Safe Haven
Let's Talk About That
I woke up the next morning to a text from Niall.
Niall: Still on for our date?
Me: Of course ☺ Just name the place and time
Niall: Great! I was hoping you hadn’t changed your mind about me ☺ Meet me outside my building at 10? I know a great spot not far from campus
Me: Ok, see you soon!
It was just before nine, so I had roughly an hour to get ready. I got distracted in the shower thinking about how nice the other night was with Niall. By the time I was done cleaning myself up, it was already 9:40 and I still had to pick an outfit and put on makeup. When I came out of the shower, Kelsey was sitting on my bed with a cheeky smile on her face.
“Sooo, Autumn, my dear friend. What have you been smiling about all morning?” she asked.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about Kelsey. I’m always this cheery in the morning!” I replied sarcastically.
“Ha! Yeah, right. Now are you gonna tell me what happened with Niall the other night?”
“How did you know?!” I knew she’d find out eventually, but I wasn’t expecting her to say that. Then it hit me. “No wait – don’t answer that. Harry is horrible at keeping secrets!” Of course he would tell her. “Well if you must know, Niall and I finally told each other how we feel. And we hooked up, and it was amazing! I’m meeting him for breakfast pretty soon actually.” No point in trying to hide anything from her, because if I couldn’t trust my friends then who could I trust?
“Ooh, I knew it, I knew it, I knew it!” she squealed. “So are you guys like together now?” Her question made me tense, but I tried to play it off.
“Uh – I’m not sure what we are. But I’m not going to overthink it. I’m being the ‘fun’ and ‘spontaneous’ version of Autumn for now.”
“Well if I were you I’d make it official ASAP. Cute foreign boys are a hot commodity around here,” she joked.
I laughed along with her in an attempt to brush off Harry’s comment that was still lingering in my mind. Niall Horan – the “ladies’ man”. My phone buzzed and I saw I had a text from Savannah, but I wasn’t ready to talk to her yet. Fortunately, though, I also saw a notification from my weather app. It was about 60 degrees and cloudy, which meant I had to ditch my original idea to wear a sundress. Sifting through my closet, I finally settled on a cute pair of ripped jeans, a fitted white tee, and my black leather jacket. I didn’t have time to do a full face of makeup, so I quickly swiped on some brow gel, concealed under my eyes, put on a coat of mascara, and finished the look with NYX butter gloss. On my way out I stepped into my combat boots and grabbed my crossbody back off of the hook.
I arrived at Niall’s building just as he was exiting the main door. I felt butterflies in my stomach when I saw him walking towards me. He was wearing a navy blue beanie, a white t-shirt, and grey sweats to match his grey hoodie.
“Hey! You look nice, ready to go? The place is only a ten-minute walk from here.”
“Thanks, so do you! Lead the way, Ni.” I kind of expected him to lean in and kiss me – lord knows how badly I wanted to – but it was just wishful thinking, I guess.
We made small talk about the weather and how our days were yesterday, but most of the walk was spent holding hands in comfortable silence. It wasn’t long before we arrived at a place called Max’s Café, and a little old couple waved us in from behind the counter.
“Hello, dear! So nice to see you, it’s been a while,” the old lady smiled at Niall.
“Sorry, you know how busy I get around this time of year. Tanks, though. I’m glad to see you too!”
“And who’s this lovely young lady?”
“Oh, hi I’m Autumn. Nice to meet you!”
We looked over a menu for a minute, and Niall placed our orders while I went to go find us a seat. I wasn’t entirely sure, but I swear I heard the little old lady telling Niall that we’d make a good couple. I smiled at the thought, but quickly pushed it out of my mind. Fun and spontaneous – remember?
It was a quaint, hole-in-the-wall place decorated with botanicals and framed art. I found a nice spot in the corner near the large storefront windows, and Niall joined me soon after, carrying our chai lattes and two breakfast sandwiches. We sat in silence for a while longer, quietly eating our food and people-watching from the window. I hadn’t realized I had begun daydreaming until I heard Niall calling my name.
“Hello? Earth to Autumn?” he teased.
“Oh, sorry. I think I zoned out for a moment,” I blushed.
“It’s okay…I was just saying there’s something I wanted to talk to you about.”
“Oh? What is it?” my heart was going about a hundred beats a minute.
“I don’t want to make you feel uncomfortable, but I wanted to talk about the other night. I’m not really a big fan of labels, but I do want to emphasize that I really do like you. I hope I didn’t take things too far that night.”
“Oh, not at all! I had a great time!” I didn’t mean to sound so eager, but my nerves were getting the best of me. “I mean, I would definitely let you know if things were getting out of hand. And I like you, too. I hope that wasn’t too much for you.”
He looked at me with a smirk, and I could feel my nerves settling. It was good to finally talk about what happened. “Trust me, I could’ve done way more.” His comment made me blush. Speaking of doing more….
“I’m sure you could have. I hear you’re quite the ladies’ man.”
“Who, me? Who told you that?”
“Well Harry said you-"
“Harry doesn’t know what he’s talking about. I may have had a few casual hookups in the past, but I definitely wouldn’t call myself that.”
He sounded a bit defensive, but I guess I would be too if people were going around calling me a slut.
“Good to know. Clearly I’m no saint either,” I replied, hoping to lighten the mood.
He seemed to relax a bit and chuckled a little. “Oh, I know. Whatdya say we get out of here, head back to your place?”
“That would be lovely.”
A busboy came by to gather our trash and empty dishes, and we waved goodbye to the nice couple on our way out. On the way home, Niall told me about how he used to go there almost every single day when he first moved to New York because the decorations reminded him of his gran’s house. It was actually a cute story, but I was only half listening because I kept getting sidetracked thinking about what we’d do when we got back to my place. It was cold outside, but every time I looked at Niall I felt flames in my core.
The walk back went by rather quickly, and I was eager to get back into my dorm room. Once we got inside, I kicked off my shoes and slipped into the bathroom to freshen up. When I came out, I saw Niall was standing in the middle of the room with his hands in his pockets, rocking back and forth on his feet. If I didn’t know better I’d say he actually looked a bit nervous.
“You can sit on my bed, you know,” I teased. “Or were you planning to stand up the whole time?” This made Niall blush, and I laughed. He took off his hoodie and scooched up next to me on the bed.
“So…what should we do?” he asked. He was looking at me with those gorgeous bright blue eyes I felt like I could stare into forever. There was something about the way he stared at me…like he was staring straight into my core – almost like he could read my mind…. Like he knows exactly the right way to look at me to get me all hot and bothered. I began to feel very self-conscious and I needed a way to break the tension.
“U-um, well since we have time why don’t we work on that project? I’ve been looking over the footage and there’s a lot of editing to do so maybe we could just-“
“We both know that’s not what you want to do, Autumn.”
Before I could even open up my mouth, he pulled my face to his and gave me a deep, passionate kiss. I didn’t even try to fight it because he was right – this is exactly what I wanted. I kissed him back with equal force, grabbing at his t-shirt in an attempt to pull him closer. “Mmm, Ni….” I reached up with my right hand to remove his beanie and grasp his bleach blonde hair, bringing his face closer to mine and making him moan. Just as Niall was crawling on top of me, I heard the door open. I instantly shot up, accidentally bumping heads with Niall.
“Shit!”
“Ohmygosh I am so sorry, Niall!”
We were both holding our foreheads in pain, but when we made eye contact we both burst out laughing. How typical of me.
“Sorry, are we interrupting something?”
I looked up to see Harry coming in with groceries, and Kelsey wasn’t far behind. I realized that Niall was still sort of on top of me, and my shirt had rolled up so that my bra was showing. We quickly readjusted ourselves, and I felt my cheeks were flushed; but Niall had a huge smirk plastered on his face.
“N-No, not at all. He was just helping me…study?”
“I wish my study sessions went like that!” Kelsey teased. I tried to change the subject to divert their attention.
I cleared my throat, “so what are all the bags for?”
“Oh, Autumn. You haven’t forgotten about Sunday dinners already have you?” Harry asked. “It’s yours and Kelsey’s turn to cook!”
“When did we decide on that?”
“Last time when you guys bet five dollars that I was going to give you food poisoning!”
“Okay, fine. Fair enough. But if I’m involved in the cooking, you already know what I’m going to make.”
“Breakfast for dinner!” they all groaned in unison, and I laughed. They know me so well.
I hadn’t noticed that while we were talking, Niall had put his clothes back on and was slowly making his way to the door. I couldn’t help but feel that having Harry and Kelsey there made him feel uncomfortable or out of place.
“Wait, Niall! Why don’t you join us tonight?” Kelsey offered.
“Oh, I don’t know. I wouldn’t want to intrude,” he replied sheepishly.
“Nonsense! A friend of Autumn’s is a friend of ours too. You should definitely come. Right guys?” she looked back and forth between Harry and I, and we both nodded in agreement.
“Well if you insist - I really appreciate the offer. You’ll probably being seeing a lot more of me, so we should get to know each other better.” I took that to mean he plans on spending more time with me, which made me really happy. “I’m going to head home and take care of a couple things in the meantime. See you guys later!”
I walked Niall to the door and gave him a gentle goodbye kiss.
“You better stop kissing me like that, princess. Or else I’m gonna have to…”
“Have to what?”
He cleared his throat and I saw his cheeks turn red. “Uhh- nothing.” He gave me one last kiss on the cheek before saying goodbye and heading down the hallway. I would certainly be looking forward to Sunday night dinner.
This is either going to be a very good night or it’s going to go horribly wrong. Only one way to find out!
