The Tattoo (zayn)

Part 7

*rachel's pov*
"You look beautiful." Asher commented on my floor length, strapless rose colored gown.
"Thank you. You look pretty strapping yourself." I admired his tux that fit wonderfully on him.
I was starting to feel like I should try more at our relationship. Asher was a great guy and any girl would be lucky to have him. So why shouldn't I consider myself lucky?
We arrived at the venue and were handed glasses of water.
I took a sip and realized that I had completely messed up my lipstick in the process.
"Asher will excuse me? I just need to go fix my lipstick." I said to him. He nodded and I ran off to find the bathroom.
I found it in a hallway and fixed my lipstick in the mirror. I smiled in the mirror and psyched myself up to have a great night with my great boyfriend.
I confidently pushed open the bathroom door. However maybe my push was a little too confident, as I heard a thud behind the door.
"Oh my god I am so sorry." I started to apologize profusely before I could even see what I hit. I shut the door to get a better look at the person whom I had just injured.
"Oh my god." I said as I realized who it was.
He was still rubbing his face from the pain. When he stopped to get a look at me he froze as well.
We looked at each other silently for what felt like a solid 30 seconds before he said something.
"Rachel."
"Zayn."
We both opened our arms and embraced each other in the biggest hug. I hugged him definitely for over a minute. I almost felt like crying. Zayn pulled away and placed his hand in my arm.
"What are you doing here?" He asked. I obviously knew why he was.
"I'm being honored. I'm the youngest director in Hollywood right now." I smiled at my own achievement because I knew he would be happy to know.
"What? That's amazing!" His smile brought a rush of emotions back to the surface.
I looked down to his hand that was on my arm to check to see if it was still there. I was worried that in the year that had passed, he would have regretted it and gotten it removed or covered up.
But he didn't. On his right hand, in the space between his thumb and wrist, there was a little 'r'.
It made me smile. He noticed my face to see what I was looking at. He then looked down to his hand where I'm sure he figured out why I was happy.
He took his hand and traced it down my arm in a moment of silence. His hand eventually reached mine and he saw the spot of the little 'z' on my hand. He traced over it for a second with his thumb.
We stood there for another minute just soaking in the moment when Asher popped up behind Zayn.
"Hey." He said. It surprised me and I pulled my hands out of Zayn's.
Since he was behind Zayn he hadn't seen his face and didn't know who he was, he seemed fairly calm. However the moment Zayn turned around to face him, I saw the smile disappear from Asher's face.
Zayn looked very confused so I decided to do my best and not screw everything up in the extremely difficult place I was in.
"Oh uh Asher this is Zayn, Zayn this is Asher. My boyfriend." I pointed to them respectively. I saw Zayn's face drop a little when I mentioned Asher was my boyfriend.
Asher extended his hand to shake Zayn's and Zayn reciprocated. There was a very palpable tension between them. Between all of us really.
"Well I should really get back out to my girlfriend." Zayn said.
"Right." I remembered the girl I had seen in his Instagram pictures and on his Twitter. She was a model of course and she was absolutely gorgeous.
Asher's shoulders relaxed a little when he heard that Zayn was still taken, like I had told him in the tattoo story.
Zayn looked in my eyes once more and then walked out of the hallway. Asher and I stood there for a moment.
"I didn't know he would be here." I felt like I needed to apologize. Obviously Asher knew about Zayn and me's past. I can imagine why he was rather uncomfortable.
"It's fine." He said flatly. I knew that it wasn't. I knew he cared but he was never one to complain.
I took my hand and grabbed his to hold. He hadn't looked into my eyes for a couple of minutes.
He looked to the hand I had just used to grab his. Of course I made the mistake of using the tattooed hand. He noticed and let go of my hand.
"We should go back out there." He said still rather flat and he began to walk out into the venue and I followed behind him, wondering how I was going to make this up to him.
We semi enjoyed the rest of the gala but both of us were ready to leave once they called everyone to a toast. Out of the corner of my eye I caught a glimpse of Zayn and his girlfriend. Her blonde hair was a good bit longer than my mid-length hair and she was of course very pretty.
They called out the names of the honorees with a slideshow projected on the wall. I was rather high on the list since my last name was Dalton. They flashed my picture along with my name. It felt good to have people clapping for me. Even Zayn's girlfriend clapped, which I'm assuming meant she had no idea who I was and he had certainly not told her about me.
Eventually Zayn's name came up and of course I clapped politely. Asher didn't seem too enthused with it. After the slideshow was done we were both really ready to go.
Asher and I made our way out to the uber that was here to bring us home.
"Wait one second. I left my purse inside. Let me go grab it." I stopped in my tracks. I really did leave it inside but I had another reason why I needed to go back in.
I ran back inside to the table where we were sitting. I took out a scrap of paper and wrote something down. I looked around to locate Zayn. He was standing by the refreshment area, getting two of the sparkling waters.
I walked toward him with purpose. He didn't see me coming until I was two feet from him.
"Hey." He said kind of excited.
I didn't say anything. I just smiled and tucked the the piece of paper into his tux pocket.
"This time you have my number." I smirked and turned in my heels. I walked straight back out to Asher with out even bothering to look back. Something about it felt so powerful.
"You get your bag?" Asher asked as I came out the doors.
"Yep" I flashed him the clutch that I had grabbed.
We both got in the car.
"You alright?" He asked. I had a grin plastered on my face.
"Yah I'm fine." I tried to hide the fact that I was thinking about Zayn.
I took his hand and laced his fingers with mine. We sat in silence the whole way back.