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The wind whipped through Harry’s hair as he stumbled through the door of his apartment building. His hands were full of groceries, so all he could do was feebly try to blow the errant curls out of his face enough to see in front of him. He almost wished he hadn’t.
There standing in front of the mailboxes was none other than hot guy from 7A. This was not who he wanted to see when his hair had been blown into a giant bird’s nest on his head.
“A little windy out there today,” Hot Guy said.
“Well, it is the Windy City.”
Oh, for fuck’s sake, Harry screamed inwardly. Why had he said something so stupid?
Hot Guy From 7A smiled politely and opened his mailbox.
Oh, how Harry wished he’d smile at him for real. One day last week he’d seen Hot Guy with some other beautiful man in the elevator, and they’d been laughing. Hot Guy From 7A had smiled so widely his eyes had crinkled in the corners.
Harry sighed and set down his groceries in front of the mailboxes and slung his backpack off his shoulders, fumbling through it for his mailbox key. He finally found it and crammed it into the keyhole a little too forcefully. As he grabbed the few things in the mailbox, his phone started buzzing in his pocket.
“Hey, Ni. Yeah, I just got home.—What? No. I don’t have Netflix.—What do you mean, how do I not have Netflix? You don’t either or you wouldn’t be asking for my password.—I’m sure I’m missing out on a lot of programming, but I just don’t really watch a lot of—I’m sure I would have enjoyed Breaking Bad, but I’m really more of a rom-com kind of guy anyway.—Ohhh, that does sound good, but—”
“You’ve never seen Breaking Bad?” Hot Guy From 7A said, his amazing blue eyes wide with incredulity.
Harry nearly dropped his phone. “Uh, call you back later, Niall.” He hung up hastily and stuffed his phone back in his pocket.
“Um, no. I—uh, well I don’t have—Netflix as I guess you overheard.”
Hot Guy From 7A cheek’s turned a little pink. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to eavesdrop.”
“No! No, it’s fine! Really. Eavesdrop away. Anytime.”
For the love of god why couldn’t he just say something normal around this man? He deserved the odd look Hot Guy was giving him.
“Um, Niall, the friend I was talking to, he thought I’d like To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before. I’m really more into—”
“Rom-coms. Yeah, I heard.” Hot Guy From 7A cleared his throat. “You know the only way to see that one is on Netflix. It’s a Netflix Original.”
“Ah, well—guess I won’t be seeing that one.”
“Yeah, unless you find someone who has Netflix. Shouldn’t be too hard to find. Everyone’s got Netflix. Well, except for you and your friend, I guess.” Hot Guy ran his fingers across the front of his hair, and Harry couldn’t take his eyes off the movement of his fingers. “Need some help with the groceries? I’m heading up now. You’re seventh floor, too, yeah?”
“Oh, uh—yeah—yes! Thanks. I’m 7H.”
Hot Guy smiled. A real one this time. He picked up one of Harry’s bags. “Hi, 7H. I’m 7A. Nice to meet you.”
“Hi,” Harry repeated dumbly as they stepped into the elevator. “Er, I’m also Harry. Like that’s my name. Um, nice to meet you, too.”
“Harry,” Hot Guy said quietly, nodding his head to himself. “I’m Louis.”
The elevator made it to the seventh floor well before Harry was ready to part from Hot Guy From 7A—er, Louis. Louis followed him to his door and deposited his bag at his door.
“Thanks, Louis.”
“Anytime. Looks like you’re going to be cooking something really nice. Special occasion?”
“Oh, not really. I like to cook,” Harry shrugged. “Don’t really have anyone to cook for right now.”
Oh, great. Way to sound like a loser.
“I mean, I just moved here in–”
“August. I know.” Louis cringed as though he maybe hadn’t meant to say that. “I mean, that’s just when I noticed you around here.”
“Oh. Yeah, that’s when I moved in.” He wished desperately for something else to say to keep Louis here talking to him, but his brain was in panic mode, which meant the rambling was about to begin. “Niall thinks I should have more friends by now, but I mean, I’m not that outgoing really. I’m a good listener though, but I tend not to go up and talk to just anyone. And I love my new job, but everyone there is quite a bit older than me and settled. While here I am, haven’t had a date in months, much less a boyfriend. Maybe I should join more things? I don’t know. I joined a gym, but I don’t really want to ask anyone out when I’m sweating. Not that I’ve even seen anyone I was really interested in there anyway. I was actually thinking of getting a cat, but then Niall will never let me live it down that I’m becoming a cat lady. And maybe I should just get Netflix.”
Louis looked a little dazed. Damn it. Too much information. Harry sighed and opened his door. Time to go scream into his pillow.
“I have Netflix!” Louis blurted out as Harry stepped one foot in his apartment. He turned back to look at him.
Louis fiddled with the front of his hair again. “I mean, if you want to maybe watch that movie you were interested in, I have Netflix. We could watch it together.”
“Oh.”
Louis’ face reddened, and he began backing away down the hallway. “Just if you wanted to—sometime—”
“Yes! I do!” Harry said loudly as he kicked over the bag of groceries at his feet. “I can make dinner! Um, I can have it ready in about an hour, if you want to come over then.”
Louis smiled at him. A real one. A breathtaking, bright as the sun smile, eyes crinkling to slits. Harry needed to go and lay down to recover from this smile being directed his way. “It’s a date.”