Be My Erasthai

Do You Like Horses?

"Uh, w-where's Hydra?" I fumbled at my words.

"Hydra?" Zayn scrutinized. As if wondering why I'd be asking about Hydra. "He's with my assistant, Louis. I can't very well bring him to our date and have him share your attention, now can I?"  He said as he revved the car and started driving.

"Uh..." I started, wanting to add more comments to his statement, but immediately shut my mouth. I sucked at flirting, and would always just divert my attention like I hadn't heard what the person just said.

I wonder where he's taking us. I've seen a lot of movies and K-dramas for me to know rich people like him take peasant girls like me to expensive restaurants, and places where we end up feeling incredibly out of place and stupid.

I glanced at Zayn.

Maybe I should just ask him where we were going, so I could prepare myself in advance. But what if he mentions some fancy place and I'm left feeling stupid because I have no clue as to what he was talking about?

Deciding it was best not to let curiosity kill the cat, I gulped down my questions and stared off into the road.

After a while, my phone buzzed and I stared at the lit-up screen to see that it was a message from Luke Carver. It read:

'Where are you Adalia? I was suddenly told you can't make it to work.'

Then another text followed: 'Are you feeling okay?'

Another: 'Should I come to your house?'

'Why aren't you answering me?'

'You always reply to my messages in seconds, are you ignoring me?'

What in the hell? Why is he so adamant in his text messages? He has never texted me like this before, he barely even replies to my texts.

And did I always reply to his messages in seconds? Talk about a glorified simp.

As I was mauling over why Luke was suddenly a gracious texter, my phone dinged and I received another text message. This time though it wasn't from Luke, but from Addy.

Addy: Girl.

Are you okay? Luke is literally hovering around my desk demanding I text you to see if I get a response, and then ask where you are.

This is extremely strange, why's Luke so suddenly concerned about me right now? Should I reply to his text messages?

Just as I was about to open Luke's messages, a hand suddenly covered my screen.

"Are you okay?" Zayn asked.

"Hm?" I said looking up in mild surprise.

"You look upset, and I hate it when you're upset." The scrutiny on Zayn's face was burrowing into mine and I averted my eyes.

"It's nothing, just Addy and Linda texting me with some lame jokes." I scoffed, waving at the air in front of my face like it would disrupt Zayn's lie detection of an eye.

I don't know what it was with him, but he always somehow knew how I was feeling. If I'm happy, upset, or uncomfortable. He always knew. That's why right now I feel like he was reading my mind as we spoke.

To my relief, he didn't say anything as he turned his attention back to the road and continued driving.

The awkward silence didn't last for a while, as Zayn chose to break it with a question.

"Do you like horses?" He asked.

"Horses?" I arched a brow, the question completely unexpected.

"Yes horses, gorgeous. Do you like them?" he asked again.