Page 48 of Crazy Thing

Something primal roars to life inside of me, seeing the gorgeous woman wearing my clothes while that vulnerable expression dances in her eyes.

“Darius, what exactly is going on here?” she asks me, the air heavy with fizzing tension.

“We’re, uh”—I clear my throat—“we’re working.”

Ziggy doesn’t buy it. Her doubtful expression tells me so.

I try again. “I…I…” I drop my shoulders and shake my head.

Because I really shouldn’t tell her that I missed her so bad all weekend and that I got jealous seeing her with another man and that I was desperate to get her alone with me.

Saying all that would be wrong. But it’s also the truth.

I try again. “I enjoy your company, Ziggy. Outside of the office.”

If I thought she’d be flattered by that confession, I was wrong. Instead, Ziggy looks massively offended. “Outside ofthe office? You mean, in the dark? In the shadows? Where no-one can see you with a girl like me?”

I blink. “What?” What the hell is she talking about?

She stands taller, holding her shoulders straight. “I get it—a guy like you…why would you want anyone knowing that you hooked up with the weird hippie girl? I get it.”

“And Idon’tget it,” I say forcefully.

“Girls like Cecily—womenlike Cecily—those are the kinds of women that men want to be seen with. Meanwhile, I get to be the dirty, little secret. The one who gets hidden in the dark.”

What?! She’s got this all wrong!

No offense to Cecily but women like her are a dime a dozen. They all look the same, smell the same, taste the same. To each their own, but personally, I find women like Cecily boring.

Meanwhile, Ziggy…She’s unique. She’s bewitching. She haunts all of my senses.

I want to bust down these walls between us and confess it all to her. But when I open my mouth, my billion-dollar negotiation skills fail me.

I don’t have the guts to say what I want to say. In this moment, I’m nothing but that teenaged coward all over again.

“I’ve never looked at you that way, Ziggy,” is all I can say in a weak, unpersuasive voice.

“Yeah. Sure.”

My jaw clenches. I’m so frustrated.

I’m frustrated that I feel so strongly about her. I’m frustrated that I don’t know what to do about it. I’m frustrated that I don’t have the balls to tell her where my head is at, where my heart is at.

“Why the hell do you hate me so fucking much?” I blurt instead.

“Are you even being for real right now?” she spits out, her eyes bugging wide. Like she’s shocked that I’d ask such a stupid question.

“I know that I fucked things up in an epic way. But that was in the past. Would you cut me some slack? Why the hell are you still so mad at me? It’s been more than fifteen years. Why does our past still matter so much?”

Ziggy breaks. “Because I really liked you!” Her screech echoes in the quiet air. “I really, really liked you, Darius.”

The tears come in out of nowhere, quickly spilling from her eyes. Each rivulet of pain streaking down her cheek is a bullet to my chest. All I can do is sweep them away with my thumbs. “I really liked you, too, Ziggy.”I still do.

“You sure didn’t act like it,” she retorts, still stubborn in spite of her tears. “Because the day after you kissed me, you acted like you didn’t even know me.”

“I was a teenager,” I defend weakly. “I was overwhelmed. Kissing you was like nothing I’d ever experienced before. You have no idea how much that kiss changed my life.” I trail my knuckles along her freckled cheekbone.

I remember it like it was yesterday. Frolicking in the woods with Ziggy. Kissing her beneath the waterfall. Falling helplessly under her spell.

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