You Can Let It Go [ZARRY]

Six

Zayn:

Another person took a turn at the podium to share.

Hayden’s courage had spurred mine; I planned to finish my story about how I’d gotten clean, but now a lot of people were
suddenly ready to talk, so I listened instead.

By the end of the meeting, rain was pattering at the high windows and Hayden was sitting as if he were waiting for something, arms crossed impatiently.

When Diane called the meeting adjourned with a serenity prayer, he got up and left without a word to anyone.

I left too, wanting to get home to hang out with Louis for as long as possible before I went to the Styles estate in the morning.

I figured I’d give Diane a call about sponsoring after I got settled into my new place.

Outside, the rain was falling in sheets. Other meeting attendees scurried down the college’s cement steps and into the night.

I huddled against the wall to call an Uber,
shielding my phone from the rain that was driving down in hard bullets. The app said a driver was nineteen minutes away.

“Shit.”

Stupid to wait in the storm. I pushed the heavy door to get back inside and smacked headlong into Hayden.

He was a few inches taller than me—6’0” to my 5’9” broader across the shoulders. I was a regular gym rat too; we hit like two boulders crashing together and stumbled back.

“Watch it,” Hayden snarled, then stopped as he eyed me up and down behind his glasses.

“Oh. You.” He said it impatiently, as if he’d been waiting for me.

“Yep, it’s me,” I said.

“I thought you’d left.” Hayden jerked his chin at the phone in my hand, where the
Uber app was visible. “You need a ride?”

I blinked stupidly. This close, his cologne something clean and undoubtedly expensive went straight to my head.

“Uh. Sure.”

“Let’s go.”

I took two steps and came to my senses.

“Wait. Hold up. Despite what I said the other night, I don’t get into strange men’s cars on the regular.”

Hayden’s stony expression morphed into flustered shock that looked out of place on his features. “I know that. I’m not trying to..... I mean, that’s not why I offered."

“I’m kidding. Rehab humor,” I said with a grin.

“I’m just saying we don’t know each other very well. Or.... at all.”

“Right,” he said flatly, nodding at the Uber app. “It would be totally reckless and crazy to get into a complete stranger’s car.”

I laughed. “Touché. But my Uber driver wouldn’t wear sunglasses in a thunderstorm.”

Hayden started to speak, then cut himself off  as Diane and some other people from the meeting went by; the director nodded at us with a small smile. He waited until she was gone.

“It’s supposed to be Narcotics Anonymous,
” he said in a low voice.

“You’re more conspicuous with them on, honestly.”

“Fine.” He took the glasses off his face and pushed the hood down on his sweatshirt.

“Better?”