Baby Blues

One

Zendaya sighed as the taxi cab rolled to a stop. She clutched her purse containing her phone and a small amount of cash and looked at the place in front of her.

"Are you getting out or not?" The taxi driver growled. He wore a bushy brown mustache and had beady brown eyes. Certainly, he also wore a bad attitude.

"I am," Zendaya smiled politely at him, but he just tsked and held out his hand. She reached into her purse and handed him a fifty dollar bill.

"Keep the change," she smiled and got out, and the driver wasted no time before pulling off, his tires screeching down the highway.

Zendaya scoffed at her experience with the driver and walked inside the bar; none of the patrons dared to look at the beautiful woman who strolled through the crowd, taking a seat at the front.

The barkeep smiled softly at her and asked, "What can I do for you?"

"I'll take four shots of tequila and white vodka," she murmured, and the man rang the drinks up. She didn't hesitate to knock the shots back, gagging as the liquid burned her throat.

She did the same with the vodka, then proceeded to order another round, making the man's brows shoot up in surprise. But, he fulfilled her order, and she happily sat each empty glass back down.

"Nice refreshers!" She declared, and the man chuckled.

He looked over to see a tall, dark-haired man sitting beside the girl, whose names he didn't know, and handed him a beer.

"I got a feeling tonight will bring in big money," he laughed as the man, Timotheé Chalamet, greeted his friend, Zendaya Coleman.

"How are you?" Timotheé asked as Zendaya laughed.

"I've been better," she said. She swayed and laughed. "You got some strong stuff, Mister..." she looked at the barkeep's name tag. "Richard Donahue."

The barkeep laughed at that and began helping other customers.

"I heard you and Tom broke it off," Timotheé said, and Zendaya sniffled.

"Yeah. We weren't ready for commitment," she said.

Timotheé nodded and smiled at her. "I thought Kylie was the one, too."

Suddenly, Zendaya was intrigued. "I thought you just started dating her?"

Timotheé nodded, his cheeks heating up as he looked her up and down. She was dressed in a brown gingham jumper with black heels. Her hair was curled and hanging loosely down her back. Her eyes never left his.

"We- we weren't made for each other," he said after a while. The bar was busy, a few people were sitting around and drinking. Others were smoking joints in corners of the bar. A couple was dancing to the jukebox belting out the lyrics to "Everybody Wants to Rule The World." Richard was in the kitchen making hot wings and barking orders at a young woman to hurry up with the beers. "A tabloid at Aldi said that you and Tom had gotten engaged?"

Zendaya laughed, shaking her head. "No, we didn't get engaged. I don't think I would have ever married him, to be honest. I loved him, I did, but we kind of fell away."

She didn't want to admit that in the filming of Dune: Part One and Part Two, she began to feel something for Timotheé. He didn't want to tell her that he felt the same. The truth was, they were both in denial that they were falling for each other. So they sat in silence, each drinking beer and watching some football on the tv above the keg-stand.

A few hours later, Zendaya sighed and tugged on her jacket. Snow was beginning to fall outside and she shivered inwardly at the thought of going back to the little rental apartment an hour away from the bar.

"Thanks for tonight," she said. "I really needed some company."

Timotheé smiled as he, too, tugged on his jacket and zipped it up. "Yeah, I had fun. Uh, my place is a few blocks from here. Do you want to continue this conversation elsewhere?"

Zendaya smiled, a smirk forming on her lips as she laughed before linking her arm in his. "Yeah. Hold on. Let me tell the driver to go on ahead."

She smiled at the man in the drivers seat, who bunched his brows together. "I won't be needing a ride after all."

The man huffed but drove off anyway, and the drunken pair began walking to Timotheé's apartment.

"So.... this is it," Timotheé chuckled lowly as they walked inside the apartment. "This is where I live. Usually, when I don't have to travel to different locations for Hollywood, I come back here."

Zendaya admired the man and silently sat down on the couch in the living room. She looked over to the tiered bookshelves filled with classics such as Moby Dick, Peter Pan, and of course, worn copies of Frank Herbert's Dune series. The TV stood on the wall between the bookshelves, dusty and dark. It struck her that he hadn't been here in a long time.

"Hey, are you hungry? I have some ramen and some chips in the pantry... oh wait, they're expired. Never mind."

Zendaya sighed softly as Timotheé came back to where she was sitting.

"I just needed someplace to sleep," she admitted. "The apartment that I'm renting for the time being is an hour away. Plus, that driver wasn't exactly the nicest."

Timotheé nodded. He was stuck on her face. She was so beautiful. No, radiant.

You're radiant.

Zendaya laughed. "What did you say?"

"Huh?" Timotheé asked. "What did I say?"

"You said, "You're radiant." So you think I'm radiant?" She smiled.

He coughed and looked over at the bookshelves. I really need to clean this place.

"Sorry," he whispered.

She scooted closer to him, pulling his face gently with her hand so he would look at her.

"You don't have to be sorry," she whispered.

"Uh.." he blurted, his eyes wanting to shift away. He felt his belly tighten as she continued staring at him, smiling softly before she kissed him.

Sure, they had practiced kisses for the next part of Dune, but this was different. He could taste the alcohol on her breath, the warmth of her lips as he kissed her back.

Was this allowed?