Stay With Me || Zarry

Chapter 2

Walking away from the multiple people with expensive looking cameras, Zayn swiped at his phone to answer the call. His voice was low and his head ducked down as he went about his way back to his apartment.

"Uh, hey man. It's been a while," he says to the person on the other side of the line.

"Yeah, I suppose it has. You been alright, mate?" Liam Payne, Zayn's former colleague, asks.

It had been such a long time since Zayn had heard Liam's voice. The last he could remember hearing from him was that week after he had quit the band. Liam being one of the most caring in the band, and one of Zayn's best friends, it would make sense that he had checked in on him. But that soon stopped after one of Zayn's first solo interviews came out. You know, those ones about Zayn hating the music that the band made together. How he wasn't particularly a fan of their stuff after him. Needless to say, his lack of support didn't really sit well with Liam or any of the boys for that matter.

"I've been all good." He replied back.

Quite honestly, he was feeling a bit awkward and out of place. He didn't really know how to talk to his ex friend. They weren't close anymore. They weren't even friends. He use to regard those four men as his best friends, but views quickly changed once he left the band. He screwed up their relationships by leaving, by the words he spoke of them after the fact.

"Listen, the reason I'm calling is because I'll be in New York in two days. I'm filming one of my music videos there and I have some business to get done. I saw that you live there now and honestly you've been on my mind a lot recently, so I wanted to know if maybe you'd like to hang out?" Liam's voice trailed off to a question towards the end.

Zayn chewed on his lower lip as he thought of Liam's proposal to meet up. Then his head bobbed into a nod before his voice found itself again. "Uh yeah, man. We'll meet up somewhere or something. Just hit me up when you're in town and we'll do something together."

With confirmation to hang out and see each other, Liam's voice was quite noticeably brighter with his next response. "I'm really looking forward to it, Zayn. I miss ya, lad, and I can't wait to see you again." Followed by a soft goodbye the men then hung up their call.

In a matter of time Zayn was back in his apartment. Not quite ready to be left to his own devices for the remaining of the day, he invited Taryn and Marco to join him for dinner.

The man was quite lucky in the fact that even though he employs the people around him, he's able to count them as friends. Because other than them, he doesn't really hang out with anyone else in this city. Zayn's always been so reserved and kept to such a tight circle. It was such a huge adjustment to be surrounded by the people you call family then make the decision to leave all of them and have to start with no one on your side. But with time and a bit of trial and error, Zayn finally found a group he was confident with, people he knew truly had his back and weren't around for all the wrong reasons.

Shaking out of his thoughts, the Englishman began to prep his kitchen. He reached into his cabinets to get out cookware, spices, and ingredients he would need in order to make butter chicken, white rice and naan.

He was in his element, cooking had became one of his outlets to help him relax. He had a focus, something to keep him occupied. A set of instructions laid out in his mind that would help him to create a delicious meal. It was as if Zayn was working out of pure instinct as he diced up pieces of chicken breast, then throwing that into a bowl where he would then pour in his assorted spices and cream. Stirring it all up and making everything evenly coated in the mixture, he placed clear wrap onto the bowl and allowing it to sit to marinate in the fridge.

Next, the man began to prepare to make fresh naan. He was lucky that he was beginning to make dinner as such an early time because he needed two hours alone just for the dough to rise. He got started with the wet ingredients then shifted over to the dry before mixing everything together. He threw the mixture onto his flour coated countertop where he kneaded it into a ball then placing it back into a bowl to allow it to rise.

After giving his chicken enough time to marinate, he made sure to turn on his oven to the desired temperature to preheat before grabbing a handful of skewers. He got to work poking the chicken onto the stick then placing them on a baking sheet where he then put into the oven once it was ready.

Zayn's next step was to begin to make the sauce. He placed butter into a large pot followed by diced onions and tomato puree then stirring it up. Garlic and ginger paste were added as well as the rest of his spices before he poured in cream. After stirring it up and it changed into a lovely orange color, he grabbed out his chicken skewers from the oven and placed the chicken into the pot. Mixing everything together one last time, he took the pot off the burner to cool down as he finished with making the naan and white rice.

After nearly three hours of making dinner, the food was ready. He was quick to plate the food for himself and his guests before calling them over to the dinner table. As his guests got themselves situated, Zayn was back in the kitchen so he could grab three wine glasses and a bottle of white wine to take to the table. Once everything was ready, he sat down with the two.

Conversation was light and relaxed while they ate. He was also sure to bring up the oncoming visit of Liam, making sure to tell Taryn to keep his schedule open two days from then. The woman was quite shocked to hear of such news as she had been working for her boss for over two years and she hadn't ever met another One Direction member. Even so, she made sure that Zayn was all clear for that day.

As soon as dinner was wrapped up, Zayn saw Marco and Taryn out of his home then walked to the kitchen to clean up. He rinsed out the dishes before placing them into the dishwasher, grabbed a rag and cleaned off the surfaces of the countertop and stove. Looking over his kitchen, he made sure he hadn't missed an area before turning off the lights. He grabbed out his phone and took a look at the display as it read half past nine in the evening. Ignoring the numerous notifications he had on his cell, he made his way through his penthouse and up to the master bedroom.

Connecting his phone to the bluetooth speaker inside his lux restroom, he tapped onto Spotify and clicked onto the All The Feels curated playlist. The sounds of Childish Gambino's "Sober" played out loudly throughout the room. Dropping his phone onto the bed, he bobbed his head to the beat while walking into the bathroom. Turning on the shower, he stripped off his clothing as he awaited for the water to heat up. When steam started to roll around the area, he took that as his cue to step inside. Small streams of water ran off his body while he stood underneath the large rainfall shower head. Bryson Tiller's "Don't" played and Zayn couldn't help himself so he sang along with the track, but of course putting his own spin onto it and riffing over it.

Almost forty five minutes later, Zayn stepped out of his bathroom. He may have taken longer than necessary but the mix of hot water and good tunes dragged out and distracted him from the task. Admittedly, he felt so much better and all around relax. He had no dragging thoughts as he dressed in a pair of boxers and readied himself for bed. Once again his phone was in his hand and he was disconnecting it from the speaker. He kept the music on, though this time it simply placed from his phone's speaker. Singing along to the song playing, the male plugged in his phone into the charger and laid it next to him.

His arm draped out across his bed and for a brief moment he thought of the lack of a body laying beside him. It was his own doing, of course he knew that, but he still he blew out a sigh as he wished for that one person to be alongside him. His closed his hazel eyes and tried his best to clear his head while using the music to lull him to sleep. In no time, the man was drifting into an unconscious state.