Chapter 33 - It's Been Awhile

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The air was freezing outside, and the heat in my car wasn't working fast enough, as I sat alone in the parking lot of the Hilton hotel.

Every time I exhaled, a cloud of my breath would appear in front of my face. My body was shaking inside my arms that clung tightly to each other. I felt like I was stuck in a block of ice.

The hotel loomed over me, and there was nothing but anxiety and fear coursing through my veins as I tried to avoid looking at the giant building in from of me.

I could feel it. I could feel it already. That static shock that I could feel filling my body whenever he was close. He was in there.

I tried to rationalize in my mind and say that it was just my nerves getting to me, but even after five years apart, I could still recognize the feeling.

I had been sitting in my car for at least an hour, watching all the teenage girls storm the front doors of the hotel and crowd the lobby. So there was no doubt in my mind that this was where Zayn was staying.

Louis had given it up pretty quickly. He had tried to cover up his excitement, and attempted to withhold the information, but it wasn't long before he broke down and told me.

Jack was staying with my parents. I called off work, but I didn't tell them that. I pretended like it was any other day. I got him up and dressed, and I even dressed in my regular work attire. I didn't want anyone to know what I was really doing. Only Rosie and Louis knew.

I had arrived at the hotel early, before anyone else got there, but I chose to stay in the car for awhile, ya know, to calm my nerves and work up the courage to go inside. I was only supposed to be in there for a few minutes, but those few minutes turned into over an hour.

I knew that eventually I would have to go in. I couldn't put it off any longer. So I finally turned off the car and stepped out into the frigid air.

My heart was pounding as I approached the front doors of the hotel. I felt like the building was alive, like it was staring me down as I walked inside it. I knew full well that once I went in, there was no turning back.

I weaved through all the cars parked in front of the door, and the people hauling their luggage out of the trunks of cabs, and the young valets excitedly jumping into an expensive sportscar.

The automatic doors slid open, and I crossed the threshold into the lobby. As I walked inside, I drank in the scenery.

I was standing in an atrium, with all the hotel rooms surrounding me in a perfect square. Stone paths wound through the spacious lobby, over ponds and the stream that ran straight down the middle, leading up to a waterfall that flowed out from the wall.

The place was absolutely spectacular, and it didn't surprise me one bit that Zayn was staying there. Remembering the Porsche he drove the night I sprained my ankle, I knew that he would only stay in the most luxurious places.

The peace and tranquility that I knew they were trying to accomplish with the decor, was completely shattered by the screams of prepubescent girls, waiting for their idol to come out wave at them.

With Zayn being as arrogant as he was, I'm sure he was thoroughly enjoying this. Yet at the same time, I knew he didn't like that much attention.

Louis had told me that he would call me when he found out the room number, but in the meantime, I didn't know what to do. I felt so out of place. I was a twenty-three year old mother stuck in a sea of high school girls.

The girls were congregated in a mob by the elevators, so I tired to put as much distance between me and them as possible. I sat in one of the leather chairs towards the front of the lobby near the breakfast area.

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