matchmaking for experts || h.s au

fourteen

When Maia walks into Matchcierge the next morning and finds Harry sitting behind his desk, her steps falter and her heart lurches in her throat.

A strange burst of warmth and longing explodes in her chest when she looks at him. She tries not to stare at him, out of fear that he'll catch her, so she gives herself only a few seconds to take him in when all she wants is to be greedy and look at him for as long as she wants.

With his eyes fixed on the screen of his laptop and his earphones in his ears, he doesn't notice or hear her coming in and that gives Maia an option to either make her presence known or back out of this office and wait for others to arrive.

Her instinct kicks in and it's telling her to do the latter, to do what she does best, but upon remembering the talk she had with Laura and Niall yesterday, who convinced her that she can't keep letting her fears win and that she can't leave things with Harry the way she did, she ignores her instinct and forces her legs to take her to her desk.

Besides, she wants to prove to herself that she can do this. That although her entire being is screaming at her, telling her that this is a bad idea because she'll only end up fucking things up even more, she tells herself that she can do this. She can talk to him. She can tell him the truth.

When Maia reaches her desk, Harry finally takes notice of her. He looks up and meets her eyes, and every sensation in Maia's body heightens. There's a twist in her stomach and there's a growing lump in her throat, and the confidence she feels earlier dissipates. The air is thick with unspoken words and Maia wonders if Harry can feel it too.

Clinging to the sliver of confidence that hasn't slipped through her fingers yet, she thinks, fuck it, it's now or never.

But when she opens her mouth to break the silence between them, her words die on her tongue. She doesn't know how to start a conversation with someone she walked out on three days ago. Someone who bore the truth to her and got nothing in return.

"Hey," Harry's voice startles her. She was so sure that he wasn't going to speak to her first, or ever, so hearing his voice nearly makes her jump. He's taken one of his earphones out of his ear, she notices, and he's still waiting for her to say something because she hasn't spoken a single word.

So she plasters a smile and returns his greeting with, "Hey. You're, um, early."

"Yeah," he nods.

"How did the interview go?" Maia manages to get the words out without a stutter. Her hands have started to shake and she hides them under the table as she takes a seat behind her desk. "Heard about it from Niall and Joanna, by the way."

"It... It went well."

"That's great," Maia smiles at him. She's not surprised to hear that. "When will you hear from him again?"

Harry shifts in his seat. Although they have a few feet of distance separating them, Maia can see the muscle in his jaw twitching before he answers, "Not sure."

When Harry avoids her gaze and refocuses on the laptop in front of him, she starts to feel like she's losing him the same way she's rapidly losing her confidence. The moment is slipping away from her but before that can happen, she clears her throat and says, "Can we talk?"

Harry looks up. "Okay."

"Can we—should we talk upstairs? In the brainstorming room? Someone might come in and..." Maia trails off when she realises how stupid that sounds. Maybe Harry doesn't mind if someone comes in because then their conversation will be interrupted and they won't have to talk.