He opened his eyes to a fiery red head of hair nestled beneath his chin. For a second, he could pretend the last four months hadn't happened, that he hadn't lost the best thing that had ever happened to him, that he was reliving a perfect slow Sunday morning. But then the girl next to him shifted and said, "Good morning, James." And it wasn't the voice he wanted to hear.
He sighed and rubbed his eyes. "Good morning, er-, you." He had almost said her name. Although forgetting the name of a girl he brought home was bad, he figured calling her the name of his ex-girlfriend, who she looked shockingly like, would be worse. Apparently, the girl in question did not think his slip up was the greater of two evils.
"What a gentleman you are." she said sarcastically, getting up from bed and shimmying on her clothes from the night before. For a second, all he could do was admire her bum as she bent over looking for her shoes.
"So," he started, "any big plans today?" She gave him a filthy look over her shoulder and tied up her hair.
"I'm guessing breakfast with the guy who can't even remember my name is not on the list." She walked over to the desk chair and started to put on her coat. James stretched out on his bed, looking forward to another couple hours of sleep once the girl left.
"Er- no. I'm not one for breakfast, I'm afraid. But the coffee in the lobby is great. You should grab one, and tell them to put it on my tab- it's apartment number 731." He smiled up at her, believing his words to be flattering. She scoffed.
"Well I'll try not to let the door hit me on the way out." She flipped her ponytail over her shoulder and marched out the bedroom door. James felt the need to stop her. He scrambled out of bed and followed her into the living room. She was almost to his door.
"Wait!" He said. He glanced around the room and grabbed a couch cushion to hold in front of himself. She turned and raised her eyebrows, giving him a once over.
"What?" She said, her tone clipped.
"I just-' He searched for words for what he was feeling. "Did you have a good time last night?" She stared at him, seemingly unbelieving.
"You know," she started, "you were quite a bit nicer at the bar. I thought we might actually have connected. Suddenly, the sun comes up, and you're a real tosser." With that, she flung open the front door with a little more force than entirely necessary and strode out of James' apartment.
James looked down again at his couch cushion and decided against following her into the apartment hallways completely nude. He sighed and sank heavily down on to the couch. From what he could remember from the previous night, he had done quite a bit of talking with the pretty red head at the bar, and they had definitely had a satisfying night. James felt bad, it wasn't her fault he was still hung up on his ex.
He wandered into his kitchen and pulled out a box of cereal, he felt too guilty to go back to bed. He decided while adding milk to his cocoa puffs that he would stop looking for a couple hours of forgetting Megan in one-night stands, although, none of them had ever made him feel this bad before. He sat down at his table and his front door was flung open for the second time that morning. Sirius strode into the apartment with altogether too much excitement for the early hour.
"You will not believe who I saw at the coffee bar in the lobby!" he said.
"Good morning to you too, Sirius."
"Lily Evans!" Sirius exclaimed. He seemed to be almost vibrating with excitement.
"Wow er-" James scratched his head, "I hope you at least got an autograph." Sirius looked at him and deflated a little bit.
"Don't tell me you don't know who she is! She's produced some of the best albums of our generation. She's helped write songs that have been on the Billboard 200 for months at a time. She's worked with some of the hottest pop stars you can think of." Sirius stood above him with his arms spread wide looking helplessly at James. "Please say some of this is ringing a bell."
"I'm sorry mate," James stood and took his bowl to the sink. "You know we have different taste in music. But I'm excited that you saw her. Hey, you never know, maybe she lives in this building now." Sirius threw himself down in to a chair and crossed his arms.
"I can't believe you don't know who Lily Evans is." Sirius huffed. "She's even rumored to be writing and recording her debut album right now. Oh, how I would love to know if that was true." James laughed and smacked Sirius with the dish towel.
"Now don't be getting moon eyed over some celebrity or I'll have to tell your boyfriend!" James threatened. Sirius laughed openly.
"Don't worry," Sirius said, getting up from the table and heading to his room. "Remus doesn't have anything to worry about."
James watched his friend go and realized he felt a lot better than he did before Sirius had come home. He decided if he ever ran in to the redhead from this morning again, he would ask her on a proper date and make it up to her. Without her name he couldn't exactly go searching for her- but the city wasn't huge, he could run into her again on a night out. With his guilty conscience dealt with, James decided it was a good time to go on a run.