all the times we fell in love; henry/amber
romance, 1.2k
taken from my own opening prompt challenge
a little different from my normal stuff, so i hope it makes sense
for all the people who fall in love with someone on their train
There is something special about being strangers. You can laugh together for a brief second on the train or talk for hours without ever catching their name. At that moment they are everything you want them to be, they cannot disappoint you. You can guess what they eat for breakfast: do they take their coffee black? Or maybe they’re a tea person. Do they have a dog or a cat? And you can almost picture them on a Saturday morning in your kitchen. Sometimes I think it might be better to stay strangers while the magic and mystery is still there.
That’s why I fall in love with strangers.
“Vanilla double shot latte, right?”
Henry nods towards the blonde barista. It’s just after the morning rush and he’s usually one of two customers in the shop. He’s got his credit card ready along with this ‘buy ten drinks, get one free’ stamp card, but she waves it away and leaves to go make his drink.
He watches her while she meticulously, yet quickly preps her espresso shot. She’d probably be very neat at home, organizing her dvds and food in the fridge. But she's only particular about certain things because she still seems laid back enough to throw her jackets around her room.
Her hair is short, but combed and slightly gelled for neatness’ sake. Henry imagines that she doesn’t particularly enjoy it, but her manager insists. He sees her quickly fixing her hair in the employee break room before starting her shift, but in the morning it’d flop in her eyes and she’d run her hands through it constantly at home.
She’s concentrating on pouring the steamed milk, focused on making an elaborate design in the foam. She must leave doodles everywhere-on restaurant napkins, margins of notebook paper, and his hands when they’re just sitting watching tv together.
“Here you go,” she slips a sleeve on his cup and sets it carefully on the counter.
He snaps a photo of the intricate heart and quickly smiles at her before leaving.
It’s midnight on a Thursday and Henry just wants this stupid project to be done, but he’s got at least two more days of work to get done by tomorrow and this is going to be at least a little painful. He’s armed with a nice quad shot latte because if he’s gonna be pulling (more than) an all-nighter he might as well be bouncing off the walls. Prepared with ample snacks and an awesome productivity playlist, he sits down at one of the library computers to crank this thing out because his roommates probably won’t appreciate him aggressively typing while they’re sleeping. When he gets out his USB to upload his working document he notices that there’s someone else’s there already.
Hoping to get a name of the owner so he can return it, he opens up the drive. He’s looking for some sort of assignment but stumbles upon some photos instead.
“Is this considered snooping?” he mumbles under his breath but clicks them anyway. It’s all with good intention right? As long as it isn't porn, he reasons.
The photos turn out to be some sort of photography assignment, a photoshoot. There are a few models dressed in black and white clothing and extreme eye makeup on only one eye. A girl with blue hair and one with an eye patch, but one girl sticks out in particular.
The other girls are undeniably pretty, but this girl is captivating. She looks like she could kick his butt and Henry’s kind of okay with that. He’d never be able to get away with eating the last of her ice cream, at least without any bruises. The more time he spends with her the more likely he is to have a black eye.
He can see her sitting on the floor of his dorm room, arms crossed and scowling. He’d do something stupid just to try to make her laugh and get her out of this pissed off mood that someone from her class put her in. Usually it takes him losing most of his self-respect, but her façade will crack and he’ll see the girl he loves peek through.
The clock reads 12:55 and he quickly ejects the USB and shoving it in his backpack to return later.
It’s day nine in Henry’s new apartment without internet and he’s starting to go a little stir crazy. By day five he finally gave up on trying to set it up on his own. He accepted the fact that this little box was better than him and he may own a nice smartphone, but he’s actually not that smart. So he calls the cable company and sets up a time for someone to come and just install it for him.
He answers the door quickly, but hopes he doesn’t look that overeager or desperate. He’s just a little surprised to see a girl about his age standing there.
“I’m here to save you,” she announces triumphantly and her blue workers uniform almost looks like a superhero costume and Henry’s okay with being the damsel in distress.
She steps into his apartment and he has to take her into his bedroom to access the modem. Suddenly he’s ashamed of the shirts he threw on the floor in his rush to get ready for work. He kind of wishes his bed was made and when she has to go onto his computer he’s really regretting that lame desktop background of his parents’ dog.
The girl is sitting at his desk, typing and clicking away at his computer and he envisions what they’d be like on the weekends together. Their work schedules would make their free time difficult to overlap, but neither of them is into that whole dating thing so mostly they lie on his bed and watch Netflix from his desktop. She’ll have some super nerdy, funny show she wants to show him and he has to ask her to explain all the jokes but it’s okay because he just wants to listen to her voice.
The late afternoon light hits her nicely and almost casts a halo around her blonde hair. He kind of hates how naturally she fits into his home.
He shuts the door with one final thank you and his wifi password written on his hand.
Henry runs onto the metro just as the doors were starting to close and he quickly scans the subway car for any empty seats. However, it’s the morning commute and that’s probably just some wishful thinking. Just as he’s about to give up he sees on girl in the local university’s sweatshirt with an empty seat next to her.
“Can I sit here?” He asks, slightly pausing in front of the seat.
“Of course,” she smiles and Henry settles in next to her, careful to not bump their thighs or shoulders.
He glances over to her and begins to observe-he’s almost picked out what kind of milk she drinks when she suddenly turns towards him.
Blushing, he averts his gaze.
“I’m Amber, what’s your name?”
He pauses to recover from his embarrassment, “Henry, it’s um... Henry.”
She smiles again and that’s all he can focus on, how much he loves her smile right now (in this moment right here on the subway, not the way he pictures she’d smile walking home together. He’s seen the real thing and he doesn’t even need to imagine it. And he certainly doesn’t want to watch it walk away.)
“So Amber, are you a whole milk or a skim milk kind of girl?”
taken from my own opening prompt challenge
a little different from my normal stuff, so i hope it makes sense
for all the people who fall in love with someone on their train
There is something special about being strangers. You can laugh together for a brief second on the train or talk for hours without ever catching their name. At that moment they are everything you want them to be, they cannot disappoint you. You can guess what they eat for breakfast: do they take their coffee black? Or maybe they’re a tea person. Do they have a dog or a cat? And you can almost picture them on a Saturday morning in your kitchen. Sometimes I think it might be better to stay strangers while the magic and mystery is still there.
That’s why I fall in love with strangers.
“Vanilla double shot latte, right?”
Henry nods towards the blonde barista. It’s just after the morning rush and he’s usually one of two customers in the shop. He’s got his credit card ready along with this ‘buy ten drinks, get one free’ stamp card, but she waves it away and leaves to go make his drink.
He watches her while she meticulously, yet quickly preps her espresso shot. She’d probably be very neat at home, organizing her dvds and food in the fridge. But she's only particular about certain things because she still seems laid back enough to throw her jackets around her room.
Her hair is short, but combed and slightly gelled for neatness’ sake. Henry imagines that she doesn’t particularly enjoy it, but her manager insists. He sees her quickly fixing her hair in the employee break room before starting her shift, but in the morning it’d flop in her eyes and she’d run her hands through it constantly at home.
She’s concentrating on pouring the steamed milk, focused on making an elaborate design in the foam. She must leave doodles everywhere-on restaurant napkins, margins of notebook paper, and his hands when they’re just sitting watching tv together.
“Here you go,” she slips a sleeve on his cup and sets it carefully on the counter.
He snaps a photo of the intricate heart and quickly smiles at her before leaving.
It’s midnight on a Thursday and Henry just wants this stupid project to be done, but he’s got at least two more days of work to get done by tomorrow and this is going to be at least a little painful. He’s armed with a nice quad shot latte because if he’s gonna be pulling (more than) an all-nighter he might as well be bouncing off the walls. Prepared with ample snacks and an awesome productivity playlist, he sits down at one of the library computers to crank this thing out because his roommates probably won’t appreciate him aggressively typing while they’re sleeping. When he gets out his USB to upload his working document he notices that there’s someone else’s there already.
Hoping to get a name of the owner so he can return it, he opens up the drive. He’s looking for some sort of assignment but stumbles upon some photos instead.
“Is this considered snooping?” he mumbles under his breath but clicks them anyway. It’s all with good intention right? As long as it isn't porn, he reasons.
The photos turn out to be some sort of photography assignment, a photoshoot. There are a few models dressed in black and white clothing and extreme eye makeup on only one eye. A girl with blue hair and one with an eye patch, but one girl sticks out in particular.
The other girls are undeniably pretty, but this girl is captivating. She looks like she could kick his butt and Henry’s kind of okay with that. He’d never be able to get away with eating the last of her ice cream, at least without any bruises. The more time he spends with her the more likely he is to have a black eye.
He can see her sitting on the floor of his dorm room, arms crossed and scowling. He’d do something stupid just to try to make her laugh and get her out of this pissed off mood that someone from her class put her in. Usually it takes him losing most of his self-respect, but her façade will crack and he’ll see the girl he loves peek through.
The clock reads 12:55 and he quickly ejects the USB and shoving it in his backpack to return later.
It’s day nine in Henry’s new apartment without internet and he’s starting to go a little stir crazy. By day five he finally gave up on trying to set it up on his own. He accepted the fact that this little box was better than him and he may own a nice smartphone, but he’s actually not that smart. So he calls the cable company and sets up a time for someone to come and just install it for him.
He answers the door quickly, but hopes he doesn’t look that overeager or desperate. He’s just a little surprised to see a girl about his age standing there.
“I’m here to save you,” she announces triumphantly and her blue workers uniform almost looks like a superhero costume and Henry’s okay with being the damsel in distress.
She steps into his apartment and he has to take her into his bedroom to access the modem. Suddenly he’s ashamed of the shirts he threw on the floor in his rush to get ready for work. He kind of wishes his bed was made and when she has to go onto his computer he’s really regretting that lame desktop background of his parents’ dog.
The girl is sitting at his desk, typing and clicking away at his computer and he envisions what they’d be like on the weekends together. Their work schedules would make their free time difficult to overlap, but neither of them is into that whole dating thing so mostly they lie on his bed and watch Netflix from his desktop. She’ll have some super nerdy, funny show she wants to show him and he has to ask her to explain all the jokes but it’s okay because he just wants to listen to her voice.
The late afternoon light hits her nicely and almost casts a halo around her blonde hair. He kind of hates how naturally she fits into his home.
He shuts the door with one final thank you and his wifi password written on his hand.
Henry runs onto the metro just as the doors were starting to close and he quickly scans the subway car for any empty seats. However, it’s the morning commute and that’s probably just some wishful thinking. Just as he’s about to give up he sees on girl in the local university’s sweatshirt with an empty seat next to her.
“Can I sit here?” He asks, slightly pausing in front of the seat.
“Of course,” she smiles and Henry settles in next to her, careful to not bump their thighs or shoulders.
He glances over to her and begins to observe-he’s almost picked out what kind of milk she drinks when she suddenly turns towards him.
Blushing, he averts his gaze.
“I’m Amber, what’s your name?”
He pauses to recover from his embarrassment, “Henry, it’s um... Henry.”
She smiles again and that’s all he can focus on, how much he loves her smile right now (in this moment right here on the subway, not the way he pictures she’d smile walking home together. He’s seen the real thing and he doesn’t even need to imagine it. And he certainly doesn’t want to watch it walk away.)
“So Amber, are you a whole milk or a skim milk kind of girl?”