Z.A.Y.N.

TRACK 4

"So..."

Liam pauses bringing a forkful of blueberries up to his mouth. He knows that tone all too well.

"How's your fairytale romance coming along?"

While he allows himself to go through with eating the fruit, the singer forces himself not to look Louis in the eye, no matter how badly he can sense from across the table that the other male wants him to.

Having breakfast with his manager isn't anything out of the ordinary for Liam, but when it's before a contract meeting with Zain and Harry - one that came to be upon the latter hearing that his client and Liam had officially wrote something together before he was able to finish up a co-writing contract for the duo - he knows that Louis has ulterior motives beyond conveniently eating together prior to attending. Although he had to give it to his mate, he lasted without mentioning Zain until their food arrived. Liam couldn't say that much about his last romantic interest.

"Shouldn't you be encouraging me to finish the album on time and to not get distracted?"

The diversion doesn't seem to take well with Louis.

"You're as responsible as they come," the man brushes off easily. "Since an explicit date's been set, you'll stick to it."

Reaching for his water, Liam drinks while he tries to come up with a better way to steer away from the topic of him and the songwriter, but nothing comes, and he knows better than to let Louis stew in his anticipation. "You're one of my best friends, I think you know exactly what's happening."

"Can't say I didn't warn you," Louis tisks, raising his eyebrows in arrogance at having predicted the outcome neither of them are admitting out loud to happening.

Liam wants so badly to be able to pour salt into the male's coffee instead of sugar. The second he put it out into the universe, Louis was just waiting to revel in his glory for correctly predicting that meeting someone after such a lengthy build up would end in Liam falling in love. Boy or girl, beautiful or not, it was bound to be a product of letting his imagination go wild for six years and solely focusing on the parts of themselves this person showed Liam through their writing. It was a romantic's dream scenario, and Liam? Liam was the type to dive head first into a trap like that.

"I've only met up with him a few times," the singer points out, cutting up his avocado toast.

"And yet you didn't correct me on my assumptions."

A growl stays in Liam's throat at how much Louis wants to rub this in his face. "He challenges me to think in a different way than I normally do and I like that. Is that so bad?" There's an innuendo in there somewhere, Liam can see it in the way Louis' lips turn up into a smirk, so he continues speaking to rule out the possibility of his manager getting the chance to voice what he's thinking. "He's handsome, you can't deny that. Just let me have this, ok?"

"Don't recall saying anything that insinuated I wasn't letting you have it." Liam's glare makes Louis laugh as he picks up his mug of coffee. "I'll let up now. Just wanted to hear it all come from your mouth. You know how I am."

Sadly, Liam thinks to himself as he goes back to his food, and then again when he can feel Louis' leg bounce under the conference room table an hour later.

Zain's late. This time only by fifteen minutes instead of over twenty, but it's fifteen minutes that Louis finds irritating. Like Liam had said the last time they were all in this position, he has nowhere else to be, so he's alright with it. In fact, he's enjoyed being able to talk more freely with Harry about Zain's music now that he's been let into more of the writer's world.