AFTER YOU SAVED ME // ZESSA

Chapter 27: Donna's Revelations

Zed's POV

"This better not be about my idiot kid."

Hardin and I exchange questionable glances as we stare at the woman in front of us. For one, why is she assuming we are here for her son? I mean we are, but is this something that happens often? And two...she is very clearly drunk – and I mean wasted drunk.

"Can we buy you a drink?" Hardin asks, smiling at her persuasively, ignoring her skeptical glances and taking a seat at the bar. I shoot him an are-you-kidding-me look but follow his lead, calling over the bartender.

"One round of...?" I trail off, looking at Donna to finish our order.

"Jack Daniels. Make mine a double," Donna says to the bartender, who gladly complies.

Donna takes a seat at the bar next to Hardin, and I take the empty chair beside her.

"So, why are you guys looking for me?" Donna asks, looking incredulously at Hardin and me, her lips a hard line.

I can smell the alcohol on her breath when she talks, and the droopiness of her eyelids give away just how intoxicated she is.

The bartender hands us our drinks, and Hardin raises his immediately, ignoring Donna's question.

"Cheers, mates," he says with his thick accent.

"Sure," Donna says as I nod, and we all click glasses. I take a sip while Donna swallows half her drink in one large gulp. Hardin, however, merely sets his drink down without so much as pretending to take a sip. He has more will power than I thought he would with a glass of his favorite alcohol in front of him.

"I'm not going to ask you fine gentlemen again, what are you here for?" Donna demands, coughing a bit as she reaches in her purse and pulls out a cigarette.

"Can I bum one?" Hardin asks, and she begrudgingly hands him a cigarette, lighting his then hers.

Puffs of smoke fill the bar top as I lean back a bit to escape the nicotine clouds. I was never much for smoking and always hated the way it made my clothes and hair smell.

"We were just wondering if you had seen Dan?" Hardin asks coolly, as if he were asking about the weather.

"He owe you money too? Listen, I have not seen that freeloading little shit in a couple years, so you'll have to hunt down someone else," Donna says, before slamming back the rest of her drink and moving to stand up.

"Wait!" I say a bit too forcefully, placing a hand on her chair. "Just have a drink with us. We're paying," I smile, trying to smooth over my jittery behavior.

"Please, my treat," Hardin says, leaning in a bit, his eyes boring into hers and flashing some weird kind of crooked smile.

So that's how he does it. Freaking Casanova over here...

I roll my eyes, but she stays, probably drooling over Hardin's apparent smolder, or whatever that look is called. She cannot believe he is actually into her, right?

"Wonderful," Hardin chimes, looking over at the bartender and pointing to the empty glass in front of Donna.

"Well, aren't you the gentleman," Donna smiles, taking another drink from the bartender, swaying a bit as she grabs it.

Great, she does believe him – but I guess alcohol and Hardin's fakeness will do that.

"So, you say you haven't seen your son in years?" Hardin asks Donna smoothly, placing a hand on the back of her chair.