To those unfamiliar with American history, this short story was inspired by the memorial event that occurred 13 years ago on September 11, 2001 in the collapse of the World Trade Center. In no way was this story meant to disrespect the lives that had been lost during this tragic event.
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It had been just another normal day at the office; Harry had arrived promptly at 7:15 in the morning and made his way to the lounge to make himself a cup of coffee. He turned the coffee maker on and leaned against the counter, waiting for the machine to do its thing. He swung his coffee mug back and forth on his index finger as he hummed softly.
He glanced through the window of the lounge and spotted a certain blonde scurrying across the office floor, towards his presumed cubical and neatly placing his briefcase onto the desk before grabbing his coffee mug. Harry immediately pushed himself off of the counter and hurriedly positioned himself back in front of the coffee maker.
"Good morning, Harry." Niall's cheerful voice rang into Harry's ears as he entered the lounge; although he was completely exhausted for having to wake up at 6:30 for work, Harry always made sure that he arrived to the office early, just to catch an hour or so of Niall's time.
"Hello," Harry smiled, turning around meekly to face Niall. Even though Harry enjoyed talking to Niall, he wasn't the one who did most of the talking; more often than not, Niall would just begin rambling about the strangest things and Harry would just stand back and listen.
"Did you hear me, Harry?" Niall whined, throwing his hands dramatically into the air. "I dropped my briefcase into a puddle last night! Thank goodness I was holding most of the paperwork in my arms because my briefcase popped open and everything inside got wet!"
Harry chuckled and rested his bum against the counter. He casually crossed his arms across his chest as he continued to listen to Niall rant about the pains of drying his leather briefcase.
"Did you hear about the new café that just opened up near the ground floor? I was wondering, if perhaps you wanted to, we could have lunch together or something; you know, to get to know each other more," Niall rambled, glancing down at the floor to hide his embarrassment.
"Yeah, I'd love to," Harry blushed, running his hand through his hair shyly. An uncomfortable silence ensued between the two before the coffee maker finally stopped dripping.
Harry pushed himself off of the counter and approached the machine. He carefully removed the decanter and offered to pour some coffee into Niall's mug. Niall gladly accepted and blushed madly when their fingers brushed against each other.
"How's the flat renovation coming along?" Harry asked, glancing over at the smaller lad, who was now dumping spoonful after spoonful of sugar into his mug. Harry smiled and handed Niall the bottle of creamer—after the blonde had tipped the fourth spoon of sugar into his mug—having memorized Niall's morning coffee routine.
"Um," Niall hummed, swirling the wooden stirrer around in his coffee absentmindedly. "I've been staying over at my mate's flat for the past few days, but it's quite awkward because I can sometimes hear him going at it with his girlfriend." He stuck the stick into his mouth and sucked on it, making sure that his coffee tasted just the way he liked it.
Harry stared down at his mug and tipped the bottle of creamer into his coffee. "If you'd like, you can crash over at my flat until the renovation is complete," Harry said, quickly swirling his coffee about as he tried to dig through his mind to find the right words to say. "I mean, I live alone and there's definitely plenty of room for you; just so you have more options, you know?"
