Chapter Five: Sure… Come in?

Zoey’s POV:

Zach Rivers name was whispered all around me, and when someone walked up to me, I pretended my ear pods were blasting. In reality, I did not want to be bugged. Even though I was the owner and had around fifty dog groomers working for me

Clarissa was outside of DogLife when I went to lock up; I canceled the ride that Zach Rivers still had waiting for me when I saw her vehicle. She opens the side door, and I get in.

“Zach Rivers?” She screams before I can even shut the door. She turns on me. “When did you start seeing him?” A hundred questions are thrown my way. Each of them escalated by her annoyance at me for hiding this from her.

“Clarissa. We are not dating. He moved into our apartment complex. Or my apartment complex since you had to move out and abandon me.”

She swatted at my leg. “I’m getting married, and I’m not abandoning you. I’m here, aren’t I?”

“I suppose,” I grumble to her.

“You suppose?” She lays into me for a couple of minutes. The fact that she had to drive to my place of business and I could not just answer her text messages irked her. “So, are you going to see him?”

I blinked at her. “See Zach Rivers?” And then I started laughing. “No-no-no. Come on, Clarissa, you know out of anyone I wouldn’t… No.”

“Hmmm…” She lets it slide too quickly. “Well, I’m craving Thai food to go, so let’s go, and you can tell me all about it.”

I grumbled, leaning back in my seat and buckling in “if all I knew it would take to get you back at the apartment this fast was to have a famous rockstar move into our apartment building….”

She swatted my arm. “Such as shame it had to happen the day I moved out.”

We order drunken noodles and curry to go and walk back to the apartment. It was a perfect fall day. And Clarissa had not been gone long enough for me to miss her, so it felt like she had never moved out.

We were stepping off the elevator on my floor when she stopped me. She placed her hand on my shoulder and had me look at her.

“You know you can talk to me about anything. Right?” I nod, wanting for this touchy moment to be done. “I mean anything, even the past stuff.”

“I got it. Thanks.” Emotions and talking about them were not something I was ever great at.

We turned the corner, and Zach Rivers was standing a couple of feet away. This guy was everywhere. It also meant he heard Clarissa’s ” You can always talk to me ” speech as if I were a broken doll. Which I was.

“Zach…” Clarissa stopped walking, her brain short-circuiting. “You are Zach…” she’s trying to get the words out.

“And we were just going,” I say, pulling on her arm, trying to get her to move, to walk. But she is frozen. I’m five seconds away from throwing the bubble tea in her face that I got from the Thai restaurant.

“Zach Rivers.” He’s smirking at my best friend. It was also annoying that everyone always had to use his first and last name. Granted, it’s not like all of America could say Zach as if you are on a first-name basis with him. However, once they say Zach Rivers the first time in an article, do they need to do it every single time after that? No. They don’t.

“Clarissa.” I yank on her. But Clarissa, my usually socially not awkward best friend, has gone comatose.

I nod my head at Zach…. “Fix her.”

He smiles at me and then at her.

“That’s not going to fix her.” I hiss at him.

“I don’t know how to fix her. This is how most women react to me. They do not shh me.” And I know he is talking about earlier today.

“No. Trust me. Most women are like me. You just have not met enough.” I chide at him.

He chuckles. “Trust me, babe. I have met enough in my lifetime, and they act like your friend Clarissa here.” Zach is now on one side of her, and I am on the other as we walk her toward my apartment.

“Don’t call me babe,” I hiss at him, resisting sticking out my tongue like a ten-year-old. I unlock my apartment door, and we lightly drop Clarissa on the couch. Zach takes a step back, throwing his hands in his black puffer vest. It was seriously sickening how good he looked in it.

“That’s all. Thank you.”

Clarissa jumps up from the couch, who seems to have come back to us. “You should stay for supper. We order too much every time.”

“Yea. That’s because the drunken noodles are better the next day for leftovers. I’m sure Zach here has a busy night ahead of him.”

He steps toward me, letting Clarissa blow by us.

“No, I assure you it was going to be pretty low-key. Supper sounds great. And drunken noodles sound interesting.”

I roll my eyes at him. “I’ll be right back.”

I leave the kitchen and pray Clarissa doesn’t lose herself while I’m gone. I head to my room and do what I had planned before the Rockstar Hollywood hottie showed up and ruined our night plans.

I pick out my rattiest sweatpants, my favorite all-black sweatshirt, and throw my hair up in a messy bun. My contacts are next, and I replace them with the round glasses I wear only inside my apartment. My grey slippers are waiting for me, and my feet are in them before leaving my room.

Zach does a double-take when I walk in the room; he smirks at me.

“I can get down with a slumber party.” He whispers in my ear as he walks behind me to sit at the table.

“I see you will always act like I am family,” Clarissa says, eyeing my attire.

Clarissa has been the only family I have had since I was ten.

“You’re the only family I got, boo.” I air-kissed her from across the table. “Also, when did we start using the kitchen table?” I pick up a plate, pile both entries on it and make my way into the living room. I can hear chairs shuffling and steps following.

“Tonight on the bachelorette…” we settle on the couch and on the floor to watch the newest season of the trash reality tv that Clarissa and I can never seem to break away from.

“This… this is what women want?” Zach asks, sounding appalled as the credits rolled. I’m guessing tonight was his first time watching the Bachelor franchise.

“Which part?” Clarissa asked. We had polished off the main entrees with the most help from Zach. I was a little sad that I would not have leftovers for lunch the next day.

“The sappiness?” He shrugs.

“That’s more for the ratings. But there’s something about that many guys fighting over one woman. It’s entertaining.” Clarissa says as she stands up and looks at her phone. “Shit. I have three missed calls from Joe. I must have silenced my phone on accident. I gotta go. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

She said, looking at me. Zach was still sitting on the floor off of the coffee table.

“Go. Tell Joe he has to come next time.” I call out to her.

She laughed. “Joe didn’t even know I was coming tonight. He probably thinks I’m lying in some side street dead.” She is out the door a couple of seconds later.

“Does the get-up normally work?” Zach asks, his eyes locked on me.

“Work? As in?” I peer over at him. I was tucked under the white Pom blanket Clarissa had given me as a Christmas gift.

“Make guys second think you? This bum look you were trying to pull off.”

I laugh. “This is my normal attire on Thursday night. This had nothing to do with your presence tonight. If it were up to me, it would have just been Clarissa and myself tonight.”

He sits up more and slides back, so his back is resting against the couch. “That’s what I don’t get. Most women would be vowing for my attention. It would be like the TV show. I’ve seen women trip one another so that they can be the first one to get a picture with me. But you? You want nothing to do with me.”