Chapter Ten: Moment of Truth

Zoey’s POV:

I woke to a blaring headache. And once again, enough missed phone calls that I didn’t want to look at my phone.

I got ready for work that I was running late by two hours. I was never late to work. But my alarm had not been set before I fell asleep last night because, well, wine.

Clarissa texted me another article. She had to have a google alert set up for me at this point. When I opened the article, the picture was of Zach and me. It looked rather intimate. And I was feeling good like really good last night, but the picture had to come from his apartment door area. I should have gone to work, but instead, I turn around and pound on his door.

A lady dressed in dressy slacks and a flowy blue business shirt opens the door. I hadn’t seen anyone but Zach around his apartment before this.

“I need to speak to Zach,” I demand. The lady looks down at her phone and finishes sending a text, her nails clicking on the screen.

“Zach Rivers is not available right now.”

“Denise,” Zach’s voice carries through the apartment. “Did you get my coffee?”

Zach appears behind her, his eyes landing on mine. He smiles, his head tilting to the side in a boyish grin. “Hey.” He nods at Denise, and she walks into the apartment. “Two sugar cubes.” He yells over his shoulder. “What’s up?” He asks, turning his attention back to me.

I hold my phone up to him. “This was leaked.” He stares at my phone, his thumbs moving up and down. “This was leaked from your apartment.”

The article made it seem like we had been on a date, and Zach was dropping me off at my apartment door. My beliefs of waiting for marriage for sex were splashed throughout the article. I had no clue how they even knew this much detail about me.

Zach does not deny my claims. He looks back up at me and hands me my phone. He sighs, his boyish grin gone. “Come on in.”

Denise has his coffee made on a saucer plate with a small silver coffee spoon. It was almost comical, and if I were in a better mood, I would have laughed.

“Denise, Zoey. Zoey, Denise, my assistant.” I nod at her, and she does a grimacing smile back at me.

“So why are you leaking photos of us to the press? Was there even an ax murderer last night to or did you intercept him and make that story up?”

He runs his hands through his hair and then drops down on his couch. “Your date last night was a bad guy; that was all true.” I narrow my eyes at him, and he starts speaking, “I used to have this clean image. Everyone thought of me as America’s sweetheart. And then I went through a rough patch, and now that’s all anyone sees.”

I raise my eyebrows. “Ok, and how do I come into this? You date Virgin Mary, and you think America will love and trust you again?”

His face has whiplash when I say the word virgin.

“You are a virgin? How is that even possible?”

My face is turning red slightly. “It is called not finding the right person, yet.”

A moment passes. “I saw your TikTok page. It was stupid.”

“You what?”

He looks over at Denise as if he forgot we had an audience. “Denise, can you” and he nods to the door. She sighs, apparently bored with our exchange. He waits for the door to close.

“Your TikTok page. I saw it, and for some reason, I picked you.”

“Why?”

He shrugs. “My publicist was harping on me about my image and cleaning it up. Saying I needed to date. But date one girl. I was on my phone, and you were there doing a live video. And I told him I would date, but it had to be you.”

What. The. Actual. Fuck.

I leave him sitting on his couch and walk out. I had to process everything he had just told me. Work went slow.

Clarissa did not pick up her phone when I called her at six o clock, so I hitched an Uber to her new place of residence. I was happy she moved out for once so I would not have to go back to my apartment.

She did not open her door, so I let myself in since she had given me their door code when they had moved in. The place was empty; not even Joe was in. That was how I had found myself falling asleep on their couch a couple of hours later.

“Zoe.” Clarissa’s petite hand is shaking me awake. “Want to explain what’s going on?” She was looking down at me with concerned eyes. She knew how hard it was to get me to sleep somewhere overnight. I sat up still in my work clothes from the day before.

“I needed to talk to you,” I said, looking up at her.

She smiled. “I tried calling you back it went to voicemail. We got home last night and saw you asleep, so I decided to wait until morning to wake you.”

“You are judging me….”

She shrugs. “If I say I’m not judging you, you’ll know I’m lying. Is everything ok?”

I sit up, throwing my head against the back of their couch.

“That bad, huh?”

So I tell her everything. She interrupts at all the good parts and is thoroughly concerned that my possible wedding date could have hacked me up into multiple pieces.

She hits my leg at the end of it. “What is the problem here?” Her mouth is hanging wide open. “Zach Rivers wants to date you. He saw a video of you and picked you. Do you know how crazy that is?”

“Exactly. It’s a little creepy.”

She laughs at me. “No, Mr. Blind date with duct tape and shit is creepy. Zach Rivers wanting you is so not creepy. It’s frickin hot. What is the hold-up?”

“The fact that it is Zach Rivers.”