As soon as I sit across from him, I can sense something is wrong. His eyes are dull, the usual glimmer missing for the first time since I met him.

"Hi," I say, offering the most comforting smile I can give. "How are you?"

He doesn't say anything for a moment. He stares at me. I can't tell if he is sad or simply numb. The emptiness behind the slight raise of his lips is enough to make me frown.

He stands up, and I am fully prepared for him to walk out of the cafe and into the darkness. Instead, he walks to me and pulls me up from my seat, his hands grabbing mine. He lingers, his eyes roaming my face before he pulls me into a hug.

"Hi," he finally responds, squeezing me tighter. His arms are strong around my waist, and I freeze for a second before securing mine around his neck. He smells like amber and vanilla mixed with the smell of the outdoors. 

When we separate, he looks deeply into my eyes for a moment and musters a smile, a weak and sad smile. "Are you okay?"

He shakes his head and sits back down. "Not really. I don't want to talk about it."

I get that. I don't want to talk about a lot of things, and I'm definitely not the type to push someone to talk about something. Jordyn? That's a different story.

"Do you want to do something on the list? Or, um- I don't know, do you want to be alone?" I hope he doesn't want to be alone. I don't want to leave him alone. I want to see his smile. His real smile.

"No, I want to be with you. Which one do you want to do?" He answers, making my heart swell.

I pull out my leather journal, biting my lip to avoid smiling. I hand him the journal, and he flips through the pages until he comes across our list.

He glares at the list for a moment before looking up at me, a playful smirk on his lips. Oh, boy.

"Skinnydip in the ocean?" He says, his eyebrows raised suggestively.

I think he expects me to be surprised or embarrassed, but he forgets that I was the one who wrote that one. "Sure," I say, seeming unfazed.

His eyes widen as if he doesn't believe me. "What?"

"What?" I repeat.

"You want to go skinny-dipping? Right now?" He asks again, looking at me like I'm not really there.

I let out a small laugh, nodding. "I wrote that one down, remember?"

He sits up straight, situating himself. "Right, yeah. I remember. So, tonight?"

"Sure, but we should wait until the beach closes."

"How will we get in?" He asks. Oh, Zayn, I thought I was the innocent one.

I pause for a second, thinking through my response. He is a lawyer, after all. "We sneak in. I know a way to get in."

His brows raise the shock back on his face. "'Shy and sweet' Scarlett sneaks into the beach to skinnydip after hours? Interesting."

I can't help but laugh at that. If only he knew my friends and all the trouble they rope me into. "College Scarlett picked up a few tips,"

We have about an hour until the beach closes, leaving us sitting in 25 Hours chatting about anything we can think of to pass the time. I avoid asking him anything too personal. I don't want to trigger any memories that he doesn't want to relive.

He seems okay now, though. I've yet to see a genuine smile, but sometimes real happiness isn't possible, and that's okay.

"So, any siblings?" He asks.

"None, but my mom had me when she was young, so we have more of a sibling relationship than a mother-daughter relationship." My mom had me at only seventeen, having the typical teen mom story. She remained single for most of my childhood, my father nowhere to be found. I'm twenty-one, and I've never even met him. "How 'bout you?"

"A brother, Robert. We call him Rocky, though." I don't fail to notice the slight upward twitch of his lips at the mention of his brother.

"Rocky? Why Rocky?"

There it is- a genuine smile. "When he was younger, he hated the name Robert, said it belonged to an old man. Growing up, he would try to eat rocks, weird, I know, but he loved them. When he complained about his name, I said we should call him Rocky because of his love for rocks. My parents hated it, but it stuck, and now he rarely answers to Robert."

"That is an adorable story. Are you guys close?" I think I already know the answer from the way Zayn's mood switched when talking about Rocky.

"Yeah. He's two years older, so we grew up pretty close. Rock always says it feels like we're twins sometimes," I can tell his brother is close to his heart, and I hope talking about him can help take his mind off all the pain he is harboring. "How about you and your mom?"

"She's amazing," I start, trying my best not to tear up. I always cry thinking about her. I miss her too much. "She had me at seventeen and raised me as a single mom, so she's basically my best friend in the entire world. I would do anything for that woman."

I see a look of hurt flash through his eyes, but he hides it quickly. "She sounds like an amazing woman, as you said."

"She is," I don't want to ask about his parents in case it's a tough subject, so I go for a more wholesome route. "Do you have any pets?"

"Two Pitbulls. Their names are Bucky and Bear." He answers, pulling his phone from his pocket and flipping through it. He shows me a bunch of pictures, making me absolutely swoon at their adorable fat faces.

"Oh, my God. They are so cute," I swoon as Zayn swipes through the pictures. 

A dog person, thank God. I love all animals, but dogs make my world so full. I can't wait to have some of my own, but Jordyn is allergic to dogs and cats, so I have to wait.

We spend another half hour talking about pets, and I tell him about Jordyn. I ask him about his friends, but most of them are no longer in California. He talks about Mrs. Adelaide, his boss, but he considers her a friend.

It's nearly midnight by the time we finish our coffees and random conversations. Wow, we've been talking for almost two hours.

We get into my car and drive to the nearest beach, which happens to be only five minutes away. "Care to share how you plan to get into here?"

I park across the street from the beach parking lot and point to the far side by the neighborhood. "There's a pathway that takes you to a secluded part of the beach that no one really monitors. Jordyn found it our freshman year."

"Okay, let's go!" He exclaims, hopping out of the car and walking straight. I jog to catch up with him, using my phone as a flashlight. "Scared of the dark?"

"Scared of murderers lurking in the dark," I correct, moving a little closer to him.

He chuckles, grabbing my hand as if he's done it a million times before. I keep my composure and don't react, simply walking with him to the path.

We make it, and I pull Zayn through the path, ignoring his complaints about the prickly bushes that keep poking his leg. Once we are out of the path, our feet meet the sand, and the stars shine brightly above us.

"I love the beach at night. The stars are so bright away from the city lights. The waves seem louder yet more peaceful." I don't filter my love for the beach. I feel so comfortable around him. More so than my friends I've known for years. So I let myself talk.

I look up at him when I don't hear a response. He's already looking down at me, a thoughtful look on his face. His perfect features are highlighted by the moonlight, making him appear that much more handsome.

"Everything is better at night," he says, his hand still tightly holding mine.

"True," we stare at one another for a moment. My hair blows with the slight gust of wind, and I watch his green eyes trace over my every feature. "Ready?"

"Ladies first," he winks, letting go of my hand.

I roll my eyes and step closer to the water. I pull off the baggy t-shirt I'm wearing and put it on the sand, left in my bra and black mom jeans. I'm too nervous to look at him, so I avoid his gaze and go for my pants.

"Wait," he says, removing the jacket he's wearing and laying it on the sand. He picks up my discarded shirt, shakes the small amount of sand on it, and places it onto his jacket. "So your clothes don't get dirty."

"Thanks," I responded shyly. "I'm gonna, um- you know." My cheeks heat up, and I can't help the small shake of my hands as my nerves build.

He smirks, pulling off his shirt now, too, revealing what I already assumed. His arms are large and muscular, his abs toned. How is that even fair? The number of cookies he eats while we sit at that damn cafe, and yet he has six perfectly sculpted abs. Six abs. Six more than me. I need to find out his workout routine.

You're staring, Scarlett.

"I'll look away, you get into the water, and I'll meet you there." He says, obviously sensing my anxiety. I wasn't nervous until I took off my shirt. Now, I'm almost half-naked about to jump into the ocean with a man I met a week ago.

I nod, and Zayn turns around, pulling his phone out of his pocket and throwing it on the ground. I quickly pull off the rest of my clothes and run into the water. Well, a jog. I don't run.

Once I'm completely submerged, I yell to Zayn. "Get in here before I get eaten!"

I can hear his deep chuckle despite the distance between us now. I feel the water on the most sensitive areas of my body, letting the water comfort me in ways I can't describe. I distract myself with the waves while I wait for Zayn.

"Fuck! It is freezing." I snap my head to where I heard his voice. Laughing at his scrunched-up face.

"You're such a baby," I splash him and swim away, a wave passing over us and pushing me forward as I go underwater.

"Me? Never," he says flirtatiously, swimming after me. I feel him grab my foot and pull me towards him, the darkness and the water covering my body. He pushes me underwater for a second and swims away.

For some reason, being submerged with nothing on is surprisingly freeing. I am worried about the fish and other various animals, but I don't want to bail. Especially because it feels amazing, despite the chill of the water. 

It's not until I'm above water and thinking of our escape that I realize. "We don't have towels," I say slowly.

Another wave comes and crashes into Zayn's back, pushing both of us closer to shore and each other. We're an arm's length away, his damp brunette hair covering his face.

"You can wear my t-shirt instead of pulling on your jeans over wet skin," he provides a solution, running a hand through his hair. The moonlight shining off his wet skin shows off his perfect physique flexing in all the right places.

I take that solution and put the thought in the back of my mind, dunking myself under the water again, enjoying the peaceful sound of the ocean against my ears.

Zayn and I splash one another and swim around for what feels like an hour, but only twenty minutes. I began to shiver, so we decided it would be smart to get out.

I stand up and start pulling on Zayn's hand. I don't mind if he sees my body. I don't want to walk out of this water naked and alone in the middle of the night.

I catch Zayn's shocked expression as we walk out of the water, his respectful eyes staying focused on our clothes in front of us. He passes me his shirt, and I avoid checking him out, pulling the shirt on. It reaches just above my knees, and the fabric is soft against my freezing skin.

We get into our clothes and carry the ones we chose not to wear back to my car. 

"You're kind of a badass," Zayn says, shocking me. I'm still shivering from the chill in the night air while focusing on the road.

"Kind of," I say, mimicking his flirtatious tone from earlier.

"I like seeing these different sides to you," he reveals. "Everything about you is so damn intriguing."

The butterflies in my stomach are going crazy right now as I digest his words. What do I even say to that? This man is perfect, I'm convinced. I mumble a shy thank you as I pull into his driveway.

"Keep the shirt. It looks better on you," He fishes his keys out of his pocket and opens the car door, looking back to me before getting out. "Goodnight, beautiful."

I freeze as I watch him exit my car. It doesn't get any easier to process the more he says it. Beautiful.

I roll the window down, shouting, "Goodnight, Zayn."

I leave his driveway and head home, feeling the most content I've felt in ages. Even if I never saw Zayn again, tonight would still go down as one of the best nights of my life.

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Happy Sunday, everyone! (a bit late). Chapters will be longer from now on since we have established the story a bit more. Please let me know your thoughts & give it a vote if you enjoyed it. 

Thank you for reading