Page 116 of The Life-Changing Magic of Falling in Love

I give him a nod to indicate message received loud and clear. I like how protective he and Oz are over Ashleigh and even though I’ve not seen any evidence of Zach being like that with her tonight, that doesn’t mean he isn’t a nice guy.

I remind myself I’m usually a nice guy and try to get to know him better. ‘Ashleigh mentioned you’re an HVAC engineer, Zach?’

‘Yep,’ Zach says.

‘He’s thinking of starting up on his own,’ Ashleigh adds like she’s listing his prospects.

‘Nah, I told you I wasn’t pursuing that anymore, remember?’ he says, and then explains to me, ‘Too much hassle.’

I’m not sure what to say about his lack of ambition, other than, ‘Well, at least you’re honest.’

‘It’s a good skill to have,’ Zach responds, making me wonder when honesty became a skill and not a pre-requisite for a relationship. ‘Life can get really complicated,’ he adds. ‘It’s good to understand when to slow it down. Chill. You know?’

‘So, um, what does chilling involve?’ I can’t imagine Ashleigh overly complicating anyone’s life. Quite the opposite if I think about how much she helped me.

‘Nothing better than a game of five-a-side after work,’ he says.

‘As in soccer? You play soccer?’

‘Soon as this cast comes off.’

‘George plays as well,’ Ashleigh remarks and with a look for me, adds, ‘Or have I got that wrong?’

‘Not for years,’ I admit. ‘But I know what you mean about it being great to do in spare time. I used to coach kids at weekends back in the UK.’

‘Ah, the photo you have makes sense now,’ Ashleigh responds.

I’m trying to understand if it’s that Zach doesn’t have one jealous bone in his body or if it’s complete indifference to hearing that Ashleigh knows what photos I own when it suddenly occurs to me it’s as simple as him knowing she’s my cleaner.

‘Ashleigh reads to kids at the hospital in her spare time,’ I say. ‘Did you know that?’

‘Sure,’ Zach answers all easy-breezy. As if it isn’t a big thing or something to be proud of.

‘Have you seen her artwork?’ I ask.

That has him looking confused. Enough to make me think he knows next to nothing about her but then she’s filling the gap and talking a mile a minute about how I must miss coaching and how it’s something I should get into over here and have I looked into joining a rock choir, yet?

‘Or…’ Carlos interrupts as Oz brings out the tins of brownies and sets them down in front of us. ‘You could spend your spare time telling all your friends about Oscars. Right?’

‘Right,’ the three of us answer and then it’s heads down as we decorate.

Grabbing a piping bag, I start icing a grid pattern and then after shading some of the boxes in, I ice in letters in a couple of spaces until movement out of the corner of my eye has me glancing up to see Zach playfully trying to smear a blob of icing across Ashleigh’s cheek.

‘You’re dribbling,’ Oz tells me.

‘Huh?’ I look to where his gaze is and realise, I’m squeezing the piping bag so hard icing is oozing out all over the floor. ‘Shit, sorry.’

‘Happens to the best of us,’ he laughs. ‘Well, no, not me. My aim is never off.’

‘Mine either,’ Carlos comments, barley managing to hide his smile as he passes me a wad of catering tissue.

‘I was distracted by the quality of their decorating,’ I mutter. ‘Are those meant to be soccer balls you’re icing on top of your brownies? How is that romantic?’ I ask.

‘I’m not sure you’re in a position to mock another’s love language,’ Oz says looking down at my own offering.

‘Yeah, what have you gone for?’ Zach asks, too busy having a good time to take offence as he leans over to look at mine.

I’m only interested in Ashleigh’s reaction as she joins him.

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