eyes off him, and tonight is supposed to be about having fun, not drooling over the first hot guy I meet.
“So it is.” He shrugs nonchalantly and leans one elbow against the bar, and just…watches me.
I lick my lips and peek a glance to Pete, wondering if he’ll see me with an empty drink and I can just get it from him, screw the shoes. I can go buy my own pair, because something about Zack makes me feel all sorts of funny things and it might just be safer to get away from him completely.
But I can’t, because I haven’t finished Mia’s dare and my pride won’t allow me to slink back to our table without a drink in hand.
“Because Mia hates me,” I mutter, and hope it’s enough. I look back to Zack slowly and he nods, like this answers everything. Except it really answers nothing at all, but it doesn’t really seem like he minds.
Whatever the case, he looks to Jake and winks. They understand whatever just wasn’t said and I feel all sorts of confused.
“Your friend is Mia?” Jake asks and I nod. “Why don’t you have her join us for a drink?” My eyes widen in relief and I turn to Mia with a completely fake victorious smile.
I catch Mia’s eye across the bar and wave her over. Her smile widens, obviously proud of me. Except really, I didn’t actually flirt so I wonder if she’ll still buy me the shoes. Oh well. If anything, I’m proud of myself for talking to a couple of guys, and I’m having fun – which is all I want for tonight anyway. I feel more like the me I used to be than I have in the last fifteen months, and somehow I know that girl I saw in the mirror earlier tonight is slowly disappearing. It feels good and scary all at the same time.
“Here’s your drink,” Zack says and slides the beer over to me. I grab both of them and turn to hand one to Mia.
She’s about five feet away from us when she smiles at me, and then her eyes move to Zack and Jake. Suddenly, her eyes widen and she stumbles over her shoes. Her arms flail to catch herself right before she crashes into me, spilling a bit of her drink down the front of my shirt.
“What the hell?” I shriek as she turns to Zack. His genuine smile has disappeared behind a clenched jaw and Jake looks around the bar. A few people turn their heads at the spectacle but slowly go back to whatever they were doing before and Jake relaxes.
“Oh my holy hell!” Mia exclaims and then covers her mouth and steadies herself against the bar. He eyes sparkle like the fourth of July and she’s practically bouncing up and down. “You’re Zack Walters!”
I watch Zack’s jaw unclench and his smile turns into something more…I don’t know exactly, but it looks arrogant and fake and all sorts of cocky.
“You know him?” I ask dumbfounded and look back and forth between the two of them. This brings another round of soft laughter from Jake and I can’t figure out what in the world is so funny or why Zack suddenly seems unhappy, or why on earth my cool and always collected friend looks like she’s about three seconds away from peeing her pants with excitement.
Mia’s jaw drops and she turns to me. She shakes her head like I’ve asked the dumbest question in the entire world.
“Zack Wal-ters.” She speaks slowly, enunciating every single syllable as if speaking to me like I’m a toddler will help me understand.
Strangely enough, it totally works.
Zack Walters. Mia’s totally famous fantasy rock star boyfriend. I am a total fool.
I want to focus on Mia right now because my friend, who works with supermodels and sees famous people all the time is totally freaking out and I love it. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen her so unhinged.
But yet, I can’t stop from noticing that Zack seems uncomfortable with the attention. I look at him slowly, and I realize Mia is right. However, since I don’t stalk the gossip blogs like she does, even without the baseball cap on, I probably never would have recognized him.
“It’s nice to meet you,” Zack says and extends a hand slowly across the bar. He says it in the same way he spoke to me earlier, like it’s really not nice at all. But now I get it. He’s