Love at Second Sight

Chapter 10

The most dangerous distractions are the ones you love, but that don't love you back.

~Warren Buffett

***

It was past one-thirty at night when she got home. The crowd had been crazy today. It was like the whole of DC decided to show up at the same place at the same time. It made her wonder if today signified anything. She opened the doors to Sifton Villa with the set of keys Clair had entrusted her with in good faith. Closing the doors, she leaned back against it and sighed. It had been an extremely long and trying day. The kitchen had been bustling since seven. She didn't get the time to even recharge her batteries.

She climbed up the spiral stairs to the second floor. As soon as she stepped into the corridor, she opened her tote and began rummaging through it to find her keys' case.

"I just took these out for God's sake. Where did it disappear? It's been less than a minute, dammit! Did it fall down somewhere? Ah, there you—" her words stopped when she bumped into a muscular figure.

"I'm so sorry—"

"Look where you go next time," the voice she knew very well cut her short curtly.

"Zac?"

"Guess that would be me," he said sarcastically.

"Uh, well, why are you up so late?" One look at him made her want to justify her question. "Like, usually when I come back everybody's asleep...and once you only had asked me how I functioned on mere five hours of sleep. So I took it for granted that you preferred sleeping eight hours or something..."

"I couldn't sleep."

The curt answer probably meant he didn't want to talk to her any more. So she didn't push either. "Oh. Okay. I'll leave, I have a long day tomorrow. And, um, sorry once again."

She's gotten only a few strides towards her room when he yanked her back and pressed her against the wall. Hands on either side of her face, he towered over her.

"You wouldn't want to know why, would you, Savannah?"

"It's none of my business, is it? And, you don't like me, so it's okay."

She thought he didn't like her? Especially when he had just discovered that he was falling in love with her? Well, then he'd just have to show her otherwise.

"Fair enough. You think I don't like you. Fine. I'll tell you why myself," he seethed. His gaze moved down from her eyes to her lips and stayed there for a while before returning to her eyes. "It disturbed me to see you with that douche, Jaspe' Payne," he said the last part with a mock British accent. "It disturbed me a lot. And the way you were cozy with him, it got me even more riled up. And, because of that, I couldn't get any work done at all. I had a lot of work for today and I couldn't complete it, because I couldn't fucking concentrate. And now I can't sleep. All because of you."

"Because of me? Jas is a very close friend of mine. I was talking to him. You have absolutely no reason to be disturbed because my friend came to meet me. Okay? I don't understand. How is any of this my problem?"

"I have been religiously eating at Le Saveurs every day in hopes that I'd get to see you. It is why I occupy the table closest to the kitchen, so that I can look out for any movement. This has been going on for quite a while now. Today, you finally appear and instead of looking at me who's right in front of you, waiting for you to finally notice him, you throw yourself at that Payne guy. You know how terrible it was to see you walk right past me and into his arms, Savannah?"