Chasing Winter

Chapter 8

**ZAYN'S P.O.V**

I drive up to Winter's house in my car with a bouquet of roses in the passenger seat. I take a deep breath and grab the cluster of flowers as I get out of the car. I'm nervous as I walk up to her front porch and knock on the door. I wait a while and she opens the door slowly. She has her hands over her heart when she sees me with the gift, obviously touched. There are tears welling up in her eyes.

"Here you go, beautiful," I says handing her the flowers and pecking her cheek with a small kiss.

"Oh, Zayn, thank you so much," She says, looking into my eyes with a wide smile.

"Anything for you, love," I whisper with my hand resting gently against her cheek.

She gestures for me to come inside and I do. She closes the door and walks to the kitchen. I go into the kitchen behind her and she's grabbing a case from the top of the fridge. I tiptoe my way into the kitchen and wrap my arms around her waist as I stand behind her. She giggles as she tries to walk around the kitchen with me clung to her. She grabs the sissors from a drawer and we waddle back to the vase and flowers. She cuts the stems shorter so they fit in the vase. I watch her cut them and she pricks her finger on an uncut thorn. She jerks back, making me almost lose my balance, causing her to stumble backwards with me. I regain my footing, making her stand up straight. We shuffle back to the sink and she washes the blood off, somewhat awkwardly as she tries to keep her arm far away from the water. She wraps a paper towel around it as she finishes putting the roses inside the vase. She slowly slips her hand under mine, which are on her waist, and unhook my grip around her.

"Excuse me," She says softly as she sets down the roses in the living room and runs up the stairs.

While she's up there, I'm left alone in the empty living room. I stroll around and find a picture of young Winter with her parents. I turn it towards me slowly and observe it closely. I smile when I see that her face is lit up with a huge grin. I hear her coming down the stairs and quickly sit on the couch so she doesn't catch me snooping.

I look up at her and smile, "You okay, Winter?"

I stand up and walk over to her. I grab her hand gently and kisses the finger with the band-aid.

"Thank you," She says, looking up at him.

Her eyes meet mine and we stare at each other. Time seems to stand still and I feel like we're the only two people on Earth. I want to tell her. I want to tell her so bad how I feel. But I get this bad feeling inside of me that screams she doesn't feel the same way. She doesn't love me the way I love her. She never will. She will never know how much she really means to me.

I grabs both of her hands and say with a smile, "Come on, I'm going to take you somewhere special tonight."

She smile back at me, "Alright, sounds like fun."

She runs back up the stairs and comes back down with her purse and her keys in her hand. We go out the door and she locks it. I lead her to my car and open the door for her as she gets inside the passenger. I get inside the driver's seat afterwards and start the car. We drive out of her little town and into the city of Manchester. I know of a really wonderful restaurant that I know she'll love. I smile as we drive in front of it and she gasps, her hands over her mouth.

She turns to me with gleaming eyes, "Zayn, do you know how long I've been wanting to come here? My parents were supposed to take me here for my 19th birthday until... Oh thank you!"

She throws herself on me and wraps her arms around me tightly. I return the hug and just before she pulls away, she lands a kiss on my lips. I'm surprised at the gesture, but I don't question it. I kiss her back and tuck her hair behind her ear. She pulls away slowly, her crystal blue orbs sparkling in the dim light. I smile at her and it seems like she wants to say something.

Instead, she sits back down in her seat and yips, "Come on!"

We get outside and I meet her on her side of the car. Her hand brushes against mine and I hold it gently. She intertwines our fingers as we walk towards the doors of the restaurant. A crisp breeze hits me and we walk, hand in hand, towards the man at the podium. I look around to make sure no fans are around to interrupt us. There's no sign of any interruptions and turn to the man at the podium with a golden name tag. Engraved in it is the name "Greg."

"Good evening," I greet him politely.

He looks up from the book that lies on the podium and smiles at me, "Good evening, sir. How may I help you?"

"A table for two," I coo.

"Right this way," The gentleman says after grabbing two leather covered menus from under the podium.

We follow him to a booth in the corner of the resturaunt, obviously trying to give us privacy.

Winter and I sit across from each other and I tell him, "Thank you."

He nods and hands us our menus, "Your server will be right with you," and with that he walked off back to his position at the podium.

I pick up my menu from where it lies in front of me and start to read it. Winter opens the menu in front of her and stares at it for about 10 seconds before putting it down. She looks around the resturaunt nervously and I'm confused. Why is she so jittery?

"Winter?" I ask softly.

She jumps and looks at me with wide eyes.

I see her relax and she whispers, "Sorry. What is it?"

I put down my menu in front of me, "You look nervous, babe, what happened?"

She blinks, "I'm sorry, I'm just starting to get nervous about my job interview. I feel like I didn't get the job."

I shake my head with a small smile, "Winter, it'll be okay, I promise. I'm sure you got it. You're a beautiful and interesting girl. How could they not hire you? Where did you apply, anyway?"

She smiles at me, "At this place called Logo Art about 2 miles away from here. I'm into graphic design and all that so I wanted a job in it. So far, I haven't had any success but I'm hoping that this will be it."

I can tell she's a big dreamer and she wants this more than possibly anything. I reach out and touch her hand which is resting on the table.

"It will be. They'd be foolish not to hire a wonderful girl like you."

She smiles and our waitor comes and takes our drink and food orders. We have our dinner and step outside almost getting drenched in the pouring rain. I swear under my breath and stare longingly at my car only about 20 feet away.

Winter grabs my hand and I look into her playful eyes, "You wanna make a run for it?"

I smile and feel the energy in me spark. I nod and she smiles widely.

"Alright, on three," she says, "One... Two... Three!"

We make a mad dash for the car and I decide not to get inside right away. I grip her hand firmly and spin her towards me. I catch her as she's flinged toward me and lift her into the air, spinning her around. She giggles and I put her down. We look into each other's eyes and I kiss her lips as I push her soaking wet hair to the side. I pull away and she smiles at me with a certain warmness in her eyes.

"C'mon," she says, grabbing my hand once more and leading me towards the car, "Let's go home."