by Lynn Stevens
He let his phone drop from his ear and stared at the screen. The Blind Friends app glared at him. A white box with a blue, shadow boxed B and F had a prominent place on his front screen. He pressed the icon. A list of suggested friends popped up, but his gaze moved to the upper right corner where the envelope was. No new messages. He hadn’t heard from her since yesterday. It was insane to think she’d get back to him with any sense of immediacy. They didn’t even know each other for crying out loud.
Then a red one appeared, and his heart slipped into overdrive.
Zac knew it was time to go. He headed back to his table with a swift nod to Mick.
“Everything okay?” Emily asked, her doe eyes seemed concerned, but Zac wasn’t sure.
“Yeah,” he motioned to the waiter as he passed. “Check please?”
Emily’s smile turned sultry. “Your place or mine?”
He slipped into his seat. She is so clueless. He debated how to answer that when the waiter appeared like an apparition with the check. “Hold please,” Zac said as he pulled his wallet out of his pocket and put the credit card into the black bi-fold. He didn’t even look at the bill. Zac rolled his finger in a circle to indicate he was in a hurry and the waiter nodded.
“Well?” Emily asked. She squeezed his thigh under the table.
“Not here.” Zac pulled his leg away from her firm grip.
“But later?” Her head dipped, and she stared at him through her lashes.
Jesus, maybe she just wants to get laid. Not that there was anything wrong with that. People had needs. Zac started this evening with that possibility in mind. He knew she wasn’t anything more than a one or two date deal when he asked her out. Clearly she felt the same way. But there wasn’t even a twitch from him. Not an ounce of desire.
His phone vibrated in his pocket. It wasn’t her. That wasn’t how the app worked, but the idea it could’ve been sent his heart ablaze. He’d have to meet his mystery girl. Sooner rather than later. Zac took his phone from his pocket as if it was something important. Just a text from Lauren about the tuxes. Nothing that couldn’t wait.
The waiter brought back the card. Zac signed the receipt, giving a twenty percent tip. “Let’s go,” he said to Emily.
She followed him out of the restaurant. “Slow down, tiger. We’ll get there.”
Zac kept his face forward, so she wouldn’t see him roll his eyes. He must be an idiot to pass up a quick lay. She was willing, and no doubt ready. He could probably just push her against his car, have his way with her, then send her home in a cab before they even left the parking lot. He unlocked his car and turned to face her.
“This isn’t going to happen,” he said without a single hint of remorse.
“Excuse me?” Emily stepped up to him, pressing her hand against his crotch. He stepped back, but her fingers squeezed too hard. Zac winced. He didn’t want her touching him at all. Her pretty mouth dipped down into a frown. “You’re soft.”
Zac swiveled his hips to free himself from her grasp. “You’re a nice girl, but—”
“Seriously?” She stuck her hip out and glared at him. The sweet innocence from the restaurant disappeared when they left. The come-and-take-me expression she wore shifted into full rage mode. Anger turned her ugly. “I went along with your stupid bullshit all night, and you shut me down now?”
Where had this vixen been all night? She had passion, flare, and style. The Emily he’d had dinner with was nothing but a facade. He preferred the real one standing in front of him. But it was too late. He’d already discovered her secret. She’d do whatever it took to get what she wanted, including faking her personality. He didn’t need that kind of headache in his life.
“You know what? Whatever.” She turned on her heel and stalked back toward the restaurant. “I saw at least four guys in that restaurant who’d love to spend the night with me. I’ll go rock their world instead.”
All four? he wanted to ask. But he really didn’t want to know. “Don’t forget Mick the bartender. He said he’d take care of you.”
She flipped him off above her head but didn’t bother to glance back. Zac shrugged as he opened his door and slid into the seat. It was no skin off his nose. Where did that saying come from anyway? He never really understood it, but he knew the minute he got home he’d Google it. Stupid things like that nagged at him until he had the answer. Last fall he had a date who kept saying ‘peachy keen’. It drove him nuts until he looked it up online and got into the etymology of the saying. Unfortunately, his timing wasn’t exactly peachy keen. The girl stormed out of his bedroom and he never heard from her again.
To make matters worse, Ford told Lauren and Lauren told Macie who used it every single time she had a chance. Like she had earlier in the night.
He drove a few blocks to The Grove neighborhood. His father hated all things considered hipster, but Zac didn’t mind. It was simply old-school thinking on his dad’s part. Besides this section of town had the best craft beers around. As much as Zac liked a good bar scene, Crafts Cafe was the opposite. It was more like a coffee shop with relaxing music, mismatched furniture, and bistro tables. There wasn’t even a bar.
Zac parked in the lot behind the building. He’d learned before that his Nissan Armada, in serrano red, stood out by the ten notes on his windshield about environmental consciousness and driving. It wasn’t a gas guzzler, but it was still a big bad SUV. His father had given it to him for his high school graduation. It wasn’t Zac’s first choice, but who was he to look a gift horse in the mouth? Zac loved the history, or lack thereof, of that cliché. It was also one of the first he researched.
Crafts was busy as usual. There were soft murmurs of conversation and waitresses quietly navigating the large dining room like ninjas. Solo guitar music played through the speakers, and the lighting was soft and warm. Not too dark, not too bright. Everything about the cafe whispered ‘just chill with us’. Zac loved it. He spotted an open table in the corner and headed toward it. He set his tablet on the menu mat just as someone else did the same.
“Not you,” a too familiar voice said.
Zac looked up and stared into the eyes of his worst nightmare, Macie Regan.
MACIE HAD COME TO CRAFTS to plan a new mixed media piece and drown herself in an overpriced beer. She needed some form of distraction after Kyle stood her up. After she had left Lauren’s, she went on Kyle’s Instagram. Probably the same thing Lauren had done. Kyle had posted a selfie with Meghan Hanson. He’d gotten the real target. Macie had just been a means to an end.
Crafts was one of her favorite new places. She loved the ambiance of the place, even though most of the beer was shit. There was an ale she didn’t mind. Besides, she wanted to get used to this area. She was still waiting patiently for a job offer at Rivot Design. They had to hire her. She hadn’t applied anywhere else. Rivot was innovative, state-of-the-art, and open. The environment was everything she wanted in a job. And they’d given her rave reviews when her internship ended. There was no way they wouldn’t make an offer before graduation. The internship had been enlightening. She thought she fit in with the other designers.
The Grove was the best neighborhood within walking distance, and that would save money in the long run. She’d spent the last few hours looking at apartments online. Most were out of her price range. One was not. She’d printed out the application for residency, dropped it off at the building manager’s office, and now just wanted a quiet place to sit down and draw plans for a new piece of art.
So why was Zac Sparks here? This was not his country-club style.
“Hey, Chom—”
She glared up at him, and he grimaced.
“Sorry, Macie.” Zac’s expression never changed. It was always set at cocky asshole, which was too bad. He was a sexy cocky asshole. His dark blond hair always looked like he’d just rolled out of bed. And those eyes, most women would kill for those bright blue eyes, and plenty paid extra for contacts to fake them. Her neck strained as she stared up at him. He
was at least half a foot taller than her, and she loved tall guys. If only he didn’t have such a shit personality.
“Just go,” Macie said as she sat down. To her horror, Zac joined her. “What’re you doing?”
Zac scoffed. He pointed around the room. “There isn’t another table, so I’m sitting here. You’re more than welcome to wait for a different one to open up.”
Macie closed her eyes and pinched her nose. Lauren wanted them to get along. At least until the wedding was over. This was a good place to start. Macie opened her eyes and stared at Zac until he shifted in his chair. “Just be quiet.”
“Ditto.” Zac opened the blue case of his tablet, ignoring her completely. She glanced over to see what was on his screen, but he had it turned so she wasn’t able to snoop. “And no hacking.”
“What makes you think I’m going to hack into your...” She waved at his tablet, “what type is that, anyway?”
“It’s an iPad. Why?” He tapped on the Bluetooth keyboard without looking at her.
“The latest version?” She wanted to take it from him and play with the features. Macie loved technology, but anything that would improve her future as a graphic designer was something she longed to get her hands on. At this rate, she’d be able to buy his at a pawn shop in a few years.
“Yes, why?” Zac stopped typing and glared at her.
Jealousy and disappointment battled for dominance. She went with jealousy, her voice sandpaper on her throat. “Lucky you. Must be nice that Daddy buys you everything you want.”
Zac’s gaze shot to hers. “It was a gift from my stepmother.”
“You had a perfectly good iPad.” Macie knew she was whining and on the verge of a toddler-esque tantrum, but she hated that her mother worked her ass off just to survive whereas someone like Zac got everything handed to him.
“Yes, I know. And I gave that to Ford.” Zac leaned over his screen. His eyebrows furrowed in irritation. “Despite what you might think of me, Mace, I’m not a complete jerk.”
“Everyone has their peachy keen moments.” Macie sneered, her blood boiled at his privilege. Giving his old iPad to Ford was a decent thing, but they were best friends. He wouldn’t do that for just anybody. She was certain he had an entire closet at his parents’ house stocked full of laptops, tablets, and computers she could use or donate. There were plenty of students at Lafayette who could use them. She’d even started a campus-wide computer charity her sophomore year to get the tech into the hands of students who needed them.
“They do, Chomper.” Zac’s face remained blank despite her little jab.
“I told you not to call me that.” Macie’s anger burned beneath her skin.
“Then stop using peachy keen.”
“Fine.” The one thing she held over him was something she didn’t really believe happened. Who would stop in the middle of sex to look up a catch phrase? But she never knew the truth. Friends tell each other the truth. And they were pretending to be friends so maybe that was close enough. “Did that really happen?”
“What?” Zac had refocused on his screen.
“The peachy keen thing.”
Zac’s face twisted into ultra-asshole.
“Did you really stop in the middle of screwing Amanda Billard to Google?”
“What?” Zac’s laugh erupted, and several people turned to glare at him. He held up his hand to apologize then faced Macie. “Is that what Lauren told you?”
Macie’s face burned, and she hoped the dim light kept him from seeing her blush. “Yeah.”
“No, that’s not what happened. I had the decency to make sure she was ... satisfied before I Googled. She still wasn’t ... pleased. She expected more, I guess.” Zac shook his head and went back to whatever he was working on.
Macie watched him for a few seconds until she decided that was stalkerish and opened a spreadsheet about the wedding shower. Zac’s presence had sucked the creativity out of her so she figured she might as well focus on something else. Lauren hated white, and the colors for the wedding were light pink and black. She had the guest list, the invitations, and a list of party games for the wedding shower. What she needed were decorations. Crafts didn’t have free Wi-Fi, but she’d cracked their password two weeks ago on the first try. Nine letters, microbeer, and they hadn’t even bothered with numbers or making sure it was case sensitive.
“Macie?” Zac asked quietly. She glanced up, meeting his gaze. “Did you figure out the password?”
“I would never—”
“Liar.” Zac’s eyes brightened with mischief. Macie’s pulse sped up. If this Zac was around more, she probably wouldn’t hate him as much. “My service isn’t working great. Can I get a little help?”
“Despite what you might think, I’m not a hacker.”
“But Lauren taught you her trick on how to figure out Wi-Fi passwords.” Zac raised his eyebrows.
Macie held out her hand and Zac handed over the tablet. She ran her fingers over the small keyboard, envious of the damn thing still. Zac didn’t need such a perfect computer. Top of the line, too. Not just the newest model, but a fully loaded new model. Lauren was the IT geek, but Macie could still appreciate a fine machine. Zac didn’t need it, not with a career in finance. Lauren needed it more. Hell, so did Macie. She shook off the thoughts. Not wanting to get into another argument, she typed in the password and handed it back. Lauren asked her to play nice. She could do that. She wanted to do that.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
Macie shook her head and opened the Blind Friends app, instead. Guy, as she called him, had written that morning. With all the wedding planning, job hunting, and her finals she had shot back a brief note, but he hadn’t responded yet. He’d lamented about a fishing spot he enjoyed as a kid and how he longed to get back there. She understood why he hadn’t been there for a while. College was a lot of work. The cabin actually sounded romantic. As she reread his note, she imagined a cool winter night in front of a roaring fire, just the two of them on the floor with a blanket covering their naked bodies.
Problem was she didn’t know what he looked like. Each daydream involving her mystery man conjured up a different look for him. One day he was blond, the next ginger or brunette. Once he was bald, and it was sexy. He was always taller than her, but his build varied between muscular and slightly less muscular. She had a thing for a nice set of pecs. She only hoped her imagination wouldn’t leave her disappointed in the end.
Macie clicked reply to his message and began to type a more detailed response.
Do you ever feel like you’re utterly alone? That there is not one person on this planet who gets you? Or, if there is, they live on the opposite side of the world?
My best friend is fantastic, but sometimes she doesn’t understand where I’m coming from. Her life has been so different from mine. There are times we both forget that and then something reminds us. For fictional example (since we promised no details about our lives), she was given a car for her sixteenth birthday. It was a few years old, but it was an amazing car. I was given a spare key to my mother’s beat up truck.
Macie grimaced at her lie but not-lie. Sure she told Guy it was fiction, and a small part of it was. The part that Lauren’s car was a few years old. Everything else was true.
I loved that truck. But what would it have felt like to get a car? Or anything for that matter? My mom did her best, but there wasn’t enough to go around. That might be too much detail, but there have to be plenty of people who were raised by just their mom. On campus, I mean. It’s just a way to show the difference between me and my friend. Her parents are happily married. The whole American dream thing with a white picket fence and two-point-five kids seems like a myth.
Is there really someone out there who’s my soulmate? Does that really exist?
Sorry to get so philosophical, but I’m in deep-thought mode. It’s one thing that drives people crazy about me. Well, that and my constant sarcasm. I don’t deny it. I have
a sharp tongue and a quick wit. Someday I’ll learn to use it for good instead of evil. ;)
Your cabin sounds like a small piece of heaven. I can tell you love it. It’s too bad we tend to let life get in the way of living, you know? I hope you get there sooner rather than later.
Macie reread her message. She hadn’t gotten this emotional in anything she’d sent him before, but melancholy had been her friend the last few hours. Especially since Lauren and Ford asked her to get along with Zac.
If she was going to offer to meet Guy in the next few weeks, then she needed him to see this side of her. His reaction would be the tipping point of their anonymity. If his response didn’t feel genuine to her, she’d keep it platonic. If it felt real, she’d offer to meet him.
Everything was riding on his response.
Macie ordered another microbrew, the strongest on the menu. She needed the liquid courage. Then she hit send.
CHAPTER FOUR
Zac read her second message. The first had been a blow off note, but then a second lengthier one came in while he sat at Crafts. He read it again. Then again. Each time his pulse kicked it up a notch. As much as he wanted to respond immediately, doing so with Macie sitting across from him felt wrong. This was intimate. Most of what they’d written had been just skimming the surface of their personalities, but mystery girl had opened a vein and let herself bleed. He’d wanted to shout ‘Yes, and I’m right here’ but that wouldn’t have gone over well at Crafts. Or any other place for that matter.
He looked at his half-finished pint. Eight bucks for something that tasted like gym socks. What a waste. At least he’d tried something new this time. Zac was a creature of habit. He wore the same brand of underwear as long as he could remember. He woke up at the same time almost every day. He drank the same beer since he tried it at fourteen. Everything had a place and everything was in its place.