A twenty-something girl was standing outside of a café in central London. It was a lovely café called Ray's. Rays was set on the first floor of a bookstore with local art students and jazz types, they also had the best coffee within a ten mile radius. This girl didn't usually drink coffee on a Sunday afternoon in autumn, but she felt she deserved it today. So roughly an hour or so prior she donned a coat and set off. On her way out of her flat she grabbed a letter from the post from the previous day and headed to Ray's.

Upon arriving, the girl grabbed a book from the upper level and settled into a comfy sofa downstairs to lose herself in the novel and sip on her coffee. The girl sat in the worn sofa for 45 minutes while she finished the novel, but all throughout that time she didn't notice the handsome boy in the purple chair across the room watching her. The boy had messy black hair and glasses, with beautiful hazel eyes that looked as though they could see through your entire being and into your soul, but of course the girl didn't notice this.

After 45 minutes of good reading and coffee, the girl decided to go back to her flat. The girl gathered her things and set off to go, but when she pulled herself off the sofa her forgotten post from earlier fell to the ground. The letter was from her sister, who she wasn't on speaking terms. The girl had been avoiding opening the letter all day yesterday and she wasn't looking forward to it now. She bent to pick up the letter and opened it quickly.

She read the letter through twice and still didn't understand what she was reading. The letter said that she was uninvited to her sister's wedding. Well no, it didn't actually say that, what it actually said was that she was unwanted and strongly advised not to attend the event, but she got the message her sister was hinting at. The girl couldn't believe this; although she and her sister weren't on speaking terms she still loved her and couldn't understand why she was being treated this way. Her sister started avoiding her around age 13, and they grew apart from there because of some ridiculous notion her sister believed that their parents loved her more. After reading the message three more times the girl walked out of the café numbly.

Seeing all of this, the girl getting up, dropping her letter and standing there staring at it for ten minutes more before dully leaving the café, the boy from the purple chair followed her out of the building, after trying to hastily gather his things, this took at least ten minutes seeing as he had a lot of things, a couple of books to put back on the shelves, a coffee mug to return and he of course kept dropping things in his haste. But before the boy exited the building he looked at the girl through the window. She had a thin frame, auburn hair that ended three quarters of the way down her back, and a beige trench coat with black leggings and leather chestnut boots that went up almost to her knees.

While the boy was still inside the girl was just standing on the sidewalk staring at nothing in particular. She was gazing into nothingness and stunned at her own reaction, she had known the wedding would have been awful for her anyway, but she still wanted to go. As the girl was contemplating her situation, it started to rain. The rain was pouring down on her relentlessly for a good five minutes before it stopped completely. Confused, the girl looked up, but instead of seeing rain pouring on her, she saw a red umbrella. She looked to her left and there was a boy connected to the umbrella, the boy from the purple chair in fact.

Immediately the boy noticed the girl's striking emerald eyes. Although she was drenched from head to toe with rainwater and a haunted look upon her face she was gorgeous still.

"I didn't want you to drown," the boy says.

The girl laughs a halfhearted laugh, and cracks a dejected smile almost despite herself and says, "Thanks for this," she lifts her finger towards the umbrella, "but there's no need, I'm already soaked."

The boys just nods. "What's your name?" he asks

"Lily."

The boy turns his head in her direction and gives her a small smile. "James."

"Nice to meet you James, but really you don't have to do this, I'm fine."

James contemplated Lily's words before he just smiles and shakes his head, "No, I'm quite alright here if you don't mind."

The pair stood there in silence for five minutes more before either one tried to speak again.

"Well then, I must be going, but-", Lily said at the same time James tried to say, "So, what's the matter that's got you standing in the-".

James insisted that Lily speak first, so smiling sheepishly she said, "I should get going. Thank you for sharing your umbrella. Goodbye, then."

Lily started to remove herself from underneath the umbrella when James said, "Lily, wait!"

Lily turned around while James smiled. "At least let me walk you home, it's still raining."

She didn't know why she said it but Lily accepted with a simple, "Okay." James smiled and they set off, with Lily guiding them towards her flat. They didn't speak the entire 15 minutes it took them to get there, but it was a comfortable silence with the sound of rain in their ears.

When they arrived at her small apartment building Lily turned around to look at James.
"Thank you."

"It was no big deal," James smiled and Lily made no move to leave. James moved his hand to brush Lily's wet hair off of her face and out of her eyes with a slight smile, "You have beautiful eyes."

Lily gave him a full smile and he returned the gesture.

The rain had slowed so it was safe for Lily to walk to the door without the aid of James' umbrella. Lily reached up and gave James a peck on the cheek and turned on the spot and walked up the stairs to her door with a small smile on her face. James too had a smile on his face as he watched the beautiful girl walk away from him.

When Lily entered her flat she smiled to herself, and although nothing happened really, she felt much better than she had in a long while, and she knew everything would be alright. And as she walked towards the back of her apartment to take a hot shower, she planned on getting coffee on every Sunday afternoon from now on.