Zayn tilted his head, pretending to ponder the idea like he wasn't already sweating down his spine.
"Are you sure it's not just a trap to drag me into another store so I can awkwardly pick out underwear again?"
She bumped her shoulder against him with a soft laugh. "Nooo. That was only step one."
Zayn blinked. "There's steps?"
"Maybe," she said with a smile, tugging him toward the alley.
The alley wasn't sketchy, surprisingly.
In fact, it had a cozy little bench shaded by a magical canopy vine that filtered the sunlight into calming specks of gold and green.
Some romantic couple had definitely made out here before — they probably engraved their initials in the wall with a dagger, or maybe burned them in with a low-level flame spell.
Althea sat first, still holding Zayn's hand.
She looked at him, eyes wide and playful, then slowly leaned her head on his shoulder. "This is nice," she whispered. "I'm glad you came with me today."
