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Liam lets out a sigh, feeling his phone already buzzing in his pocket only two steps outside of his work. Answering the call with a fake smile, he tries not to let his mom hear the disappointment behind his voice. “Li, hon, don’t forget that you promised me you’d hang out with Maddie tonight…”
He lets out a groan at this, getting ready to complain or somehow lie his way out of it when she reminds him in a light (but scolding) tone, “She’s only in town for a few more days, Liam.” She takes a breath, getting ready to go on another one of her long rants until he agrees with whatever she wants, just so that she’ll stop.
Knowing this, Liam interrupts, quickly finishing, “And she’s my cousin, so I should go.”
He hears his mom smile from the other end of the line. “Exactly. You’ve heard this spiel a little too much, huh?”
“Yeah, mum,” he admits with a chuckle. “I’ll go,” he mumbles with a little exhale. “I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?” He says gently before hanging up with an “I love you.”
As he pulls up, getting out of the car and walking up to the nice restaurant, his eyes widen at the sight in front of him: five teenage girls all in a huddle, giggling and pointing to something that Liam can’t see. As he takes a step back upon seeing this, Maddie’s eyes meet his, a smile growing on her face and he knows it’s too damn late to back out now.
Letting out a breath, he opens up the door and greets Maddie. Trying to introduce himself to any of the other girls, however, seems completely pointless. They’re still huddled together in the cramped waiting area, loudly whispering how cute one of the waiters is.
After she apologizes for them, he tries to catch up with Maddie. He tries to engage with her, pretending that he can’t hear them. But after a couple of minutes of their comments infiltrating his every thought, he finally looks up when he hears them all suddenly go silent, their squeals getting caught in their throats. He lifts his head up to see the most breathtaking man he’s ever seen: defined cheekbones accented by his scruff, his perfectly messy quiff, and his bright, golden-brown eyes that leave Liam wondering what it’d feel like to be the reason for their sparkle.
“Which one of us does he like, you think?” He hears one girl whisper after he’d seated them at their table and introduced himself as Zayn.
“I don’t know,” another whispers. “It depends on what his type is,” a third one giggles.
“Alright, well, we can all flirt with him and see which one he picks,” his cousin, the most confident one, states with a flip of her hair.
As they continue to plan out their strategies like a tactical war game, Liam ponders over the menu–his eyes focusing on the words but his brain sticking on the image of Zayn.
“Have you all figured out what you’re going to order?” Zayn’s voice permeates through the girls’ chatter and Liam catches himself looking up at the sound a little too quickly. All of the girls do the same, their eyes practically popping out, all of their elaborate schemes gone the instant he glances at them. Liam watches all of this happen, his eyes sliding across the stone quiet booth. Smirking a little as he catches Zayn’s eye, he says, “I think we’ll need a few more minutes.”
As Zayn begins to walk away, he mutters under his breath, “Don’t know if that will help,” just loud enough for Liam to hear. Liam laughs out loud at this unexpected comment and, with that, Zayn’s gone.
As soon as he leaves, the chatter grows again, this time somehow louder than before. They’re all mortified. They vow to come back stronger and more flirty than ever, all leaving for the restroom to primp themselves up for when Zayn returns.
Not even a minute after they’ve gone, Zayn is back at their table, biting his lip as he gives Liam a curious look. “Are they always like that?” He asks, gesturing to the newly empty seats around Liam.
“Nah, it’s just you, mate,” Liam chuckles, shaking his head a little at the absurdity of it all. “But who could blame them?” Liam continues on, his eyes twinkling as he flashes him a grin.
Zayn doesn’t seem like an easily surprised guy–from what Liam can tell, he’s seen plenty of things in this restaurant. But the slow raise of one eyebrow tells Liam that this has surprised him. There’s a moment of thick silence, where Liam wonders if he’s been reading into this all wrong before Zayn takes a step closer and responds with a wink, “They’re not really my type.”
As Liam blinks twice, opening his mouth to try to form some kind of coherent sentence after that, all the girls come clamoring back, out of breath from practically running back to their seats upon seeing Zayn. A few more than awkward phrases later, complete with grimaces from both Liam and Zayn, all orders have finally been taken. When he returns with food later, the comments from the girls get worse, less and less subtle as his reactions seem to be less than the ones desired. Finally ending with a cringeworthy “Do you come here often?” followed by very breathy giggles from all of them, the checks come with a little smirk from Zayn. Liam sighs in relief, knowing that it isn’t a moment too soon.
As all the girls ponder who they think Zayn took the most interest to and how they should ask him out, Liam opens up his bill. Surprised to see a scribbled note below, his heart begins to pound as he takes in the phone number and the simple “ ~Z ” written below it.
“Loves, sorry to burst your bubble,” he breathes out to them with a little smile, still not quite believing it himself. “But you might want to save your breath.”