You Can Let It Go [ZARRY]

Eighteen

Zayn:

Monday morning, I got the text from Harry to meet me downtown at The Ginger Garden at precisely noon.

He was already there, waiting for me in a booth when I walked into the swanky restaurant wearing my usual jeans, boots, and black leather jacket over a T-shirt.

Harry looked like a movie star in a three-piece suit in silvery gray with a white shirt
and narrow gray tie. He got to his feet and offered a handshake as I approached.

“I should’ve Googled this place before I headed over,” I said.

“Now everyone’s looking at me like this is a job interview and I’ve already blown it.”

“They don’t think that,” Harry said, a smile pulling at his lips.

“Look at the poor schmuck, they’re saying, ” I said, sliding into the booth across from Harry.

“Came all this way.... The least the nicely-dressed one can do is buy him lunch.”

Harry was chuckling now. “Since you came all this way....Tell me about yourself, Mr. Maleek, is it?”

“My greatest weakness is that I’m too much of a perfectionist.”

Harry burst out laughing.

My job is done. Whatever else happens today....

The waitress arrived, and Harry was all business again.

“Are you ready to order? I only have an hour.”

“Uh, yeah. What’s good?”

“All of it,” Harry said. “You like spring rolls?”

“Definitely.”

He turned to the waitress. “We’ll take spring rolls, an order of chicken potstickers....” He nodded at me. “You good with seafood?”

“Uh, sure.”

“Two lobster and prawn dumpling soups and two orders of Mongolian beef with noodles.”

We handed the menus back and the waitress left.

“That’s a lot of food,” I said.

“I need leftovers,” Harry said. “Cold chow mein for breakfast is the best.”

“Hell yes, it is. Nothing better than greasy, cold-ass noodles straight out of the box.”

I offered my hand for a high five, and he returned it, looking less like a Wall Street venture capitalist and more like the young guy he actually was.

I folded my arms on the table. “Can I ask
you a question?”

“Shoot.”

“How are you poised to be CEO of a multi-billion-dollar company when you’re only....what? Twenty-four?”

“I got a head start,” he said.

“Meaning?”

“I tested high on certain exams designed to measure intelligence.”

“Is that the long way around to saying you aced the IQ test?”

“I don’t want to sound like an ass about it.”

“How high? Genius high? Einstein high?”

“Damn, you’re a nosy bastard,” he said with a laugh.

“Guilty. But after the way you played the piano the other day.... it’s fascinating.”

And a turn on, but we’re not going there.