A worker's life wasn't as hard as I thought: I started work at nine am and at around midday I had an hour to have lunch or do what I wanted. I always chose going with Liz to the staff room to have a long nonsensical chat until our break was over, cuz we knew that Mr. Deluca (we had to call him like that at work cuz the rest of the employees thought he made differences with us) didn't like seeing us laugh and chat about stupid things as we were working.

 He always said that the we had to be polite and well mannered as we surely wouldn't like it if we went to the supermarket to buy crackers and the cashier didn't have a smile on their face.

 "Perhaps they think we're stupid or something..." Liz complained every time her dad wasn't around "I wouldn't mind going to the grocery's and seeing that Oliver Reynolds is serious... as long as I see him" she added and winked her eye at me.

 We tried to be sitting near the other so that whilst a customer left and the other one came we could chat about nonsense once more. Greta visited us as often as she could because she would soon leave to Uni and we wouldn't see the other every day as we had been doing for the past ten years.

 "I'm going to miss you loads bitches" she said one afternoon she was feeling depressed "Or I could start working here too and bye bye uni!"

 "No silly" I told her and smacked her arm "You go to uni and meet loads of hot guys... then you introduce them to us!"

 "Try to get me a tall guy with short brown hair and blue eyes" Liz said "Like Howard"

 "Howard who?" both Gre and I asked at the same time.

 "Donald... from TT" she said rolling her eyes as if we were silly or something.

 "You like Howard now?" Gre inquired loudly

 "Last week you liked Robbie!" I added and Gre nodded.

 "Yeah, but now I like Dougie best" she said rolling her eyes again but romantically doing so this time "He's got such a body... and he moves just---"

 "I better get a mop 'ere before Mr. Deluca tells me off for the dribble on the floor" I said laughing and off I went to do so.

 How much I loved my new life! Well, of course that I missed mum's meals and fighting with Enrique over the TV but I really missed them... Not dad. How could I miss him shouting at me every single time he saw me? Not only one thing I did was alright for him... he always found a mistake in what I said, what I did... He just bored and pissed me!

 "Oh... sorry" a short guy said when I bumped into him as I was looking at the floor when I walked to get the mop. Yeah, that's a kinda sick habit I have, I admit it but I have always walked looking at the floor... just to watch my step?

 As soon as this guy excused himself for bumping into me and before I could see him, he turned round as if he wanted to see if someone was following him or not. His hair was of a shiny light brown and he was really thin.

 "Tis okay" I replied carelessly "You need anything?"

 "Yeah... I mean... no" he said and I caught his accent on the spot: he was a Briton!

"You sure? You seem you're lost or something..." I insisted now willing really hard to see the face of this British guy that was standing right in front of me "And it'd be weird if you got lost in this store cuz let's face it... there aren't many halls and---"

 "I'm all right, really" he said reaching out to put his hand on my arm as if he wanted to say 'you've talked enough already love, will you shut up now?'.

 And that was the moment in which his green eyes met mine and I instantly felt a hot blush covering my face as my ears boiled.

 "Aaaaah---" I tried to speak but unfortunately I couldn't so I ended up looking like an idiot "You---"

 "You know me or something?" he said.

 "I may have seen you somewhere but I'm not sure where" I said all of a sudden...

 "Better yet... Listen, this may sound a little odd but I'm running away from some people and... I need somewhere to hide" he said when I saw that a mob of screaming teenagers was hurriedly walking into the store.

 "Come" I quickly whispered grabbing his hand and we started running down one of the halls just when a loud hullabaloo was heard.

 After turning to the left and then to the right and running a couple of metres more, we finally got to Liz's dad office. I drew the blinds shut and locked the door, hoping those girls hadn't seen us.

 When we were finally safe from any harm those women could cause either him or me, I stood at the door actually thinking about what had just happened. Or about what was happening: I had locked myself in the same room with the guy I had many times spotted as 'cute' and the one I always chose if I had to choose one out of the five of them to get married with. Unless I was mistaken...

 When I turned round and saw him leaning on Mr. Deluca's desk looking at me with the same cute smile he looked at me every night in Liz's bedroom, I felt ashamed of being wearing my red, white and blue uniform to which I had attached a nice name tag which read 'Angie' in pink instead of the name of Liz's dad's store on the upper left breast.

 "So Angie..." he said and pointed at my breast with his chin "You work here?"

"Hmmm yeah..." I said covering the name with my hand and walking nervously around the room.

"I'm Mark" he said with a smile on his face and when he held his hand out I just looked at him "Okay, no shaking hands then" he giggled.

Wooow... it actually was him! Liz would die if she knew I was locked in her dad's office with Mark Owen!

 "What do you do Angie?" he stupidly asked trying to make conversation.

 "I work here...?" I said and raised my eyebrows as I pointed to my dress.

 "Right..." he said "Are you American?"

 Okay, that was the obvious question as I didn't look like an American...

 "Yes" I coldly replied.

 "I thought you weren't... 'cause you got big brown Latino eyes..."

 "My parents are from Puerto Rico but my brother and I were born here, so I'm American"

 "Ahhhh"

 God I hadn't ever dreamed I would have such a stupid conversation with him or with any guy! Well, not that I had dreamed about having any conversation with him but even a toddler would realize that it was one stupid convo.

 "So... Mark you said?" I trailed off pretending I hadn't caught his name.

 "Yah, Mark Owen" he repeated and again confirmed he was the one I had thought.

 "What are you doing here?"

 "In the supermarket or in the---"

 "States... you already told me you're running away from some fans"

 "I never said they were fans" he quickly said and narrowed his eyes "You know who I am?"

 "Mark Owen"

 "So you know me!"

 "Ermmm... you told me your name's Mark Owen?"

 "Yeah, but I never told you I was running away from fans or something"

 "Why would a group of ten teenagers will be following you if you weren't famous then?"

 "Well, you're a teenager and you aren't following me" he said and I gasped.

 How could he be so damn sure of what he was saying? Oh, right... cuz I was locked with him in an office. "So, are they fans or what?"

 "Ha... yeah... those are fans..." he laughed as he scratched his arm remembering God knows what.

 "So you're filming a movie or...?" I pretended to not know him... wasn't I really smart?

 "Actually, I'm on holidays"

 "School break or something?" there I was again pretending I didn't know who he was!

 "No... I'm taking a break from work... I'm in a band" he told me seriously.

 "Really? That's cool! What instrument do you play?" I said making a mental note to remind me that I was sometimes really smart and funny.

 "Oh no, we don't play any instruments... we mainly sing and dance"

 "Ah... not so cool then eh?" I muttered and he looked at me with big shocked eyes "Where are you from? Scotland?"

 "England" he said feeling proud of the Union Jack "Manchester to be precise"

 "And where's that?"

 "Huh?"

 "Where's Manchester?"

 "In England"

 "I know, you already said it's in England. I mean, what part? North, south---"

 "North-west"

 "Okay"

 I knew there had to be something wrong with pop stars, they couldn't be perfect! And Mark was the clear example of that: he had a couple of pimples and he was shorter than I thought. Oh and did I forget to mention he was booooooooooooring!?

 "Perhaps they left" I said after some minutes of silence during which I looked around the office and Mark just stared at me. So I stood up to see if the screaming girls were still around or not.

 I walked out of the office, Mark following me close behind and we walked til we got to the hall which lead you to the main room of the store. And effectively, the girls were still there but now they were organized in what it seemed to be an army: a group was walking down the halls, another group walked them up and a couple of girls stood at the door. It was going to be well difficult for Mark to leave without being seen.

 "I got an idea if you want to get out of here" I told Mark when we walked in Mr. Deluca's office again.

 "Are you going to come with me?" he asked me.

 "What!?" I frowned.

 "I asked you if you are you going to come with me" he repeated "Cuz if you're not I rather be locked up in 'ere with you"

 "Is that supposed to be a line?"

 "No..." he shook his head "Actually... it's a line cuz I've just used it with you so..." he said pulling a wicked smile on his face.

 "Well, it's not working with me... perhaps it works with those British chicks"

 "Gals" he said laughing

 "Whatever" I replied rolling my eyes and sat down on an armchair.

 I couldn't believe I was supposed to spend the rest of the afternoon locked in that office with a guy which had turned out to be as pathetic as my classmates! Hang on... who said I had to spend my afternoon with him? I was working and he was the one who was intruding!

 "Listen Mark" I trailed off and stood up from the armchair as I dabbed at my dress "I need to get back to work so you stay here if you want and when those girls leave I come to tell you"

 "Sounds like a fair deal to me" he said smiling and reached out to shake hands.

 I looked at him as I raised an eyebrow and shyly held out my hand. And then, just then, in the very same moment when he held mine between his, Mark bent a little and took it to his lips to kiss it softly.

 "A pleasure doing business with you milady" he said showing me a big smile.

And OH.MY.GOD. how weak I felt when his lips touched my skin! I started giggling stupidly and I felt how my cheeks burnt.

"Now that's the line which works with you" Mark told me and I lowered my eyes.

Holy shit I had fell for a Take That! What would Greta say? I knew Liz was going to be really happy and perhaps a little jealous but...

"I lied" I trailed off stupidly.

"Pardon?"

"I lied... I know who you are"

"Ah you do then?"

"Yeah... you're in Take That... my best friend loves you guys"

"Ha... well... she won't believe you if you tell her you've been with me"

"Rite... cuz I won't believe it either until we are... Are you know?" I said and winked at him.

 "Oh, no... I'm not talking about that" he said sounding all worried "I meant that she won't believe you've met me"

 "Oh... ermmm..." what could I do apart from blushing and moving my eyes from him? God how stupid could I be!

 "Don't worry..." he said smiling "It happens a lot" he added and I raised my eyebrow.

 "What d'you mean 'it happens a lot?'"

 "Many girls have told me... you know..."

 "No, I don't know" I told him seriously as I saw him getting closer to me.

 "They want to be with me" he whispered into my ear, letting me feel the warmness of his breath.

 "Oooo---kkkkay" I said blushing and feeling my knees weaken.

 God he was so close to me I could just bite his ear! I don't know why but my hands started sweating cold and I wanted to shave my head as I felt the back of neck burning... no wait, that was the touch of Mark's hand!

 "Mmmmark?" I said in a weak voice as he got closer to me.

 "Yeah" he said softly into my ear.

 "Do you think it's---"

 "Nobody has to know..." he said and I felt how he wrapped one of his hands round my waist.

 "I know---"

 "I've never kissed an American..." he told me in a soft sexy voice as he looked down at my lips "Have you ever kissed a British guy?"

 "Nope" I whispered back to him.

 "I wanna know how it feels" he placing both of his hands on the sides of my face as he mocked the American accent "You wanna know it too?" he asked getting closer and closer to my lips.

 "Yeah..." I smiled and got ready to have my first kiss with a popstar.

 It was not that I was an expert kisser, but I had kissed some guys and one of those had been my only boyfriend up to that moment: Luke Grissom. Now I don't remember if his father or his grandfather had been the second man to be sent to space or something? I have to find that out again... Or perhaps Liz remembers?

 Anyways, the thing is that with the only person I had got that far was with him. I mean, we dated for almost two years and well, you know how you are when you're a teenager... But after him there hadn't been anybody else in my life, until that afternoon with Mark. I was in love with Luke and the times it happened were because we both wanted it to happen... we thought about that thing of eternal love or something... Mind you, it's not that I was in love with Mark, but I just couldn't tell him not to kiss me...

 "Angie" my best friend's voice woke me up "Get up or we're gonna get late to work"

 "Ooookay" I said as I could and got up with my eyes closed. And in that very same state I walked into the bathroom, had a shower and got dressed as I thought about the weird dream I had have with Mr. O.

 I then walked down to the kitchen to have a toast and a coffee for breakfast before we missed the 8:10 bus which would leave us five blocks from the store at 8:35. We had plenty of time to get to the store walking and we used it really well cuz we saw Oliver Reynolds going to work and we completely drooled over him.

 That very same afternoon, Greta came to chat a bit as we knew that Liz's dad wouldn't be around. It was only a couple of weeks before she would leave for Uni...

 "I'm going to miss you loads bitches... Or I could start working here too and bye bye uni!"

 "No silly" I told her and smacked her arm "You go to uni and meet loads of hot guys... then you introduce them to us!" I froze at the very familiar words I was saying.

 "Try to get me a tall guy with short brown hair and blue eyes" Liz said "Like Howard"

 "Howard who?" both Gre and I asked at the same time and I froze again.

 Was it a deja vú or what?

 "Donald... from TT" she said rolling her eyes as if we were silly or something.

 "You like Howard now?" Gre inquired loudly.

 No, not a deja vú: I had had a vision.

 "Last week you liked Robbie!" I added as I knew I would and Gre nodded, as she did in my dream.

 "Yeah, but now I like Dougie best" she said rolling her eyes again but romantically doing so this time "He's got such a body... and he moves just---"

 "I better get a mop 'ere before Mr. DeLucatells me off for the dribble on the floor" I said laughing and off I went to do so, just again in the very same way I knew it would happen, thinking about mum and Enrique, getting mad cuz of Dad... waiting to bump into Mark Owen and have the kiss of my life...