Muse [h.s.]

5. congratulations

🎵Fire For You — Cannons

Ella's POV
present day

There's no way that he's here — it doesn't make sense. How did he even know I was in Miami?

Lydia and Jax said they hadn't told him anything about my whereabouts; I believe them, but what was he even doing here?

It's been months, six of them, in fact, since I've last seen or spoke to him. The last time we spoke was the night I left New York, the night he released his album.

"Ella? You look pale," Chloe speaks, her voice making me flash out of my thoughts.

I shake my head, as if it could rid the things whizzing past in my head right now. "Do you know him, have you two met before? I know you said lots of celebrities went to that bar you worked at in New York..." Chloe fires question after question at me..

"I, um—"

"She's just starstruck, Chloe," Derek jokes from behind me. "Let her breathe for a sec!" I force a chuckle out.

Hardly.

"Yeah," I say between another chuckle. "That's just it." Starstruck, sure; we'll go with that.

"Well, you better go! Don't keep him waiting!" Chloe shrieks, pushing me towards the door. Oh, fuck me.

Chloe gives me an encouraging thumbs-up as I head towards the door, rubbing my sweaty palms against my pants. I walk through the doorway, the pumping bass of the music flooding through my ears and pounding against my eardrums.

The club is crowded, much to my surprise — so many people are here, dancing to the music and throwing shots down their throats at the bar. A sense of pride surges through me.

But despite the mass of bodies that I have to squeeze through, my eyes settle on a familiar figure. I notice his hands first — he's added more rings to his fingers; he wears them now on all of his fingers, save his thumbs. From here, I can make out a deep maroon shade of nail polish on his fingernails.

My eyes trail up to his and the world seems to suddenly still around me — the music drowns out, the club seems to come to a halt from my perspective.

I've looked into those moss-colored eyes so many times, compared them in my mind to the most beautiful of things that I've seen, but for some reason, I just can't compare them to anything right now.

All I can take note of how captivating his eyes are. After all this time, they still seem to be able to knock the wind out of me.

It's like the past memories of the last year begin to flood my mind — his eyes lighting up when he'd laugh, his eyes darkening slightly with the change of seasons, the way they've always seem to convey exactly what he's feeling without him saying anything at all.

I shake my head slightly, bringing myself back to reality. None of that matters, anyways. I take a deep breath before I walk towards him; I can feel his gaze on me as I step behind the bar.

I narrow my eyes, forcing myself to keep the eye contact between us. His hair grew a bit, it now hangs in looser curls than the way it did before. He's wearing a floral button down, always buttoned as his midriff so that the ink on his chest and tummy is on full display.