Yours Truly

I woke up early the next morning, still riding high on the fact that I was now engaged, and pranced into the bathroom to get ready for the day. I took a quick shower, shaving my legs while I was in there, and stepped into the steam filled room when I was done. I pulled on the high waist tan shorts I had grabbed before walking in, tucking the thin salmon colored button up into the top, and left the top few buttons open. I put lotion onto my legs, realizing how much my tan had faded during the winter, and made a mental note to drag Bettie tanning with me soon. I finished my morning routine, blow drying my hair straight and barely bothering with makeup since I’d only be with the girls I nannied.

As soon as I walked into the bedroom, my phone started buzzing on the dresser, waking Zayn up abruptly. I told him sorry, hitting answer quickly, and was surprised to hear the voice of my boss on the other end. I knew that she would be dropping off Ashlynn, the youngest of the girls I watched, but wasn’t expecting her for at least an hour. She told me that she had a meeting earlier than planned, apologizing profusely that she was going to be arriving earlier than planned, and told me she’d make it up somehow. I told her it wasn’t a problem, promising to meet her in the lobby when she arrived.

“You better get dressed, Ashlynn will be in our flat in like 10 minutes,” I told Zayn, sitting on the bed to pull my sandals on.

“But it’s too early,” he groaned, rolling onto his side.

“Just throw on some sweats and crawl back into bed then,” I shrugged standing up, “Here, you don’t even have to leave bed to find a pair to wear.”

“You’re the best, Val,” he said pulling the sweats I tossed over on quickly, “I love you.”

“I love you too, Zayn,” I said giving him a quick kiss, “She probably hasn’t ate yet, so there’ll be French toast when you wake up.”

He smiled, dropping his head back onto the pillow, and nearly falling back asleep instantly. I laughed, closing the door behind me as I left the room, and grabbed his keys so I could get back into the flat. I twirled them around my finger as I stood bored in the lift. I had barely entered the lobby when two small arms were clung to my legs, nearly knocking me over. I picked Ashlynn up, twirling her in a hug causing her to giggle, and grabbed her bag from her mum before she dashed back out to her car. Ashlynn dropped from my arms, taking her backpack that was surely filled with toys, and latched onto my hand while pulling me towards the lift. She rambled on about the plans she had in store for our day, one of them being a makeover from her for me, and I couldn’t help but to laugh at her enthusiasm.

She ran into the flat once I had the door open, dropping onto her knees in front of the coffee table, and waited patiently for me to turn on her favorite cartoons. I did so, watching as she pulled out a Color Wonder Book from her bag, and left her to color while I made breakfast. Breakfast was about half cooked when Zayn finally emerged from the bedroom, showered but still in sweats. Ashlynn excitedly jumped up to hug him, always having been in love with him, and tugged him down with her so they could both color. I laughed at the sight of Zayn having to color a picture of Cinderella with markers that would only work on special paper, and couldn’t help but to tweet a picture of it.

“Okay my little artists, breakfast time,” I announced as I set the finished French toast on the table.

“Here Valerie, I colored this for you,” Ashlynn said, handing me over the picture she had been working so hard on.

“Is this supposed to be me and Zayn?” I asked, noticing the crudely drawn tattoos on the characters, in the spots Zayn and I had visible ones, earning a large nod from her, “Thank you, Ash! It’s going right on the fridge.”

“I made her you, because you’re both pretty,” she said, pouring her syrup over her toast.

“But Valerie is much prettier,” Zayn smirked at me, making Ashlynn agree with a mouthful of food.

“You guys are too nice,” I said, half blushing, “Now eat up before it gets cold!”

The meal passed quickly, most of the sound being from our cutlery hitting the glass plates, along with Ashlynn telling stories. We cleaned up quickly, Zayn leaving shortly after for a guy’s day with Liam, allowing Ashlynn and I to go back to coloring. She handed me a picture of Belle, telling me to color it as nicely as possible, and went back to the picture of Jasmine and Aladdin she was coloring. I paused, answering my continuously vibrating phone, and laughed as Bettie practically shouted at me to open my front door. I told her I had Ashlynn, something she said she didn’t mind, and pushed myself up to go greet her. I had barely opened the door when she grabbed for my hand, and started screaming.

“IT’S BEAUTIFUL OH MY GOD I’M SO HAPPY FOR YOU!” she shouted, pulling me into a hug.

“How did you already know!?” I asked, still startled by her greeting.

“Well, Liam’s balcony has a view of yours, and Zayn had told Liam what he was going to do,” she started, trying to sound innocent, “And we may have kind of, really, spied on you during the proposal.”

“You two are total freaks,” I said while laughing, “And since you’re here, I hope you know that you’ve been granted the honor of Maid Of Honor.”

She squealed, again, and pulled me into another bone crushing hug. Ashlynn finally looked up, hushing us as she was trying to watch her cartoons, and I bit my lip to control my laughter. I pulled Bettie over to the table, making sure I could still see Ashlynn, and quietly freaked out about the fact that I was now engaged. She kept insisting that we needed to go buy wedding magazines, something I hadn’t even thought of doing quite yet, causing me to continually protest. Of course, she used the leverage of promising Ashlynn a coloring book to get her to use her puppy eyes on me, and I couldn’t bring myself to say no.

We had to take my car, seeing as her booster seat was already in it, and drove to the shopping square that wouldn’t be as busy as the main one. ¬Ashlynn, not forgetting Bettie’s promise, pulled the pair of us towards the small toy store, nearly bolting away when we walked in the doors. She found the coloring books quickly, plucking an oversized Tangled one off of the shelf. Bettie proceeded to grab the largest box of crayons available, Ashlynn’s eyes growing to the size of saucers when she realized they were for her, and walked out of the store clutching the bag in her small hands. The book store was next, Bettie grabbing nearly every bridal magazine available, causing us to leave with five bulging bags.

We stopped for frozen yogurt, sitting outside to enjoy the warm weather, and ignored the girls at the next table whispering loudly about us. We decided to go back home, noticing Ashlynn’s eyes drooping as she finished her yogurt, and put her down for a nap. Bettie and I spent the rest of the afternoon going through the magazines, laughing at some of the ridiculous trends, and bookmarking the ideas we liked. Ashylnn’s mom came early, before I would have even had to leave to pick Rachel up from school, giving me a cash bonus for letting her drop her off early in the morning.

“Does this mean we can go buy clothes!?” Bettie asked excitedly once we were alone.

“Or a spa day!” I said, shoving the money into my purse, “Or both, because let’s be real, we both enjoy both of those.”

We made plans to go on Thursday, the day the boys would leave for the studio in Sweden, and went back to our magazines. This lasted for a few more hours, the amount of sticky notes stuck on pages being a ridiculous number, until Liam and Zayn entered the flat. Liam congratulated me, after I took the piss out of him for spying on us, and said he had bought Strongbow as an apology. We put the magazines away in an empty tub, shoving them into the hall closet, and all settled in for an impromptu movie night. We cracked open the cider, all of us laughing at the mock toast Bettie gave about the proposal, and finally agreed on a movie. I snuggled into Zayn, his hand resting lazily on my thigh, and barely paid attention to the movie as I thought about the future.