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ZARA
The interest in the game flits away after that. More drinks are poured, and the larger group breaks off into smaller pods. I decline another drink and opt for water instead. I don’t need a headache in the morning, and I can already tell that’s where this is headed.
“Do you want to get some fresh air?” Rhys asks, and I nod enthusiastically. Ruby and Ezra are in the midst of another of their silly fights, and the other two couples are in their own little worlds.
I follow Rhys across the room to a glass door that he slides open. Slipping outside, he’s right behind me, shutting the door and cutting off the music and chatter from inside. It’s dark out, but the light from the house allows me to make out a round table with chairs tucked beneath it. Rhys pulls one out, motioning for me to sit, before doing the same.
It should be weird with him. He just touched and tasted me in an incredibly intimate way, but I don’t feel anything but heat from the memory. Knowing that his mouth, his fingers were on and inside me before fills me with a secret satisfaction. Even if the others know we were up to something in there, they don’t know exactly what. That’s something that only Rhys and I know.
“How are you doing, Zara?” The night has the low hum of insects chirping and buzzing. It’s not overly warm out, but there’s a heat in the air that indicates summer is coming.
“Are you asking if I’m drunk?” I have a hold of my bottle of water, and I take a drink to reassure myself that I am, in fact, not drunk.
“No, that’s not what I meant.” Rhys laughs gently.
“Do you mean…after the closet? I’m a…well…I’m feeling pretty relaxed.”
Rhys bursts out laughing and shakes his head. “I’m glad to hear that, but I was actually checking in with you. You’ve had a lot of things happen to you over the course of the last few months. How are you handling everything?”
Oh, that. Whoops. Embarrassment creeps up, but I shove it aside. His tongue was just inside me. No time to feel embarrassed now.
He’s not wrong about the past few months. My life has been turned upside down. “I am nothing but the better for everything that has happened. My life has improved beyond anything I could have imagined.”
“Good. That’s good.”
Except there is one thing that’s bothering me. I don’t like sitting around doing nothing and I want to make my own money. Ruby’s been great about letting me borrow her stuff, but I’d like to be able to buy my own clothes, shoes, shampoo, and toothpaste at some point.
“You own the bar, right?”
Rhys leans forward and I catch the confused look on his face in the glow of the light from the house.
“I do.”
“Ruby said that I can’t get a job because I don’t have any documentation.” That had been a crushing conversation. I told Ruby I wanted to be able to buy my own things, to help her with the cost of food and her home, but she’d told me I was technically a ghost. “I don’t have a birth certificate or an ID. I want to contribute, but I can’t just go out and get a job. Miri said she would have hired me at her store, but she just brought on someone to help out. I don’t want to ask you to break any laws or anything…”
“Yes. Yeah. Of course. Yes, you can work at the bar. I’ll pay in cash, and you’ll make tips too. In the meantime, we can figure out how to get you some actual documentation. That way, if you don’t want to keep working at the bar, you’ll have options.” Rhys has his elbows on the table, leaning forward, and looking as excited as I feel.
“Really?” Warmth blooms in my chest, spreading from the center, down my limbs, and to the tips of my fingers and toes.
“Anything, Zara. Anything you need,” Rhys says, sounding so serious. And I know he means it. I could ask him for anything, and I have the feeling he would move the worlds to make it happen. I know it doesn’t make sense, that we’ve only known each other for a short amount of time, but it’s the truth.
We sit in silence, enjoying the music of nature and the warm breeze that occasionally drifts around us. Rhys shifts in his seat and clears his throat. Then he does it again, this time playing with the wrapper on his water bottle.
“Are you okay?”
“I, ah, I have something to tell you.”
A pit sinks down deep into my stomach, feeling heavy and sickening. What is it? Have I been totally overinflating his feelings for me? Is there another woman in his life?
I’ll kill him.
Does he want to take back the job offer?
How quickly I swing from self-assured to worried and pitiful. “What?”
“Colton was waiting for me outside the bar the other night. After the movie at Ezra’s.”
“What happened?” The blood coursing through my body turns to ice.
