Sapphire *One Direction* [Liam Payne]

Chapter 3

He handed over my Galaxy S3 and winked. "I like your background."

"Uh… thanks," I replied slightly embarrassed at my superhero background that consisted of Batman, Spiderman, Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, and Superman all revolving around the batman emblem. Expecting him to leave, he did exactly the opposite and got in line to order.

He returned to my table and sat across from me sipping at what appeared to be the same drink I had. "double-chocolate-chip frappiccino?" I asked trying to make small talk.

He licked his lips then answered, "Yes, It's my favourite."

I giggled at the sound of his luxurious voice and mumbled, "mine too."

"I take it you are from America."

"Yeah."

"What state?"

"Kentucky."

"That’s a long way Miss Kentucky," he grinned before continuing interrogating me "Why are you in London?"

"It's a school program."

"Ahhh, I see. Well I have to get going, maybe I'll see you around." He stood up, pointed to my phone, and voiced "Don't let your friend use that without supervision okay?"

"Okay," I stated even though I knew I would let her use it whenever she needed to. She would be extra careful and I trust her.

Liam walked out of the starbucks and I thought to myself, Well that wasn't so bad. At that instant my phone buzzed. The message read forgot to tell you I stole your number-Li. Liam had already put his name in my phone. I glanced at the full contact name and discovered his last name to be Payne. Payne, Liam Payne, there was something that intrigued me about his name. Perhaps he was going through a time of hardship, or had experienced quite a bit of pain in the past, but I felt that his name was more than fitting for him and I didn't know why.

***

I could hear her voice through the water hitting the tiles in the shower, "How was Liam?"

"Good." There wasn't really much to tell. We had lunch and he gave me my phone back, that was really it.

"Is he cute?" she prodded.

"Maybe a little," I understated knowing if I admitted my true attraction to him she would try to set us up. And I didn't want to be set up. The truth is, I'm fine being single.

"Aww well he sounded hot on the phone," she concluded moving on to the next topic. "So, I ran into Andrew today, and we are going to a little pub that has live music for dinner tonight. His friend is playing and he wanted us to come watch, is that okay?" she asked even though she knew I would love to. I loved local restaurants. I could picture it now a cute stage with quaint music, cozy booths and hand carved tables. That was my kind of atmosphere.

The water was shut off and Kristina stepped into my bedroom in a polka-dot towel I had gotten for her as part of a birthday present one year. The bathroom connected our rooms and the closet was an office area that was connected to my sleeping quarters. Kristina opened the French style doors that lead to our office sized closet. "What to wear, what to wear," she said to herself. I took the opportunity to jump off of the bed and slide past her into the closet full of both of our clothes. I went to the right side of the room and pulled out a coral and navy chevron dress that stopped at mid thigh. I then walked toward our wall of shoes and selected a pair of gold sandals and a navy belt that would go around her waist. I put my selections in front of her face giving her no choice but to take them.

"Wait…" she began, but I was too quick.

"Go change in your room and I'll bring you jewelry. You picked my outfit last night," I reminded her. She did as instructed and I brought her a gold bracelet, coral ring, and matching coral and gold earrings. To my surprise, she loved the outfit.

I did my hair and makeup in the bathroom as Kristina did hers in her bedroom. I let my blonde curls naturally fall, but I braided to strands to meet in the back and pinned them together. I applied a natural, yet sparkly, tan eye shadow to complement my pale complexion and blue eyes. A touch of pink blush and pinky-red lipstick and I was ready for the outfit.

I emerged into Kristina's room in a honey yellow top that had a gold zipper in the back tucked into a royal blue pencil skirt. My feet were adorned by wedges with a yellow flower made from the rough cloth material that hugged the sides of my feet. "Wow," she said as she looked me up and down. "you look cute!"

"Haha thanks," I laughed at the way she said it. "you do too!"

"Thanks girl." she smiled at me. "Ready to go?"

"You bet!" this time my enthusiastic tone was authentic. I was couldn't wait until we got to relax at the local pub where we could listen to an aspiring musician play delightful tunes.