Chapter Eight
Olivia
Friday
“Come on, Meg!” I called to her for the third time. “It doesn’t take that long to pick what socks you want to wear.”
It was my first day off from work, so I wanted actually to spend it doing something with my daughter. Drea offered to hang out with us, to show me around the city a bit, but I wanted some one-on-one time with Meghan. Things had gotten so wild so quickly. It felt like the days were spinning past me, and I missed her. Even if she was utterly determined to drive me up the wall today!
“Come on; I want to get breakfast.”
Every day, I walked past a really sweet café on the way to the subway station. It was decorated in a chic French style, and the smell of the pastries that wafted past me was too tempting for words. I was never quite early enough to make it in the mornings, so today was the first day I desperately wanted to get in there. My stomach growled painfully at the thought of one of their cakes or croissants.
Finally, Meghan appeared with one sock half on her foot and one that didn’t match in her hand. I rolled my eyes and pulled them on her feet. It hardly mattered how perfect she looked; she was three years old.
“Come on, hold my hand.”
Finally, we broke free of the apartment and took the elevator down to the bottom floor. I’d learned now that sometimes the stairs were essential because it was a bit of a temperamental machine, so when the opportunity was there, it was best just to take it.
“Looks like the sun is shining today,” I commented as we pushed the front door open. “Should be a nice day, if there’s anything you want to do? Maybe we could go to Central Park.”
“But I’ve already been there,” Meghan replied innocently. She didn’t realize how much that sentence ripped my heart from my chest; I hated that I couldn’t be with her all the time. She didn’t see it that way, though; she was just telling the truth as all three-year-olds did. “I want to do something different.”
“Okay, well, we’ll think about it as we eat. Come on.”
On the way, I noticed that Meghan was still waving to everyone as we passed, which reminded me that I hadn’t yet had the stranger danger talk with her. That was just something else that I urgently needed to add to my to-do list…a list that was growing wildly by the second. Maybe I would do that today as we sat in the café. No time like the present, after all…
That thought was stripped right from my head as I walked into the place that I’d been fantasizing about for days, just for it to turn from a dream into a nightmare in a heartbeat. It seemed there was just one person in this city that I couldn’t avoid, however hard I tried, and this was just another place that was tainted by his face.
Zack. My damn neighbor. He was everywhere: at home, at work, nowhere. He was sat at the table in the corner with another man, and they were laughing loudly over something one of them had just said. There was a part of me that wanted to spin right around again and to find somewhere else to eat. My appetite had been stripped from me, but my darling daughter had other ideas.
“Mom, look at that cake. I want that cake!” She raced to the counter and pressed her face up against it, making my choice for me. “Can I have that one?”
“Yeah, of course, you can,” I sighed deeply, wishing that my heart wasn’t thumping quite so loudly. Maybe we could just do this quickly; we could get in, eat, and leave before Zack saw us.
It was unlikely, but not impossible, wasn’t it?
“Olivia!” Oh, apparently it was impossible. “Olivia, over here.”
I slid my eyes closed for a second and tried to catch my breath before spinning around to see him. I smiled and lifted my hand in a wave gesture, before turning away again. He infuriated me, drove me crazy, made me want to scream. Why did he have to be here?
I ordered myself a croissant and coffee and juice and cake for Meghan (after checking that it was something that she could eat) and moved over to a table. Unfortunately, it seemed that the fates were against me because the only free table was right next to the one person I wanted to avoid.
Never mind, I told myself. Hold your head up high and ignore him. This is yours and Meghan’s day; no one has to ruin that.
“So, how are you, Olivia?” Urgh, his smarmy tone pissed me right off. “Long time no see.”
Snarky comments filled my mind, but I decided not to let any of them out in front of Meghan. There was no reason for Zack and me to be antagonistic with each other in public. We could save that for the exercise room.
“I’m good, thank you,” I replied prissily. “How are you?”
“I’m good. Leg’s good, thanks for asking.” The hot bubble circled my heart. I squeezed my fists to keep the anger locked away. “This is my friend, Lark.”
Lark had dirty blond hair and a cheeky smile. He was good-looking, but in a very different way to Zack. Not my type at all. “He’s just got back from a video games competition in Las Vegas.”
“Wow,” I laughed as I took Lark’s welcoming hand. “You really do that for a living?”
“I certainly do!” he spoke with pride about his career. “I’m just that awesome.”
“Is that Iron Man?” I was distracted by Zack talking to Meghan about the toy in her hand. I knew she had one of her dolls with her, but I didn’t realize which one. It was hardly surprising to find her with a superhero, they were her favorite. “I love Iron Man!”
“Me, too,” Meghan gushed back excitedly. “He’s so cool. He’s made of iron.”
Lark kept trying to draw me back into a conversation with him, but I couldn’t seem to drag my eyes away from Zack. I hadn’t ever seen a man talk to her in such a carefree, easy way before, and it was safe to say I was intrigued. As they talked, all the hard outer shell that usually surrounded Zack simply fell away, and he looked like he could actually be a nice person.
Luckily, I knew better.
“So, what do you two have planned for the day?” Zack finally asked. “Anything exciting?”
“I don’t know yet,” Meghan replied too honestly. “We haven’t decided.”
“What do you think, Zack?” Lark asked his friend with a grin. “What do you think is the best thing in the city to do?” He paused for only a second before offering a suggestion. “What about the zoo at Central Park?”
“I’ve already been to Central Park…” Meghan started again. At least it wasn’t just me she blew off!
“But have you been to the zoo?” Lark leaned in and wiggled his eyebrows at her. “They have lions, and tigers, and elephants… The giraffes are my favorite, but I think you’ll like the monkeys best of all.”
Predictably, Meghan went wild with excitement. “I want to see the monkeys, Mom! Can we go?” Before I could answer yes, she continued with a sentence that cooled me right back down again. “All of us?”
Urgh, no. The idea of spending more time with Zack filled me with dread. “Well, it’s supposed to be our day…”
“But I want us all to go!” she whined. It was hard not to feel offended by the thought that she didn’t want to hang out just the pair of us. “It isn’t fair.”
“I’m sure Zack and Lark have better things to do…”
“No, we don’t,” Lark interrupted before standing up. I shot him an awful look, but he didn’t seem to get it. Either that or he was ignoring me. “Let’s get a cab over there right now.”
I wanted to protest, to yell at the men for taking my day, but Meghan looked really excited. I didn’t want to crush her spirits by telling her that she couldn’t have the day that she wanted just because I didn’t like it.
“Okay, whatever,” I sighed. “Let’s go.”
***
My irritation grew the entire cab ride over and spilled right over as Zack paid for all of us to go to the zoo. This was why I worked so hard, to afford things for my child and me. I didn’t need him taking over everything for me like I couldn’t cope.
“Let me pay for Meghan and me,” I hissed at him at the entrance. “I have the money right here.”
“No, this was my idea,” he smiled patronizingly at me as if I wouldn’t remember Lark suggesting it. “I want to treat you.”
If we weren’t in front of so many people, I would have protested much more, but I could tell that it was teetering on the point of getting embarrassing. I didn’t want to make a scene – the day was already ruined enough.
As soon as we got inside, Lark and Meghan raced ahead of us to see the lions. Despite the fact that he’d obviously been before, he seemed just as excited as my daughter. He had a real child-like quality to him, which made sense given his career. Meghan loved it. I could tell that she was relishing the attention, which meant I couldn’t step in, however much I wanted to.
“Why the long face?” Zack teasingly asked as he bumped his hip into mine. “This is a fun day out, isn’t it?”
“Hmph.” He was trying to reel me into something, and I really didn’t want to get involved. Now my nice day with my daughter had been ruined, and I just wanted it over with. I didn’t want to spend any more time with this man than I had to.
“Come on, Meghan is having a great time… Oh look, they’ve gone into the reptile house!”
A part of me wanted to protest that she was moving through the zoo too quickly, that she was wasting the money that had been spent on her, but since the larger part of me wanted to move at a rapid pace, too, I didn’t say anything. I simply followed behind Lark and Meghan into the dark, warm reptile house.
“Mom, look. A lizard! A snake!” Meghan moved from case to case, pressing her little face against everyone. I tried to focus on her reactions, to enjoy how much she loved this, but in that small room, I was too aware of Zach to notice anything else really. I felt prickles racing all over me, sensing his every movement. “Come on, let’s go outside.”
As she moved and Lark went with her, a hand wrapped tightly around my arm, fixing me in place. If it wasn’t for the excited thrill he had tearing right through me, I might have pulled away. But intrigue kept me where I was for just a few moments.
Once the door closed behind Lark, I slowly turned to face Zack. His face glowed under the odd speckles of lights in the room, giving the whole thing a real dream-like quality. He leaned in, ever so slightly, and my heart rate flew. I didn’t know what was going to happen next, and I felt excited and scared all at once.
Then, his lips were on mine, and I felt powerless to stop it.