Under Summer Sky • Zarry

4. The magic word

I glanced at him over my shoulder, watching as he moved around, grabbing several random ingredients from the refrigerator and cupboards; a banana, coconut oil, greek yogurt, honey, cinnamon, kale.

I gave him a curious look. "I thought you were working on the Merlot today?"

He then took out several ice cubes from the freezer. "I am. Just taking a quick lunch break," he replied blandly as he started to place everything into the blender on the counter beside me and turned it on.

The sound of crushing ice and whizzing blades cut through the air like a swarm of buzzing bees; meanwhile the waffles were turning a toasty brown, so I grabbed a mitt to remove them as the blender stopped.

Naturally, a lull of silence drifted between Zayn and I once again. And it was really starting to drive me crazy in the worst way.

I had to break through it. "Thanks for leaving me some waffles. Strawberries are my favorite," I commented as I released a drizzle of maple syrup on top of them.

He opened the utensil drawer and handed me a fork. "I know. Mine too."

Zayn grabbed a tall, green tumbler from the cupboard afterward and began pouring the smoothie into it as I stood beside him, leaning up against the island with a bite of waffle in my mouth. They really were delicious, of fucking course.

He then turned around and handed it to me with a straw before casually wiping his hand on his pants.

"What's this for?" I asked.

"To cure you from that hangover," he responded with a nod and swiftly walked out of the kitchen and back outside through the sliding door.

He never even made anything to eat for himself.

Well, it seemed as though we were still cool at least, despite last night's strange argument and it made me smile to myself. It was starting to become pretty apparent to me that Zayn had such a thoughtful nature to him and I found it to be sincere, selfless, and kind. There was this mystifying complexity beneath the surface, this duality that Zayn possessed.

I didn't think I had ever been so fascinated by anyone before.

And I still really, really wanted him to like me. I mean, I could drum up the fairly obvious on my own that he did like me, otherwise he wouldn't go out of his way to be considerate in the midst of his cold shouldered, slightly vengeful torment and brash opinions.

But I still didn't want to delude myself into thinking that he could ever like me in that way.

And Nick was right, though. I was definitely chickenshit when it came to physically or intimately approaching men, and especially now Zayn. It was just much more confusing for me and I found it to be anxiety-ridden, something I had no real prior experience with, either. My interest in men had only ever been severely limited to mere thoughts and fantasies.

But now I was beginning to feel this particularly new feeling; subtle vulnerability, and I wasn't sure if I liked it or not because it was starting to unnerve me.

I was never like this before.

Plus, I still had seven more weeks left of my summer in Italy and despite Nick's insistence, I just wasn't willing to take a risk on this chance in the dark with Zayn and potentially ruin our budding friendship.

* * * * *

Zayn wasn't lying when he said that smoothie would cure my hangover. Detoxifying, replenishing my electrolytes; I felt so much better in just about an hour. He was actually starting to totally impress me with all of the different factions of knowledge he had in his massive brain. Zayn really was good at everything and it certainly wasn't helping this crush I was developing on him either.