One (h.s.)

ten

the one where Zayn accidentally meets Charlotte

tell me if you need a loving hand

Zayn walked into the hotel with his hands stuffed into his pockets.

He observed his surroundings in awe. Obviously, he did not fit in with the crowd. Everyone stared at him up and down, wondering what a young man in a white tee shirt with paint splattered on it, grey sweats and a black beanie was doing in such a luxurious hotel. Zayn perfectly knew what type of hotel it was that Harry worked in, he had previously visited him many times, all those times dressed decent enough to kind of fit in.

But today he was here with one and one mission only. Borrow money from Harry and get a pack of cigarettes and quick. He has been desperately craving for a smoke since seven in the morning. As soon as Harry left the flat, Zayn had woken up with an empty pack laying beside his painting tools. He cursed himself for not waking up earlier to ask Harry for money before he left but he had to hurry to uni and classes did not end until three. So basically, Zayn had not had a smoke for eight hours. And he was sure he was about to faint if he didn't fill his lungs with the smoke.

He frantically searched for Harry, spotting him and running towards him.

"Let me borrow some money, please," he pleaded.

"Is it for cigs again?"

"Yeah."

"Hold on, I think my mate has this newly arrived box of cigarettes hidden somewhere behind. I'm sure he won't notice one pack gone," he smirked before disappearing into the restaurant and through the doors of the kitchen.

Zayn stood outside the restaurant, his eyes wandering around the lobby when they landed on a girl sitting at the bar staring out the window with a cup of coffee in her hands. She looked angelic by the way the light from the Sun shone on her profile, making it more defined and engaging. She was certainly down his aisle and he approached her, forgetting all about the cigarettes.

When he was next to the table, she looked up at him and said, "May I help you?"

He stared at her, now being able to fully see her face. Her blonde hair and blue-green eyes entranced him, along with her silky voice and dazzling smile. When she stared him up and down and frowned a little, and it was then Zayn realised how he was dressed.

Embarrassingly, he shook his head and asked, "May I sit?"

Charlotte was stunned by his forwardness and, in her mind, she compared it with Harry's. Harry. There he was again crawling into her every thought. She had been thinking about him non-stop as they had not been able to chat alone since the day she told him.

Every day since, she sat at the same table at the bar, with a cup of coffee between her hands, from half past three to four, exchanging glances with Harry from across the lobby, every now and then staring through the window towards the street. It was like a routine until they had a moment alone.

Granted, they did see each other at every meal, but they couldn't be too obvious with Sebastian there, and she did feel uncomfortable if she gazed into his eyes for too long, so she decided to just not look at him completely. Otherwise, she knew she wouldn't be able to stop herself from staring at him all the time.

She nodded at the young man, dressed extremely casual for such a high class hotel, and he pulled out the chair in front of her and sat down.

"You okay there?"

Charlotte nodded, "Yeah."

"Wonderful."

There was a moment of silence, where she could feel this young man staring at her and she decided to break the awkwardness, "You a painter?"