I yawn huge as I enter the bakery the next day. I hate opening up the shop, it's way too early. The shop is empty and dark. I walk over to the light switch and get the lights on before putting on the ovens. I leave my jacket in the back and stretch before going over to put the chairs down on the floor. I move over to the counter to switch the radio on while I work and I sing along with the music as I make sandwiches and bake some fresh cinnamon buns. When the clock hit seven I walk over to the door to unlock the door and put the open sign up.

It takes a couple of minutes before our regular shows up to get some breakfast. I smile kindly at them and put the coffee in the cups, sandwiches in the bags and an extra cookie for my favorites. Yes, I do that. I treat nice and lovely people differently, I think that is one of the reasons why they come back. Good service is the key.

Around eight Lea shows up, looking wonderfully hangover. That she never learns! I snicker at her as I take the order of a man in his late fifties.

“Feeling great?” I ask as she leans against the counter beside me.

“Wonderful!” She groans, getting her hair up in a bun on her head.

“You should learn to go home when I do, then you wouldn't feel as bad the next day.” I say, smiling sheepishly at her.

“Yeah, but then it wouldn't be as fun. It's when you leaves that all the fun starts, you miss everything.” She say and stretch her tongue out at me.

“Oh, yeah? Like what? What happened last night?” I ask, raising my eyebrows at her. She narrows her eyes at me, thinking hard. I laugh when I see the realization in her eyes that nothing happened.

“Well last night was a bad example, usually things happen.” She tries to defend. I just shake my head at her before pulling a pan out of the oven and the wonderful smell of chocolate chip cookies hit my nose. Lea walks over to the front to take care of a customer as I put the cookies on a plate.

“So what happened last night with you-know-who?” Lea ask as I put the plate on the counter, putting a see-through lid on top. I feel my cheeks get a little hotter by the mention of him. I've been so nervous for today that it's insane. It's basically the first time we've really sat down and talked. What the hell I'm going to say – I don't know.

“Eh...well, he said that he left because they had a meeting really early and he didn't want to wake me.” I say and shrug. I look over at Lea who is frowning.

“Do you believe him?” She ask and I don't know what to answer, because honestly – I don't know. I shrug and wipe the counter with a rag. “So what happens now?” She puts a couple of cups in a row on the counter beside the coffee machine.

“He's meeting me for lunch, we're gonna talk.” I say, looking over at her with a scared expression, I really don't know what I'm doing. Her mouth hangs open in shock.

“What? Wow. That's big! You two talking?” She say with an excessive shocked voice, making me snicker.

“Yeah, totally unreal huh?” I say with a fake voice too, sounding like a real snob.

“What are you going to say?” She ask more serious now.

“I have no idea. I just feel like we should talk about everything, figuring out what the hell is going on. Though I'm not going to confess to anything.” I say as I see Lea's eyes getting bigger. I'm not going to tell Louis anything about my feelings for him. Never. He can not know about them. He'd use them as a weapon to make me miserable.

“Fine, just tell me everything when you get back.” She say and start picking up dishes from a couple of tables.

“What restaurant do you think I should take him? We need to be pretty secluded if we're talking about everything.” I ask her as she puts the dishes in the dishwasher.

“What about Nandos?” She suggest and I frown.

“That's way too noisy at lunch.” I shake my head.

“True! How about Trish, they have those booths in the back?” She suggest and I like it.

“Perfect! I'll call them and book a table.” That should be private enough, but still in public. We shouldn't be alone.

---

I'm putting some freshly washed coffee cups on the counter when I hear the familiar bell on the door, telling me that a customer has come inside the bakery. My back is toward the door but I don't turn around since Lea is standing by the front counter.

“Hi Louis.” I hear her greeting and I almost drop the tray of cups. I feel my cheeks flush as I set it down carefully on the counter before turning around to see Louis looking hot in a denim jacket.

“Hi.” I say breathless and smile nervously.

“Hey.” He say and smile back, tucking his hands in his pockets. I can't tear my eyes away from him. I see Lea looking back and forth between us, ending on me and raising her eyebrows when nobody does or says anything.

“So...be back in an hour.” She say, trying to force me out of here. I nod at her before pulling the string on my apron and put it in the back when I get my jacket and purse. I move to the other side of the counter and feel my stomach flutter in nervousness. I don't know how to act right now, we've never really been in this kind of situation. Philadelphia doesn't count because that was another life. It feels like it anyway, like we were other people.

Louis walk forward to open the door and hold it open for me. I turn around one last time to look at Lea and she winks at me when she sees my freaked expression.

“I booked a booth at Trish.” I say low as we head down the street. I feel almost faint by all the jitters in my body. Why am I so damn nervous? I've seen this man naked for gods sake! Oh, bad idea! Thinking about him naked. I feel my cheeks flush dark. I keep my eyes on the ground, hoping that he doesn't notice.

“Oh, good.” He say and then we walk in silence. Thankfully it only takes a couple of minutes until we're at the restaurant and we get the table right away. The restaurant is filled with people, but the booths in the back is low key and secluded. We sit down opposite each other. The silence continues until we order our food and when the waitress is gone, I take a sneak look over at Louis. He scratches his head and frown.

“Why is this so weird?” He asks and I smile, leaning my head on my hand on the table. Does he have to be so damn handsome? His hair is sticking out from under the beanie he's wearing and the grey sweater is sticking close to his body.

“Because we've never done this.” I say and pull my my bottom lip between my teeth. I could honestly look at him all day long. I know his body is filled with tattoos, those I've seen, but I want to study them, run my fingers along the design. I've never really been able too.

“We talked in Philadelphia?” He counters and I shake my head.

“Don't even talk about that.” I say, feeling my heart squeezes and I look down at the table. I remembered so well the hope that I had when I got back and that got stomped on when I saw him at that party. It still hurts. I thought I had gotten to know the real Louis, but that was just fake.

“I'm sorry about that.” He whispers, pulling his beanie off and running his hand through his hair, making it stick up in the middle.

“Yeaah...” I drag the word out, not really buying it.

“I've been trying to apologize for a while, you won't answer my calls.” He look me in the eye and I feel my hear kick an extra beat.

“Yeah, well...I didn't want to hear it.” I confess, feeling my cheek turn pink.

“Are you now?” He looks sad. I kinda hate that. Even though I often get cocky grins or mean raises of his eyebrows, that's better than sad.

I shrug, not sure what to answer to that. “Doesn't seem like we can keep away from each other.” I say and pick the glass of soda up that the waiter brought us.

“Yeah.” He chuckles lightly. The smile disappears from his face and he bites his lip. “Not so smart though. I'm not sure what Harry would do if he found out.” He say and look up at me seriously.

“I know.” I agree. I can't honestly say what he would do, but I'm sure he wouldn't be thrilled. He's even said it to me before that he wouldn't like it if I were with one of the guys.

“So...friends?” He say and give me a cheesy smile. It tugs my heart to hear those words and not in a good way. I feel myself getting disappointed, but it's for the best – I know that.

“Sure. Friends.” I say and tries to give him a smile. It feels weird.





“And then what?” Lea ask me with big eyes, listening closely as I tell her about lunch.

“Then nothing. We talked a little about their music.” I shrug. “Nothing special really. It was kind of weird.” I say, making a face and scratching my arm. It felt really strange the rest of our lunch. We made small talk, just so it wouldn't be silent during the rest of our meal, then we said goodbye by the door. I have him an awkward wave, taking a couple of steps backwards. It was so strange!

“Do you want to be friends?” She ask as I jump up on the counter. It's pretty slow right now.

“I don't know. We've never been friends. I don't even know if we like each other as friends.” I say, running my hands over my face. This is making me crazy. I thought lunch would make everything make sense, but it only makes me more dizzy. Though now I at least know that we won't be sleeping with each other. A part of me is upset by that though.

“You never know until you try.” Lea say sweetly, patting my leg. “Though it might be hard seeing that you have feelings for him.” She point out.

“No, you don't say!” I say sarcastically and jump down to get the order of a customer who comes up to the counter. “Hi, what can I get you?” I smile at him, feeling so fake. I don't feel like smiling right now.



As usual the day drags on and I feel exhausted as I get home. These days when I open the bakery is too hard. It's only three in the evening, but I feel like I want to go to bed and sleep. Maybe I should take a nap. Everything got even worse by the lunch I had. I don't know what I expected, but somehow I felt disappointed by what we decided on. I know that it's the best decision, for everyone. But...Ugh! I don't know. I throw myself on my couch, sighing.

I lean my head back and close my eyes. My head is hurting, I should have eaten more at the restaurant, but I really didn't have the appetite anymore. I groan when I hear the doorbell ring. I pull myself off the couch and slowly walk over to the door and open it.

I fly back as I get pushed inside and pressed against the wall opposite the door, lips pressed against mine. It takes me a couple of seconds to realize what's happening, but then my hands find his hair and I open my mouth to find his tongue. Louis arms wrap around my core, pulling me closer as the kiss get heated.

He pulls back only slightly. “I can't stay away.” He mumble against my lips before kissing me softly. I feel like I'm melting in his arms. I push his denim jacket off his shoulders and starts pushing him towards my bedroom.

Notes

Well well... who thought that? ;)
The chapter got a little shorter than I thought, but I wanted to give it to you, so I will try to get the next one longer.

I'd love it if you'd like to vote for this story on Summer '14 Fan Fiction Awards. :)

Thank you for all your support, it means the world!!
xx.