“Sorry, what was that?” I apologised for my inattention.
“Why did you move to Hartwood Bay?” she repeated for my benefit. “Was it just to follow your family?”
“Yes and no,” I smiled. “My grandparents owned a holiday house in Hartwood Bay and I spent every summer here as a kid. When they passed away, I inherited their house in Yass, and Noah inherited the house here. It made sense at the time because I had a business there and it’s only an hour away from Canberra which was where my ex was living. Then last year she moved to Perth so I didn’t see the sense in sticking around.”
“Did you have trouble finding work? I mean you have a business here, but…”
“Plumbing, like a lot of trades, is all about networking and thanks to Brock and his father, I was able to start pretty much straight away. Anyway, enough about me, what made you move to the Bay? Wanting an extended holiday?”
I watched as the blush bloomed on her face.
“I umm, needed to get out of Melbourne, it was … yeah, I just needed to get out.” She pushed the pasta around her plate, avoiding my eyes.
“When are you moving back?” I attempted to keep the conversation going.
“Never if I can help it,” she laughed. “I really want to stay here and I’m a bit anxious about what will happen when Paige comes back from maternity leave…”
And that’s when everything changed. At no point did it occur to me that a woman who had moved to Hartwood Bay for a temporary job wanted to be here permanently. My stone cold heart beat rapidly at the thought that maybe this didn’t need to be so temporary. Then I remembered that it was still fake.
“With Bella expecting this year, I’m sure they’ll need someone to step in,” I offered then mentally started thinking of businesses that may need extra staff.
We sat in silence for a moment, I wasn’t sure how to break it so I tried changing the topic.
“So did you tell your mum about ummmm…us?” Something inside me didn’t want to call it a fake relationship anymore.
“Yes, but ummm, I’m not sure if she believed me.” She blushed again.
“What do you mean?” My family, unlike Ryan, not only believed me but it felt like if I left it long enough, Mum would be calling the local church to book a wedding.
“She cyber stalked you from the minute I mentioned your name. Within minutes of telling her, she’d found your social media and had decided that you’re much too handsome for me and that I should come home so she could set me up with her co-workers son. That everything that happened with Christian was my fault anyway.”
I laughed, at first thinking that she must be joking. Why would any mother think a man is too handsome for their daughter, especially when their daughter was as stunning as Zoe. Then I saw the horrified look on her face.
“Oh my god, you’re serious? Your mother actually said that?” It felt like I was getting a taste of why Zoe was avoiding Melbourne.
“Yes, her exact words were: ‘Seriously Zoe, after what happened with Christian, do you really think you’re pretty enough to keep a man who looks like him happy?’” her voice a little higher and sharper when repeating her mother’s words.
My anger set my blood boiling, that was something you don’t say to anyone, let alone to your own daughter. I looked at Zoe’s angelic face and she seemed unphased by her mothers wordsand I was outraged on her behalf. Then something else stuck out to me.
“We need to talk about your mother but first, what does she mean about what happened with your ex?” my voice was a little harsher than I’d intended it to be.
“Oh that,” she tried to dismiss it but I could tell that whatever this was, it had once really hurt her. “The woman my ex is now engaged to is my former best friend. I caught them together. It’s why I left Melbourne.” Zoe waved her hand around like it was nothing, like it didn’t haunt her.
“You found your ex-boyfriend in action with your ex-best friend?” I gritted my teeth.
“Fiancé, ex-fiancé. It was at our engagement party, she was going to be the maid of honour.” She was doing it again. Trying to be non-chalant about finding the man she was going to marry, doing god knew what to the woman she considered to be her best friend. This was a woman used to hiding her feelings, trying to put her best face forward for the sake of everyone else. It was almost as if she thought she wasn’t entitled to be angry about it.
“Fuck, I wouldn’t want to go back to that either.” I shook my head, no wonder she’d run away from her old life. “But tell me, how was any of that your fault?”
“Because I was punching above my weight with him, he was successful, goodlooking, athletic, from a good family…” Zoe’s words faded as she sighed. “He was never going to be happy with someone like me.”
“Why not?” I knew what she would say and I was already angry about it.
“Because I’m just a fat girl who does people’s hair for a living.” Zoe was getting frustrated and that was not how I wanted the night to go. I’d stopped thinking this was a fake date and started taking it as an opportunity to get to know her. But I needed to lether know that the way she saw herself, the way her mother and old life had made her see herself was not how I saw her.
“Zoe,” I took her hand, “I didn’t mean to upset you, I honestly want to have words with your mother, ex and his fiancé. I’m not a violent man but I feel like I need to let my fists do the talking. How dare they make you feel that way about yourself? Do you want to know what I thought when I first met you?”
Her blue eyes were wide but she looked like she wasn’t sure if she wanted to hear what I had to say. She nodded anyway.
