Chance Encounters

Four Leaf Tavern was no doubt the best bar around. Niall, the owner, was only in his early-twenties and still ran the bar better than any other local bar that’d been around for years. The bartenders were friendly, the drinks were amazing and the overall vibe of the place was just fun. And luckily, it wasn’t too far from Jordan’s flat.

Jordan entered the bar, saying hi to the occasional familiar face as she made her way to a vacant bar stool and waited for Niall to make his way toward her. In the meantime, she looked for the familiar dark-haired boy she was supposed to be meeting up with but she couldn’t see him anywhere. “I’m right here, sunshine,” an Irish voice spoke, causing her to turn back toward the bar.

Jordan laughed. “Yeah, Niall, you were exactly who I was looking for,” she told him sarcastically. He jokingly gave her wink. “Do you know if Zayn’s here yet?”

“He was,” he replied. “I think he went to the bathroom.” She nodded, setting her purse on the bar in front of her as she rested her elbows on the cold surface. “Can I get you anything to drink?”

She went to answer no, because she really couldn’t afford it, but she decided it wouldn’t hurt. “What the hell, I made decent tips today. I’ll have a Tequila Sunrise,” she answered.

Niall began making her drink. “You still working at that little diner on 5th Street?” he asked, pouring the tequila into the glass of orange juice.

She nodded, watching as he mixed everything. “Yeah. The pay isn’t fantastic but it’s enough to pay the bills,” she responded, shrugging.

“Well, your job offer here still stands,” he reminded her with a grin, setting her glass in front of her. Jordan chuckled, shaking her head. After Zayn had introduced the two and they actually began holding conversations while she was at the bar, Niall had offered Jordan a job as a bartender for a few nights a week. It was a nice gesture that she was sure he was sincere about but she declined; she couldn’t imagine having to deal with drunk people constantly and since she wasn’t a big drinker, she didn’t think it’d even be worth it. “Damn, look who just walked in.”

“Who?” she asked, turning toward the door but she didn’t see any familiar faces. Louis, another bartender at the bar, had just walked in with a blonde girl but that was it.

“AJ Davenport,” he answered. “I know you’re probably not too happy with her, being Zayn's fiancé and everything, but I can’t have any of you starting anything in here.”

Jordan’s eyes widened as she whipped around to face Niall. Zayn’s fiancé? “What are you talking about?” she asked slowly.

Niall’s eyebrows furrowed, looking confused before a look of realization set in. “You didn’t- holy shit, he said he was going to tell you like a week ago. I thought you knew!” he explained quickly, his face almost as shocked as Jordan’s. Almost.

Jordan couldn’t form words. She knew that his father, Yaser Malik, had been sending Zayn out on dates the previous few months to look for an “eligible” wife but she didn’t know he’d found one. Zayn said that he’d work everything out with his father; he promised that he would fix everything before this happened.

To make matters even worse, AJ Davenport took the seat two down from her, Louis sitting on the opposite side. Jordan couldn’t help but analyze her. She was tall, blonde and dressed nicely – which didn’t surprise Jordan one bit. She’d heard of Davenport Industries, a very rich and successful business that dealt with other businesses or houses, but Jordan wasn’t sure. And that was the least of her cares when her eyes reached her left hand, where a huge, expensive-looking diamond ring sat on her ring finger.

“You’re here,” Zayn greeted the dark-haired girl with a smile, apparently oblivious to the blonde girl sitting at the bar as well.

Jordan glared at him. He was dressed in black skinny jeans and a red long-sleeved shirt, pushed up to his elbows but she was too angry with him to fully appreciate how great he looked in red. “Sorry, mate, it was an honest accident,” he apologized. Zayn still looked confused before his eyes fell on AJ, who was now looking at the two with an eyebrow raised. Zayn sighed deeply, running his hand through his hair. He was going to tell Jordan about AJ tonight, so it wasn’t too bad she knew, but he wanted to be the one to tell her. “Please don’t cause a scene in here.”

“There won’t be a scene to cause,” Jordan mumbled, digging through her purse to pay for her drink. She picked it up and threw back as much as she could – most of the glass – and set the glass down, ignoring the burning in her throat as she made her way toward the door.

“Jordan, wait!” Zayn called, catching Jordan’s elbow.

She snatched her arm from his grip. “Fuck off,” she told him calmly before turning and walking out. She knew causing a scene would not only upset Niall but also cause questions to arise for Zayn and, no matter how mad she was at him, she didn’t want that.

When the cold air bit her skin, she began to regret not grabbing a coat to put over the outfit she borrowed from her roommate, which only consisted of skinny jeans and a tank top with a sleeveless button up shirt over it. She walked to the side of the road, holding her thumb out and praying that a cab would hurry up. “Just let me explain!” Zayn all but begged as he walked toward her.

“Let you explain what?!” she exclaimed, not being able to control her emotions. “Let you explain that you lied to me? Let you explain that you’ve been engaged for God only knows how long? How long have you been engaged, exactly?”

Zayn rubbed his forehead, already knowing that things would only get worse. Jordan was nearly impossible to talk to when she got this mad. “Almost two weeks,” he finally answered.

She scoffed. “Two weeks,” she echoed. “I’ve seen you several times in the last two weeks and it slipped your mind to tell me that you’d finally found a fiancé? I’m officially a homewrecker!”

Zayn would’ve laughed, had the situation not been so serious. “It isn’t like that!” he argued. “The fact that I’m engaged doesn’t matter-“

“When you’re engaged to a freakin’ Davenport it does!” she interrupted. Jordan was confident in herself. It wasn’t that she was cocky or felt that she was superior, but she wasn’t at all insecure. Sometimes, in past relationships, she’d get a little protective as other girls let their hands wander but it’s only been a handful of times that she’d truly felt threatened. This was one of those times. AJ was beautiful, rich and, as she did a lot of good things in the community, seemed like a good person. Her and Zayn would also probably have to spend a lot of time together and she didn’t know if or how much AJ wanted to get married to Zayn. Not to mention that Zayn had let slip his thing for blondes a few months ago, a comment Jordan only laughed at and brushed off.

“It doesn’t matter who I’m engaged to either!” he insisted. “AJ doesn’t want this any more than I do. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner but I swear I was going to tonight.” Jordan didn’t know what to say. She wanted to say that she was prepared for this and trusted Zayn’s words. She wanted to meet AJ with her head held high and show her that she wasn’t afraid of her. But she couldn’t bring herself to do any of that. “Look, it’s freezing out here. Just come inside and we can talk,” he suggested.

Jordan ran a hand through her dark brown hair, chewing on her lip to fight the tears she felt burning her eyes. But as she opened her mouth to reply, a cab pulled up next to her. She couldn’t remember being more thankful for anything in her life. She opened the back door as she looked at Zayn’s pleading eyes. “I’ll call you,” she whispered, her voice cracking. She got into the car, shutting the door as she recited her address to the driver. As he drove off, she couldn't help but turn and look back at Zayn. Seeing him crouched on the ground with his head in his hands made her feel guilty. It wasn't Zayn's fault he was in this situation – not all of his fault, anyway. His father seemed like all business and not the kind of man you'd disagree with.

Jordan mulled it over, turning forward in her seat. She was tempted to tell the cab driver to stop so she could turn around and actually talk this out with Zayn – and she almost did a few times – but she stopped herself. After all, she wasn't the one who did anything wrong. She wasn't the one keeping secrets. And she knew damn well that Zayn wouldn't like it if he even thought she was involved with another guy. She just had to give herself some time to calm down and wait for Zayn to contact her because she refused to make the next move.

Sighing heavily, she fished her phone out of the bottom of her purse, going to unlock it but pausing as she noticed the date. It was only three weeks away from her mother’s death. She was only eleven when it happened but it’s something that, while got easier to deal with each year, was still difficult for her. She knew she could call her dad but it wouldn’t help him; ever since her mother’s death he just wasn’t the same. It was times like this she wished she could just call Willow, her sister, but that hasn’t been an option for the past two years, thanks to Willow and her stupid insecurities.

Jordan tore herself away from her thoughts, knowing that thinking about what happened between her and Willow would only fuel her anger. She finally unlocked her phone, going straight to Lindsay’s number and clicking the Call button. “Hello?” her roommate finally answered.

“Are you down for a cheesy movie marathon and cupcakes kind of night?” Jordan suggested with a weak smile.