Everyone always has such high expectations of Hollywood stars, and that had certainly been the case with Cade Harrison the first time he had entered Giftland looking for Clover. Everybody had expected him to be somehow ‘different’, but in the end he had turned out to be a charming, easy going, funny, regular guy who – apart from being rich – seemed to be just like everybody else.
And it seemed that Brooke Samuels was equally pleasant and easy going. She was tall and blonde with a face that was just as capable of seducing you in person as it was on TV. She arrived at the shop wearing a huge pair of sunglasses and a baseball hat over her curly hair and had walked straight over to Eric, giving him a frank smile.
“Two attractive blondes smiling at me in less than twenty-four hours,” thought Eric when he saw her approaching him.” They must have sprayed something strange in the air.”
“Hi, I’m Brooke. I was supposed to be arriving tomorrow, but I took an earlier flight and I just couldn’t resist coming to meet you in person,” said the actress in a carefully modulated voice that made it clear why there would have been no point trying to dub her voice in movies. “Cade told me that you can help me.”
“Of course, Ms Samuels. It’s a genuine pleasure for us,” smiled Eric, coming round from behind the counter to shake her hand.
“Please, call me Brooke. Ms Samuels makes me feel so terribly old.”
“Whatever you prefer.”
“So should I talk about my calendar idea with you?”
“No, not with me – with the photographer, Zoe. She’ll be down any minute.”
With perfect timing, Zoe appeared from the second floor, her camera hanging from her neck. She recognised the actress immediately and came running down the stairs, trying to fix her clothes and untie her hair from the very small ponytail she had tied it up in as she went.
“I thought I heard someone say my name,” she said as she approached them.
Eric introduced her to the actress. “Brooke has arrived a day earlier than expected and would like to know if she can talk to you about her project.”
“Of course! I will be done taking pictures with my client in about ten minutes, then you can have my undivided attention, Brooke.” Zoe held out her hand to the woman in greeting, and Eric stared at the pair of them: a blonde and a brunette, both fabulous looking. His friends wold have paid anything to have been in his place. The truth was that they were always pestering him about his attractive friends and trying to get him to hook them up with his colleagues, but now Clover had a boyfriend and Liberty had been engaged for a while. And Zoe was, of course, totally out of the equation.
She went back upstairs, leaving him alone with Brooke. Eric noticed that she was looking at the objects around her with interest so he forced himself to try and make conversation. He was usually very discreet and preferred to let his colleagues keep the customers entertained, but he couldn’t let Brooke Samuels hang around killing time and not even try to keep her company.
“Cade told us something about your idea for the calendar,” was the first thing that came to mind as an attempt to try and get the woman’s attention.
“Did he? Well, what happened is that my friend Sydney was dumped by her idiot boyfriend just a week before they were supposed to be getting married. She was really cut up bad about it, but finally, a year later, she’s starting to go out and meet people, and that’s why I wanted to get her a funny present – something to distract her from the unpleasant anniversary of the break-up,” smiled Brooke. “Cade told me a lot of good things about this place… Although I think part of his enthusiasm is due to a particular woman who works here and has managed to make him totally lose his head!”
“Yes, Clover can have that effect,” Eric joked. “She’s got so much energy.”
“Yes, Cade told me that too. He’s completely besotted with her.”
“I really hope so. Clover’s like a sister to me – knowing that he feels the same way about her as she does about him makes me really happy.”
“Oh, you can bet that he does. What’s your name?”
“Eric Morgan.”
“And do you own the shop?”
“No, the boss is Liberty Allen. Zoe, Clover and I are just her devoted slaves.”
“This place is just enchanting,” said Brooke, looking around her again in amazement. “You have so much cute stuff!”
Eric nodded. Giftland was truly a paradise for anyone who was looking for a present – a place where you could always count on finding an endless amount of funny, original ideas to surprise your friends with. Apart from selling all kinds of objects, they also offered special services upon request: he would create videos and short films using material provided by the clients, Zoe would take photographs to use in a hundred different ways; Liberty, who managed the shop, could also write poetry and stories, and Clover’s job was to accompany and advise clients while she took them shopping for the perfect gift. They were a team, and the shop’s reputation was based on their ability to work together. And since Clover had stolen the heart of Hollywood’s prince, moreover, their business had increased significantly. Brooke Samuels was their second celebrity client, and that could only bring them even more good publicity.
“So what kind of calendar were you thinking of for your friend?”
“Something funny that’ll make her laugh. What I want to do is bring her here on some pretext and then surprise her with a photo shoot designed exclusively for her. I’m sure she’ll be comfortable with it – Sydney is a model, so she’s used to being photographed.”
“And I am sure Zoe will manage to come up with something original that’ll put a smile on your friend’s face. She’s an amazing photographer and on top of that she’s a woman, so they’ll understand one another perfectly. It’s a bit of luck that it’s not up to me to think it up – I wouldn’t have the first clue about how to console a girl with a broken heart.”
“You wouldn’t even know how to break a girl’s heart in the first place,” said Zoe as she came back down the stairs. “You’re too darn nice to be able to hurt anyone.”
“And he’s also very cute,” added Brooke. “Maybe we could use him for the calendar.” She studied Eric for a moment, nodding and pondering. “If he loses the glasses and we muss up his hair a little…”
“…I would look exactly like a scruffy mole,” interrupted Eric, who was starting to feel embarrassed, “and that, I can assure you, wouldn’t cheer anybody up.”
Zoe, who had in the meantime had walked over to stand next to him behind the counter, gave him a kick and then smiled at Brooke and said, “He’s such a shy, self-effacing guy!”
“He’s adorable,” agreed the actress.
Zoe invited Brooke to her office upstairs to discuss the details of what they were going to do, thus saving Eric, who was finally able to breathe normally again. For a moment he had feared they were actually going to drag him into the project, and the idea was just terrifying to him. He didn’t have a particularly good relationship with cameras, and would freeze in embarrassment each time he found himself in front of a lens, which would inevitably lead to disastrous results. Making a fool of himself in front of an actress, a model and Zoe would really have mortified him, but he was even more scared of how angry Liberty would get if he refused to satisfy the request of such an important client.
Suddenly the shop’s front door was flung open violently. For a moment, a pale ray of sunshine illuminated the room until it was blocked out by the silhouette of a well-built man. He Man had made his appearance.
Eric glowered at the new arrival, quickly trying to think of a way of getting rid of him before Zoe could see him.
“Can you get Zoe for me?” said the man, putting a big hairy hand on the counter.
“I’m sorry but she’s busy at the moment.”
“I’m sure that if you tell her that I’m here she’ll find ten minutes for me. My name’s Evan.”
His arrogant tone irritated Eric. “Evan what?”
“Evan Lewis.”
“Hold on a moment.” Eric grabbed the phone and called Liberty’s office’s extension, hoping to interrupt her right in the middle of a moment of pure inspiration. That would annoy her so much that it would give him the perfect excuse not to tell Zoe that her pet troglodyte was looking for her. “Lib, there’s a guy here who would like to see Zoe, but she’s with Brooke at the moment… Should I call her anyway?”
He heard Liberty snort at the other end of the phone line. “How the hell should I know? If it’s someone important you can try and call her – if it isn’t, you can tell him to wait his turn.”
“He says his name is Evan Lewis, but Zoe’s never mentioned a client with that name to me – do you know anything about it?” continued Eric, enjoying the annoyed expression on the man’s face.
“Hey, I’m not a client,” he cut in. “Me and Zoe are dating.”
Liberty heard his reply. “Tell him that he can wait for Zoe to finish or kick him out. And the next time that you interrupt me for something as dumb as that…”
Eric hung up before Liberty could finish her threat. “Zoe can’t come down right now, so I’m afraid you’ll just have to come back later. Or you can wait, if you like, but you might be waiting a long time.”
“I’ll wait then,” mumbled the hulk, before heading off to browse the shelves.
Eric had hoped that the meeting between Zoe and Brooke Samuels would last forever but, unfortunately, Mr Steroids only had to wait twenty minutes before the two women came back down the stairs. Brooke gave Eric a gesture of thanks and then rapidly vanished, since she had noticed that there were a few people in the shop now, while Zoe went over to Eric with an enthusiastic smile on her face.
“It’s going to be so much fun! I’ll have to ask Lib and Clover to get me a present like that the next time some asshole breaks my heart!”
“Yeah, well seeing how smart this guy is, I’m guessing you won’t have to wait for too long,” grumbled Eric as he watched Evan Lewis walking towards them.
Zoe noticed Evan for the first time, and her expression immediately became seductive.
“Hey handsome! I wasn’t expecting to see you today.”
“I’ve been here for half an hour,” he replied, putting his arm around her waist. “I thought I’d just pop in and say ‘hi’, but apparently it’s impossible to distract you when you’re working.”
Zoe gave Eric a perplexed look, and he gestured towards Liberty’s office with his head and ran his thumb across his throat.
“She’s in a really bad mood today,” he explained, absolving himself of any responsibility.
Zoe shrugged and dragged the football player off to a secluded corner at the back of the shop.
Eric quickly dealt with the rest of the clients, as he was anxious to keep an eye on the pair of them. Knowing that they were hidden away behind shelves busy doing who knew what was driving him crazy.
When he was finally free, he grabbed a handful of things that needed sorting out and walked towards the place where the two lovebirds were hiding. He always tried to keep an eye on the situation when she was with a man. The problem wasn’t her, it was the men that she always dated. Zoe had the power to make them completely lose their minds and make them feel like they just had to take her, throw her against the wall and… kiss her passionately while they ran their vulgar hands all over her body… which was exactly what Evan Lewis was doing right now.
Eric’s vision became blurry and he only managed not to throw all the things he was holding at the asshole because he didn’t want to look a complete fool – but, God, how dearly he would have loved to!
From where he was standing he couldn’t see Zoe’s face clearly, but whatever expression she wore, the fact was that she was allowing that caveman to grope her!
He saw her pulling away, mumbling something that he couldn’t hear, but Evan didn’t seem to be particularly interested in what she had said, because he leaned over her again in an attempt to pick up from where he had been interrupted. Zoe took a step backwards and that was enough to convince Eric that she wasn’t particularly eager for Evan to start kissing her again.
He didn’t need to see anything else to realize that the guy was being insistent – though as far as Eric was concerned, just coming to the shop the way he had could have been interpreted as being too pushy.
But then, looking almost resigned, Zoe let him kiss her again…
Consumed with anger, Eric punched a shelf. It broke, sending everything on it crashing to the floor, and leaving his right hand full of splinters of wood. He bit his lip to muffle the swear words but the pain made him want to shout and he rushed away as quickly as he was able to, as he was sure that the couple would come over to see what had happened.
Zoe arrived to find him kneeling down, picking up books and brightly-colored frames from the floor.
“What happened?”
“A shelf broke,” he muttered, without looking at her.
“How the hell did that happen?”
“I don’t know. It’s wood, maybe it got damp and couldn’t take the weight.”
His arms full of objects, Eric stood up, and Zoe noticed that his hand was covered in blood. Her eyes opened wide.
“Evan!” she called, taking some of the books out of Eric’s hands.
The caveman appeared in an instant. “What’s up, babe?”
“Hold these for a moment.” Zoe gave him everything that was in Eric’s hands, then took Eric’s arm. “Come with me, hon, let’s disinfect that cut.”
“Don’t worry about it, it’s just a scratch. I’m not going to pass out over something as stupid as that,” snorted Eric, annoyed at being treated like an infant but at the same time enjoying the perplexed expression of Evan Lewis, who was standing on his own in a corner, his arms full of gifts.
“How the heck did you manage to hurt yourself?” continued Zoe as she stubbornly tried to drag him towards the office.
“I was trying to stop those things from falling,” he answered.
Like a mother hen, Zoe set about medicating his wound. “I’m so sorry. If I’d been helping you…”
“You were busy.”
Zoe bit her lower lip in mortification. “I told him he could take part in Brooke’s project and… well, he was very happy about it.”
“Too damn happy,” thought Eric, gritting his teeth at the memory of how intensely Evan had been kissing her. Zoe noticed his expression and peered into his eyes.
“Does it hurt?”
“Not much.”
“Stop being a hero! I know you’re not crazy about the sight of blood.”
“I’m sure your friend loves it, though. It’s a good thing that you got me out of his sight or he might have gotten even more excited than he already was.”
Zoe narrowed her eyes. “Were you spying on us?”
“I didn’t have to spy on you, I could hear your moaning from all the way across the shop.”
“Come on, he was only kissing me.”
“Well it sounded more like he was eating you, to be honest. Though, after all, he had been waiting for almost half an hour. I guess his libido had already gone through the roof.”
His tone was starting to annoy her, and she put the band-aid on with an angry gesture. “Well, I’m sorry if we offended your sanctimonious sensitivity. You’ve obviously forgotten what it means to be attracted by a woman, or to kiss one passionately… if you’ve even ever done it, that is!”
“Yeah, well not all women like being shoved against the wall in front of everybody, Zoe.”
Those words hurt her, as Eric realized when he saw her eyes turn dark and her cheeks go pale. Another time he would have apologized, and in fact Zoe was probably waiting to hear him say that he was sorry, but he was so angry that he had no intention of doing anything of the sort.
She said nothing for a few moments then let go of his hand and walked away, her face a mask of cold indifference.
When he was alone Eric had to stop himself from punching something else. He didn’t want to lose any more blood even though punching the shelf had released some of his frustration, and in addition it had stopped Evan Lewis from fondling Zoe.
He shut the door and sat at his desk, Zoe’s words whirling around in his head.
Did she really think he was that pathetic? A loser who didn’t know how to deal with women just because he wasn’t constantly pawing at them in public?
And was that what Zoe wanted from a man? Because in that case he didn’t really have a hope in hell with her. He just wasn’t that type of guy. He knew how to be passionate without feeling the need to put it on show before the entire world. As far as he was concerned, the kind of macho-man public display he’d seen Evan engaged in a few minutes earlier didn’t really mean you desired someone – there were classier ways of demonstrating you were attracted to someone. And the thing the girls he had gone out with had liked most about him had always been how classy he was!
But Zoe was convinced of the opposite, evidently.
His attention was drawn to the yellow post-it he had written Stephanie’s number on. Steffy Parker was the perfect example of what he had just thought: Zoe wasn’t interested in a discreet and well-mannered guy like him, but someone else appreciated him.
“Fuck it,” he muttered as he grabbed his phone.
If Zoe wanted a gorilla as a boyfriend then she would be spoilt for choice. He was aiming for something better, though.
*
“So can I see you this evening?”
“No.” Zoe realized that her reply had sounded too categorical, so she smiled. “I’m sorry, Evan, but I’ve got some work to finish and I think I’m going to have to do it at home. We’ve got a backlog of orders at the moment and I just don’t have time to go out.”
“Whatever you like. It’s a shame though, because you’ve got me thinking about some stuff that…” he said allusively as he moved closer to her.
Zoe slipped out of his hug, praying that some customers would appear to back up the excuse she had just given him. “I really am too busy.”
“OK then. In that case, I’ll see you for the photo shoot with Brooke Samuels.” Evan shook his head, still over the moon at the idea of posing for a calendar. “My buddies are never going to believe me when I tell ‘em that I’m going to be posing with one of the hottest actresses in Hollywood!”
“You’re not actually posing with her,” sighed Zoe. “The calendar is for a friend of hers, who’s a Canadian model.”
“Are you sure that you don’t want to ‘instruct’ me? If we met up tonight you could take some warm-up shots of me. We could hook up at my place, or at yours if you prefer, it’s fine with me either way.”
How slimy could a man be when all his blood was flowing to the area directly beneath his belt buckle? Zoe was starting to regret having suggested that Evan pose for the project. Brooke’s idea had been to photograph her friend Sydney with twelve good looking guys, hoping that it would make her realize that she could have any man she wanted, any time and in any way she desired, in the place of her vile ex-boyfriend. The actress had asked her to find attractive male models and when Zoe had gone back downstairs and seen Evan, she found it natural to ask him to participate. He was blond, sexy and handsome and would be perfect in the role of Cupid for February’s picture.
Evan had reacted to that proposal with just a bit too much enthusiasm, and for some reason it had annoyed her. Wasn’t it women who, according to the stereotype, loved that kind of exhibitionism? How could a guy get so excited at the idea of posing half-naked for a calendar? Over the last few years she’d increasingly had the impression that – both in private life and at work – men and women had switched roles. Nowadays, more and more men seemed to love being photographed half-naked in sensual poses, and some of them had even asked her to use her camera in the bedroom to take even more explicit pictures! At first, the novelty of it had amused her, but then she had gradually grown bored of it and learned how to avoid that type of guy.
Just the idea of spending an evening doing stuff like that with Evan really gave her the creeps.
And it was all Eric’s fault.
He had made her feel awful about herself, as though she was a superficial hussy, just like a lot of people thought she was. He had poured out all his resentment on her in that patronizing, puritan way of his, ridiculing the guys she dated and criticizing her life choices. Well nobody was allowed to tell her what to do with her life, not her father and certainly not Eric!
“Yeah, but your father doesn’t know what you do to feel less alone,” whispered an insistent voice inside her head, “and Eric does.”
Well, even in that case, he still didn’t have the right to judge her!
She got rid of Evan and dealt with a couple of clients, and as soon as she found a quiet moment, she went upstairs to Liberty’s office. She needed to talk to someone.
When she opened the door, Liberty stopped her in her tracks with a hand gesture. “Wait a minute,” she said abruptly, staring at a page on the desk in front of her. Zoe walked over and sat down nearby. When she was writing, Liberty’s face took on a remote expression and it was very dangerous to interrupt her when she felt inspired. She saw her friend’s pen rapidly tracing words on the paper while her computer sat unattended in a corner, and smiled. Liberty loved written words deeply, you could practically see it in her face.
When she finally raised her head, a satisfied expression on her face, Zoe gestured to her notebook. “Why on earth do you keep writing by hand if afterwards you have to copy everything onto your computer anyway?”
“It’s a question of intimacy. A pen and paper are more closely linked to the words that come into my mind,” said Lib, caressing her face and primping her blonde hair into shape. “Did you come all the way up here just to ask me that?”
“No, I came here to avoid bursting into Eric’s office and breaking his other hand!”
Zoe jumped to her feet, suddenly feeling the same irritation she had felt a few minutes earlier.
“Did Eric break his hand?!”
“No, but he hurt it. A shelf broke and he decided to sacrifice himself and save the objects that were about to fall. What a hero, right? Or maybe he was scared that you would make him stay behind after school,” she said venomously.
“That’s good: I’m pleased to hear that he’s scared of me. But how did the shelf crack?”
“You should ask him! I’m sure he has some interesting theory involving the chemical composition of the wood and how it changes when in contact with atmospheric agents.”
“You two spend way too much together,” snorted Liberty, organising the pieces of paper on her desk. “Sometimes you even talk like him.”
“Exactly – we’ve known each other for a long time and that should have taught him something about me, right? Instead he’s always finger-pointing and judging me, without taking into consideration the possibility that he might actually be hurting the feelings of the person he’s talking to.”
“Can you get to the point, please.”
“Evan came by to see me.”
“I know, Eric told me. And by the way: find somewhere else to meet next time?”
Zoe rolled her eyes. “I didn’t ask him to come, he just decided to turn up here. He waited for me to finish the meeting I was having upstairs with Brooke Samuels and when I went downstairs, I took him off for a couple of minutes to say ‘hi’ and ask him if he wanted to take part in the calendar project. Evan was over the moon about it, so he demonstrated his enthusiasm with a kiss… a passionate one, to be fair.”
Liberty raised her eyes. “Dammit all, Zoe, do you really have to be making out in my shop?”
“It was only a kiss! Hasn’t Justin ever grabbed hold of you and kissed you passionately?”
This time Liberty lifted an eyebrow. “Justin is a reserved, elegant man. He would never dream of necking in a public place, and that’s one of the things I like about him.”
“Yeah, and that’s why Mr Perfect downstairs gets along so well with your boyfriend.”
“Zoe, what’s the problem?”
“Eric made me feel like a slut – like someone who just throws herself at every man she meets.”
“And is that what you were doing?”
“It. Was. Just. A. Kiss,” said Zoe, glaring at her.
“OK. But if it was only a kiss and you like being kissed that way, what the hell are you so angry about?”
“Because Eric knows very well that I’m not some nympho who lets everybody and anybody feel her up, especially in public!”
“Did he call you a nympho?”
“No, but the way he said it made it sound like that was what he thought.”
“In that case you should clear things up with him. Tell him to mind his own business and to stop judging your choices.”
“That’s exactly what I was thinking,” grumbled Zoe.
Liberty looked at her for a long time. “I’m guessing that’s not all, or you wouldn’t still be here with that miserable expression on your face.”
“It’s just… I don’t want Eric to have such a low opinion of me. It’s really upsetting.”
“I don’t think he has a low opinion of you. He just wants you to have the best in life and, since he knows you like the back of his hand, he also knows that what Evan Whatshisname has to offer you isn’t what you need.”
“I told him that he only reacts like that because he’s incapable of kissing a woman passionately,” mumbled Zoe.
She felt genuinely guilty for hitting below the belt like that. What did she know about the way Eric kissed women anyway? Except for that kiss in her dream, of course…
“It’s nice to know that my employees spend their time on the clock insulting each other,” sighed Liberty. “So anyway, at the end of the day, Eric said you were slutty and you insulted his masculinity. I’d say you two are even.”
“I only said it because I was angry.”
“Well maybe he was too.”
“About what?”
“Maybe because he had just hurt himself and was pissed off about it? Or maybe because he cares about you and worries about you?”
“In other words, you’re taking his side. So I am the easy woman who puts out behind the shelves, leaving her colleague to do so much work that he even ends up hurting himself…”
Liberty smiled, unable to hide her amusement.
“Zoe, if you feel guilty about not having helped him and you know that you were behaving in a way that’s not like you then why don’t you just go and apologize to him?”
Lib always knew how to get straight to the point. Sullenly, Zoe crossed her arms across her chest. “OK.”
“Good girl. Now get the hell out of here and let me work.”
Zoe stopped at the door. “Do you think that I’m just a shallow, spoiled kid, Lib?”
“I think you’re a woman who craves attention and who comes on strong to hide her weaknesses. I know how hard it is to show your feelings, Zoe, but there’s absolutely no need to hide them behind weird behavior.”
“You mean it’s better to pretend you don’t have any feelings at all, the way you do?” said Zoe, smiling sweetly at the surprised expression on her colleague’s face. “You are either the most self-confident woman on Earth, Lib, or you’ve just given me a piece of advice that you refuse to follow yourself. In any case, thank you.” Leaving a stunned looking Liberty sitting there, Zoe closed the door behind her and walked downstairs. Her boss was right, she was feeling guilty both for having left Eric alone to manage the shop and for having let Evan treat her like some needy girl who lets people fondle her in public, and that was why she had reacted so aggressively.
But she hated getting caught out.
She had to apologize to Eric. Even though he was a hateful know-it-all, he was right about one thing: not all girls liked to be thrown against a wall in a public place. And she didn’t either, even if she pretended she did in the hope that it would make the men she dated like her more.
*
The afternoon turned out to be a long and tedious one and she longed for the working day to be over. On quiet days like that, there was nothing worse than having to work on your own, knowing that your best friend was mad at you.
When she saw him coming out of the office to help her close up the shop, as usual, she was overwhelmed by tenderness.
His expression was stern and his jaw tense, but he forced himself to be kind anyway. Even when he was angry, Eric was never so predictable that he would sulk or sink to seeking some kind of petty revenge. His good manners and respect for others were evident even in those simple things, and the affection he felt for her wasn’t diminished by a stupid argument.
Zoe hung the ‘CLOSED’ sign on the door, then leant against it staring at him.
“I’m sorry.”
“Sorry for what?” asked Eric, averting his gaze.
“You know very well for what.” Zoe walked over to him, forcing him to look at her. “I didn’t mean what I said. Unlike you with mine, I know nothing about your sex life. But precisely because you know every single thing that’s happened to me in the last ten years you should know that I’m not that kind of girl.”
“I do know it, but not everybody else does. So don’t waste your time explaining yourself to me – explain yourself to the people who haven’t worked out that your behavior is just an act.”
“Maybe the others don’t actually care what I’m like. But I care about your opinion, and that’s why it hurts me when you get angry with me.”
“If you really think that the others don’t care about who you actually are then why the hell do you waste your time with them?” he burst out, throwing his hands up in frustration. He was almost ready to start one of his lectures, but at that moment Zoe smiled and Eric gave a shamefaced smirk. “It doesn’t matter, though – it’s none of my business.”
“I’m happy to know that you care about me, really I am. I reacted badly because… well, because I felt guilty for having left you alone. And about Evan – it’s true, he was a little rough, you’re right, but I’m used to dealing with guys like him, and in fact I’ve already dumped him.”
“Meaning that you won’t be seeing him any more?”
“Meaning that I’ll have something else to do tonight and that in the future, we’ll see.”
“Well I guess that’s already something,” he answered grouchily.
Now that they had cleared things up, Zoe felt more relaxed. She rubbed her hands together and said, “What if I buy you a pizza as an apology? If we get a move on, we might find a table even though we haven’t booked.”
Eric hesitated, then shook his head. “I can’t.”
Zoe fluttered her eyelashes. “Why not?”
“I have a date.”
“Oh,” Zoe stared at him in confusion. “With Stephanie?”
“Yes. She’ll be here soon.”
“Got it. OK, we’ll have a pizza another time then.”
Zoe finished organising next day’s orders, but she couldn’t stop thinking about Eric’s refusal.
It was absolutely normal for him to be going out with that girl. He’d had an unrequited crush on her when he was younger so obviously he wanted to make up for lost time. She just wasn’t used to having to take into consideration the fact that he might be busy. He’d had other relationships in the past, but none of them had ever interfered with their friendship.
“And this one isn’t going to interfere either,” she reasoned, frowning at the thought. “Eric is still my friend.”
Even though she knew that, the realization that she wasn’t going to be able to spend the evening with him made her feel… excluded.
They both turned their heads at the sound of two light taps on the window. Stephanie was standing outside, her cheeks red with cold but still smiling beautifully. She seemed excited about the evening ahead. Zoe turned to Eric, who was putting his jacket on, and forced herself to smile happily.
“Have fun! Show her what she’s been missing all these years!”
“I’ll do my best.”
“We’re ok, right?” she asked, a moment before he reached the door. Having caught his attention, she looked into his eyes. “I don’t want to go home thinking that you haven’t forgiven me yet.”
“Don’t I always forgive you?” sighed Eric, an indecipherable expression on his face, before saying, “See you tomorrow,” and leaving the shop.
Zoe watched the couple walk away along the road. They were really cute together and she was genuinely happy that Eric finally had the opportunity to fulfil his old dreams of love.
Or at least, she knew she should have been.
But what she was actually feeling was an almost overwhelming sensation of sadness, envy and regret, and when she realized it, she felt lonely, selfish and mean.
She finished tidying up the shop with a lump in her throat, thinking all the time that she really deserved to be lonely.