The List » Zarry (M-Preg) ✔

18: Junk Food

Yaser Malik poured the brownish liquid over into the short glass.

"Would you like some more bourbon, son?"

Zayn pulled his glass towards himself.

"No. I'm fine, dad. I haven't even finished the first glass, as you can see."

"You should. It's good."

He hummed as he watched his father screw the top back on the bottle.

"You want to tell me why you asked me to come over today? Because you're giving me a drink of your favorite bourbon."

"What does that mean?"

"It means you probably want to tell me something big. You gave me some of your best bourbon before I was even legal to drink because you wanted to tell me you were giving me the keys to your dry cleaners store."

He smiled.

"You're a smart young man."

"So this is something big? Is that why we're doing this? So you can talk me into something?"

His father sipped his drink.

"I'm not talking you into anything, Zayn. I'm just helping you have an open mind."

"Open mind about what?"

"Do you know that area over there where I golf sometimes? Where your mother and I talked about moving one day before we bought this place."

"Yeah. Ssummerland. It's nice. Are you thinking about finally moving there?"

"No. At least not now. Your mother is pretty happy here and I am too."

Zayn raised his brow at him. "Oh. So why are you asking me about the neighborhood then? You don't think I should move there, do you?"

"Oh, no. Of course not. Unless you wanted to."

"I don't. I love where I am."

"Then you can stay there. What I'm asking you has nothing to do with living there. I just want to know what you think about the area."

He sat back in his chair.

"Like I said, it's nice. Lots of high end homes and people with high end jobs there."

"It is. It's a nice neighborhood. It's upscale. Low crime. Now imagine running a business out there."

Zayn slowly pushed his glass across the table away from himself.

"Dad, you don't want me to move Hollywood out there, do you?"

"No. I don't want you to move it out there. You've built up clientele here. This store should stay here. I want you to open another one."

"What? Dad. I can't do that."

"Why not?"

"B-Because I can't. That takes a lot of money and time and energy."

"All of which you have."

"I don't, actually."

"Why not? You're out of school. You're not seeing anyone. You're not married. You don't have children. You're not financially responsible for anyone but yourself. You have plenty of free time. You could definitely open a new dry cleaners."

Zayn sat back.

"That doesn't mean I have time or want to go through the trouble of looking for property in some other city."

"You don't have to. I found a place for you. It's at the corner of Gene Plaza. It used to be a dry cleaners but the owner has gotten old and put the space up for sale. So I bought it. For you."