"Harry, I’m scared." I breathed into the soft fabric of his t-shirt.
"There’s no reason to worry, babe. We’ll be together once me and the lads are through touring and we can send pictures.. I mean texts everyday." I couldn’t help but laugh. He thinks he’s so cheeky, I swear. "Really love, no tears." I felt him pull me back and a steely emerald gaze trapped me. I nodded, his lips reaching out to meet my own.
The last few weeks had been blissful, to say the least. Almost every night Zak and I were either out with “the boys” or “our boys.” On our nights off from them we caught up on our own lives and started going to a group pilates class to de-stress a little. Things were happening too quickly but we didn’t stop to care.
Zak and Louis had “done it” for the first time.. I couldn’t believe it! Now the strange glances from weeks before finally made sense. They were so awkwardly cute and I loved it. We were both so happily in love. Our lives were a whirlwind. We spent our nights alone doing face masks and basking in the glory that is a Disney movie marathon while exchanging stories about our beaus. It felt just like old times. Zak and I had never been closer. Him coming back was the best thing to happen to any of us. I often had to fight for his time since Niall and Liam always wanted to take him along for their shenanigans and Zayn had started a new hairdo that Zak helped create so there were countless Facetime chats to perfect the new look in the mornings. Taylor texted me every so often just to check in but she was so busy touring with Ed she hardly had time for girl talk. Emmy had entirely ditched me but I was kind of okay with that. All in all, I was content. Life had hit the all-time high and I was enjoying it for all it was worth. The impending sorrow and realization that everything had to come to an end sank slowly in my stomach, creating a heavy tight ball I just couldn’t shake.. even though I tried. I never asked Zak but I assumed he felt it too.
We had three days left before the boys left for the tour. They’d been in and out of the studio so we had more time to ourselves which was good but bad at the same time. More time to bond. More time to worry. More time to miss them.
As we laid out dinner on my teeny tiny table a knock came at the door. I saw Zak’s eyes light up as he scrambled to answer the door. We took so much time getting pretty for our men and making the flat as pretty as possible. Operative words being: as possible. My flat isn’t too much bigger than my table, to be frank. Zak had the romantic notion to light some grapefruit blossom Yankee Candles from home and dim the lights to just using the side lamps. In all honesty, it did look pretty cozy. It was even warm enough to leave the windows open for a little night time breeze. He chose to wear dusty blue chino shorts and a tribal printed v-neck tee with loosely tousled hair while I opted for an off-white maxi sundress and carefully wavy curled hair (as created by the one and only Zak Striggow). We looked positively beachy! A nice little American touch to our setup. Truth be told, we’d always miss home just a little bit and the finishing touches helped the mood.
The open door revealed a rather dapper pair of young whippersnappers, each with a rose in hand. Louis held a scarlet rose in one hand, his other round Zak’s hip. “You look so handsome, Lou!” I squealed, hugging him tightly. He wore his hair slicked back and had a denim button-up oxford short sleeve top with cream shorts. He squeezed back but his eyes belonged to Zak. Turning away I felt something pleasantly cool slip under my eyes and the deep heady scent of the flower hit my nose. My eyes flew up to see Harry grinning at me, the hot pink rose held tightly in his hands. God, they were cute boys. I popped up onto my tippy toes and planted a peck on his waiting lips. “You think you’re such a cheeky bastard, don’t you?” I whispered in his ear through my smile. He just nodded smugly so I winked at him. “You are.” He looked great in dark jeans and a vintage Rolling Stones tee.
Dinner went smoothly, our dates loved the meal Zak and I had so carefully prepared. Afterwards we decided to walk down to the nearest dessert shop for something sweet. The shop owner was so patient for putting up with a stubborn Louis. He insisted he’d already tried a pastry and loved it but he was positive it was called a mousse puff and not a profiterole. Zak calmly assured him it was indeed a delicious cream puff profiterole but they argued back and forth forever so Harry and I stepped up to the bar and ordered us a raspberry drizzled cheesecake slice to share. Note to remember: a man who orders for a woman and does so correctly is damn sexy and the right kind of man for me. It was absolutely delectable and Harry gladly fed me the last bite. Our fellow dates finally decided on trying a chocolate filled profiterole and Louis seemed quite pleased that it “still tastes not at all crap and quite good.” That boy will be the end of me, I swear it. Zak and I assumed the night was well-over but the boys led us to Harry’s Audi and we found the night was far from over. “Thought we’d take our favorites for a spin, right mate?” Harry looked to Louis who nodded in response and shouted, “In! The night is young and as are we!” Laughing we all piled in, anxious to see what unexpected fun the night would bring.
Belatedly, I realized I was familiar with the area when we started slowing down and eventually stopped behind a dark building. This was the club where we’d first all met up. We’d come right back to square one. Remembering the drunken fun from that wonderful meeting I shrugged at Zak, squeezed his hand tight and said, “Well, here we go again.”
