Page 103 of Love, Just In

ME:Hi Zac, I’m just checking in again as I haven’t heard from you. How are you?

ME:Hey Zac, is this still your number?

CHAPTER 38

Today

I’m two minutes from Honeysuckle—barely seeing the road in front of me—when my phone blasts, sending me out of my skin. My whole body turns rigid when I see the name ‘Natasha Harrington’ flashing on the screen. I answer the call on speaker.

‘Have you seen that the video has hit the comedy talk show circuit?’ are the first words out of her mouth.

The awful feeling in my stomach grows. ‘Yes.’

She sighs deeply. ‘I was hoping it would be missed, but it’s out there now.’ I can feel her shaking her head. ‘It will all blow over, but right now, I need you to lie low.’

‘Lie low?’

‘You’ve still got a month left on your contract, so take the next two weeks off, starting today. We’ll manage, and I cannot risk another one of these clips right now.’

‘Natasha, I promise you, it will not—’

‘I’ve made my decision, Josie.’

A moments of tense silence passes between us before her tone softens a touch. ‘Look, if there’s anything you want to talk to me about, you can give me a call, OK? Otherwise, I’ll see you in two weeks.’

‘OK,’ I mumble. ‘Thank you.’She sounds like she can’t get rid of me fast enough.

After we hang up, I pull into a driveway and sit with my forehead against the wheel, reliving that disastrous on-air moment. A desperate need to call Zac surges up my spine and takes hold of my throat. But when his stricken face from the other day slides into my vision, I force away the impulse.

I kick on the engine and drive towards Nobbys Beach, where I sit on the damp sand in the wintry wind with my arms curled around my knees.

Breathe in, breathe out.

Stay calm, stay calm.

Then I catch my face in my hands and cry.

I last for two more days moping around Zac’s house before I crack and begin stuffing random bits of clothing into my suitcase. It makes no sense that Zac’s crashing at his cousin’s while I’m swanning around the house he pays for. But it’s more than that. Everything that surrounds me here belongs to him and reminds me of him. Trouble’s empty dog bed is enough to stir up my stomach, let alone the sight of Zac’s untouched sheets.I can’t be here.

My mind is also on a mission to torture me, constantly picking apart our last conversation and recalling the gutted look on Zac’s face when he left. If only I could reverse time and fix things and feel less hideous than I do right now. But as much as it hurts, I refrain from calling him. We both need time in our respective corners, like we agreed. Impulsive-Josie needs to take a damn breath.

I call Christina and put the phone on speaker while scrubbing the guest bathroom, determined to leave this place as clean as I found it.

‘Hey, you,’ she sings.

‘Hey.’

She gasps at my broken tone. ‘What’s wrong?’

‘Can I come and stay with you for a few days? I need to get out of Newcastle.’

‘Of course. What’s happened? Is this about the video?’

My throat constricts on the words I haven’t been able to say aloud until now. ‘I’ve been put on forced leave for two weeks. The news director up here wants the dead-air story to die down before I’m allowed back at work.’

‘Oh, darling. I’m so sorry.’

I scrape the sponge across the granite countertop. ‘Thanks. I’m lucky I didn’t lose my job entirely. But I can kiss goodbye the idea that Oliver Novak is going to call, begging me to be your replacement.’

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