JULY
7:30 AM
July sunlight fought its way through partially drawn blinds, etching gold streamers on the floor of Katherine's bedroom. Birds outside sang their morning chorus, orchestrating the day's promises. It was sufficient to wake her quietly, draw her into awareness—instead, her alarm shattered the quiet with its electronic wail.
Katherine sat straight up, blinded. She silenced the alarm and looked around her room through sleep-clouded eyes. There was nothing special to look forward to todayjust another hot summer morning in an endless string of them. She sighed and pulled herself up from beneath the covers and made her way into the bathroom, not knowing that today the path of her life would be forever changed.
8:50 AM
"Where is it?" Katherine agonized, hopping on one foot while she ripped her apartment to pieces trying to find its partner. She was horrifically late for orientation—an orientation which she'd completely forgotten about until her friend's text message fifteen minutes earlier: "See you there in 20!"
Four years of studying, late nights cramming, and somehow she'd forgotten to mark the day she'd be choosing the direction of her life. She spotted the elusive shoe hiding under her bed and grabbed it, taking a hasty glance at her reflection. Her black hair curled in tangled waves around her pink face. Good enough. She grabbed her bag and was out the door.
By some miracle—or, as it turned out, sheer deception on Isa's part—Katherine arrived with four minutes to spare. Orientation did not begin until 10:00 AM. Isa, aware of Katherine's chronic lateness, had fabricated the emergency.
"You're welcome," Isa said wryly as Katherine slipped into the chair beside her.
9:56 AM
There was a gentle hum of conversation that filled the auditorium as Katherine's anxious heartbeat slowly leveled out. Wooden opening welcomes were given by the program organizer while Katherine discreetly checked herself in her phone's camera. Introductions of presenters followed, and Katherine's attention was naturally drawn upwards to the stage.
Time slowed, came to a standstill, when her gaze fell upon a pair of eyes that would haunt her for months to come. Even under the antiseptic glare of the auditorium fluorescent lights, they burned with warmth and humor—amber-infused gold flecks, questioning and kind at the same time. Despite the fact that a mask obscured the lower half of his face, those eyes promised a smile that roved the room in two seconds flat and struck with impact in the center of Katherine's chest.
His voice was sweet and deep when he spoke, with an underlying intensity that the genuine spokes of enthusiasm for the show. Katherine found herself looking only when those wonderful eyes caught her. Blushing, she hurried away her head looking quickly the other way, pretending sudden interest in the empty notebook page. But the damage was done her mind had already brained every detail of him, the impression it had made won't let go even when presenters exited and the orientation was over.
The details she ought to be taking in—of group projects, program demands, opportunities—all melted away under the one recurring thought: those eyes.
OCTOBER
10:24 AM
Autumn painted the world beyond Katherine's office window red and burnt orange. Orientation had been three months ago, and with the recollection of those eyes visiting her only sporadically, Katherine had relegated the experience to a passing aberration.
Her phone vibrated with an incoming e-mail. She glanced down, then tensed up. The program—the very program at the orientation—was calling in applicants to interview. Her hands trembling, she selected an interview time, her mind already leaping forward to possible questions, dresses, how to prepare. Once did she ever consider who would be doing the interviewing.
THE NEXT DAY, 5:50 PM
The interview waiting room hummed with undercurrents of anxious tension. Katherine smiled readily with the coordinators, her natural charm temporarily overshadowing her nervousness. She was midway through a sentence when she felt it—a tingling sensation of awareness, as though the air surrounding her had actually shifted.
She turned, and there they were: the same captivating eyes, now widening in recognition. Her heart was doing gymnastics in her chest.
"No embarrassing staring this time," she told herself, and, prior to analyzing the environment, she extended her hand. "Hi, I'm Katherine."
"Alex," he replied, his voice even deeper up close. His fingers wrapped around hers—warm, firm, lingering slightly too long on absolutely necessary. "You were at the orientation in July."
It wasn't a question. He remembered.
Their conversation moved, like they knew each other for years, not minutes. When she said she liked One Direction, everything changed about Alex.
"Favorite song?" he asked, already walking toward the computer in charge of the background music in the waiting room.
"'Night Changes,'" she answered quickly.
The opening chords echoed in the room as Katherine's name was called to interview. As Katherine gathered her things, Alex extended his hand and whispered, "I really hope you get in. You'd be lots of fun to work with."
His high five was a promise.
NOVEMBER
9:35 AM
She had received it during the midst of one of the most boring meetings on record. Katherine's heart sank upon reading the polite word rejection. She moved back, away from all that stale air, into a secluded corner by herself to process her disappointment.
She had been so focused that she nearly collided with Alex in the hallway. One glance at her face and his smile disappeared.
"What's wrong?" he asked, frowning in concern.
When she told him about the rejection, genuine disappointment shadowed his eyes. "Their loss," he said. "Seriously. But hey—" A grin spread across his face. "I can still get you one of the program hoodies, if you want. Small comfort, but."
The small gesture—so thoughtful, so uncharacteristic of him—completely transformed Katherine's mood. "I would love that," she said, her voice steadier than she was.
As Alex moved to depart, Katherine remained rooted, attempting to discern why a virtual stranger would so readily elevate her mood when her own friends' vacuous words had been empty.
5:30 PM
Katherine was getting ready to depart when Alex appeared at the door to her office, looking rather anxious—an expression she had not yet linked with him.
"I've got something for you," he said, moving in and holding out his hand. In it was a pretty little bracelet—not expensive, but well-selected. She did not even have time to thank him properly before he was off, Katherine staring after him in amazed silence.
She hurried to tell Isabel.
"He's interested in you, dummy," Isa said after hearing the whole story. "And clearly you're interested in him. So why on earth are we even talking about this?"
"Because what if I'm reading too much into it?" Katherine replied. "What if he is just being friendly?"
Isabel's scornful glance spoke volumes: "Someone is going to have to make a move, and since he has already given you a number of signals that you have so far elected to disregard, it will have to be you."
Katherine wavered, and Isabel delivered the coup de grâce: "You'll regret not taking a risk. In ten years' time, you'll be around wondering what would have happened if only you'd had the guts for five seconds."
Half an hour later, Katherine was standing outside the conference room where Alex was finishing up, her heart thudding against the inner walls of her ribcage. When he came out, expression of shock and pleasure on his face.
"Hi," she attempted, attempting to be more courageous than she felt. "Would you mind if I had your Instagram?"
There was a spark in his eyes—gratitude, or maybe amusement at her forthrightness. He took her phone, typed in his handle, and returned it with a smile that left her knees weak.
His messages gained momentum, becoming flirtatious by the hour. By late afternoon, Alex's compliments made Katherine walk on air for being admired for the very first time in her life. When he asked her to meet in person, she canceled her appointment without hesitation.
3:15 PM
"No one has ever complimented me this much in a single day," Katherine confessed while walking alongside him on the building's edge.
Alex stopped dead. "That's a crime!" he growled, his tone brooding and deep. "You should be complimented every hour, at least."
His intense gaze left her breathless. For a suspended moment, she thought—hoped—he'd kiss her. The expectation between them trembled like a living thing. But Katherine dug in heels, needing utter certainty before leaping.
They embraced their goodbyes-goodbyes, tension still in the air, but Katherine had decided. She texted him the truth later that night: I like you. Not as a friend.
He replied at once: I've liked you since orientation. Those moments of eye contact have kept more nights awake than I care to admit.
Relief and exhilaration coursed through her. When you saw me today, I wanted to kiss you, but I did not know.
You ought to have attempted, he replied.
Annoyed, she teased: I don't believe that you can kiss me. I don't believe that you are brave enough. I asked for your Instagram. I admitted first. You are too timid.
Is that a challenge? was his response in a split second. Cuz if it is, you're gonna regret it for sure.
We'll see, sweetheart, she fired back.
Bet. Meet me tomorrow at 8:45 downstairs, darlin'.
Bet.
NOVEMBER 10
8:45 AM
Katherine sat in the basement, feigning casualness as she took a sip of her Monster energy drink. Alex's bravado was strictly via text message, she was sure. In person, he'd go back to charming but respectful.
Alex emerged, his face set in a look of grim determination. He took her to the hidden stairwell she had visited at most once or twice before without speaking. He kept up a stream of idle chatter as they ascended, but something had altered in his eyes, an undercurrent of purpose that had Katherine's heart racing.
He stopped mid-sentence suddenly, turning to face her with one sweep of his body, his eyes questioning silently. His hand pressed against the wall beside her when she did not retreat; he leaned against it lightly to pin her there.
The can of energy drink crushed in her hand as Alex's mouth met hers. The kiss was a question, a inquiry, not a demand. Then Katherine kissed him back, and self-control vanished. His lips were impossibly soft, his breath a quiet exhalation against her face. She dissolved, every molecule in her body reconfiguring itself around this one moment.
Her hands clasped into his hair, drawing him in deeper. His tongue tentatively tasted for an entrance, and she opened to it unthinking. The world reduced down to nothing much in that moment—his arms around her waist, her heart beating, the sensation of him filling every sense in her.
As they broke apart at last, panting and stunned, Katherine noticed the crushed can in her hand, the energy drink trickling between her fingers. Alex noticed it as well and smiled gentle with a soft vibration on her.
He accompanied her to her office, then lingered at the edge of her door whispering, "Darling, never doubt me again."
His smile as he walked away was innocent enough to anyone who saw—but Katherine had glimpsed behind the mask, beheld the fires beneath the control.