“Are you sure?” I ask. It’s impossible to hide my joy. “She’s going to go all Anna on your ass and ask you one thousand questions.”
Zayn glances at me side-long with a raised brow. “Of course I’m sure. She’s your best friend.”
He’s so casual in his acceptance that it makes me falter. Daniel would have never voluntarily been in the same room as Anna, let alone invited her to come out with us. I should have known Zayn would be different, him and Anna always got along like a house on fire. My heart swells as I hit answer on the call.
“Gia, thank God! I was about to come to your apartment and knock the bloody door down! Why haven’t you been answering my calls?”
“I’ve been a bit busy. And you wouldn’t have found me at my apartment.”
Anna cackles loudly. “Yes I had started to put the piecestogether. Can I assume my dress got some action in the end?”
Zayn smirks, obviously able to hear Anna through the speaker.
“Want to meet us out for drinks?” I ask to distract her from that line of questioning. Thankfully it works, for now.
“Of course I want to meet you out for drinks. Text me the location,” she says and hangs up.
“Well, that was easy,” I say. “You should ask Percy to come. Get the gang back together.”
Percy and Annaarrive at the same time, and we greet each other with hugs (me and Anna) and handshakes (Zayn and Percy). It’s so nice to see Percy again after all this time. He looks the same except he’s gained a healthy amount of muscle and now wears a sharp suit much like Zayn’s, which is explained when he tells us he works in finance.
“God for you, Weasley,” Anna says, slapping him on the back. “Chicks dig finance guys.”
“I’ll say,” he quips back, taking a sip of beer. I realise then that something else has changed about him. He has a confidence about him now, something I’m sure a well-paying job and attention from women has given him.
“God, I’m not surprised we didn’t recognise you Zayn,” Anna says, scrutinising him from her seat opposite, cocking her head to the side to see from a different angle. “I can tell it’s you now that Iknow,but the similarities are buried so far beneath this new tall, muscular physique that I never would have guessed the lanky boy with angry eyes was you.”
I choke on my wine as it goes down my throat.
“Anna!”
“What? It’s a compliment! He looks like Ian Somerhalder when he was inVampire Diaries. This is averygood thing.”
I roll my eyes, prompting her to continue.
“You can’t say this polished man in a Brioni suit screams sullen, impoverished adolescent.”
Zayn just chuckles and sips his whisky.
The night continues on like this as we all take on our familiar roles within the group. Anna and Zayn bicker light-heartedly. We talk about anything and everything. Of course, Anna asks the hard-hitting questions about Zayn’s life in Perth. We all avoid discussing Daniel, to my relief.
The only new development is the flirting I notice happening between Anna and Percy. An unnecessary touch on the shoulder here, an un-Anna-like giggle there. It’s… interesting, to say the least.
After a few drinks, I settle into a content state of pure bliss as I look around the table. If someone had told me six months ago that I would be sitting at a bar with Zayn, Anna and Percy, there’s no way I would have believed them.
It’s a dream come true. I feel like I’m exactly where I’m meant to be.
“You look so happy, Gia,”Anna says later when we’re standing in front of the bathroom mirror touching up our lipstick. “I haven’t seen you like this in so long.”
“I haven’t felt like this in so long,” I agree, eyeing her reflection. “I don’t want to get my hopes up, though.” I pop my lipstick away. “I don’t know what exactlythisis.”
Anna turns and grabs my shoulders, spinning me so I’m facing her. “Gia, have you seen the way Zayn looks at you?”She lets out a long breath. “I feel like I’ve been transported back in time. I had to come in here and make sure I didn’t have acne lining my jaw. Trust me, I think its okay to get your hopes up here. I’d bet my first-born child there’s nothing that could force Zayn away from you again.”
“Anna, you never had pimples in high school.” I joke, but internally her words have me singing at the top of my lungs. There’s nothing I want more than to believe Anna could be telling the truth, to believe that after all these years, Zayn and I can finally have our second chance to make this work. And honestly? I’m so happy, so eager to believe her, that I get swept up in the moment and actually forget for a second that I still have a husband.
A husband that’s hell bent on keeping me by his side.
29
