The List » Zarry (M-Preg) ✔

34: Le Bleu

Zayn folded his arms and shook his head.

"I don't need a dinner at Le Bleu. I'll tell you how I really feel right now. Let's start with what I hate the most. And that's the fact that Dad ever started this business."

She was surprised.

"Why is that?"

"Because it was this stupid business that he cared about more. He got himself sick trying to take care of it. I mean... why do you think I never told you guys anything growing up? Why do you think you never knew about Harry? Why do you think I even did that stupid high school bet in the first place?"

"I'm guessing you want to tell me why."

"I was thirteen years old, mom. What thirteen year old likes to be lonely? I don't know any of them. And so I liked the attention. I liked to be popular, to have the attention of all the boys and girls at school. It felt nice. Because I knew once I got home, I was going to a home where I had a father who crept in the front door every night at eleven o'clock because he was spending every waking moment in this very office shoveling paperwork, checking inventory, over and over again.

"Not to mention that it wasn't even me who made him realize he couldn't do it anymore. It was his declining health that put him in a hospital bed for two weeks and forced him to quit for a while. And do you think he stopped to think about his college son at all during all of that? Nope. Not once. Instead, he shoved the keys to this place into my hands on my twentieth birthday and he expected me to pick up right where he left off. He bought a second business without my permission and now he expects me run that one too."

He exhaled heavily. He was getting upset.

"I know that I messed up. Alright? I get it. But I have done nothing but spend the last four years trying to make dad understand that I am responsible. That I can do everything that he did. But you know what? I've learned something, mom. I've learned something from my son that Dad didn't learn from me. I don't have to own a second business. I can keep the one business I have and I can spend time with my boyfriend and my son and I will still be just as happy. So I'm going to do that."

She was confused.

"What do you mean?"

"I'm not keeping that business in Summerland. I'm going to give it to someone who truly deserves it. And then I'm going to spend all the extra time I'll have loving Benjamin and his father whether Dad likes it or not and whether he wants to be apart of it not. So this little dinner you're having tonight, please count me out of it. If I need a dinner to convince my father to want to meet his own grandson, then maybe it's just not worth it for either of us."

He plopped down at his desk and put his glasses on. Then he looked at the computer so he could print again what he tried to print before.

His mother was solemn. She didn't want to plead with him. His mind was clearly made up.

"Alright then. I guess it'll just be me and your father tonight. I'll see you later."

When she left out of the office, Zayn groaned and leaned his head back. He didn't mean to rant at his mother like that. Especially when that rant was really meant for his father. But he just didn't have the energy to worry about it anymore. The last time he tried to please his father would be the last time. He was his own man now. For real. And no man- not even his father- could convince him otherwise.

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Many days later, Zayn was over Harry's place. He planned to spend the night. But he was at the dining room table looking over the paperwork for the business in Summerland to see if there was anything in it about selling the business to someone else."

That's when he felt Harry put two hands on his shoulders and start to massage them.

"That feels great, babe."

"I know it does. You're tense as usual these days, it seems."

Harry came around and sat at the table with him. So Zayn took off his glasses to look at him.

"I am tense. There's a lot going on."

"With the business?"

"Indirectly. The business is fine. But... the one who gave it to me is the one I'm worried about."

"Your father?"

He nodded.

"My mother came up to the store a couple weeks ago and she wanted me to go to dinner with them and try to 'convince' him. Instead I declined and went on this rant about dad. And now my mom told me that he's been acting strange ever since dinner that night."

"Strange?"

"Strange in that he's gone very quiet. I think she told him what I said. But she keeps saying she didn't. And it's not that I think she's lying. I just think she's keeping certain information from me so that I don't feel bad or feel like it's my fault."

"Oh. Do you think it's your fault?"

"I mean if he's like this because of what I said, then yes. It is my fault, right? But that doesn't mean it wasn't warranted. I only said what he needed to hear."

"True. But why do you think he hasn't called you? If you think she told him you want to sell the business he just bought, he would have definitely called you by now, right?"

"I can't answer that, Harry. And I don't want to. I don't want to assume he would do anything anymore. You see where assuming has gotten me so far."

"Hmm. Maybe what you need is something to take your mind off of things. Something that can help you relax."

"Hmm. Yeah. Maybe the three of us could go out to dinner."

Harry deflated.

"I don't really feel like going out. I spent all day answering emails and I'm too tired to get Benny ready. I was thinking more along the lines of ordering a pizza and staying in to watch a movie."

Zayn reached over and flicked his chin.

"Whatever I'm doing with you, as long as I'm with you, I'm winning."

"Awesome."

He stood up and then leaned over to kiss Zayn's forehead.

"I'll order the pizza and pick a movie. You finish up."

After he was gone, Zayn went back to looking over the paperwork again. But this time, unlike before, he found himself thinking very much about his father. Harry was right. Why exactly hadn't he called him yet?