Page 61 of Words We Didn't Say

“Fucked.” She smiled innocently. “In case you forgot.”

I sighed. “I wish I could.”

Michaela’s spine stiffened. The comment hit her harder than I realised it would. “You want me to stop showing an interest in you?”

I nodded. “There’s…someone.”

Michaela stared at me, not blinking. “Someone.”

“Someone special.”

“How special?”

“I’m in love with her.” Relief painted a smile on my face so big it hurt my cheeks. It felt so right to admit my feelings for Eden aloud.

Michaela’s arms folded across her chest, her fingernails drumming against the sleeve of her blouse for a few beats before she dug them into the fabric. “You’re in love.”

“Yes.”

“Since fuckingwhen?”She spat out the words, her voice pitching up with anger.

One step, and my hand was on the door. A soft click, and it was closed. No one else needed to hear this—for Michaela’s sake, as much as mine.Personal lives stay personal.

“Michaela, you need to understand that Eden—”

“Are you fuckingkiddingme? Eden Phillips! You’ve only known that social-climbing bitch—”

“Watch your damn mouth.”

“Zach, you met her a week ago!”

“I met her nine months ago.”

“What?” Michaela ran the math, lining up the dates in her mind. “Nine months? But…that’s right after…” She slumped in the oversized leather chair until she almost disappeared.

She’d figured it out. Nine months ago, I’d ended it with her. The day I’d first seen Eden at Brew HaHa.

No one existed in the world except for Eden from that point on. It hadn’t mattered that it took me another month to suck upthe courage to peel myself off the coffee shop wall and move to the front. My courage had earned me my first smile from Eden. A month later, I’d earned a heap of smiles and a first date. And another month after that, I’d made love to her all night long…and the next morning…and after lunch.

The only decision I regretted was hooking up with Michaela. Four times too many. Nights in Michaela’s bed had left me hollow. I’d walked out of her place even emptier than when I’d walked in. A shell. Every time with Eden had fed my soul. Lifted me up. Made me want to move mountains. Corny, but true.

Michaela’s eyes widened. How many of those thoughts could she see playing out on my face? Enough to make her smack her palm on the desk and stand up.

“I don’t want casual,” she said.

I sighed. Old ground, and I had no interest in stomping in that void of regret again.

“Zach, I never really wanted casual. Not with you.” She started pushing out from behind the desk, but I raised my palm to stop her. “We’re good together. We make sense.”

“We makezerosense,” I said. “Just yesterday, you felt the need to remind everyone in the boardroom I drove a bloody Toyota Corolla when we went to university. I was never ashamed of that car, but you seem hell bloody bent on making sure I am. You still want to tell me how we’re great together?”

“You’re going to be a partner soon.”

“Oh, so suddenly I’ll be good enough for you?” I laughed. “I still come from Campsie. My parents still live there. We didn’t all grow up in mansions on the northern beaches, Michaela. Maybe you could bring it up at the next division meeting? Have a good laugh about it?”

“I never meant to make you feel bad.”

“Like fuck you didn’t.”

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