I told him calmly, maybe even coolly, staring him right into his eyes at the subtle, petty reminder that he hadn’t come home last night because he’d gone out. And stayed out. Which was none of my stupid business.
“I can hang out with you ’til they get back.”
“It’s all right. Probably shouldn’t be talking in there and wake them up. I’m a big girl; I’ll be all right.” That stupid expression still didn’t go anywhere. “Thank you for offering though.”
He hesitated, and something moved across his face. “You sure, kiddo?” he asked softly.
“Positive. Get some sleep. You need it.”
And maybe that was the wrong thing to say, because he definitely frowned then even as he took a step back.
A step back right before I closed the door in his face.
Chapter Twenty-Two
“What’s wrong with you?”
Snapping out of the daydream I’d been right in the middle of while standing in front of the refrigerator at Trevor’s house, I glanced over my shoulder to see Zac’s manager sitting at the kitchen island with his computer opened in front of him. He wasn’t looking at me. He was focused on the screen, but it wasn’t like there was someone else he’d been talking to.
I hadn’t even known he was back until he’d come out of his bedroom earlier, talking away on his cell, and set his laptop down on the counter. From the bits and pieces of his conversation that I’d caught onto, he’d made it back at the crack of dawn and had taken a nap. Maybe Zac had known he was coming, but he hadn’t passed the message along to me.
I wanted to think that it was because I’d barely talked to him, but I knew that was only because I’d made it that way.
Just yesterday Boogie had come down to watch Zac’s game with me. We’d gone out to eat afterward, and I’d gone mostly because I didn’t want to alarm either one of them if I tried to bail with some stupid excuse. And also because I knew those two could talk each other’s ears off for hours, so I wouldn’t even really need to pipe in more than I wanted to, and that hadn’t been much. They’d noticed but had accepted me having a lot going on.
I had my mind on a lot of things, including but not limited to the call that had come in the same day as Trevor’s call, confirming that I had my channel back. It was the one, bright shining light in my life at the moment.
Andddd that was negative and pathetic and not true.
I had a lot of bright, shining lights in my life. Just because I got my feelings hurt was my own damn fault, and Zac was still one of the bright, shining lights in it. I wasn’t going to hold it against him that he didn’t feel for me the way I wanted him to. It wasn’t his fault. I wanted to think it wasn’t mine either. You try not to fall in love with Zac.
Anyway.
I was the only one at the house, or so I’d thought. CJ and Zac were both at practice until late, and I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a little bit of a relief that he was gone.
You know, my friend who I was in love with.
But Zac, fortunately, had nothing to do with what had me zoned out in the middle of the gleaming white kitchen that I had finished filming in right before Trevor had busted into the living area, back from New York or Los Angeles or wherever the hell he’d gone.
Turning around to face him and his shiny laptop, I folded my hands on the counter and told him the truth. “I’m supposed to start working tomorrow, and I’m debating whether I should quit my job immediately or if I should put in my two weeks’ notice. I can’t decide.” I’d asked Connie for her opinion, and that hadn’t been any help.
Trevor muttered, “Hmph,” so I wasn’t totally sure he was paying attention.
But he was more of a neutral party than anyone else I knew, so since he’d asked and he was here…. “Can you tell me what you think? My worry with trying to put in a two weeks’ notice is that my boss is going to be an extra asshole and make me even more miserable than usual, but I feel guilty quitting all of a sudden so….”
That had his eyes flicking over to me from the