know he saw me and he just acted like I didn't exist!"

"Oh, no girl! He is just trying to play hard to get." Chad told her trying to ease her mind, but also giving her false hope I thought. I began to tune them out, and made sure to count my register and get all of my things together before I left. Chad broke my concentration, "Oh my GOD! My future ex-boyfriend just walked in!" and I looked up to see who he was talking about. Then I froze when I saw those dark curls and flash of green eyes.

"Crap! I know him!" I spat through my teeth, and looked around trying to find someplace to hide, but there was no place close so I just crouched behind the register desk.

Chad looked at me shocked "You know that angel?! How on earth is that possible and why have you never mentioned him before?"

"Well I kind of, sort of stood him up about a month ago." I said ashamed. I took a chance and peeked over the desk and saw Harry browsing the lingerie apparently completely oblivious of the conversation we were having about him.

Then Linzee jumped in, strawberry curls bouncing with excitement "What?! Why would you stand that guy up? He is absolutely gorgeous! When and how did this happen?"

"It was an accident and I just forgot, ok! Listen I really don't want him to see me so can you guys help me out?"

Chad was the one to respond "Of course we will help you out", and then he looked at Harry and loudly said "Hey, Honey! Yeah over here. I believe you know my dear friend Ava." Then Chad winked at me and said "You owe me."

"Yeah, thanks Chad." I said sarcastically. I decided to less embarrass myself so I stood up and saw Harry making his way over to the registers, then that's when he realized it was me. I got to take a closer look and him and, wow, he really did look cute, and I was hyper aware of my brown hair that was thrown into a messy bun and lack of thought and energy I put into today's attire. He was wearing a plain white tee with some holes around the collar with a black and blue flannel over it, and those black jeans and boots he had on the first time I met him. I looked to his eyes and noticed mixed emotions cross his face, and none of them put me at ease. It went from confusion, recognition, shock, and then to disappointment.

"Huh, I thought I would never see you again after you stood me up." He said in a joking way that hinted seriousness at the same time.

"And I am so so so sorry about that. I would have called to cancel or whatever, but we never exchanged numbers." I said ashamed at my poor made up excuse. I shot a resentful glare to Chad and Linzee who then conveniently both had reasons to get away from the tense situation they created, and left me alone with Harry and no escape. I looked back at Harry who seemed to be unaware of our disappearing audience and lost in his own thoughts.