Page 18 of Zen's Crash

I smooth down my black lace top and glance down to make sure the fly on my new black leather pants hasn’t unzipped again. “Don’t let up with the compliments. My self-esteem is so low that a good compliment might be rewarded in new and exciting ways.”

“Are you flirting with me?” he asks.

I decide to go for broke, “Maybe.”

His eyes are shining with amusement. “I’m glad you came.”

“Really,” I ask as I slide into the only other seat at the small two-top. “Why is that exactly?”

“It’s been a hell of a week. Getting the opportunity to see you again made my day.”

“If that’s the case, I’m glad I came. You aren’t the only one who had a crappy week, my friend.”

Motioning for the bartender to bring me a drink, he asks, “You too?”

“Yeah, me too.”

“Wanna talk about it?” he offers.

We stop talking long enough for the prospect to drop off my beer “Sure, we can trade stories, you know, get it all off our chest.”

Taking another sip of his beer, he points at me with the bottom of his bottle. “You first.”

“I’ll keep it short. Between being harassed online, people being complete idiots, and the guy who delivered my food trying to break into my house, I’m super glad this week is coming to an end.” Grinning, I tell him, “Your turn.”

He takes a deep breath and follows my delivery pattern, “Between someone stealing my money, having to tell a little white lie to help my sister, and falling on my face professionally, my week has been ridiculous.”

I lift up my glass and propose a reckless toast, “May all the assholes in the world implode the moment they do something shitty to another person.”

He gently clinks his bottle against mine, “I’ll drink to that.”

“Now that we got that out of the way, tell me one good thing about your week.”

His eyes go wide with surprise. “I found the person who stole a bunch of money from my little sister.”

“How little is the sister, and how big is the money? If she’s a kid, and it wasn’t a lot, wouldn’t it be better to just give her more cash than fight over a few dollars?”

“Sage advice to be sure, my sweet Lexi. Unfortunately, it’s a hundred grand—all the money she’d saved for her college fund.”

“Damn! Yeah, that’s too much to just let it go. You’ll have to get the police involved.”

“Yeah, I know,” he says grudgingly.

“How about your one good thing for the week?”

Thinking it over, I tell him, “For me it was coming here, I suppose.”

“Don’t hate the kid, but Evan told me you almost never leave your house.”

“I wouldn’t hate him for that. Kayla probably told him. She really doesn’t have much of a filter sometimes.”

Zen reaches out and covers my hand with his. “If you need someone to talk to about it, I’m here.”

“Fuck that. It would feel like dumping all my excess emotional garbage on a nice guy.”

He tells me gently, “You said yourself that unburdening yourself can be healthier.”

“Evan probably told you all about how my father died.”

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