Zayn paced his bedroom with one hand on his waist, and the other clutching onto the phone pressed against his ears. He had just wanted to have one simple day since his return back to the country, but Nathan wouldn’t let him be.
“Keep him in the waiting room,” he told Mia, who was asking if she could let him in as usual. “I’ll be there in a jiffy.”
“How about your meeting with the stakeholders scheduled for 6 pm?” It was already past five and Zayn already planned on leaving for his office in a few minutes. It was meant to be a corporate dinner to discuss the progress of the opening of Zayn’s Conglomerates in Hong Kong and was very important before any further steps could be taken. But Nathan had waltzed in at the precise moment, almost like he knew about Zayn’s trip.
But that was practically impossible. He had made sure of it.
Sighing, he walked into the closet to change into a black two-piece suit, then grabbed his car keys from the headboard and sauntered out of the room. In the hallway, he knocked on Rina’s door, leaning on the wooden doorframe as he heard her footsteps shuffle before she pulled it open. Zayn had been very tempted to push it open himself, but with what happened the last time, he wasn’t sure that would be the right thing to do.
“Hey,” Rina said in a chirpy tone, standing on her toes as if unable to contain the excitement bubbling within her. “You changed. Are you headed somewhere?”
“Yes. The office. I have a meeting to see to, but I can spend the night here if you want me to.” While a part of Zayn wanted her to say yes, the other part was hoping she would shake her pretty head and tell him she would be fine through the night without him hovering around her. He was threading on a painstakingly thin line right now where Rina was concerned, and even though he prided himself on having impeccable control, Zayn was questioning how much longer he could hold out.
He angled his head when Rina nodded quite enthusiastically. “Yeah. I…I want to have a sort of celebratory dinner, so I was thinking I could cook tonight.”
“Oh!” Certainly happy about something. “I’ll grab a bottle of wine on my way back.”
“Actually, there wouldn’t be any need for that. I already told William to do that.”
“He’s going to eat with us?”
“Yes. Susan too.” Zayn nodded, even though his possessive nature wanted to shake his head in objection and suggest taking her out alone. That meant he would have to share her attention with Susan and William, and even though he loved them, where Rina was concerned, he wasn’t too keen on that.
“Alright,” he murmured, trying not to show how stung he was. “I should get going.”
He didn’t wait for a response before walking away from view, heading for the stairs. He met William already by the car, with the passenger door open. Zayn didn’t say anything until they were both in and had pulled out of the driveway.
“Rina told you to join us for dinner.” It wasn’t a question, but at the same time, neither of them knew what it was exactly. William regarded him from the rearview mirror, then pulled his gaze back to the road.
“I think Ms. Power got some kind of good news,” he replied. “She wanted to celebrate and I thought you would be fine with it. I can of course cancel if…”
“No,” Zayn waved a hand in the air dismissively. “It’s fine. If Rina wants us all to eat with her, then we have to be there. I know she really doesn’t have a lot of friends, since the shit that happened. We should do this for her.”
William tried to hide his building smile, sticking his tongue against his cheeks. Although Zayn was yet to admit that he had feelings for Rina, William was certain of it. It was the first time he had seen him in over fifteen years, care for someone other than Mago. Zayn hated the complicated nature of feelings and never even believed in them. William figured it was the reason he was trying so hard to fight it now.
“She asked me to grab a bottle of wine on my way back. Should I stay back in the office with you, or send…”
“You can’t leave until I’m done with my meeting,” Zayn said with too much passion. By the time he realized it, it was too late to take it back. “We should go get the wine together. After all, I know her better than you. I’ve seen her wine collection so I know what she would prefer.”
William nodded, this time failing at hiding his smile. His face and lips betrayed him as he burst out into a light chuckle. Zayn had sounded like a high school student discovering he had a crush on a classmate but not wanting the rest of the class to find out.
“What’s funny?”
“Nothing,” William muttered, shaking his head. He turned seamlessly onto the street of Graham Conglomerate and headed down the road.
“You just laughed!”
“I saw something funny out through the window.”
“William!”
“I promise! It was a really funny joke. I saw a man on a T-shirt with the inscription ‘I am in love with her’ but when someone walked up to him and asked him who the lady was, he turned around and swore that he didn’t have that T-shirt on and that he wasn’t in love with anyone. One would think everyone who saw the shirt was blind.”
“You saw all of that in the space of a second.”
William shrugged. “I am a fast observer.” He stopped at the front of the building and got out of the car, getting the door open for Zayn to step out. On the sidewalk, Zayn glared at him. “This conversation is not over.”
“Yes, sir!” William threw him a salute before getting into the car and driving to the parking lot.