“Where’s he taking you?” Olivia asked with a wide smile.
Z gave her one of his usual, happier grins. “His place. He lives outside of New Gothenburg near my friend Nicky’s other friends, Brad and Harley. Apparently he just moved out that way, and the house sounds really nice. He has a pool. It’s right past where the suburbs end in the countryside.” He lifted his messenger bag. “I brought swim stuff. I love the water.”
I glared at the bag. There wasn’t a lump pushing out the sides of the leather, so whatever “swim stuff” was in there must not be very goddamned big. “You’re going that far out? Alone?” I asked.
“It’ll be fine. You said you wanted to fix the kitchen table when I wasn’t around to get in your way, so now’s your chance.” There was a bitterness in his voice I’d never heard, at least, not directed at me.
I tapped my highlighter on the table. “I was being lazy and putting it off. I didn’t mean it that way.”
He and Olivia gathered their belongings, and I watched them, some weird, sad emotion tangling through me as they got ready to go. “You don’t mind? I’ll cover you some night I don’t have the kids and we’re stuck,” Olivia offered, and I knew she would. She was great.
“It’s fine,” I said and studied Z, who was carefully ignoring me as he slung his messenger bag over his shoulder.
They walked out of the conference room together, but Z had barely disappeared through the door when I chased after them. Olivia had passed the empty receptionist desk and was already out the front door by the time I grabbed Z’s hand to pull him to a stop. I gently squeezed his fingers.
“What?” he asked, a frown turning down his lips. He sounded mad at me again and I hated it. Everything about this sucked.
“Maybe you should call this off.”
“Why?” He wriggled his fingers but didn’t tug his hand away.
“You were just dumped by Serge. Maybe you need to take a minute and—”
“No. I’m not waiting. For what? I’m not going to find a boyfriend sitting at home.” His face bloomed red, and my stomach twisted into a giant knot. He jerked his hand free and went outside to where Olivia stood waiting. She raised her eyebrows at me as I followed.
The warm afternoon sun irritated me because we wouldn’t be spending time in it together, and yesterday I’d fucked over my evening with Zayden by… what? What had been so important that I’d needed to stay in my room alone and ruin his plans? A group of laughing men and women passed us, jostling Zayden against my side. I opened my arm to hug him close, and he stepped away. Hurt stabbed at my chest and my worry transformed into something deeper and more awful. “I don’t like that I don’t know this man and you’re leaving the city.”
“Are you telling me not to go?” He whirled around to glare.
“Yes!”
“I’m tired of being alone,” he said, eyes sparkling with his fury, which didn’t make them any less attractive and instead had my gut heating. “I’m tired of wanting things I can’t have and being jealous of all my friends. I’m going.” He stomped off along the sidewalk, and I was surprised when he headed down the block and stopped near a really nice silver car, I was pretty sure was a Bentley Continental, parked along the curb. A tall, good-looking man in a black suit casually rested against the side. Even from this distance I could tell he had trimmed, silver muttonchops that should have looked ridiculous, but on his square face were attractive. He smiled and opened the door he’d been leaning against for Zayden, who slid into the car as if he’d been born riding around in luxury vehicles.
“Oh wow,” Olivia said.
“Yeah,” I grumbled.
“You okay?”
Not bothering to look at her, I spat out, “Why wouldn’t I be?” All I could do was watch the back of the car, but the rear window was tinted and I couldn’t see what was happening inside.
Olivia hummed. “I am not a psychologist. I gotta pick up my kids, for real.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll finish up,” I mumbled. She gave me a sad smile and squeezed my arm as she walked down the street, her heels clicking loud enough I winced.
As I stared, the expensive car pulled away with Z in it. This was a first. I’d never hated one of Zayden’s boyfriendsbeforeI met them. I pulled out my phone and quickly typed a message to Z, then hit Send.
Dare:If you need me, I’ll come get you. Where are you going?
I stared at my phone, which remained stubbornly silent. With a growl, I went back inside because there was probably about another three hours’ worth of work waiting to be done, and I hadn’t been planning to do it all by myself.
6
Zayden
Wayne wasone of the nicest guys I’d ever met. He stared at me with the kindest eyes, bright and calm and so different from every guy I’d been on a date with in the past. It didn’t hurt that he had delicious abs the water of the hot tub rolled off, and I couldn’t tear my eyes away from them.
“So, tell me about yourself, Zayden.”
