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“It’s not too much is it?” Harper asks Leah, jerking her head back at the cheap card stock sign lying in the coffee-stained backseat of the car. It wasn’t their car, they had borrowed it for the afternoon from Nikki’s co-worker. Turns out that Nikki’s blackmailing was actually pretty convenient. “Harper, he's going to love it, don’t stress! Remember you can always call me and I’ll come up with some excuse to get you okay?”
“Okay okay okay” Harper sharply exhales, steadying herself as Leah pulls into the drop off lane at JFK airport. It was an unusually warm October in New York City and on this particular day, Harper was grateful for the change in temperature as it made planning their night together that much easier. Not that he wouldn’t be able to handle the cold, he was from Scotland but still, Harper thought, I don’t need another reason for this night to be a complete disaster.
“Okay, so you’re just gonna go in there and work your magic and fall in love all over again alright?” Leah says in her most encouraging voice. Still in a daze of her own overthinking, Harper responds with a strangled groan from the back of her throat.
“Harper,” says Leah coaxingly.
“Wha- oh right ok, how do I look?” She responds, pulling down the sun visor to inspect her makeup in the cloudy rectangular mirror.
“Like you’re about to go hook up with the sexiest man alive”
She turns to Leah. “Really? Because I’m not sure about this sweater, I was trying to go for sexy librarian but I think I might have missed the sexy part” Harper responded, motioning at her cropped burgundy sweater.
“Girl listen to me,” exclaims Leah in a tone of mock rage. “You look hot as fuck! Now get out this car and go get your mans!”
Unable to stop herself Harper smiles at the thought of the infamous first night at the club in Barcelona. She leans over to give Leah a half hug. “Okay wish me luck, drive safe, and I’ll text you and Nikki later okay?”
“It’s going to be amazing, don’t worry about it” Leah responds.
A few minutes later Harper stands at the arrivals gate rocking back and forth on the soles of her worn down Vans, the poster held tightly in her grip. Every few moments she glances at the massive clock set on the wall above the doorway. His flight from London had arrived 20 minutes ago, he should be here by now.
Her phone chimes in her back pocket.
“Have the best night of your goddamn life!! Sending lots of love from me and Dale” - Nikki
“He’s still not here, when am I allowed to panic?”
“Lmao here I am acting like I’m not currently panicking anyway”
“Fml”
Harper sighs as the last blue bubble sends. The sign in her left hand was getting heavier by the second.
“So still ‘Mr. Slutty International DJ’ am I? I thought maybe I’d earned more respect than that after all those hours on facetime”.
She could recognize that Scottish accent anywhere. Harper snaps her head up from her phone, her face already split in a wide grin, to find herself looking into the blue eyes she’s pictured in her head every night for weeks.
“Leo!!!!” she screams, flinging her arms around his neck. Wrapping his arms around her waist he twirls her in the air, burying his face into her neck. She can feel his smile on her neck, the sting of his stubble on her skin. They pulled away, their faces hovering inches from each other.
He sets her down, where she stands pressed against his chest. His strong arms curve around her torso as they stare greedily at each other, trying to commit everything to memory. Already they prepare for their inevitable separation.
Leo clears his throat, shifting back on his heels and dropping his hands to hang by his side. “So err how’ve you been”
“Good good yeah really great. Just you know working and yeah…ya know nothing super exciting really” Harper trailed off shifting her eyes to her shoes, where she toes at a scratch in the worn plastic flooring.
“So what’s the plan,” asks Leo, his voice strains slightly but his eyes are locked on Harpers.
She reaches up to push her hair behind her right ear. “Right yeah so I was thinking I would show you around my neighborhood if that’s good with you. I live in Dumbo so there’s a bunch of art galleries and cute coffee shops and stuff like that. I mean we can totally go somewhere else if you want but-“
“No no, I’d love to see where you spend all your time” Leo cut in.
Harper blushed. “Great well okay let’s go then”
Leo readjusted his duffel bag on one toned arm, reaching out his hand to Harper.
Smiling to herself, Harper interlaced her fingers into his hand. His thumb gently rubbed the back of her knuckles.
They exchanged life updates as they walked through the airport to the subway station. His latest gig, her new business, the robot bar in Tokyo (even though Harper had already heard a very detailed account) and the news of Nikki and Diego’s ongoing long distance relationship amongst others.
They arrive on the dingy platform, crowded as usual with JFK’s never-ending flow of passengers. Leo sets the duffel bag down on the ground between his legs and stands facing Harper. She ducks, smiling at her shoes. Why does she feel so nervous? It’s not like he came all this way for this, whatever this was. He didn’t really, he has gigs this Friday and Saturday in downtown Manhattan, at the kind of clubs Harper would have to wait hours to get into. Still, here he was, only a foot away, and suddenly it felt real for the first time. They weren’t in sun-drenched Ibiza anymore, where time slowed and sped up at the rhythm of her heart. And they weren’t seeing each other through a screen. There was no lag or pixelated movement. They stood now, in high definition, feeling their energy dance around each other, darting in and out, like an elaborate dance.
The U train blows past them, startling Harper out of her reverie and sending her hair flying in front of her face in a mass of mousey brown waves. Before she can reach up to tame her hair though, Leo smiling softly reaches out to gently tuck the hair behind each ear. His hand comes to rest on her cheek, shifting slightly as her smile widens.
“You know I missed you right” he murmurs
“Yeah I know, good thing I missed you back” she responds, laughing. The pad of his thumb traces down her cheekbone, coming to rest on the top of her upper lip. Her smile softens, she tilts her head to create gentle pressure on his hand. Leo relishes in the weight of it, the solidness of her, a tangible affirmation that what they had was real, that she was real.
“I’m glad you’re here. I don’t know what I would have done if I hadn’t gotten another chance to see you” Harper adds into his palm.
The train doors open behind them, the automated voice spilling out of the fluorescent-lit car. Neither of them moves as they stand rooted to the spot waiting for each other's next move.
Leo smiles. The kind of smile that crinkles his forehead and eyes in the most endearing way, the same way he looked at her on their night together in Ibiza. He scans her face, her green eyes reflect the light the same way they had in the hot tub. “Jesus Christ,” he thought. “She’s actually perfect”.
Seconds pass, or maybe minutes. Time and space compress to hold only their quickened breathing, the contact of their skin, their words floating between them. She can’t take it anymore, the space between them crackled with the intensity of his gaze on her, and she could feel her cheeks burning red hot onto his hand. She squirms in his hand, nudging her chin out so her face is tilted ever so slightly up towards his. His hand travels down to rest on the arch in her neck, and his other arm comes around her waist at the hem of her sweater. He breathes deeply, inhaling her floral perfume mixed with the metallic smell of the subway. Their bodies move closer until no inch of them is untouched. Her arms reach up to lock around his broad shoulders. He can feel her chest rising and falling with her rapid breath. Her body’s reaction is proof, she really did miss him as much as he did her. He pulls his forehead down and rests it on hers, their breath intermingling in the mere centimeters between them. Her eyes flutter closed. His arm on her waist pulls her against him, filling any possible space between them, as his lips brush against hers. He pulls back, foreheads still touching, and searches her eyes.
“Can I… ” he breathes
“Yeah” she exhales lightly
Both eyes shut as their lips meet. His hand moves up from her neck to cup her jaw, their mouths moving fluidly against each other. Each pushing as the other pulls away so that neither know where one starts and the other begins. Any hesitation they once felt has evaporated, they channel weeks of waiting into the kiss, hoping the other can read their mind just by the pressure of their mouths. Her tongue flicks at the entrance of his lips, and he gasps at the sheer heat of her. If he could have had thoughts, which he couldn’t as his brain short-circuited the minute their lips met, he would have laughed at how wound up one kiss could make him, but instead he was drowning in the feeling of Harper’s warm body pressed against his, and the feeling of her exploring the inside of his mouth, and the taste of coffee lingering on her tongue.
And Harper is no more coherent than Leo. The kiss silenced the pounding of her anxious mind and the echo of Leah’s reassurances. Now her mind leapfrogged between a state of hyperreality, the feeling of his muscles under her grip and the sheer solidity of his chest and thighs pressed up against her, and the feeling that she was engulfed in the impossibility of it all. That he was here, that he felt just as good, if not better than she remembered, and above all that he felt the same about her.
Harper’s hair tickles his cheek, snapping him back to the present as the wind tunnel activates again as the train behind them departs from the station. They pull back, flushed and breathless, looking around to see empty tracks and a nearly empty platform.
“First you made me miss my flight, now you made me miss my train”
He chuckles, pulling her into a one-armed hug so her head rests on his shoulder, looking at the now empty tracks. They stand like this until the next train arrives, slipping in and out of disbelief and complete contentedness in each other's presence.