Page 68 of Three's a Crowd
She was only aware that Zach had followed her when she stopped to look desperately up and down the road for any sign of a taxi.
‘Daisy, wait. Please. I need to talk to you. I think I might have made a mistake,’ he said, walking up to where she was standing in the middle of the street.
She was amazed to hear him say this, but could she believe he really meant it? Right at that moment, she didn’t have the energy for one of their games.
I have to nip this in the bud right now. It’s wrecking my head.
She spun round to face him. ‘Yes, you did. So did I, trying to be friends with you. It was never going to work. Relationships are built on trust, Zach, but you didn’t trust that I was a better person than that. You called me a manipulative bitch!’
He looked at her steadily for a moment, then ran a hand over his hair in apparent agitation. ‘Yeah. I know. You’re right. I wanted to clear the air about that.’
‘Look, why don’t you just get back to Carol and leave me alone,’ she said forcefully, on the brink of tears now. Tears she really didn’t want him to see.
‘Carol? What’s she got to do with this?’ He looked confused.
‘Don’t you think she’ll be upset if she finds you’re out here, chasing after me?’
He frowned. ‘Why would she?’ Realisation suddenly seemed to dawn on him. ‘We’re not seeing each other. We work together. We’re in a play together at the moment.’
‘Oh.’ She didn’t know what to do now, what to think. Her composure was in pieces. She needed some space to pull herself together, so she turned and started walking quickly away from him.
He came after her, walking alongside, matching her pace. ‘Jesus. You always jump to the wrong conclusion!’
‘Ialways jump to the wrong conclusion?’
‘We don’t seem to be able to be in each other’s company without getting angry,’ he said with a deep sigh.
‘No, we don’t. We’re not good together and I can’t live like that. It’s too stressful. So, perhaps it’s best if we stay away from each other.’
Did she really mean that?
Didshe?
‘Daisy, wait. Look, just stop for a minute and talk to me,’ Zach said, his voice holding a conciliatory note now.
This was all too much for her right now though. It felt so hopeless. The tears were so close.
‘I can’t deal with this right now. I don’t know how to feel about you any more. Please, just leave me alone.’ Turning away from him, she picked up her pace.
She sensed him dropping back, letting her go, so she strode on purposefully towards the main road, forcing herself not to look back.
She was afraid for a minute that he’d start following her again and see the tears that were now cascading down her face, but luckily, he didn’t.
Thankfully, she managed to hail a taxi on the main road and jumped in, quickly giving directions to her house before bursting into loud sobs, much to the obvious discomfort of the driver.
17
A week later, after having had no further contact from Zach, Daisy made her weary way home from work. It had been another tough day, with her trying not to think about him and break down in tears.
Clearly, he’d taken her demand for him to leave her alone seriously.
She’d dreamt about him pretty much every night since she’d last seen him, never remembering exactly what had happened in the dream when she woke up, but being left with an intense feeling of sexual longing and deep disquiet.
He was terrible for her mental health, she knew that, so why couldn’t she stop yearning for him?
Her mobile started ringing as she stepped in through the front door on Friday night and she had to rummage frantically around in her bag before locating it. She didn’t recognise the number, but answered anyway, just in case it was something to do with work. Or something.
‘Hi, Dizzy, it’s Zach,’ came a deep, breathtakingly familiar voice on the other end.
