You know what they say, you can have great times with anybody, but love is when you can be bored with someone. Zack has no idea where that quote came from, but to him, it makes sense. He still feels very much in the honeymoon phase, but he expects this phase to fade and a new era of normalcy to begin. He'll be okay though, he has friends, but that doesn't mean he has to be complacent though.
"So you want to find this parting line in your hair and style it in a way that you don't fight it too hard..."
It was a Saturday evening, and Zack had just bought hair gel for the first time. He'd never gave a shit about his hair before, but since getting a girlfriend, especially someone like Ashley who seems to be the kind of person who puts effort into her appearance, he figured that he should learn how to as well. Tastefully done makeup, outfit pairing, dyed hair, are all small details and efforts that Zack loves to appreciate about her. But when he looks at himself in the mirror, he doesn't like what he sees. He sticks out like an old tree trunk that has been struck by lightning in comparison to her, and he has to do something about it, to at least look like someone who she can be proud to stand next to.
"Then you can just experiment with your hair, some styles work better with long hair, while simple spiking would suffice with short hair. experiment a couple of times to see how your hair behaves with the gel, and if you're just starting out, experiment with hardness levels as well..."
If he's being honest, the YouTube video isn't helping much, but at least he knows now all he has to do is experiment...
...
The next morning, he drove to Ashley's place to pick her up for church. Usually, his church service starts at 10am, but her church service starts at 7:30, and it's a 45 minute drive from his place, so he needs to wake up as early as 6 sharp latest if he was to make it, but it was a sacrifice he was willing to make, he wakes up at 6:30 for work every day anyways. Besides, when he met her mom, she was delighted that her daughter was going to church again.
When he arrived at her place though, she wasn't ready, so he had to wait. "Sorry about that!" She apologizes. "I'm just so used to sleeping in every Sunday that I forgot, completely forgot."
"All good." He says as he walks her to his car. "When was the last time you went to church regularly?"
"Before Covid..."
"Ah, understandable. I stopped going to church after covid too."
"Hey..." Ashley tilts her head as they sat in his car. "Did you do something with your hair?"
"Yeah, you like it? I'm trying things out."
"As long as you're happy with it!" She smiles.
Honestly, for someone like Zack who grew up in his church all his life, going to another church was kind of exciting. Walking into a new building to be greeted by people instead of being the one that greets people was refreshing. He did find it quite odd that even though this was supposed to be her church, it doesn't look like she knew anyone here, then again she did say that she hasn't been here in years. "So what brings you to GCC?" a guy with glasses asks. "You said you were from Metro!"
"Oh, I'm here because of Ashley, she's more comfortable in her home church."
"You guys are together?"
Zack smiles at his girlfriend who blushes and looks away. "Yeah!" He proudly says.
The guy looked at her for a moment and snapped his fingers. "Ashley right?"
She nods. "Hi Joshua."
"I haven't seen you in years! Glad to see you back!"
"You know that guy?" Zack asks.
Ashley nods. "Used to be my youth leader."
This was good. From a dreary work from home job, to not seeing anyone on the weekends other than guys on a dating app, Zack has gotten this girl back out both into church and into the working world. She's making new friends at his workplace, and reuniting with old friends at church. He would like to think he was adding value into her life, even it it might mean that he'll be leaving his old church and making new friends here.
...
One weekend, the entire account and project management team, including Ashley, went to training arranged by the bosses. Zack was gaming with Jian and Dymo at home when Ashley texted him. "Zack help!"
"Why what's up?"
"Vienn wants to bring the Vietnam branch colleagues go drinking after training, but I don't want to! But Fish is my ride home, and she's also in charge of taking care of the Viets."
"Do you need a ride home? I can come pick you up!"
"We're gonna go have dinner with the bosses first, but can you come now? I want you here!"
'I want you here' was enough to make Zack drop everything. "Location and time, I'll be there."
"We're on the way there now!" She texted before dropping him the location.
"See you guys. Ashley needs me." Zack says in the Discord before he fucked off faster than they could reply.
"Goddam, Zack is really taking this boyfriend thing seriously." Jian remarks.
"As he should." Dymo adds.
The bosses were surprised to see him, but glad that their designer had made some time to bond with the account and project management department. They were all aware of the relationship between Zack and Ash, and had even teased them every now and then. Ashley didn't like this Vienn guy, but having Zack with her made her more secure, and Zack was proud to be able to provide this security. At the end of the day, he dropped her off at her place when the others were out drinking. "My savior!" She said, hugging him.
"Of course! When you ever need me, I'll be here!"
...
Zack found his weekends starting to get more and more dominated by his dating life. He starts to understand now why his friends barely have time for him anymore. He does feel guilty about abandoning his friends though, so when his church member invited him and his life group over to his new housewarming after church service, he wanted to bring her along as well. She agreed, but as they were leaving her church, Ashley's mom needed transport back from hanging out with her friends from the mall.
"Which mall is this?" Zack asks.
"Mid Valley."
"That mall has a train line back to your place, your mom can take the train line."
"Zack, you're not gonna make my mom take public transport right? She doesn't know how to!"
"She can learn, it's easy! I take it everyday!"
"But she hasn't, and she needs your help!"
Zack sighs. On one hand, he did promise his friend he'd be there, that mall is on the other side of town, they'd be an hour late by the time they fetched her mom and send her home. But on the other hand, his girlfriend's mom needs help. "Okay, but we gotta go to my friend's place, we promised, and he offered to cook everyone burgers!"
"Okie!"
So he drove as quickly as possible, while still remaining safe, at least, he'd like to think he drove safe, to pick Ashley's mom up, got her home, and even gave her a crash course in using the train line. But by then, they were already 45 minutes late for his friend's housewarming. "Come on! We gotta go!"
"Do we have to?" she looks up at him with her large amber eyes.
"Yeah we do, we promised."
"But I don't quite feel like it!" She says, slumping onto her bed and splaying herself across her mattress. "It's been a long day, can we just cuddle and watch Netflix instead?"
That did sound tempting, Ashley and he never cuddled in bed before, dare he say, it even sounded dangerous. But the guilt of breaking a promise did eat at Zack. "I would love to." he sighs with a smile. "But I did promise my friend I'd be there, I won't force you to come with me, but I gotta go okay? We can cuddle after church next week."
Ashley pouted even as he ruffled her hair before leaving. He thought that she looked kind of cute and didn't think much of it as he drove back to his friend's place.