Yes, that was former One Direction singer Harry Styles at a Delaware Wawa

Talk about timing.

Only a few hours after Harry Styles superfan Natali Maldonado told a friend she wanted to get a tattoo of the former One Direction singer, she looked up at work Tuesday and there he was with perfectly tousled hair and all.

Dressed in her red Wawa work shirt, Maldonado immediately started crying and hyperventilating. Basically, it was the equivalent of a teenage girl spotting Paul McCartney of the Beatles at a store in the 1960s. 

"I thought I was hallucinating. I asked a co-worker, 'Are you seeing this or am I going crazy?'" said the still-shaking Maldonado, who spotted the heartthrob at Wawa on Pulaski Highway in Bear near Eden Square Shopping Center around 4:30 p.m.

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The 21-year-old New Castle woman was checking on the coffee station when the "Sign of the Times" singer stopped in while traveling from Washington, D.C., to New York for a Wednesday performance on NBC's "Today" morning show.

Before Maldonado worked up the nerve to go up to him, she went through such stages of shock and disbelief that she hid behind the smoothie machine counter.

"I felt awkward and so weird. I didn't want him to think I was like a crazy person or anything," she said about the encounter, which made it into Rolling Stone magazine.

But he had already spotted her. And every time she looked up, he was looking at her, including while placing his order for a burrito, tuna salad sandwich and classic turkey hoagie on the touch screen.

If you think this all sounds like a rejected romantic comedy script, she agreed.

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A One Direction song even played in the store just a couple of hours before he arrived, sparking a conversation between her and her boss about the singer.

After gathering herself as much as possible considering the circumstances, Maldonado approached the security guard with Styles and the two others he was with.

The Glasgow High School graduate asked if she could meet Styles and after security spoke with Styles, she got her wish.

Maldonado, who moved from Puerto Rico to Delaware 12 years ago, told Styles she was a big fan, got an autograph and even a few photos thanks to a quick-thinking co-worker with a cellphone.

Maldonado even remembered about the tattoo she was thinking about earlier in the day. Her original plan was to get a tattoo of Styles' mantra, "Treat People With Kindness," and had even searched Pinterest for a photo of the saying in his handwriting.

He agreed to write the phrase on the paper bag, and she now promises it will soon be written on her body forever in the form of a tattoo – a tattoo with a really wild story behind it.

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After Styles left, she immediately posted the photos and her story to Facebook and Twitter and fought through the next five hours of her shift, still rattled by the moment.

"I needed to take a picture with him," she said. "Nobody was going to believe me."

Maldonado has been working at the store for a year and as you might expect, global celebrities are not their usual clientele.

That's probably why when she woke up Wednesday, she was convinced it was just a dream.

"I had to check my phone to see my pictures and make sure it really happened," she said.

The English performer got his start with the popular boy band One Direction in 2010. That's when Maldonado first became a fan. He went solo after the act went on indefinite hiatus six years later.

Styles has since recorded a pair of albums on his own, including "Fine Line," which was released in December.

His tour in support of the album, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard charts, kicks off in the United Kingdom on April 15.

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Styles' "Love on Tour" trek makes a stop in Philadelphia on June 26 at Wells Fargo Center. Jenny Lewis of Rilo Kiley opens.

Tickets range from $39.50 to $169.50 with "platinum" seats selling for $450 each at wellsfargocenterphilly.com.

Guess who will be there, this time without her Wawa shirt?

Got a tip? Contact Ryan Cormier of The News Journal at rcormier@delawareonline.com or (302) 324-2863. Follow him on Facebook (@ryancormier), Twitter (@ryancormier) and Instagram (@ryancormier).