Page 9 of Five Days

Swallowing hard, I nodded without meaning to.

Zack stood and offered his hand.

I stared at his palm that appeared strong yet soft. Imagining his fingers on my skin roused my desire to an even greater height, and even though my instincts screamed for me to deny him, I found myself reaching for Zack.

Chapter 3

Landon

Callum had claimed we needed a vacation, and since I trusted that man with every aspect of my life after almost eight years of living with him, I’d agreed. He’d seen to the booking of a hotel, the flight, even my baggage.

I rarely went out into public, and the fact Callum had talked me into spending five days at an island resort said a lot about me believing he always had my best interests at heart. He was my comfort place. My Band-Aid, the one I ran toward and clung to when shit got to be too much, which happened more often than I cared to admit.

Especially when my mind overran with longing for the man I loved more than anything in the world, the one who still owned my heart regardless of the fact he’d abandoned me. Zack was my obsession even after fifteen years—and he was also the reason I wrote happily ever afters.

Regardless of the pain in our past, I couldn’t help but want him. Dreamed about growing old with him. Tried to manifest that very thing for years on end while living out each good memory we’d shared in childhood.

Unhealthy, yes, but Callum offered me nothing but support in every endeavor. He’d told me countless times he only wanted my happiness, which meant one day making things right with my lost love and planting myself back into his life where fate intended me to be.

Callum had arrived at the island an hour earlier than I did. We’d ended up having to take different planes since our original flight had been cancelled. He had texted before I’d landed that he headed to the restaurant and would bring something to our room for me. His assumption that I would be peopled out from the airport and flight was spot-on.

But.

The warmth after leaving a frigid spring behind in New England, the refreshing scent of the ocean and flowers surrounding the resort made me want to take advantage of every second my hard-earned cash had afforded me in paradise.

I decided to surprise him, focusing on the good tingles of anxiety in my belly rather than the underlying fear of being recognized and stared at. While Callum had assured me over and again that enough time had passed since the event that had all but ruined me, I couldn’t get past the festering wounds. The guilt and shame of having made one hell of a wrong choice ten years ago and being found out.

Publicly.

Virally.

The outcome had been self-esteem ruination atop my parent’s bitter disappointment.

While I told myself I didn’t care about impressing anyone, I didn’t rush readying in the two-room suite Callum and I shared—just in case pictures of me once more ended up plastered across social media and the news.

And you know…in case he ever happened upon them and got inspired to miss me enough he took one of my calls and allowed me to apologize for what I’d done.

My light brown hair refused to be tamed, I noted in the bathroom mirror, its longer length brushing over the tops of my ears and forehead. Even though I actually wanted to go outside and join Callum at what must be a lonely dinner, I looked like a timid mess. My shit brown eyes appeared wider than normal, my skin pale from being shut up inside my condo, since I’d been hunched over my keyboard without a break in far too long.

A model, I was not, but at least I had a decent body thanks to good genes and daily sparring matches with Callum in our house’s spare bedroom I’d turned into a gym.

My family might see me as lazy, believing that I lived off my grandfather’s inheritance, but I was no fool. I also didn’t lie around all day taking advantage of my friend who Father approved of because he thought Callum kept me in line.

Ha!

I snorted a laugh.

If Father only knew what I got up to during my work hours, where my mind went and how fantasies padded my bank account rather than just the investments he assumed, he would have that heart attack Mother had been warning him about for years.

Smirking and self-esteem somewhat boosted, I turned away from the unflattering bathroom mirror and exited the suite, following the signs to the outdoor restaurant.

Rarely did I go anywhere without Callum, and the fact I’d stayed put at my gate and boarded a plane after he’d disappeared into the sky spoke volumes about how far I’d come in the eight years he’d worked for me. But my codependency on Callum would never end, nor did I have a wish for it to do so.

Neither did Callum. He took pleasure in doting on me. Caring for my needy ass gave Callum a sense of purpose. His words, not mine. Placating me whenever the embarrassing selfish brat of my childhood reared his ugly head or threw a temper tantrum helped to settle his soul, he’d stated countless times.

We’d discussed our probably toxic friendship. But since we were both content with what we shared, what did it matter that we needed each other’s issues to fulfill certain parts of each other? Callum accepted me, messy roommate that I was. He watched after me when the people who should have done so kept me on the fringes of their lives due to the many mistakes I’d made in my early twenties.

Just shy of twenty-nine, I’d learned a few lessons. Some, perhaps, a bit too late, but who gave a shit?

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