Love is in the Air { A Zalfie Fanfic }

Zoe

As Fleur and I walked up to Costa I saw Alfie in the window. I looked away though and pretended like I hadn't seen him. My insides started to churn in excitment as we walked up the pavement closer to the warm restaurant. 

Fleur pulled open the door and I followed her inside. I waved at Alfie but he was looking and Jim waved back. I quickly dropped my hand though and looked away. This was going to be very awkward, I could already tell. 

"Hi Zoe," Jim said as I sat down. I tried to sit down next to Alfie but he slipped in between us. I mentally groaned. 

"Jim,"  I said frowning at him before turning to Alfie and smiling. "Alfie." I could feel my cheeks starting to turn crimson so I looked away as I shimmied out of my jacket. Fleur sat down next to me and shook off her handbag. 

Jim asked me how I was and I tried to ignore him but it quickly started to get awkward and I told him I was okay. That was when Alfie excused himself from the table. Most likely to go to the bathroom. The odd thing was that Fleur followed him. 

I looked at Jim awkardly wondering if I should follow them both but then I decided not to. I mean how weird would that be. Then again, it couldn't be more weird than sitting here with Jim who had obviously organised this all so he could spend time with me. 

"Sooooo," I said dragging out the word waiting for him to speak. He didn't though, he just stared at me. I wanted to curl into a ball and die. It was the worst. 

"Zoe will you go out on a date with me?" he asked suddenly. I looked up at him, he looked so desperate. So innocent. I hated to say no but I had to. 

"I'm sorry Jim, but I like Alfie," I said shyly looking quickly away again. 

"Of course you do," he said slamming his napkin on the table in what I was guessing he hoped was manly, but it most definitely wasn't. 

"I'm sorry," I whispered but he was already out the door. At this point everyone in the restaurant was staring at me and my face had gone bright red. To top it off Fleur and Alfie hadn't returned from the bathrooms already. This breakfast was going lovely so far. 

I wanted to go and find Fleur and Alfie, but then I thought that they might want their own privacy. It was obvious that Fleur liked Jim, even though she hadn't told me, and she was probably really sad that he had ignored her all morning. 

And Alfie. Poor Alfie. He really liked me and even though we were both trying to give each other our attention, Jim just wouldn't let us. 

Fleur and Alfie both needed time together to talk about things. And I would give them that. I collected all my stuff and put a tip on the table before swinging open the door and leaving. 

It was colder outside and I had to pull my jacket closer to my body to keep warm. I didn't want to go home straight away and I didn't want to go to the pier. Even though I was freezing, I decided to go for a short little walk. See what I could see around Brighton. 

I wanted to get lost. 

When I was younger I would play a game with Fleur and our other little friend named Darcy. She moved away when we were all eight though. Well, we would play a game where we'd go into the neighbourhood and two of us would get 'lost.' Then the other person would have to come and find us. It was basically hide and seek, just with a fancier name and fancier rules. 

Since I didn't know this neighbourhood at all though, I actually could get lost if I wanted to. 

I walked around for ages, not even looking at my phone to see how long it had been. After what felt like an hour I came across a play structure in the middle of a park that I didn't recognise. I knew I couldn't be that far away from my aunt's house though, because I had been walking practically in circles, not in a straight line. 

I sat down on the swing and started to push myself around. It had been forever since I'd sat down on a swing. It was a nice feeling. The closest I guess one would ever get to flying. 

Just as I was about to hop off the swing and walk home my phone buzzed. I pulled it out of my pocket and saw that I had three texts. Two from Alfie and one from Fleur. I clicked on the one from Fleur first. 

F- 'Hey! Come back home, Alfie and want to talk to you! :)' 

Seemed reasonable enough. I texted back and told her that I was on my way. I started walking in the direction that I guessed was home as I read Alfie's two texts. 

A- 'Hey Zo, I'mat your aunt's house. Where are you?' 

Again, typical. I was about to respond, saying I was on my way back when I read the second text. 

A- 'Also, do you want to go out tomorrow night, to see a movie or something? Just us? ;)' 

My heart fluttered as I read that. I just kept rereading it over and over again as I walked. It made me so incredibly happy to see that. After reading it about one hundred times, I clicked my phone off without responding and tucked it back into my pocket. 

I suddenly realised where I was and knew I wasn't that far from the house. As I continued the rest of the walk, I did so with a bit more spring in my step. Alfie and I were going on a date tomorrow, and it was going to be the best! I could hardly wait. 

xxx