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.