stars and terrain (zayn malik)

Chapter 66

"Quite like it. The irony of it." Harry keeps rolling and unrolling his sleeve to inspect his new tattoo while at a table at an organic place in Santa Monica he insisted he stop at on the way home.

"I'm glad." I smile at him, and stab at the sorry excuse for pasta on my plate. "Can you please try this and tell me with a straight face that it doesn't taste like cardboard?"

"Do you know how bad gluten is for your body?" Harry replies, reaching over and grabbing my fork and eating straight off of it - because... that's just what he does.

"Cardboard." I assure him as I watch him chew the noodles.

"For gluten free pasta, that's pretty good," he informs me, before picking his own fork back up and stabbing at his salad. "Do you know how they say walkie talkie in French?"

"No. How?" I sip at the water that the waiter squeezed some liquid in and turned green. He'd said the reason was because it would help us be more alkaline, and Harry had been delighted at this offer, so I went along with it.

"Talkie walkie." Harry replies with a smirk, pleased with himself. "How is it possible you live in Los Angeles and know absolutely nothing about nutrition."

"Never really cared," I shrug. "I like what I like. Pizza. Donuts. French toast."

"And you've always eaten that way?" Harry asks, without judgment. Even when he's probably being judgmental, he manages to keep his tone so even that it never feels like an attack.

"Well my mother was always on a diet, and always trying to put me on one with her so I guess I really just rebelled against it by eating whatever I wanted," I answer honestly. "And it sort of stuck. Zayn's a terrible influence, he's just as bad as me."

"Oh, I know. One tour I swear I survived on almonds and broccoli. The things people eat on those buses." He crinkles his nose in disgust and finishes more of his salad.

Saying Zayn's name makes me miss him and I frown into my terrible pasta.

"He really loves you, you know." Harry says, reading my expression. "I've never seen him this way about any other human. Ever."

This makes me smile and my gaze lifts to meet the warm green eyes across the table.

"And there have been a lot of humans." I smirk, lightening the tone. I'm really terrible with talking about emotions, so it's impossible for me to just be a normal girl and tell Harry that I know how much Zayn loves me and that I love him too.

"There have." Harry nods, more serious than normal, "but never one like you. I'm really happy he has you."

"Thank you." I say, with a tiny nod, dropping my eyes. "I'm happy he has you too."

"Why thank you, Charlotte Emily Ray!" A smile erupts on his face and I can't help but smile back at the use of my entire name.

My phone buzzes against the table and I'm hoping it's Zayn, but it's Mark.

"Do you mind if I take this?" I ask, pointing to the phone. "It's my modeling agent."

"Of course, go ahead," Harry pushes his hand in the air towards me, signifying he's fine with it and I lift the phone to my ear.

"Hey Mark!"

On the other end he's telling me Beach Bunny not only wants me to do a campaign, that they want me to design another Beach Bunny bride line, just like Chrissy Teigen had before me.

"You're kidding!" I clasp my hand over my mouth, shocked at the immensity of the offer.

He explains how it makes perfect sense; following in someone like Chrissy Teigen's footsteps, getting married to music royalty. They've offered more money than anyone before them - actually, like triple what anyone's offered - and he says he let Jane know and that she's completely on board.