A Second Chance

21

Get ready for a Ziam date

Edinburgh

It's a long time that he's been so excited, feeling all giddy. He doesn't want to get his hope up, but he being honest he can't do anything against it.

All week long he couldn't stop thinking about that young man with those outrageous brown puppy eyes. That man he saw for the first time when he accompanied Louis to his weekly AA meeting.

Zayn is sure he still feels the hot and tingling shivers that were running up and down his spine when their eyes collide.
Is this even possible? It felt that he looked straight into his soul when their eyes locked.

Brown eyes that turned his world upside down in a blink.

After all he went through in life he became more cautious, hesitant and guarded.
Easily being attracted to another guy, meeting up with an almost strangers , part of his past when a slip was the beginning of his personal hell nothing that he has done ever since.

So what happened with him two weeks ago ? Why is every part of Zayn's body screaming for Liam's attention, wants to be touched and tasted ?

Does deprivation cause all that tumult in his system, makes his hormones going wild ?
Might be, but he doubts it. People would quickly claim this to be the only reasonable explanation, people who don't believe in love at first sight, people who deny that soulmates even exist.
People who strictly neglect everything that wouldn't fit into their philosophy of life, poor people denying everything beyond their imagination.

How else to describe when a glance pulled his soul like a magnet, when a stranger felt like home immediately.

When he found everything he wasn't looking for but always needed while losing himself in the infinity of promising brown eyes.

They talked for a while when most of the group members left.
On the Spur of the moment they decided to meet up before the AA group would meet next.

That was last week .

Right now he's on his way to pick up Liam at the railway station .
He asked him to go with him to an Exhibition of Contemporay Art organised by the Edinburgh College of Art, to wine and dine afterwards and bring the day to an end in Zayn's favourite bar.

Zayn still can't believe that Liam agreed, that this man he's so crazy about didn't reject him when he asked him to be his date.
And if he's being honest he's undeniable scared that he might wake up any time soon facing reality.

On his way to the station he recalls the time they spent together eight days ago .

Flashback

He's sits at a two person table in a coffee shop near his flat waiting for Liam to arrive.
Zayn has suggested Costa, nothing too fancy nor outstanding, a coffee shop where students, tourists and townspeople go for a get-together, or just to grab a coffee or tea.

Regarding that he needs to pick up Louis for the AA meeting the right
place for this purpose.

Louis instantly offered to go to the AA group on his own, meet Zayn in front of the building when Zayn revealed his plans to see Liam.

But it didn't feel right.

Zayn is still a bit afraid Louis might back out of it because it's a lot he's to deal with.

Not that he wouldn't suffer from alcohol deprivation, even harder to go through the process ambulatory after only a few detox days in hospital.
And Zayn is proud of him, what he has achieved, how far he has come .
Yet it still isn't over.