One Night

Chapter 10. Scarlet

It's been a week since the Zach incident.  I am moving on with my life. He was out of my system. Out of my life for good. I suppose it was for the best. It was apparent that it was a one-way thing. Like the glass floors in the club. I can see him but he can't see me. I felt the connection but he did not feel the same.

    I spent a couple of days wallowing with Ben & Jerry. The weekend out with my friends was spent with Jose Cuervo, Jack Daniel's and Johnnie Walker. They were men I could rely on. I was feeling better and more like myself by the end of the week. I picked up extra shifts in the hospital where I worked as a nurse and threw myself into my job.

    We were supposed to go out tonight but I wasn't in the mood. I wanted to stay in and just chill.  I just got home from a long day in work and was making some pancakes when my doorbell rang so I went to answer the door.

    Huge mistake!

    Standing in front of me and filling my doorway was Zach. 

    Hair freshly washed, scruff on his jaw and a smile on his face. He was wearing an all black ensemble. His black shirt accentuating the muscles on his chest and biceps. His jeans hugging his hips. That onesie he was wearing when we first met did not really do him any justice. He was like a centrefold on a woman's magazine, and he was holding a fresh bouquet of flowers.

    Why the hell is he here? After all this time? Booty call?

    I just got over him.

    I saw red.

    "What are you doing here?" I barked at him. I was very aware that I was wearing a pair of skimpy shorts and a ratty old shirt with no bra.  My hair was piled up on top of my head in a messy bun and I was barefoot. I looked like a tramp.

    "I was wondering if you wanted to have coffee with me sometime," Zach said as he handed me the flowers. I stared at his outstretched hands, not touching the flowers. Did he really think he can just breeze back into my life just like that? No questions asked?

    Zach was looking at me as if he wanted to eat me up. His gaze started from the soles of my feet, stopped halfway on my chest, to the top of my messy bun. His face slowly broke into a sexy smile. I started tingling all over.

    Christ! My stupid body did not receive the memo from my stupid brain.

    No. To. Zach.

    "Coffee?" I repeated with disdain. "Coffee?" I said again incredulously.

    He dropped by to ask me to go out with him for coffee? No explanations. No apologies. I think I would have been happier if he swung by for a booty call! Not that I would have slept with him again. It's been two weeks!

    He chuckled. "Yes, coffee. Or maybe tea if you don't drink coffee . . . ."

    Suddenly, my fire alarm went ape-shit.

    The piercing noise permeated my whole flat. Then I remembered I was making pancakes and I left a batch on the pan to answer the door.  "Shoots! My pancakes!" I said in a rush. I hurried to my kitchen, now filled with smoke and the pan on my cooker had dancing flames on top of it.

    "Oh my God!!" I screamed in panic.

    I was suddenly pushed aside, handed the bouquet of flowers, as Zach tried to stop the fire.  He grabbed a tea towel and started to wet it in the sink. I started coughing from the thickening smoke. It sprang me into action.

    Dropping the flowers on the breakfast bar, I grabbed the pitcher of cold water with fresh limes and mint from the fridge. Zach was in front of the cooker trying to fight the flames. In my hurry, my foot got caught on a rug and I stumbled. The contents of the pitcher went flying and landed on Zach's back.