As long as that life didn’t include Zy.
Finally, she risked a glance at him. Tears stung her eyes and threatened to fall. It took everything to hold them back.
Zy leaned across the table to her. “Tessa…”
He was begging her not to sign. And she didn’t have a choice.
Her fingers trembled as she picked up the pen. “I’m sorry.”
Zy sat on the ratty sofa in his pre-furnished apartment, which he usually avoided because he knew introducing a blacklight would gross him the fuck out. Tonight, he didn’t care. He tipped back his beer. He swallowed, staring at the bare white wall on the other side of the room as the night shadows crept in and he ignored his buzzing phone.
“You going to answer that?” Trees asked, sitting in the adjacent chair.
He should. “Maybe later.”
“Okay. You want to grab some dinner?”
And put something in his stomach that might kill his buzz? “No. You go ahead. In fact, I’ll probably be shitty company this weekend. Not feeling much like fireworks and sparklers. So you should hang with some fun people.”
“And leave you alone with that case of beer? No, man. I’m not going to walk out on you. We’re brothers. Through thick and thin. You’ve been here for me for almost a decade. I’m here for you.”
In the back of his head, Zy knew he should be grateful for Trees’s friendship—and he was. He just wasn’t in the mood to appreciate it tonight. “Thanks.”
His buddy finished off his beer, then set the bottle on the table with a sigh. “So, she just…signed the contract?”
“Yep.” Zy took another long swallow of his beer. “She sat right across the table from me, looking at me with those big eyes and a face full of regret. And she fucking signed.”
Trees shook his head. “I’m sorry, man. You’re in love with her, aren’t you?”
“What the fuck does it matter? She made her choice. And I know it was probably the only choice she could make. She’s got a little mouth to feed and will for eighteen years. I would goddamn quit if I could.”
“Next time, maybe don’t walk out of your job by staging such an epically public fuck you.”
“I’ve never regretted telling those crooked defense contractors what I think of them.” He swigged his beer again. “Until today.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I don’t know.” Every time Zy closed his eyes, he could see Tessa in that conference room with tears on her lashes as she signed and initialed the document that would keep them apart for the next three years.
“You going to sign, too?”
He didn’t have much choice. Come Monday, unless he wanted to give up his line of work to be a greeter at a big-box retailer or homeless, he would have to suck it up and do something that went against every fiber of his being. “I don’t want to think about it right now.”
“All right. When was the last time you got laid?”
Right on cue, his phone buzzed again.
Zy scowled, still ignoring it. “What the fuck kind of question is that?”
“A serious one. When?”
“When was the last time you got laid?”
“C’mon, man. You know I don’t have your luck or your way with women. You do that thing where you walk in a room and flash your teeth, and half the chicks drop their panties. That’s never been me.”
Zy couldn’t argue, so he just shrugged. “I haven’t been much in the mood for random company lately.”
Trees glanced at the screen of his phone. “Yeah, is that why Madison keeps calling?”
“Probably.”
“Be honest, Zy. How long has it been?”
If he didn’t fess up, Trees would just badger him until he did. “First of March.”
Trees’s jaw hung open. “Is the Madison calling now the same one you hooked up with the weekend you moved into town?”
“Yeah.” Zy winced as he mentally replayed what happened before he left the office. “I, um…called her. Right after Tessa signed, I scooped up my contract and stomped out after her. But she wouldn’t talk to me, so I might have called Madison. Loudly. And told her I wanted to hook up again. Tonight.”
“So that Tessa could overhear?” Trees looked annoyed as fuck. “What a douche move.”
Totally. And Zy regretted it. “I was pissed.”
“You’ve never been too good at thinking things through when you lose your temper. Do you know for sure if Tessa heard you?”
“Oh, I’m sure she did. She gathered her shit, slammed her desk drawers, said good night to the bosses, and ignored me as she waltzed out the door.”
His best—and probably only real—friend in the world shook his head like he was a dumb ass. “So what are you going to do?”
As if Madison had a sixth sense, she dialed Zy’s phone again.
“Are you going to answer that?” Trees prompted.
It would be better if he did. He and Tessa had no future. And he couldn’t live like a monk forever. Hell, it had already been four months and his body ached for satisfaction all the fucking time. His hand was getting a hell of a workout almost every day.