Jade
I finish the transaction with Mr. Johnson and rest back into my stool, rubbing my stomach as it lets out the loudest growl. Lunch is in thirty minutes, but I’m quite sure I’ll wither away before then.
The entrance door squeaks and in struts Zach in dark suit pants with a light blue shirt and a black tie sporting a grin and carrying a Styrofoam box. Silence permeates the room for a split second as he catches everyone’s attention and their brains quit working momentarily. He’s always had that effect ever since his physique matured.
He moves through the red ropes and pauses at the Please Wait Here sign.
I tuck my chin, looking at him from under my lashes with a grin yanking my lips high.
“Can I help you, sir?” Melissa, the branch whore manager calls out.
Of course the cougar would. If he’s walking, handsome, and has a dick, he’s her type of man.
Zach shakes his head and points to my window and then sidles up to the counter, sliding the box to me. “I bought you lunch. I hope I’m not late.”
I’m all teeth and wide eyes. “What are you doing here?”
“I was in the area. Figured I’d bring you something to eat.”
“In the area?” I don’t believe that for a second.
He shrugs a shoulder. “Okay. I was an hour away, but I wanted to see you.”
I tighten my lips, nodding. “Uh-huh. And you don’t think your boss will get mad?”
Leaning his elbows on the counter, he moves closer and lowers his voice. “I’ve been thinking about telling that anal asshole to fuck off.”
It surprises a laugh out of me and I slap a hand over my mouth and glance around to make sure no one is paying attention to me.
He tips his head toward the box. “I had one yesterday for lunch and it was so delicious it made me think of you. It’s a chicken pita sandwich. When you moan, make sure it’s my name.”
I glance to the clock. “I have fifteen minutes before I can go to lunch. Can you stay?”
His smile dips. “Unfortunately, I have a meeting with a builder soon. I can’t.”
I’m both relieved and disappointed. “So you drove all the way here to hand deliver me food?”
“You’re worth it.”
“And you’re crazy.”
“Make it up to me by staying with me this weekend.” Ah, there’s the real purpose of stopping in.
“Is everything okay, Jade?” Melissa purrs as she steps up beside me pretending to give a damn. But I know she’s only interested in smoothing her slutty fur.
She makes me want to roll my eyes and slap those seductive eyes off her face, but instead, I reply politely. I mean, she is my boss. “Everything is fine. This is Zachary Calloway.”
His delighted smile contorts with conceitedness and I’m surprised he hasn’t roamed her frame since she is very well maintained with store bought breasts. Instead, he holds her ogling stare.
Her face lights up and she sticks her hand out for him to shake. “I thought you looked strikingly familiar. It’s nice to meet you. I’m Melissa Childers, the branch manager.”
Amused, Zach shakes her hand. “Nice to meet you.”
“Is there anything I can help you with?” She doesn’t even try hiding her attraction to him and it’s pissing me off.
“I’ve got it handled, Melissa. Thank you.” My irritation slips into my tone.
“I came to see, Jade,” Zach says coolly. He points. “I’m the baby daddy.”
Melissa’s eyes widen, her smile faltering as her mouth rounds the word “Oh.” She glances between us and then nods to Zach. “Very well then. It’s nice to meet you. If you need anything…” she pauses there. Right fricking there! “Please let me know.”
I’m boring holes in the back of her head watching her walk off when Zach interrupts my visions of choking her out. “Damn. She comes on strong, doesn’t she?”
“As usual. She always throws herself out there to the attractive customers. I don’t know how she hasn’t lost her job yet.”
His eyes glimmer. “So you do think I’m hot?”
I titter. “I’m obligated to think you’re kind of cute since I’m carrying your baby.” Damn, that was incredibly flirtatious.
He chuckles as he checks his watch. “I have to go. Will you be heading my way tonight?” His eyes hold so much hope.
All this feels as though he’s acting like my boyfriend, a title I’m not wanting to give him. It’s a path I’m not ready to walk with him, or for that matter, even share. “I don’t know. I need to talk to Freya and see—”
“Don’t do that,” his tone is stern. “Don’t try to find a way out of it. We both know if you had plans, you would already know about them. Quit fighting all this and just come…many times.” He smirks, proud of his quip. “I’ll even cook.”
“You’re begging?”
“Need me to hit my knees?”
“No. I just don’t—”
“You realize the more you fight it, the more I’m going to pursue? I know I have a lot to prove and I’m doing it, but I’m sitting in quick sand because you’re forcing yourself to look over all my efforts. If you’d open your eyes, Jade, just for one second, you’d see me standing right in front of you.”
I feel like a petty bitch. “I’ll call you when I get off work and let you know.”
Pacified, he grins. “Have a good rest of the day.”
He raps his knuckles twice and winks, and I feel it in my chest, tightening before traveling the length of my body and exploding between my thighs. Without breathing, I watch him stroll out the door.
“Oh…my…god…” I moan with a mouth full of chicken pita sandwich, my eyes rolling to the back of my head.
Zach was right. So deliciously right. This thing is amazing.
Jade: I definitely moaned but I’m sorry. It wasn’t your name.
I smile, putting my phone back on the table and diving into another savory bite.
Melissa enters and snatches a bottle of diet coke from the fridge. Even though I’m lost in total food bliss, I can feel her eyes on me, burning up the back of my neck.
“So you and Zachary Calloway…” She leaves it hanging,
But instead of forcing me to abandon the ecstasy I’m in, I take another bite of the sandwich prolonging her prying curiosity.
“I didn’t know you knew him,” she nudges the conversation again.
“Yep. Since we were kids,” I chirp with extra cheer as I swallow.
She moves in front of me across the table. “And you’re pregnant with his baby?”
Irritation is climbing my back. “Yes.”
“That’s interesting. I pegged him having many sex trophies and not knowing any of them.”
I narrow my eyes.
“You’d think with all the practice the rumors suggest, he’d know how to protect himself from getting women pregnant.” Resentment drips from her tone. “So are you two a thing?”
“No.” I drop monotone, keeping my anger bobbing just at the surface. “We’re being parents together.”
Unabashedly, the whore tugs the corner of her lips. “Then he’s available?”
“He is.” The words burn my tongue and I sharpen my claws. “But even so, I doubt you’ll convince him to leave my side.”
Her puffed giggle is sinister and mixed with desperation. “Oh and what makes you so special?”
I stand to toss my box in the trash, spin around and glare at her. Manager or not, no way she’s going to talk to me like this and think I won’t respond. I will, just not the way she’s hoping for. I don’t rile easily. “I’m not.” I lift a shoulder and grin like a bitch. “You’re just not his type.”
Drop the mic and strut out of that room like a boss…
Except my heart is beating like crazy against my chest. My legs feel like rubber as I make my way to my car for some fresh air.
Fuck her. I bet the only reason she still has her job is because she’s probably fucking the HR manager and her husband. I’m shaking with adrenaline, wishing I could have just laid her out and not worried about losing my job. When I first started, she was caught up in some drama where she had slept with a customer’s husband, but somehow, she kept her job. Who does that and how? What magic sorcery does she possess?
I take a breath and grab my phone.
Jade: You have broken hearts coming in here today. Melissa made it clear she wants to sink her teeth into you.
Zach: They and she will get over it. Walking into my meeting. Call me when you get off work.
Zach: PS: Mashed potatoes…this weekend.
I laugh out loud at his last text. Of course, he’s trying to bribe me with my weaknesses—sex with him and mashed potatoes.
I haven’t made up my mind on what I want to do yet. I’ve gone back and forth trying to decide and I’m still just as confused as I was when he asked me to come. I push open the door to the apartment and see Freya with her head on the counter and a ginger ale in her hands in front of her.
“Don’t come close,” she mumbles into the laminate before lifting her head. “Apparently, it wasn’t just morning sickness you had but some demonic stomach bug.”
My feet stop beside the couch. Her skin is pale, eyes dark and weak. “Have you been sick all day?”
“Your porcelain god started flirting with me before lunch. I came home and we’ve been on a hellacious date since.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“Yeah, well he wanted a piece of me too,” she says with a weak giggle.
“Do you need me to do anything? What do you need?” I ask.
She holds her hand up and glowers evil at me. “Stop. You’re pregnant. You don’t need this again. Go somewhere for the weekend.”
I smack my lips together. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say Zach put you up to this.”
“Oh yeah?”
“He showed up at my work with lunch and asked me to spend the weekend with him. I never gave him an answer.”
She shakes her head and drops it back onto her arms on the counter. Her kinky curls bounce but then fall flat. “I don’t know why you’re so anti-boyfriend. Give it up and just give in. Get over your past and give the man a damn try.”
I’m shocked at her level of bluntness.
It’s as if she could feel my jolt. She shakes her head, keeping her forehead on her arms. “Sorry. My filter isn’t on. I feel like shit.”
She pushes up, flicks her hand dismissively, and goes to her bedroom.
I close my eyes and drop my head back, tipping my chin to the ceiling. All the signs point to Zach and staying with him for the weekend. Synchronicity holds no bounds…
Not one to go against the clearer path, I pack a weekend bag. Yep. Zach wins. He’s bribed the universe into joining his strategy.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to stay?” I ask Freya from her bedroom door.
She’s lying on her back in the middle of her bed with her arm over her eyes and her other hand on her stomach. “Just let me die in peace.”
“Text me and let me know you’re okay. Please. I’ll worry if not.”
She rolls to her side and curls up into a ball without opening her eyes. “I promise. But you have to promise, in my obituary you tell them I went out with force.”
Even sick, her humor shines. I giggle. “Hurled into the darkness. Expelled from earth. Ralph will be missed.”
“Add it all to my tombstone with a picture of a toilet bowl,” she laughs weakly.
“Call me if you need anything,” I tell her. “And get rest.”