Taking Chances

Six more months passed, and I was just getting ready to go back on tour. My album continued to sell like hotcakes and actually reached number one on the Billboard top 200. Not to mention that both of the songs I released became top ten hits.

Zayn and I were doing ridiculously well, and our fights were few and far between. Although, when we did argue, the fights were explosive. But I was just happy that I still had Rebecca around to talk to when I was moping over our arguments.

“Turkey?” I called into the living room, peeking my head around the side of the wall.

“And cheese, please,” he added.

“Mayo or mustard?”

“Mustard,” he responded.

I nodded and disappeared once again, fixing a couple of sandwiches and arranging some potato chips around it for lunch. A minute later, I brought them into the room and put the plates down on the coffee table.

“Thanks, love,” he mused, his voice distracted, his nose buried in my laptop as he read something intently.

“You’re welcome.” I settled down on the couch next to him, tucking my legs underneath me, and started to eat. “Whatcha reading?” I asked around the food in my mouth.

“Just this story,” he answered distractedly.

“’Bout what?”

He shrugged and exited out of the window before putting the computer back on the table, the top shut.

“Okay then,” I laughed, letting his secretive nature go, since it wasn’t worth arguing over.

As we ate, we chatted about miscellaneous things, nothing of major importance.

After we finished lunch, Zayn pulled me up close against him. Kissing him quickly, I turned to the television and switched the power on, scrolling through the channels until I found an episode of Chopped that I hadn’t seen.

We were quiet, my attention focused completely on the screen in front of me. Zayn’s hand worked absentmindedly through my hair, and, occasionally, he kissed the top of my head.

“I can’t believe you get so worked up over this,” he teased.

“Oh, come on,” I laughed. “You know me well enough to know that I’m not exactly normal.”

“That, I know for sure,” he responded.

I looked up at him and slapped his shoulder jokingly. “How rude.”

“You said it first!”

“But you didn’t have to agree!”

He shrugged, putting his entire face into the emotion. “Oh, well. Wait, what do you say? Sucks to be you?”

“Don’t use my own expression against me!”

“I do what I want,” he replied smugly.

“Shut up,” I snapped suddenly, ripping my face away from him and turning back to the television. “The show’s back on.”

I didn’t blink while the competition played out in front of me. There was just something about the show that completely sucked me in, and it was almost as if I turned into one of the contestants while I watched.

“Oh my God,” I gasped, putting my hand over my mouth, as the person expressed that they forgot to put the obscure onion on their place.

Zayn’s arm tightened around me as he chuckled. “Did you just react that way to a forgotten onion?”

“Yes!” I defended, sticking my tongue out at him. “You’re just jealous because you don’t feel this strongly about any shows.”

“I don’t need television shows,” it sounded like he mumbled. I didn’t answer, for fear that I didn’t hear him properly.

After the show ended, the introduction started for Cupcake Wars.

“Hey, Bails?” Zayn asked as I switched to a football game I knew he wanted to watch. Or…a soccer game. Holy shit, I was speaking like the locals.

“Yeah?” I questioned, tilting my head up to face him.

“You think you’d want to marry me?”

My heart stopped, and my stomach lurched. “What?” I breathed, knowing that I must have heard him incorrectly.

His face filled with a blush so deep that his face almost turned purple. I’d never seen him do that before. “I mean, I know that we’re young, but I figure that getting married is just like birds finding their wedding dress. You just…know. And I just know that I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I know we argue sometimes, and because we’re such sensitive people, we work to break each other down, but all those fights are worth it. Because I’m absolutely and completely in love with you.”

I just kept staring at him with wide eyes, my heart pattering unevenly in my chest.

“So what do you say? Think you’d mind marrying me much?”

And just when I thought the situation couldn’t get more solid, Zayn reached under the couch and pulled out a ring with a round-cut diamond. It was the perfect size; not too big like a lot of other celebrities tried to do.

“I can’t believe this is happening right now,” I burst out, starting to tear up something fierce. I reached up and wiped them away. “I never thought I’d ever have anyone asking me to marry them. Who’d want to put up with me for eternity?”

“I’d sign up for that,” Zayn chuckled. “But I’m gonna need an answer. Seriously. You’re killing me here.”

“Yes!” I exclaimed, sitting back and bouncing up and down a little bit like an excited toddler. “Yes, I’ll marry you.”

“You know…” Zayn trailed off. “That means you’re going to have to move in with me. Normally, I’d have asked you to move in with me first…but…we kind of already did that step.”

“Only technically,” I responded. “But I guess we’re going to have to do it for real.”

Zayn smiled and shook his head as he took my hand and slid the ring onto it. “You going to talk it out with Rebecca?”

“Yeah. And I’ll make her listen to me. There’s no way she’s going to pay for this apartment by herself.”

“Do whatever you can,” Zayn responded before leaning over and kissing me.

“Are you going to tell me what you were reading?” I whispered as I pulled away, keeping my face only an inch from his.

He laughed. “Honestly?”

“No, I want you to lie to me,” I replied with thick sarcasm.

“I asked Liam where I should hide the ring, since I wasn’t sure where it’d be safe.”

I shook my head. “You usually keep surprise jewelry in your pocket.”

“But who knew how long my pants would be on?” he teased, leaning forward and kissing the tip of my nose.

“Ugh. You whore,” I grinned.

“Only you could make ‘whore’ sound like a pet name.”

“You know it.”