She’d never meant for Colton to see her with another man. After Colton’s response last night Zoe felt like a big whore. She hadn’t stopped crying until she fell asleep laying in Ben’s arms.
Ben touched her cheek drawing her attention back too him. He smiled, “Maybe if I’d gone outside and chatted you up again, maybe came on a little harder, you’d love me.” He laughed and shook his head. “That is my greatest regret.”
“Ben,” she looked away because holding his gaze was too much for her. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize,” he grinned. “Just believe me when I tell you that you’re an amazing woman who deserves a great guy. I do think Colton’s a great guy for you, Zoe.” She looked back at him, one eye brow raised in question. Ben nodded, “I do think he’s a good guy and I can understand, after hearing you tell his story last night, how he’d be confused. He made the wrong choice, didn’t he?
“Now… do I think that I’m better? Absolutely. But I’m mostly saying that because soon, after we’re done torturing him, I’m going to miss these lips.” She laughed as he bent his head again and kissed her once more. “Great lips—really great. It helps that they’re on a great woman with an incredibly soft body.”
“Thanks,” she smiled. “I’m really sorry that I’m in love with Colton, because you are fabulous and I think that we could work and be very happy. But I know what waiting is like and there is no way I’d ever wish that on anyone. I feel… I don’t know, Ben. I feel sorta whore-ish for being here with you, for kissing you, and cuddling on you, when I’m so in love with another man.”
Ben grinned, “It caused me no pain, believe that.”
Zoe laughed and shook her head. “I feel… so bad though, for how I acting toward Colton last night… I…”
“No,” Ben pressed his fingers to her lips to silence her. “No regrets, remember?” Zoe frowned but nodded. “No regrets,” she repeated. Ben cupped her cheek and kissed her forehead. “Thanks for staying with me last night.”
“No problem,” Ben slowly rose to his feet and helped Zoe up off the bed. She straightened her own twisted dress and tried to calm her wild bed-head hair. “I’d like to see you again, though that probably isn’t wise for me.” He took her hand as they walked out of Zoe’s bedroom. “Do you think we can be friends?” Zoe frowned so hard her face hurt. “I hate that term ‘be friends’—what does that even mean between men and women?”
“Friends—we’ll have lunch on occasion, dinner parties, emails, funny birthday cards,” his thumb traced the line of hers. “Why are you frowning so hard?”
“Colton and I tried to be friends too—it didn’t work. Now look where we are.”
“I’m not Colton,” Ben reminded her. “Why don’t we try it out?” Zoe was about to nod when there was a loud knock on the door. From the sound of the knock, Zoe assumed it was Minnie, but it was barely six in the morning and Minnie hardly rose before ten most days. Zoe dropped Ben’s hand and hurried to the door. As she looked out the peephole she heard Minnie’s voice.
“It’s me Zoe!” Minnie called. That would have been okay, had she been alone, but Minnie wasn’t alone. Colton stood beside her. Zoe’s heart began to pulse so rapidly she felt a little dizzy. She jerked away from the door and slapped Ben’s arm because she didn’t know what else to do or say. He looked through the peephole as Minnie knocked again. After a second he stepped back, stared at the door and thought.
“Zoe?” Minnie called.
Ben turned to her, and as he did he began unbuttoning his shirt. “Do you have a robe?” Zoe nodded.
“Go take off the dress and put on the robe,” Ben answered. “While you do, I’m going to answer the door.” He pulled off his button down and started to lift his t-shirt. Zoe freaked at the sight of his belly covered with soft blond hair.
“B-but… but…”
“Just go,” Ben whispered. “Go hurry….”
“He’ll think that we….”
“That’s the idea, Zoe,” Ben grinned. She stared at him as if he’d lost his mind and then shook her head no. Ben rolled his eyes, grabbed her hand and tugged her back to the bedroom as Minnie continued to knock on the apartment door. Ben found her robe crumpled on the floor by the foot of the bed. When she made no effort to get undressed, he stepped behind her and dragged the zipper of her dress down. The feel of air on her back made her shudder, and then, as he swept her hair to the side and dropped a gentle kiss to her bare shoulder, she felt something entirely new.
“Ben!”
“Good,” he smiled as she turned on him. “You’re blushing—good for two reasons, I think, but we’ll just focus on one now.” Before she could respond, he swept her into his arms and kissed her. It wasn’t like the chase kisses he normally gave her, she felt his tongue, tasted his breath, and felt every inch of his hard body pressed to hers. When he drew away again, she felt the soft satin material of her robe against her throat where he pressed the bundle. “Take your clothes off.” Zoe’s face flushed again, which caused Ben to smile. He reached up with both hands and gave her hair a good tussle.
“This is going too far,” Zoe stammered.
“Change, Zoe,” he winked and left the bedroom.
Zoe stood there unsure of what to do. She could put on the robe and make Colton and Minnie believe that she and Ben had slept together, or she could zip up her dress and not pretend that there was something more to her relationship with Ben. She could run out there and throw herself into Colton’s arms. That’s all she really wanted to do, anyway.
Sure, he’d put her through hell and was unfair to her and he’d hurt her feelings very much, but that didn’t make her stop loving him. Did he deserve a little payback? Yes. But was it in Zoe’s heart to go this far?
“Who the hell are you?” Minnie’s outraged voice rang through the entire apartment.
Zoe’s heart began to pound and it only got worse when she wiggled out of her dress and put on her robe. “ZOE!”
She tied her robe together and hurried out of the bedroom. She was dead set on only looking at and talking to Minnie, but it was Colton who was heading toward her bedroom. She saw the flowers he was holding first, white lilies as beautiful as the bundle he’d given her on their first date. She then saw the pain and shock in his eyes as they moved over her body. She clutched her robe together. Maybe she looked like she’d just come out of the shower and Colton wasn’t assuming the worse. That idea disappeared when Zoe looked over at Ben and saw that he’d answered the door with his shirt. Zoe stared at Ben’s body. He wasn’t a hard-body type of guy, rippled with muscles, but he was tone, and the sight of his hair chest, full of blond curls, made her blush again. Minnie was standing in front of him, hands on hips, her eyes narrowed, her mouth pursed tightly.
Ben was smiling down at her, probably somewhat charmed by the death look she was giving him.
Zoe gasped as Colton’s finger brushed her cheek. “Zoe,” he murmured.
“W-what are you doing here so early?” Zoe asked Minnie as she stepped around Colton.
Her friend turned slowly and set her unhappy eyes on Zoe. Zoe tried not to buckle under Minnie’s intense gaze, but it was hard. “It’s not even six in the morning, Min. Are you okay?”
“I… couldn’t come last night when you needed me, but I guess I’m not needed now, am I?” She gestured behind her to Ben who was putting his shirts back on. “God, Zoe… what were you thinking?”
“I’ve gotta run, Zoe,” Ben called as his cell phone began to vibrate again.
Zoe hugged herself as she approached Ben who was picking up his keys and wallet from the small table near the door. He drew her close and kissed her forehead; she was glad that he didn’t start kissing like he had in the bedroom. He held her for a long time though, and by Colton’s aggravated sigh, it was just long enough.
“I’ll call you,” he kissed her cheek and ducked out of the apartment. Zoe closed the apartment door slowly, unsure of her next move. She wasn’t surprised to turn around a
nd find both Minnie and Colton staring at her with narrowed, suspicious eyes.
“I’m fine now,” she said to Minnie. “I don’t see why it took both of you to come to my apartment like this.”
“Colton was sitting on the stoop,” Minnie said, “we didn’t come together.” Zoe was unsure of what to say to that. He had been sitting on the stoop? For how long?
And why? Zoe glanced over at Colton who had set the flowers he brought her down on the small kitchen table. He hesitated before coming forward. He stopped a few feet in front of her. She realized that he was still wearing the suit he’d been in last night although now it was rumpled and didn’t look nearly as nice. He looked exhausted, as if he hadn’t slept. The pain that she’d initially seen in his eyes was gone. Now he stared at her in a way that made her entire body pulse.
“I came to talk to you,” he said quietly, “but I didn’t know what to say so I thought about it outside. I swore to myself that I’d never treat anyone as Cara had treated me—and I did. I knew all along what I wanted. I knew the moment you spilled beer in my lap and tried to help me clean it up that I wanted to be with you. I’m sorry that I’ve been an asshole. I’m even sorrier that I drove you into the arms of another man. But—” he closed the space between them and took ahold of her chin forcing her to stare directly into his eyes “—I’m not going to just let you go, Zoe. I did that once, I’m not doing it again.” She stepped back because if she hadn’t she would have wrapped herself around him and let him back into her life in a heart beat.
“I’m with Ben now.”
Colton stared into her eyes before he reached around to open the apartment door. He took a step out then stopped and ran his fingers down the length of her jaw and over her neck.
The simple touch was enough to make her shudder visibly. Colton smiled at her response and let his hand drop away.
“I’m going to win you back, Zoe.”
“I can’t be won back,” she responded firmly. “I’m with Ben and….”
“Yeah,” Colton interrupted, “but you’re not with him like you were with me.”
“You don’t know… anything about my relationship with Ben,” she stammered. Colton touched her cheek again and received the same response.
“I know that if I try hard enough I can get you back,” he answered. “And I’m going to get you back, Zoe.” He slipped out of the apartment and closed the door. Zoe didn’t want to turn around and face Minnie, but she couldn’t just ignore her friend. Locking the deadbolts, Zoe turned, fully expecting a blown out, screaming lecture about how stupid Zoe was for sleeping with a man she barely knew. But she was saved from immediate lectures because Minnie wasn’t in the living room or kitchen.
“Min?”
Zoe hugged herself and slowly walked back to her bedroom. Mentally she prepared for the worst; physically she guarded herself from any blow that might come swinging.
Minnie was standing beside Zoe’s unmade bed, staring at it with confusion. When Zoe entered the bedroom, Minnie spun around.
“You didn’t sleep with him.” She said this matter-of-factly, as if she’d been in the room all night. “You didn’t sleep with him!”
“No,” Zoe admitted. “Well, we did sleep together, but not like that. He just held me all night.”
“What’s with the getup?” She waved at Zoe’s robe. “What’s with the blushing and the tussled hair—you look like you’ve spent the night screwing around.”
“It’s all Ben’s idea,” Zoe murmured as she sat down on her bed. “A way to make Colton jealous—it was all his idea. The robe, everything—although meeting on the street last night was a complete coincidence. I didn’t want to do this,” she tugged on her robe, “but I didn’t want to come off as weak and easy either. I didn’t want Colton thinking he could just walk all over me.”
“So you pretended to move on with Ben,” Minnie said.
“It wasn’t all pretend, I really do like Ben, he’s an amazing man,” Zoe said quickly.
“He’s extremely funny Min—I laughed all night last night. And I do enjoy kissing him, but…”
“And you played along when he said pretend we’ve just had sex?”
“Yes,” Zoe leaned back and closed her eyes. In an hour she’d need to get up, shower, and dress for work, but now, she just wanted to sleep and dream this whole nightmare away.
Far away. She felt Minnie sit down beside her on the bed. “I love Colton.”
“I know you do,” Minnie said.
“I didn’t want to trick him, but I don’t think he believes that I’m really gone.”
“No, he doesn’t.”
“So… I don’t know what to do,” Zoe covered her face with her pillow and held it down so that no light seeped in. After a moment, when she couldn’t breathe, she pushed it back and looked at Minnie. “Ben’s a great guy, Min.”
“Yeah,” she grumbled. “I don’t really like him.”
Zoe smiled. “He’s not a threat to your great plans, Min.” Minnie blinked and looked away somewhat shyly. “I don’t have great plans or they would have worked already. My problem is that I teamed up with a fanciful 12-year-old and not a grown man willing to play games and play them very well.” She crossed her arms over her chest. She looked around the bedroom and then looked Zoe up and down before tugging the sleeve of her robe. “He’s very good.”
“Yeah, and he’s very sweet—may you should…”
“Not on your life,” Minnie interrupted. “So… what’s the plan now? Because if what my brother said to me outside is any indication of his feelings, then he’s not going to let up easily this time.”
“What did he say?” Zoe asked, heart racing.
Minnie’s pale cheeks went pink and she smiled sweetly. “I can’t say, Zoe—I want him to tell you.”
“Not fair!” Zoe cried. “Tell me please… please tell me.”
“I can’t!” Minnie wailed as she leaned forward and wrapped her arms around Zoe’s shoulders. “I want to, but they’re his words, not mine.” The girls hugged for a long time.
Minnie sighed dreamily, “But they’re really, really good words, Zoe.” Minnie squeezed tighter. “The best words I’ve ever heard.”
An hour later, Zoe was showered, changed, and ready to go to work. Minnie nearly convinced her to take the morning off to go shopping, but Zoe couldn’t shop and not think about Colton. At work she could surround herself with things that needed her full attention. She’d work all day long and she wouldn’t stop until she was bone tired and ready for bed. Then, hopefully, she’d be too tired to dream about him. She’d do this every day for a week. That was how long she and Minnie had decided to let Colton sweat—one week. By then he would either give up or would go above and beyond what he needed to do to get her back. So, they’d planned a week with no contact, no communication, and no giving in. No problem.
Checking her tote bag to make sure she had everything she needed for the day, Zoe spotted the flowers Colton had left for her. She stared at the beautiful, white blooms and her heart clenched. She nearly ignored them there on the table, but without water they would wilt and die. She slowly approached the kitchen table, knowing very well that she should probably throw the flowers away or leave them to wilt, but she couldn’t bring herself to do that. Setting her bag down, Zoe picked up the bouquet and brought the flowers to her nose. Their sweet smell warmed her and gave her goose bumps. She found a vase in the kitchen and filled it with water. She used the vitamin packet tucked in the wrapping of the lilies and dumped it into the water. Cutting away the wrapping, Zoe lifted the flowers and carefully set them into the vase. She arranged them slightly so there weren’t gaps and then carried the vase into the living room. As she ran her fingers over the flowers she noticed the corner of a cream-colored envelope.
She pulled it out and turned it over. Colton had written her name across the front of the envelope. She should have set the card down and ignored it, but her eagerness to know what Colton had told his sister, and
her curiosity of his message, kept her hands moving although her mind said stop. The small card inside was covered with hearts. She flipped it over to read the short message scrawled across the back.
I need you. – Colton
“Oh, no,” Zoe sighed as her eyes filled with tears. Her fingers trembled as she shoved the card back inside the envelope. “I really shouldn’t have read that.” And yet, she pulled the card out of the envelope one more time and stared at his words again. She was unable to stop the smile that spread across her face.
The moment Zoe walked into the main lobby of her building she focused her mind on work and ignored the burning little envelope in the pocket of her slacks. She had spent fifteen minutes self-debating whether or not she should bring the card to work. It was counterproductive to have it, but as long as she didn’t look at it she didn’t see the harm.
Sadly, she’d looked at it at least twenty times on the subway ride to her office. But now, now that she was in the building, Zoe could focus on something other than Colton.
She smiled at the security guards as she passed them on her way to the elevators and was actually happy to see Claire rushing toward her, managing to look graceful as she ran on three-inch heels. Zoe stepped onto the elevator and held the doors for Claire.
“Zoe!” the blond exclaimed as she leaned against the elevator wall fanning herself. “You are the talk of the morning.”
“Oh?” Zoe asked as she pressed the button for the fourteenth floor. She hoped that the gossip about what had happened with Nick outside the Fours Seasons had ended after Charlotte Redmond, a young graphic designer who worked with Claire’s team, had been caught having sex on her desk with a partner. “What about me?”
“Things are getting serious between you and the florist, huh?” Claire asked. “Sorry, but I never did see you and him making it. I suppose I was wrong. I mean, after a display of affection like this I’d marry the guy on the spot.”
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