Page 35 of Words We Didn't Say

“Oh, uh…”

I stared at him, my jaw somewhere on the floor with his half-arsed apology. “You told Michaela I moved out, right?” Dread crept over me, tossing me back in the shadows outside his office, remembering how he’d shoved his phone across the desk. Out of sight, out of mind. “She knows about me…right?”

Zach’s lips flattened. Whatever he was about to say, he didn’t want to say it. “Eden, you need to understand. My boss hasdrilled into me—God, everyone at Worley—personal lives don’t exist—”

“I don’texist?You haven’t toldanyoneat your work about me? Like I’m—” A strangled sob threatened to choke my words. “I’mnothing?”

“No, of course not. You’re my universe, Denny Dee.”

“Except for work. Except for the fact you don’t know anything about me!” My chin wobbled, devastation crawling up my neck in a hot flush. I clenched my fist to fight the tears. “You didn’t even remember I own my salon! Strangers queue up around the block just to get a photo of it…and you forgot about it…like…it didn’t matter at all!”

Zach’s fingers speared through his hair, his shoulders slumping under the weight of realising what he’d done—ornotdone.

“I came from nothing,” I shot at him. “I had no one on my team except Andie. I’m so proud of what I’ve achieved, and you stand there and reduce it to nothing…because you think I’m…” I gulped. “You think I’mnothing.You said I wasno one.” Just like my father. “Even though I gave you everything.”

The pain softening his dark eyes hardened. “Did you?” The words were ice.

“You know I did.”

“You never even bothered to unpack!”

“I—I was busy.”

“Bullshit, Eden. Bull. Shit.” His words, spoken so calmly, were brittle. “You’ve had one foot out my door since you moved in. You were just waiting for an excuse to leave.” His eyes widened, almost like he was shocked the accusation had spewed out.

But he was right, wasn’t he?

He’d seen more than I’d realised. He’d peeked through the cracks in my dazzling smiles to see the lost girl underneath, but he’d said nothing. Not a word.

Was that how little he cared?

Or was that howmuchhe cared?

My spine didn’t want to hold me up anymore. I wanted to collapse, curl into a ball on the supermarket floor, and for Zach to drop beside me. I wanted his arms around me. I needed him to promise he’d erase all the nights I’d spent alone before him…and with him.

That thought kept me upright.

The nights alone.

The nights he’d forgotten me. No messages. The occasional bunch of flowers or mumbled apologies about how he’d try harder but never did.

Maybe Zach was a good man in some ways, but I was nothing to him.

“I didn’t need any excuses,” I snapped. “You gave me a hundred reasons to leave you. See this?” I dug the rental paperwork out of my handbag and shoved it in his face. “Now, I’ve gotbothfeet out the door. And I’mnevercoming back!”

It was so much easier to be angry than hurt.

It was so much easier to walk away than stay.

10

He didn’t say, “I want a lifetime, too.”

Zach

The bell jingled.

Habit lifted my gaze off the spot knotted in the hardwood floor. I’d watched the door at Brew Haha for months, hoping to catch a glimpse of Eden. I’d only stopped my daily habit when she’d started walking into the coffee shop with me. We’d join the line. She’d smile, wave, and dole out the charm, and I’d sneak a kiss on her neck.

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