by Cassie Rocca
The phone rang, vibrating on the desk. She grabbed it without looking at the display, silently thanking whoever it was for the distraction.
“Hello?”
“Am I disturbing you?”
An unmistakable voice which until a few hours ago would have brought a smile of genuine happiness to her face but which now only made the blood rush to her already flushed face.
“Eric …”
“I need to talk. As soon as possible.”
“Okay. What about?”
“Me… you. I mean, us.”
Us? Now she understood why cardiologists were paid so much. This type of emotion created imbalances in the life of a human being, making the need for medical intervention more than likely.
“Yes.” she stammered, as she tried to slow down the accelerated beating of her heart by taking a deep breath.
“Are you sure you want to hear this? Because once it’s out of the box, nothing will ever be the same again.”
Eric’s voice was deep, full of barely contained emotions. In a flash, she knew that she wanted at all costs to hear what he had to say.
“You can tell me anything you want,” she whispered.
“I’d rather tell you face to face.”
“Then come round… or do you want me to come over to your place?”
The sound of the doorbell almost made her trembling legs give way.
Lifting the hem of the red dress that she’d forgotten she was still wearing, she ran to the door and flung it open. There he was, his phone still up against his ear, wearing a shirt that she’d never seen before. His hair was messy, there was a trace of stubble on his face and he was wearing his faithful glasses. He really was gorgeous…
She continued talking to him on the phone despite the fact that he was now standing in front of her. “What did you want to tell me?”
“You look beautiful.”
“It’s the dress…”
“No, you are, you always have been and I can’t look at you any more without wanting you.”
Letting the phone fall to the ground, she ran into his arms. She had no idea why this was happening right now, she hadn’t expected it or ever imagined it but suddenly it seemed absolutely right, exciting, and perfect.
She couldn’t wait to savor the delights of his kisses.
She closed her eyes and, breaking away from her embrace, Eric took her face in his hands and lowered his head.
“Stephanie, I love you…”
Stephanie?
“No!” she shouted, her heart sinking in her chest. “You want me –only me!”
“And why would I want you?” asked Eric, sounding deadly serious.
A sob escaped her lips, and the sound echoed round the empty room…
Feeling her heart beating wildly, Zoe emerged from sleep with a small groan of despair. She put her hand to her chest in an attempt to calm herself down and sat up. In the darkness of the room, the faint light of the clock radio showed that it was a little past three in the morning and that she hadn’t been asleep for more than a couple of hours.
The images of her dream still filled her mind like some kind of out of control music video, making her shake her head in disbelief.
With trembling legs she got out of bed and walked to the window, which offered a spectacular view of the Empire State Building lit up in red for the forthcoming celebrations for people in love.
What the hell was going on? Was it just the desire to have someone by her side that had provoked those strange dreams, or the fear of someone taking away her best friend? Or was it that, after what had happened that afternoon at the photo shoot, she had really started to see Eric in a different light?
“You’ve already dreamed about kissing him, remember? And you hadn’t even seen him naked at that point…”
Maybe it was time to talk to someone about these confusing thoughts that were swirling around in her head and get some dispassionate advice from someone who saw the whole thing from a different perspective.
Are you sure you want to hear this? Once this is set in motion, nothing will ever be the same…
The words that Eric had said in the dream echoed in her head, making her stomach churn. Was her subconscious trying to tell her something?
“Ok, it’s official, these celebrations are having a strange effect on me,” she murmured to the empty room, resting her forehead against the cold window pane.
Chapter 8
She felt tired and drained of energy. Maybe it was just because of how stressful things had been over the last few months, the freezing weather or all the chaos that there had been at work recently.
Actually, that morning she’d only had a couple of relatively simple photo shoots to do, after which she had dedicated herself to selecting, photo-shopping and printing off the photos for Sydney’s calendar.
They had come out really well. All the models were handsome and credible in the roles they were playing, and Syd was just gorgeous. What really stood out, though, was how much she had obviously genuinely enjoyed posing for those photos, and that had really pleased Brooke Samuels. The idea had begun as a way of bringing a smile back to her friend’s face and it could confidently be stated that she had achieved her objective.
It was five days until Valentine’s Day and the calendar was almost ready. She would send the photos to Brooke for approval before sending everything off to the printers, but Zoe was sure Brooke wouldn’t find anything wrong with them. The shoot had been a real success.
A success that, after dismantling the set and returning to her apartment, had left her with a splitting headache which was still throbbing annoyingly at her temples after an almost sleepless night and two aspirin.
Especially after the strange dream she’d had about Eric.
Again.
“It’s just because Valentine’s Day is getting nearer and it has this effect on you,” she repeated to herself for the umpteenth time, rubbing her forehead. All that love in the air could go to your head.
But when Eric loomed into view, her justification crumbled before her eyes like a sand castle.
Damn it, she just couldn’t look at him any more without seeing him naked! Beneath his striped sweater, his unpretentious jeans and the inevitable spectacles on his nose, all she could see now was that toned, wiry physique that had left her breathless.
She had seen a multitude of men undress in her life, both for work and for pleasure, and she had usually found herself being attracted to the macho, muscular types, so she was struggling to understand her reaction to Eric’s more subtle beauty. Yet even fully clothed it was easy to make out from the breadth of his shoulders, his exciting athletic physique and his height. How come she hadn’t noticed how potentially sexy he was before?
It was her job, damn it! To grasp the nuances, the personality behind a face, the harmony of a body, it was all part of her success as a photographer. Instead, after ten years of friendship, she’d never managed to see the young man’s exciting qualities – she had been blinded by his nondescript appearance, by his unassuming way of going about things and by that shyness of his that seemed to be always holding him back from doing what he really wanted to…
Sexy? Exciting?
Why had she suddenly started thinking about Eric that way? Seeing him naked certainly hadn’t changed things. Clover was right, he was still the clever know-it-all that they all knew, and the fact that he was suddenly able to make her drool simply by wearing a skimpy cotton skirt and a layer of baby oil to highlight his muscles or by wearing a pair of wings and holding a bow and arrow shouldn’t really change anything.
“You okay?”
The voice, as warm as the hand that rested gently on her back, surprised her, and Zoe sat up suddenly and turned round.
“Yup!” she exclaimed hastily. The idea that Eric might be able to read her thoughts by looking into her eyes made her turn her face away immediately.
Eric looked puzzled. “It looked as though your head was about to hit the
counter.”
“It was kind of you to worry.”
“It wasn’t kindness, it’s my job. We need that counter, I can’t let your head collide with it. It might get broken,” he joked.
Relaxing slightly, Zoe pulled a face. Now she recognized her lifelong friend.
“Ha-ha-ha. How hilarious.”
“Hey, what can you do. I’ve discovered new opportunities that previously weren’t accessible to me. After my recent experience as a sex symbol, I might almost even consider taking up stand-up comedy.”
“A man of many hidden talents, no doubt about it.”
Zoe watched him place a huge, fluffy heart in the window and found herself craning her neck to get a better view.
Good God, she was looking at his butt!
Pulling herself together she got up quickly, covering her eyes with her hands.
“What are you doing?” asked Eric, walking back over to stand next to her.
“I’ve got a headache.”
“Go and take a rest, I’ll take care of things here.”
“No, I need some distraction. You have to edit Brooke’s video. I haven’t got anything to do until four and with this weather I doubt many people are likely to come by. I can manage.”
Eric stopped in front of her, his green-blue eyes looking anxious behind his lenses.
“You sure? I can do the video tonight.”
“Haven’t you got anything better to do than taking work home with you?”
“No, actually, I haven’t,” he replied without hesitation.
Zoe stared at him. “And what about Stephanie?”
Eric hid his slight embarrassment behind a careless gesture.
“I didn’t mean it like that. But she has another commitment tonight, so I’m free.” He went back to staring at her attentively, and Zoe felt herself getting agitated. “Is that invitation for a pizza still going? I mean, I still haven’t forgiven you.”
“Err… I don’t know” she hesitated uneasily, something she had never done before. What the hell was happening?
“You’re right, sorry. You don’t feel very well, and then there’s all this snow. Forget I asked.” Eric gave her a pat on the back and disappeared into his office without giving her time to answer. Moreover, it would have taken her several minutes to put together a meaningful sentence, since her tongue was stuck to the roof of her mouth.
With a groan, she lay her head on the cold counter.
The door opened letting a soaked but smiling Clover in as Liberty came down the stairs.
Zoe sighed.
“Look at her, Lib. She’s been out in this awful weather and yet she still manages to smile!”
“The power of love!” Clover sighed, and put her hands to her chest. “Cade came back last night.”
Zoe turned to her boss. “Can I kill her now or do you need her for anything?”
“Ask me again after Valentine’s Day – right now she’s almost indispensable,” said Liberty, turning towards the coffee machine that was in a niche behind the counter.
Clover moved towards the counter and waved a paper bag under Zoe’s nose. “If I offer you a frosted donut will you forgive me for being so happy?”
Zoe took it.
“Only if I can have all of them. I’m going to need a lot of sugar to fight off this pervasive sadness.”
“Sadness? Everyone’s so damn sickly-sweet at the moment I’m starting to worry about getting tooth decay,” muttered Liberty, warming her hands on her cup of coffee.
Zoe looked at her in surprise. “You too, Lib?”
“Me too, what?”
“I thought I was the only bitter, jealous one in here. I mean, it would be normal – I’m the only one who’s single.”
“I’m not jealous,” smiled the blonde. “Have you ever seen me sighing dreamily or going into raptures over romantic drivel?”
“No, actually.”
“A little sweetness would do you good, Lib,” said Clover, offering her boss the bag of donuts. “Have one.”
Liberty stepped backwards as if she’d been confronted by the devil. “No thanks!”
Clover raised her eyebrows. “What have you got against sweet things? You always react to them like you’re being offered rat poison.”
“Hey, it took me years to get into a size forty, I’m not going to let a handful of carbohydrates ruin everything again,” she snapped, turning on her heel and marching off to her office.
Zoe and Clover looked at each other in amazement, then launched into their donuts.
“How’s it going?”
Zoe shrugged. “Aside from the headache, business as usual.”
“Eric?” Clover asked, holding back a laugh as she saw her raise her head sharply.
“If you want to know how Eric is, ask him,” she huffed, trying to make light of the situation. Clover had been watching her suspiciously since the day before, she knew something was up. Moreover, after her weird reaction to seeing Eric naked, it was hardly surprising. “Stop looking at me like that,” she said threateningly.
“Zoe, when you dropped your camera, I thought I was going to die with laughter!” chuckled Clover. “If I were going to draw that expression of yours from yesterday in a cartoon, you’d have your mouth wide open and drooling, your eyes bulging out of their sockets and your heart pounding visibly under your blouse! I could ask Lib to do us a sketch…”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Zoe sank her teeth deeper into her donut. “I dropped the camera because I was distracted.”
“Oh, yes! We all noticed.”
“Give it a rest, it’s not what you think,” Zoe repeated to Clover and to herself, hoping that she sounded convincing. Thinking back to that awkward moment and her subsequent dreams, the alternative was to admit that she had been disturbed by that magnetic gaze and by all the desire that Eric had communicated to her in that particular moment. But it was just coincidence, obviously. It had been her who had told him to put more passion into it while he was posing for the calendar pictures. Eric had just carried out her orders.
Perfectly.
“I must admit he did look really good dressed as Cupid,” Clover continued, undeterred. “I wasn’t expecting that.”
“Exactly. So you can understand my surprise.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t stand there with my mouth hanging open like someone starving to death at the sight of a table set for a Fourth of July picnic! Though it’s true that I didn’t get to see what was under his skirt…”
Zoe nearly choked on her last mouthful of donut and coughed loudly, much to the amusement of Clover, who added, “It’s a pity that he has a girlfriend now.”
Recovering slowly, Zoe brushed the crumbs from her hands. “It wouldn’t change anything. We’ve been friends for a long time, and yet we seem to spend half of our time bickering over nothing. Us two being together would be a disaster, it would ruin everything. I’m too complicated for a straightforward guy like Eric. I’d make him miserable.”
The triumphant look on Clover’s face made her realize that she had fallen into a carefully prepared trap. And suddenly she understood.
Her words had highlighted an accurate analysis of the situation: she had practically admitted that she had seriously considered the hypothesis of a relationship between her and Eric.
She hastened to rectify the situation. “Well, this conversation is neither here nor there, anyway. Feeling embarrassed about seeing a friend completely naked doesn’t mean anything.”
“I wasn’t suggesting anything – you did that all by yourself,” smiled Clover, picking up the now empty donut bag. “I’m going to call my next customer. If I can finish soon, I can go home early and see Cade. The snow does have some good points, after all. Among other things, it discourages people from wasting time shopping and it creates a very romantic atmosphere!”
Zoe saw her go into the office she shared with Eric, and sighed for the umpteenth time that day.
She would have preferred not
to have to deal with people who were in love until Valentine’s Day was over and done with – and perhaps not even afterwards. Instead all she seemed to do was meet dreamy-eyed women, and men intent on surprising their partners with special gifts.
And speaking of the devil… The door opened again, and in came Stephanie. Zoe felt a small flicker of irritation. It wasn’t unusual to see her in Giftland, and she knew that the relationship between her and Eric had become more serious after that disastrous evening when the four of them had been out together. But she wasn’t expecting to see her that particular day. Eric had said that they weren’t seeing each other.
“Hello Zoe,” Steffy smiled, brushing the snow off her jacket.
“I wasn’t expecting you today. Not this early, anyway.”
“I wasn’t going to come, actually. But before going to my best friend’s bridal shower, I decided to pop in and surprise Eric.” The blonde shrugged, her face glowing with happiness. “I’d be sorry to miss even a moment that I could spend with him.”
“I see,” Zoe deftly changed the subject. “Your friend is getting married, then?”
“Yes, on Valentine’s Day and luckily the wedding is at the Plaza, so at least we’ll be dry. They’re forecasting a blizzard for that night.”
“Well I’m glad I’ll be spending it in the warmth of my apartment, then,” Zoe smiled, lying through her teeth.
“You and your boyfriend are celebrating at home?” asked Stephanie candidly.
Zoe felt a sudden and irresistible urge to strangle her.
Fortunately, she didn’t need to reply because Steffy continued thoughtfully. “I don’t know what will happen. I mean, Eric and I are going out together, it’s true, but I don’t know if we can really call ourselves a couple yet. So I don’t know whether to ask him to come to Nicole’s wedding with me or not.”
“You haven’t been together long enough to figure out what direction your relationship will take yet?”
“But I would still like to give him a little present.” Stephanie lowered her voice. “What do you suggest? You know Eric much better than I do.”
“Oh,” Zoe looked around, taken aback. “I know what he likes, that’s true, but I can’t choose something for Valentine’s Day. It’s not the same as getting him a birthday present or a Christmas present.”
