"He sounds so hot!" Lauren gushed after Zayn told her about the handsome blue eyed stranger last night.
"Well, I got to admit, he is cute! Quite a charmer too!" Zayn added as he type in codes in his computer.
"Is that all he did? Just introduced himself?" Lauren asked while sitting on Zayn's desk and eating a bag of strawberries.
"He looks like he actually wants to talk more but Michael was being fussy." Zayn chuckle.
"Well, it's not like that's the last time you'll see him." Lauren smirked.
"See who?"
They both turned to the entrance of Zayn's office stall and saw Harry carrying a plastic of Chinese take outs with a raised eyebrow.
"No one." Lauren sang teasingly, "Took you long enough to get food."
"It's lunch hour, there's a lot of people there." Harry made his way to the table at the corner of the room and placed the their meal there.
"Poor baby." Zayn cooed after making a quick save of his work then made his way to a pouting Harry sitting on one of the chairs at the table.
"Get a room, oh my god." Lauren pretended to gag when Zayn kissed the pout away from Harry's lips.
"You watch and read gay porn, Lauren, don't try and deny it." Harry pointed his tongue at her, arms around a giggling Zayn's waist.
Lauren just stuck her tongue out and skipped to the table then grabbing the packages that contain food from the plastic bags, "This smells so good!" she exclaimed.
"Yeah, let's eat!" Zayn said, unwrapping himself from Harry's arms to seat properly next to him and eat.
"Are you guys finally done with your parts in the project?" Harry asked as he grab the noodles with his chopstick.
"Yeah, I already designed the world of the game. We're going to add more details after the head approves it." Lauren said after swallowing a dumpling.
"I'm still coding the animations." Zayn shrugged before putting the spoon of friend rice in his mouth, "You recorded some dialogues already right, Haz?" he asked when he's done swallowing.
"Yeah, we finished recording dialogues for the prologue so far." Harry said after taking a drink, "We'll start recording the theme song next week."
"I'll try to finish as much as possible today, so my work for tomorrow and Saturday won't be so heavy. Michael's starting to be more energetic and curious, it's hard to not watch over what he's doing. He tried to chew my glasses last night." Zayn chuckled before opening his mouth for the noodles Harry will feed him.
"Oh yeah... you work from home during Friday and Saturday." Lauren said before taking a spoonful of soup, "I miss the little guy. Are you free on Sunday? No dates or anything?"
"Nah, I'll be at my parents' place, it's their anniversary on Sunday." Harry said after Zayn fed him some chicken.
"Yeah, he'll be leaving tomorrow and miss work actually, he has a lot of vacation days so Haz's good." Zayn said after feeding himself a spoon of fried rice together with chicken.
"You can come too, you know! You have a lot of vacation days too!" Harry said with his mouth full.
"Ew, don't talk with your mouth full." Zayn playfully hit Harry's chest, "And it's a family thing, I don't want to intrude."
"Well, then it'll be a Besties Hang Out Day!" Lauren announced after putting her utensils down, "I'll be sleeping over on Saturday night."
"Works for me!" Zayn cheered.
~~~
It was 7:30PM when Zayn arrived at the front of his house.
After leaving work at 5:30, Zayn did the usual routine, dropping Lauren off then picking up Michael. This time however, Zayn drove to the grocery store instead of heading straight home.
It was quick since Zayn already memorized what should be bought and he's too lazy and tired to check out other things out of his list.
"Let's go, Mikey." Zayn cooed at his son's reflection in the mirror.
Michael just grinned and giggled from his seat, chewing on Daniel's tail.
Zayn got out from the car before walking at the backseat door for Michael. Once the baby is in his arms, he walked to the trunk of the car and opened it.
"Hey, need any help?"
It startled Zayn a little. He turned to the owner of the voice and blushed when his hazel eyes met those blue eyes, "Oh, hey, Louis." Zayn smiled, "What are you doing out?"
"Just took a short walk." Louis shrugged before cooing at Michael, "Hey there, little guy."
Michael laughed and cooed back.
"So you need any help with groceries?" Louis asked.
"Oh, well..." Zayn hesitated, not really wanting to bother someone he just met, he doesn't want to take another trip though, "I don't want to bother you."
"Nah, I can't let someone as beautiful as you carry all these." Louis winked with a grin.
Zayn can't help but blush and smile shyly, "Thanks."
"No problem, princess." Louis winked, "And I'll get this for you." he said before taking four out of the six plastic bags.
Zayn blushed again at the nickname, before getting the two light plastic bags. He carefully closed the trunk, mindful of Michael, after and then locked the car.
Louis waited for Zayn to open their door before coming in.
"Where should I place these?" Louis asked as they went in.
"In the kitchen, please." Zayn said as he closed the door before leading Louis in.
Zayn wouldn't usually just let someone he barely knows inside their house. He has to be very cautious especially now that he has Michael. But Louis doesn't look too threatening, Zayn saw him introducing himself to their neighbours earlier, and it's not like Louis will steal from him, the brunette could afford and bought the expensive house and lot next to him.
"You can place those on top of there." Zayn said pointing at their table before placing Michael in a high chair so he could fix their groceries.
Louis nodded before placing the plastic bags carefully on the table.
"Thank you so much, Louis." Zayn said gratefully, "Would you like some tea?"
Zayn was a little hesitant in asking Louis to stay longer, he's still a stranger to him, but he'll feel bad if he just sent someone who helped him out, even if it's not a big deal, with just a goodbye.
"It's no problem." Louis chuckled, "Tea sounds nice though."
"Alright, have a seat." Zayn nodded before starting to make tea.
"Where do you work at, Zayn?" Louis casually asked after sitting down close to Michael, who was distracted by his stuffed lion.
"Oh, I'm a video game programmer at SBS Inc, it's a starting company, only been going on for less than a year, so I doubt you heard about us." Zayn shrugged as he carried the two cups of tea to the table.
"Really? Hope you all will make it big." Louis said before making a funny face at Michael.
Zayn smiled at how delighted his baby was while putting some biscuits on a plate, "How about you, Louis? What do you do?"
"Oh, well my Dad just appointed me as the CEO of our company." Louis shrugged after sipping some tea.
"Wow, really?" Zayn's said impressed, his jaws almost dropped, as he placed the plate of biscuits in front of Louis.
"Yeah, he thinks I'm already ready for that kind of responsibility." Louis said as he took a bite from his biscuit.
"You must be very good at what you're doing then." Zayn said as he start to prepare Michael's food.
"Well, I do my best like what other people do." Louis chuckled, "I'm sure you'll be successful too, I would want to try out your games."
"Well, we're currently developing one." Zayn said as he mix the baby food while sitting across Louis.
"Yeah? What's it about?" Louis asked as he watch Zayn try to get Michael's attention from his toy.
"I can't reveal much sorry, but it's a horror game that has some psychology involved to make it interesting." Zayn shrugged as he try to gently pry away Daniel from Michael's grasp.
"It already sounds interesting, I'm curious about it actually, too bad you can't reveal a lot." Louis looked genuinely curious at Zayn.
"Well, I'll make sure to tell you when the trailer will be out." Zayn suggested after he successfully set Daniel aside.
It caused Michael to whine but the baby began jumping on his bum excitedly at the sight of his food.
"He's so cute." Louis smiled at the adorable sunshine, "Well, I shouldn't be surprised after looking at his gorgeous mama." he winked.
"Well, aren't you quite a charmer." Zayn blushed as he fed Michael.
~~~
"You didn't tell him you have a boyfriend?" Lauren asked through the phone.
"...No...well, I don't want to assume fast that he's actually flirting with me. I'll sound like a stuck up bitch." Zayn sighed as he turned on his bed to lay on his stomach, taking a glance at the crib to check if Michael's sleeping well.
It's 9:30 in the evening. Louis went home not too long ago, 30 minutes ago. He and Zayn spent the time talking about each other. It took a while for Zayn to be comfortable with Louis, but as he learned more about his life, from his playful childhood to his currently busy and successful adult life as a 25 year old, Zayn felt happy he made a new friend. He couldn't believe he learned a lot from Louis in a short period of time, he did most of the talking while Zayn just listens, Zayn prefers that more, he loves observing people and trying to read them.
"He's been giving you compliments and winkies! That sounds like he's flirting to me!" Lauren said, Zayn could imagine her green eyes rolling at him.
"Well, I mean... I guess..." Zayn blushed, "Maybe he doesn't know I'm gay yet..."
"Didn't he just sent you a request? And didn't you just wrote about that in your bio?" Lauren asked, making Zayn's eyes wide.
"He sent me a friend request...? Wait, how do you know? Did you just open my Zumblerbook?!" Zayn whispered yelled.
"...No...?"
"Lolo!" Zayn whined quietly.
"You left it logged on my phone! And I was curious about the Louis guy! He's really hot, got that sugar daddy vibe."
"Oh my god, Lauren..." Zayn sighed before burying his head in his pillow.
"I accepted it." Lauren laughed, "And logged it out, no worries."
"Wait, you accepted it?" Zayn's head shot up, "Lo, Harry will see that!"
"Just tell him I messed with your account." Lauren said casually, "He'll believe it cause it's true... and I sent him a selfie of me and my middle finger."
"...Why are friends again?" Zayn teased.
"We're not, we're besties!" Lauren laughed from the other end of the phone, "And it's because I'm irresistable."
"Oh my god." Zayn laughed, "I'm going to go now before we start talking about random weird shit again."
"But that's what's this friendship is all about! We live for the random weird crap convos!" Lauren whined.
"I know, Lo, but I might wake Michael up from laughing." Zayn chuckled, "Night, Lolo, love ya!"
"Fine... Night, Z! Love you too!"
Zayn ended the call after then opened the Zumblerbook app. He clicked on his profile picture, which lead him to his page, then checked his friend list. He saw the box with a small 'NEW' icon, it's Louis' picture and his full name written underneath it.
A text notification slide down on the top of Zayn's screen,
Hazzy 💘💘💘
Who's Louis Tomlinson?
Zayn was about to reply but then his phone began ringing with Harry's nickname on the screen.