As a result, I had spent a good chunk of my birthdays growing up celebrating with Kai and his parents at their house instead.
Young Milly had excused his absence in her life growing up and would comfort herself with the idea that one day, when she was all grown up, they would go to work together, just as he’d always promised. That way, she would get to see him every day. She’d think about how they could eat lunch together and attend meetings together. She just had to be a little patient.
And so maybe it wasn’t me that felt angry last night over the fact that Zac had enjoyed tacos with my father on many occasions. Maybe it was young Milly, wanting to know why she was never invited to eat with them.
10
I was in a mood following my visit to my father’s office that I couldn’t fully explain, almost regretting having gone up there and hearing the story in the first place.
I just kept imagining a young Zac, up at night, worrying about finding a job so he could help out his mom. It didn’t help that I was also exhausted from the long hours we’d had to put in recently. The fatigue was starting to mess with my emotions.
My stomach tightened and my heart sank every time I thought about it, which was once every few minutes by that afternoon. Having finished everything that needed to be done before New York, I wanted so badly to wrap up, go home, and get a head start on my weekend. Except tonight was the night the two marketing groups were going for drinks to celebrate the end of the quarter, and I couldn’t skip the first work outing I’d been invited to.
Of course, Zac’s team had won this time around with the Emerson deal, so drinks were all on Margaret and her team’s budget. I just needed to get through tonight, and then I would have two Zac-free days to refresh, recharge, and clear my head.
When we got to the bar, I opted to sit with a couple of other junior associates whose table was safely tucked away at the far corner of the room.
“… And they just shouldn’t have even let it get that far in the first place. Am I right, Milly?” Darrell’s large brown eyes turned to me as he waited for me to validate his point on… I wasn’t even sure what at this point. Something about late-night television, I think.
“Yes, absolutely.” I hadn’t been paying attention to a single thing that had been said since I’d sat down. Darrell and Tim were like white-noise machines, which was exactly what I needed at the moment. They were happy to sit there and talk amongst themselves, turning to me for a generic response only every once in a while.
We’d been here for two hours, and I was almost four whiskeys in. My muscles were starting to relax, and my skin was tingling with warmth as the alcohol hit my bloodstream. I could barely remember what I had been so wound up about all day. It all just seemed so trivial now.
“You want to join us for a round of pool?” Tim’s voice cut through the blissful lull my mind had created with the assistance of its new favorite beverage as I tuned everything else out.
“Oh no, thank you. I’m not very good.” The words dripped out of my mouth like honey. Or at least, that’s what it felt like.
“Cool, we’ll be back.”
Take your time.
My index finger was back on my tumbler, lazily tracing the rim as I sunk back into beautiful nothingness. My social battery was completely drained. I’d give anything to be in my pajamas, under the warm cove—
“Enjoying yourself, Amelia?”
I looked up to the chair right next to mine and into a pair of dark sapphire-blue eyes. They were surrounded by thick, black eyelashes and made my heart do a backflip. I hated them for it.
Go away.
“Absolutely. The drinks were needed. You?” I looked away and took another sip.
His presence brought back the story of a young boy I was trying to suppress. It rushed back and had me by the throat.
He nodded in agreement. “Definitely needed.”
I didn’t say anything else and kept my eyes down on my glass.
“So, you want to talk about why you’ve been avoiding me all day?” he asked, leaning forward on the table.
Fuck me, he smells so good.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” A lie, of course. I’d actively stayed out of his way and avoided him as soon as I’d left my father’s office that morning. Not to mention I had chosen to sit in a secluded table away from where his team was celebrating when, technically, I should have been celebrating with them.
But I couldn’t very well tell him that. Because then I would have to explain that I had talked to my father about how they’d met, and the story was obviously… personal.
“Amelia.”
Goose bumps invaded the surface of my skin. I hated how he said my name.
“Zackary,” I mirrored, still refusing to look at him.
“Is this about the tacos?”
I let out an involuntary giggle, relaxing. The whiskey seemed to think that was funny.
“I haven’t been avoiding you, Zac. You’re reading into it,” I said, still laughing, before looking back up at him.
Huge mistake.
Apparently, I wasn’t the only one amused. He was grinning from ear to ear as he watched me laugh. The dimple dipping into his left cheek was so deep, I was tempted to trail my finger around it instead of my tumbler.
“You know what I do need to do?” I asked, clearing my throat, which was all of a sudden very dry.
“What?”
“Get you a drink.” And more importantly, get myself another one. “I am technically on Margaret’s team and yours won, so…” I waved our waitress over.
I couldn’t help but notice the way she was flipping her strawberry blonde waves and smiling at Zac a little more than was necessary when she took our order.
“Are you excited about New York? Seeing your old team again?” he asked once she was gone.
This was the second time in two days he was making casual conversation. I couldn’t pinpoint exactly when this part of our dynamic had shifted, or why.
“Honestly? Yeah, I miss them quite a bit. I thought we would be keeping in touch more than we have been. But I’ve barely talked to any of them since I moved.” It’s what happens when your job is such a large part of your life. It’s difficult to keep up with too many people that aren’t constantly with you in that environment.
“You mean other than when you were plotting your takeover of the Emerson account with them to get back at me, of course.” His dimple was back.
“Oh, of course, but we spent less than an hour coming up with that plan. It really wasn’t as difficult to infiltrate your biggest account as you’d think.” I knew the smirk on my face was smug as I started to mess with him again, but I couldn’t help it. “I really was hoping for a bit of a bigger challenge, Mr. Evans.”
“Well, I felt a little bad, Amelia. I thought maybe this was your way of trying to spend all that alone time with me you were wanting.”
Touché. And the ball was back in my court.
Our waitress (Eloise, as she’d introduced herself to Zac) dropped off our drinks. Mine came with a side glance and his with a small folded piece of paper that she slipped beside his phone before walking away. He didn’t open it.
“That logic checks out. Who wouldn’t want to spend a bunch of time with, and voluntarily report to, a… what was it, again?” I brought a finger to my chin before continuing. “Oh, that’s right. ‘An intolerable, arrogant, pompous ass,’” I quoted seventeen-year-old Milly’s words, passing the ball.