Chapter 30
CHAPTER THIRTY
Zoe
I head back to work since, technically, my workday still has a few hours left, but really, I need to talk to Jana and unload what’s going on in my head.
Once I’m in the office, I walk to my desk, where Jana just stares at me, waiting for me to say something. Anything, as I take my seat.
“Zoe, glad to see you’re back. Can you come to my office, please?” Christina says.
I slide my chair back, and Jana plops her head to her desk.
“Fine, yeah, I’ll just wait here even longer, dying to know how your trip went.”
I shush her, making my way to Christina’s office.
“Hello. You wanted to see me?” I ask, standing in her doorway.
“Yes, shut the door and have a seat.” She motions to the chairs in front of her desk.
Questions swarm in my head, and I’m thankful I get to turn around even for a brief second to shut the door so I can gather my thoughts.
“How was the trip?” she asks, confusing me even more.
She’s never seemed like someone to have small talk.
“It was good.” I shrug.
“And you and David got along just fine?”
My face flushes instantly as images of him fucking me just fine flash through my mind. All I can do is nod my head, afraid my tone will give everything away.
“Glad to hear. Samantha said she enjoyed spending the day with both of you, so thank you for representing us so well. That’s it.”
She excuses me and goes back to what she was doing before I walked in.
“Thank you,” I respond, only because I feel like I need to say something while I stand to leave.
“What was that all about?” Jana asks once I’m seated again.
“She just asked if David and I got along.”
She purses her lips in the same questioning expression that Christina had. “Okay … so did you?”
I inhale a very deep breath, then drop my chin to my chest, peeking up ever so slightly with a tiny grin.
“You didn’t!” she whispers a little too loudly.
I glance around to make sure no one is listening, then widen my eyes at her, asking her to be quiet.
She stands and grabs my arm to go to the break room, where we can have a more private conversation.
“Spill all the details. Did you tell him who you were from the app?”
I drop my head back and stare up at the ceiling.
“Why didn’t you?” she asks, making me feel even worse than I already do.
“How could I?” I ask, begging her for an answer.
“You mean to tell me you guys did the deed,” she says in code in case someone hears us, “and he doesn’t know he talked to you on the app for a week? How did you guys go from hating each other to that?”
I shrug, just as confused. “We just did. It started out the same way we always were here, but then he was super sweet on the plane when I was scared to fly. Then … I don’t know … just spending time together made our walls break down.”
She lowers her chin and her voice. “Was it good?”
“Sooooo good.”
“Squeeee!” She jumps up and down, grabbing my hands.
I want to celebrate with her, but deep down I know I can’t until he knows everything.
I push off the counter, needing to get away from her happy vibes and be more serious. “What am I going to do?”
“Um, what do you mean? You’re going to keep seeing him, right? This wasn’t just a hotel room kind of thing, was it?”
I pull out a chair at a small table off to the right. “No, he’s made it very clear he wants to keep seeing me.”
She takes the seat next to me. “Why this face? This is a good thing.”
“It’s a great thing, if I wasn’t lying to him.”
“So, call him up and come clean. What’s the big deal? You know he likes the online version of you, and now you know he likes the real version of you, so there’s nothing to worry about anymore.”
“That’s the thing. I want to, but his mom and sisters are here to pick up his sister’s wedding dress.
” I level my eyes with hers. “Something Online David told me, but Work David didn’t, and I almost screwed it up, talking about how I knew.
” I place my forehead onto my arms that are folded on the table.
“I’m supposed to go with them tomorrow. I don’t want to tell him and have him be mad at me while his family is here. ”
She places her hand on my arm. “You don’t know that he’ll be mad.”
“His ex hid an entire part of her life from him where she was being very deceitful to her clients, which only makes it worse that I’ve been hiding this from him.
” I sigh. “I know I need to tell him, but I don’t want to take the risk with them here.
I don’t want to look like a complete fool in front of his family. ”
A coworker enters the break room, so I instantly stand and walk back to my desk, not wanting to make a scene or have people question anything because a workplace rumor is the last thing I need right now.
I go straight home after work, just wanting to hide away and put on a movie to try to get out of my head and focus on something else for the night.
It was bad enough having to tell Jana about me and David in Montana, but when I really told all the explicit details to Macy, it just became too much. Now, I want to fade away and pretend none of this is happening for at least a little while.
I’m just about to push play on a movie when my phone rings with a FaceTime call from David.
My heart races as I hover my finger over the Answer button, wondering what I should do. Deep down, I would love to just go back to our conversations on the phone and all the joy those nights brought me, so I swipe the screen to answer the call.
“Hey, beautiful,” David says, melting my heart but making me laugh out loud at the same time.
“Ha! Hardly.” I move around my messy bun, then curl up in my blanket even more.
“Are you staying in tonight?” he asks.
“Yep, just being lazy and about to watch a movie.”
“That sounds good right about now. It’s kind of hard to lie on my couch and be lazy with so many people here. I’m sitting at my kitchen table because it’s the only quiet space and I wanted to call to say hi.”
“He meant to say he’s having the best time ever with our little sleepover.” Katie bends down to get in view of the camera.
She steals the phone from his hand and walks over to where her two sisters are lying on the couch, putting them all in view as well. “Say hi, guys.”
Both Gemma and Cindy wave their hello, then go back to what they were watching on the TV.
“Hi.” I wave to them even though I know they can’t see me because the phone is moving around too much.
Katie points it back to herself. “So, we are all going to brunch, then to the dress shop tomorrow. You should join us for brunch too.”
I nod and shrug my shoulders. “Okay.”
“Can I talk to her now?” David takes the phone back from Katie. “Sorry about that. She can be a little pushy. It’s okay if you don’t want to come, but if you do want to, I’d like to see you.”
The way he said that just reminds me of every conversation we had over the app.
He always felt so genuine—real. Not like the guys I’ve met at bars or elsewhere since high school.
Those guys only had one thing in mind, or they were so lost in their own lives that I could tell they had zero direction in life.
Not only is David extremely motivated in his career, but he’s really a good guy. The type of guy I was starting to think didn’t exist anymore.
“I’d like to see you too,” I say in all honesty.
No matter what is going on in my head, there is one thing I know for sure: the guy I fell for online is the exact guy I fell for in person, just solidifying even more that he’s the one for me. I just need him to know I’m the same person too.