Even though Zayn had said they were going to talk over breakfast, Susan made it impossible for him to get around to what he wanted to say.
“Does that mean you were the one he called over to help me change out of my clothes on the night that I was…”
“Yeah.” Susan’s smiles were so warm. “On the night he got you drunk.”
“Su!”
“Don’t worry. I gave him a good scolding that night and ensured he stayed back with you to ensure you didn’t get sick during the night. Next time, he would understand the importance of eating a healthy meal before drinking anything that contains alcohol.”
Rina felt really bad immediately. She’d had no clue that Susan was the one who made Zayn stay the night and had gotten all jumpy when she woke up, even going as far as asking him to go sleep on the couch in the living room without covers. That was mean of her.
“Ms. Susan…”
“What nonsense,” she waved her hands in the air dismissively. “Call me Susan. Any friends of Zayn can call me that. And I would have to add that you are the first one among his friends that I’ve met. Doesn’t he have any other?”
Rina looked at Zayn and he shook his head subtly, asking her not to answer the question. But Rina looked back at Susan. “You’ve met William,” she said.
“William grew up with Zayn, so he doesn’t count,” Susan said amused by the fact that Rina had actually called William’s name. “William is my son.”
“Hey Su” William called in the exact manner Zayn had called her, as he walked in through the back, armed with a plate of waffles. He stopped beside her to plant a kiss on her hair before dropping into the seat next to Zayn. Rina had always thought the relationship that existed between Zayn and William was purely one of an employer and an employee, and she was oddly pleased to see that it spanned deeper than that.
He stretched his arm over Zayn’s waffles to grab the glass of juice, and Zayn playfully smacked the back of his head. “Didn’t you learn table manners growing up?”
“I’m not sure,” William muttered. “I would have to ask someone quickly since he practically taught me everything I know. Wait a minute.” William fished for his phone in his pocket, retrieved it, and placed it against his ear. “Hey, Zayn Graham, did you teach me table manners? Someone over here is asking.”
Zayn scoffed. “Such a child.”
“Says the person who never shares his waffles.”
“You have yours!”
“Yours look better.”
“Don’t even get me started.”
Rina watched with a growing smile on her face as they both wrestled for a plate of waffles. It was the most endearing sight and such a contrast from the relationship she was used to both of them exhibiting.
“They are usually not like this outside these doors,” Susan explained to Rina. “They keep their relationship strictly official because they don’t want to be caught up in a situation where one person is targeted to get to the other. Because if William is ever in any form of trouble, Zayn would never hesitate to get across to him, damning the consequences. He wouldn’t even care if his life was on the line.”
“Zayn?”
“Strange, right? Many people think of him as a robot, but that’s the image he loves to portray. Even though he has told himself that that is the person he is, I know somewhere deep down, that he has a soft heart and would never let any form of harm come to the people he loves. There was one time William was involved in a fix. I had no clue at the time and was kept in the dark until it was all sorted. But Zayn was the one who stood up for my boy. That was the moment I knew that William was in good hands.”
Rina looked back at the duo and saw them in a deep conversation about something, their battle about the waffles totally forgotten. It made her laugh and it got their attention.
“You both need to eat before you leave this villa,” Susan warned gently, rising from her seat. “I’ll be inside. Are you returning this evening? Is there something you want me to cook for you?”
“Rina would be spending the night here,” Zayn announced like he had spoken with her before about it.
“What?”
“William and I would pick up some clothes from your cottage and get them over to you on our way back from work. Remember we still have something to talk about.”
“Yeah.” Rina shook her hair out of her face. “But you’ve not told me the reason I can’t sleep in my own bed.”
“I don’t think the guys that tailed us today have any plans of letting it go just like that,” William explained. “They just might find you in your cottage, so it’s best you don’t stay there.”
“But Zayn, you already put someone out there to watch me at night.”
“Yeah,” he shrugged. “And tonight, he is going to be doing it without you in the house. We need to get what the person is searching for exactly. I will be taking with me the deeds of the cottage. But you don’t have to worry about them. They will be in my safe. I think that’s what they are after.”
Rina stuck a tongue in her cheek, opening her mouth wide. This was just too sudden to take in. She didn’t have to go to work that weekend, but Joel had asked her to see a movie with him and he would be expecting either her presence or at least, a response.
“Joel asked me to go see a movie with him,” Rina said. “It was supposed to be tomorrow.”
“Do you want to go?”
She shook her head.
“Then you don’t have to worry about that. I will take care of it for you.”
“But…”
“Don’t tell me no, Rina.”