It had been a week since Andrea had joined the editorial board and she was thoroughly enjoying herself. Despite the tight schedule and late night hours spent studying she knew this was totally worth it. And she’d made quite a few new friends too. Although new acquaintances was more like it. Quinn, as it turned out, was quite fun to be with and was always messing around trying to make people laugh. Quentin was the complete opposite, always serious and always telling Quinn off. The other people were also quite nice and although she hadn’t had a proper conversation with any of them, she held no animosity towards anybody. As for Zayn, there had been moments when he’d tried to talk to her but she always managed to make up an excuse, clearly avoiding any conversation at all costs.

“Leaving already Andrea?” questioned Quentin, looking up from his papers. Andrea was near the door about to let herself out.

“Yes, I’ve some urgent work to complete” she said turning around. The room was buzzing with conversation as the date for the release got nearer. Andrea was standing near the door her bag slung over one shoulder and a few books in her hands.

“Besides I’ve already finished preparing today’s report, so I thought I could leave a little earlier.”

“Yes. I’ve no problem with that. It’s just that I wanted to talk to you about something.” He stacked some more papers and arranged them neatly at the corner of his desk.

“What is it?” she asked, leaning against the door.

Quentin looked up and seemed to mull over his thoughts for a moment.

“Never mind, I’ll tell you about it tomorrow”

“Okay” said Andrea, quite surprised that he’d stopped her for nothing

“Don’t leave yet Andrea!” came a voice from the father end of the room. She turned, grinning, because she knew who it was.

“You can’t leave me alone with these robots! I mean I’d die of boredom here. And what would you do without a charming smartass in your life?” he said as he moved between the tables.

“Oh just continue without you I guess. I mean it’d have to be pretty easy to get over a smartass, especially one as annoying as you” she said shrugging at him.

“Oooh harsh!” he said clutching his chest dramatically while pretending to swoon.

“Stop fooling around Quinn” said Quentin, hardly bothering to give his brother a second look.

Quinn shoulders immediately drooped, “see what I mean?” he said gesturing to his brother.

“Go back to doing your work, she's late already and you're wasting her time” Quentin continued as Quinn stalked off to his bench, rolling his eyes. She laughed before shooting him one last smile and exited the room.

~

Work was pleasant as it could get. The customers kept pouring in as Andrea and April kept a smooth service going. And as always there was no chit chat between the two, only tight lipped smiles and professional nods.

As April ushered in the new customers, Andrea went in to the kitchen to relay the new orders coming in.

“Two chocolate smoothies, one banana spilt and one cherry cola iceberg.” said Andrea feeling somewhat professional.

“Be ready in ten” came the shout. Andrea took a drink of water before gently pushing open the large grey doors and entering the service area.

“This tray needs delivering to table 14”, said April as she glided off to take a break.

Andrea picked up tray and moved gracefully towards table 14. She stopped a few tables before her destination, the features of her face contorted in utter shock.

‘The cheek that guy had coming here! I thought I'd made it pretty clear that I did not want to have to do anything with him!’

At table 14 sat a back haired boy who looked like he was somewhat Asian in origin. His hair was up in the usual quiff and his tattooed arms were hidden by an army jacket that he’d donned.

‘Back away very slowly while you still can.’ She slid back very slowly, as if she were backing away from a hungry tiger. She turned very slowly and smiled awkwardly at some customers who were watching her. As soon as she thought she was safe she rollerbladed her way back to April.

“Sudden emergency, deliver this yourself,” she said giving no explanation and shoving the tray into April’s hands and almost tipping the glass over.

She was back in no time though backed by an armada of questions. She started

“It’s that guy again! Why won't you tell me who he is?” Count on April to remember who he was.

“He is no one” she said shortly, “I'm sorry but you'll be doing the rest of this service alone, or atleast until he goes away,” she said.

“What? You can't be serious. You cannot ditch service over some guy you claim is no one.” April said outrageously.

“Look, you don't understand. If people at my uni find out I'm a waitress, the remnants of my social life will be gone, vanished without a trace.”

“No you look!” April said advancing towards Andrea and cornering her. She was suddenly aware of the wall behind her and how close April was to her. Andrea nostrils caught a strong whiff of her sickly sweet perfume and coughed.

“I don't know what this job means to you” continued April a strange light coming into her eyes,

“but to some of us here, it means the world to us. This might seem like a lowly job, but here we are happy to make someone's day and who knows maybe lift their spirits up. This job means a shitload not only to me but also to all the others, especially Suze. Do you think she wasted her time in creating this place? And why do you think she so carefully chooses her waitresses? It's because she's damn proud of this place and she has every damn right to be. And we work every single day here hoping to make her proud and hoping that we, here, make the difference in someone's day.” At this time, she didn't seem like the airhead Andrea thought her to be. She was different and she spoke with a passion that Andrea didn't know she was capable of.

“Some of us here aren't ashamed to be doing this job.” she spat out. “Now I don't give a rat’s ass for your high-school insecurities but you are going to walk out there and do this job. You understand?” She slid back slowly, heading towards the door.

“Yes” said Andrea, totally awed by this new side of her. ‘But she's got a point’ she thought ’I've got to suck up my ego and walk out there.’

“Here” April said throwing a bottle of water at her. Andrea caught it after some fumbling, “I want to see you there out in two.” Andrea nodded.

“Hey, April” Andrea called out. April turned around,

“I meant no disrespect to the job but you've opened my eyes. You know,” she paused, smiling to herself, “sometimes you're not quite the airhead you make out to be.” April smiled a genuine smile at her for the first time.

Andrea drank the water and stepped out again.

There were quite a few drinks waiting to be served and Andrea and April went around effortlessly, delivering them to their respective tables.

“Hey that guy at table 14 wants to order another drink” said April.

Andrea nodded and sucked a deep breath in and headed out towards table 14, this time with her head held high.

“What would you like to order?” she asked, her face giving away nothing.

Zayn lifted his brown eyes towards her. “It's you finally! I've been meaning to talk to you! Can you sit down this will only take a minute.”

“I'm sorry but that's not allowed I'm just here to take your order.” she said formally.

“Loosen up a bit! Why are you always like this around me! I've been meani-“

“Please I have to complete this shift. Just give your order and I promise I'll talk to you after my shift is done.” she interrupted him.

Zayn sighed in defeat. “Okay one cup of tea, earl gray.”

“Thank you” she said and moved off.

The rest of the shift passed on quickly. Andrea went in to change and said goodbye to Suze before she left. ‘I still have to meet Zayn’ she thought with a sigh. She pushed open the back door and let herself out. It was dark outside and as she turned from the door a figure moved in the shadows.

"Hey you...”

"Augh!"Andrea leapt back in fright as she expertly swung her bag and hit the stranger across the face and pulled out a can of pepper spray with the other hand.

"Calm your shit down woman it's just me!” The voice was familiar, and as Andreas eyes adjusted to the dim light she saw that it was Zayn. He was rubbing his jaw and frowning down upon her.

"You scared the bejesus out of me!" She said after sighing in relief.” Besides you earned it for creeping on me like a mugger” she said breaking into a laugh. Soon enough she was hysterical.

“It's not that funny!” said Zayn, clearly annoyed. He walked down the alleyway into the street as she followed him.

“I would say I'm sorry but it's just-“ she managed before being taken in by fits of laughter. “What were you doing there anyway?”

“You were clearly leaving that way to avoid me so I thought I'd wait there instead.”

She stopped suddenly. He stopped too looking at her. They were standing below a street lamp as a few people passed by them.

“I was going to talk to you.”

“Well considering your previous very obvious attempts to avoid me, do you blame me for thinking this way?”

“So what was it that you wanted to say?” she questioned, suddenly aware of who she was talking to.

“Can we walk?” She nodded her assent and they continued walking.

“I just wanted to apologize for that day. I mean I had stuff going on but that's no excuse for dumping it on you and treating you that way. I know that we got off on a bad start but I want to clear the air and start fresh. I was hoping you'd agree or at least accept my apology.” he finished, looking uncertainly at her.

The lowlights made her hair darker, highlighting her pale face which, at the moment, was frowning upon the ground. But when she looked up at him there was a hint of a smile on her face

“Sure, why not?”

“So we're cool?” he asked as if make sure.

“Yeah” she said shooting him a smile. She stopped again, but this time extending her hand.

“Hi, I'm Andrea” she said formally and flashed him a smile.

One side of his mouth curved up in an amused smile. He locked his brown eyes on hers and took her hand and said “Hi, I'm Zayn.”

“Nice to meet you” she said continuing to walk.

“I wish I could say the same” he said following her, his voice teasing.

Her eyes widened in mock outrage as she lightly punched him in the arm.

“Nice way to start over, twat”

“I see you're making an effort”

They continued their light banter as they reached the tube station.

“So I guess I'll catch you around at uni, yeah?”

“I guess”, she said shrugging nonchalantly.

“Okay, so um bye” he said smiling.

“Bye” she said smiling too.

She headed off to the ticket counter and bought herself a ticket and some soda in the vending machine. As she sat on the tube home, sipping her soda, she found herself thinking ‘maybe he's not that bad after all.’

~

A/N

Dedicated to @NataliaHunt for the awesome banner on the side. =) That is how andrea looks throught this chapter.