Three - and a half, thanks to my numerous toilet breaks - hours later, the car stilled and the sudden stop flung my weight off the backseat and I hit the floor like a sack of potatoes. The muffled whirring sound of passing traffic leaked into the quiet car as Noah rolled the window down. My temples throbbed and I muttered incoherent curses to myself before I attempted to sit up in vain; the strength in my legs was weak and I slid back down, exhaling with frustration.
"Are we there?" I managed to grumble as I hauled myself up to the seats. Noah turned the engine off before he leaned back, turning his head to the back of the car.
"Behold, The Pegasus!" He announced sardonically, nodding his head to the building squeezed between a grocery and a newspaper shop on the corner.
Small squares of thick glass in latticed mahogany frames made up the dark curved bay windows nestled within the old brickwork. A sign creaked as it swung above us with a painting of a winged horse and The Pegasus written beneath it in old medieval writing. It was like something out of Diagon Alley. The heavy double doors were shut tight and I turned to Noah with a bewildered look.
"Why is it closed?" I asked, leering over the back of his seat.
"It's closed because half past five in the morning." Noah recoiled, grimacing. "FYI, you smell like a wet dog soaked in alcohol."
"FYI?" I scoffed. "What are you, a twelve year old girl?"
"You need to clean up, big time." He insisted, disregarding my remark completely. "Do you really think it's right to see her in this state? And you really need a shave."
The man in the rear view mirror looked nothing like the Zachary Caldwell I was four years ago. I brushed my knuckles across my beard and sighed. He was correct, as usual. My once piercing dark eyes were dull and bloodshot, I was still wearing the suit I had on all day at work the previous day and I no longer had a confident presence anymore.
"I like the beard." I protested like a child.
"You look like a yeti." Noah asserted plainly.
"You're a baby faced househusband but do you see me complaining?" I retorted.
"I'm not a househusband!" he exclaimed immediately. "I own the publishing house and I've been doing your job for the past year and a half!"
Before I could reply, three hard knocks rapped on the window and we both turned to the person standing outside the car. The man must have been 6'3" at the very least, bald as a vulture and as big as an ox. He folded his bulging biceps as he stared at us with a stone cold expression. It was silent for a few seconds before the colossal man began hollering with laughter heartily.
"You silly bastards, quibbling like girls!" he guffawed, opening the car door and practically dragging Noah out from his seat like a rag doll before gripping him in a headlock.
I panicked, scrambling out of the car to do something. "What the fuck are you doing?!" I bellowed, attempting to pull Noah out of his grasp. The man kept laughing as he let go of Noah, hitting him on the back with a huge grin.
"Calm down Cinderella, he's my nephew. I wouldn't harm a hair on that pretty blonde bombshell head of his." He chuckled.
"This is my Uncle Phil you idiot." Noah informed me, rolling his eyes.
I cleared my throat awkwardly. "Sorry."
"No hard feelings lad, hungover is it?" Phil smiled, showing a gap where one of his canines should have been. He noticed me looking, and smacked his lips. "Got knocked out by a couple of big blokes that were causing trouble in the pub, if you were wondering."
"Seriously?" I gaped. This man was nuts!
"No you gullible sod, I managed to crack it on a boiled sweet so I had it taken out." He chortled, his grey eyes twinkling with humour.
"Right." I muttered.
"Come on, let's get you two in." Phil laughed, cracking his knuckles before moving his neck until it clicked as well before he opened the car door and grabbed our holdalls, leading the way to the entrance of the pub. He slotted the key in before pushing his way in and kicking a doorstopper underneath one to keep it open.
Inside The Pegasus, it seemed even older and historic. The decor was warm and full of rich greens, reds and golds. The bar was solid smooth wood and took up most of the room opposite the door. On both sides of the bar, there were various numbered wooden tables around the room as well as small booths at the bay windows with salt and pepper shakers placed on each one.
"Cosy, isn't it?" Noah said as we stood in the middle of the place.
"It was here twenty years before I bought it, but it's still in good nick. Your room is upstairs, you two will have to share, there's people staying in the other two. I'll show you the way up." Phil said with a grin. "This way."
Still looking around as I followed behind Noah and his uncle, I found that my hangover was beginning to ease off and I ran a tired hand through my hair. Lou worked here. I could almost see her serving people politely, but in the end my image of what she was like was probably incorrect. It had been four years. She was bound to have changed, she wasn't sixteen anymore.
I often worried that her interest in me was purely teenage angst - that the thrill of an older man was the only thing that kept her wanting me. Perhaps she had moved on. A knot stuck in my throat at the thought and I swallowed hard. No. It was never like that. She loved me. But... what would I do if she hadn't waited? What if she didn't love me anymore?
"Zach?" Noah called, and I realised I was only on the first step of the rickety staircase spacing out when he and his Uncle were at the top. I quickly fell back down to Earth and went to jog up the stairs when suddenly my foot cracked straight through the third step.
"Fuck!" I winced, pulling my foot out of the stairs. Thankfully, the sharpest of the splintered wood had missed my ankle and there was only a couple of scratches but the stair was completely smashed up and I looked up to Phil apologetically. "I'm really sorry, I can pay for that."
Phil eyed me for a moment with his grey eyes before he suddenly cracked a smile and laughed. "It's fine lad, my best friend will be able to fix it like new. Can you manage to climb over it?"
"Yeah." I answered in disbelief - he was seriously going to let me off? In fact, how did a beast of a man like him get up the stairs without breaking one and I did? I hadn't put on that much weight.
After safely ascending the last few stairs, we reached a tiny landing where three doors met. Phil unlocked the one closest to the stairs and swung the door open. The room was a fair size, with a swooping ceiling that made it seem a little smaller than it was and simple wooden furniture was placed around the room. A door that I assumed led to the ensuite was in the corner and a double bed was on the back wall and on the other side of the room there was a dark green suede couch.
"You'll have to fight each other for the bed. That couch is a bit lumpy." Phil explained.
I was about to make a run for it, but Noah was already at the bed with his holdall on the mattress.
"You owe me the bed for making me drive you down here at two o'clock in the morning." Noah smirked, taking the moral high ground.
"Fine." I huffed, throwing my holdall on the couch and sitting down.
"So, it wasn't your idea to come to Stamford?" Phil frowned, looking at Noah.
"Well, it was." Noah replied. "I just didn't think he'd want to go the moment I told him!"
"You know I had to." I muttered quietly.
"Yeah, I know." Noah responded, an understanding look on his face.
"Does someone want to tell me what the story is behind your little road trip over a hot cup of coffee? You look like you need it." Phil questioned.
We both nodded and he left the room, his heavy footsteps heading down the stairs. I took off my suit jacket and slouched in my seat with a sigh. Noah opened his mouth to speak when his phone suddenly began vibrating. He quickly answered and I smirked, quickly turning on the radio that was sat on the bedside table. It began playing Gimme More by Britney Spears and I turned the volume up to its maximum.
"Hello?" Noah spoke loudly over the music as he glared at me. "Jane? Why are you calling so early?... Eli? What? ... His tiger toy was in the dryer, I told you, he dropped it in a puddle on Monday."
"Noah!" I shouted with my hands cupped around my mouth. "Have you paid the stripper yet? Are you snorting coke? How many shots have you even had?"
Noah quickly grabbed the radio and switched it off, throwing it at me. Luckily I managed to catch it before it fell on the floor.
"It was Zach being a dick," Noah explained before pausing to listen. "I don't know how long we're going to be. A few days, maybe more. I won't be longer than a week I promise. Okay? Okay. I'll talk later...yeah, I love you, bye."
I waited for him to react - it was so easy to ruffle his feathers, especially when it came to Jane.
Jane was a lovely woman with long chestnut brown hair to her waist with pale blue eyes. She was the lead singer of a band that Noah was helping record their first couple of songs a few months after the Lou situation happened. They seemed to click together straight away, and after a year together, Elijah was a surprise pregnancy. It was a shot gun wedding, and I was best man. It was great to see Noah finally get his slice of happiness so I was only really teasing him when I said he was Jane's bitch, especially after that slut Anna Brown who threw herself at me when I was so drunk I could barely stand.
"You little shit, why did you do that? She probably thought I was in a club or something!" he yelled.
"Oh, calm down!" I laughed. "I was reminding you of the old days, you know, when you actually went out and socialised?"
"Out of the two of us, who has been locked up in their office for over a year?" he snapped. I held my hands up and sighed.
"Okay, I'm sorry. That was a low blow on my part." I apologised.
"It's fine." He shrugged. "It doesn't matter how much you say I'm under the thumb or whipped, I love Jane and Eli, so if being whipped means being happily married, then I admit it."
"You know I don't mean it. I want what you have." I told him honestly.
At that moment, Phil walked in with three hot steaming cups of coffee. The smell was enough to make me drool. He handed them over to us before sitting down on the wooden chair in the corner of the room.
"Enjoy, I didn't know how many sugars you take so they might be a bit bitter." He smiled, taking a sip of his own.
"Phil, do you know when Lou is in work today?" Noah asked suddenly, cutting straight to the point.
"Sorry lad, who's Lou?" Phil furrowed his brows before realisation lit up in his eyes. "Oh, you mean Lou as in Louise!"
"Yes." I said, taking a big gulp of coffee before setting it down on the floor beside me. "Do you know what time she is working?"
Phil shook his head. "She's not in today lad; it's her twenty first birthday tomorrow so I let her have the day off."
"What?" I had been in the middle of taking another drink of coffee and I almost choked. "It's her birthday?"
Phil nodded and Noah smirked. "Well, she's going to get a pretty big birthday surprise."
____________________________________
Hello!
Sorry for being a day late on the update! I had no time to write since it was my anniversary tomorrow, I hope you all understand!
Another chapter in Zach's point of view! I bet a lot of you were expecting them to meet in this chapter, but Zach is in Stamford! How do you think she will react when she sees him?
I haven't edited this, so as always, please let me know about any errors.
Thanks a lot for reading!
- R x