Page 82 of In Love and War
“It’s Saturday… you work weekends?”
“Only when necessary.”
Andthiswas necessary? Zac couldn’t have just come here and done this himself?
“Okay, well, um, thank you. I’ll see you on Monday.”
“You bet.” He turned around and left.
I went back to my apartment and forced myself to eat breakfast, even though I didn’t have an appetite. I’d been skipping too many meals. All of my clothes had started to become ill-fitting and loose.
I ate, made my bed, vacuumed, did my laundry, and showered, ticking each one off my list. But I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off… and not just the way things had been off for me recently. This was different.
I grabbed my phone. No notifications from Kai, only a couple of new emails.
I opened up my messages and clicked his name. It was at the top of the page.
I felt the color drain from my face. Therewasa new message from Kai. One that I hadn’t read yet, but apparently Zac had.
My Kai
Guess who’s back. We need to talk, ASAP. You ready to blow the whistle on sleeping with your boss yet? Feel like you’ve had more than enough time to think about it. He’s got it coming and I’m not letting this one go. You need to stop self-sabotaging. Call me.
No. No. No. Nonononono. Please. He didn’t read this, please.Shit.
My hands were shaking as I scrolled through my contacts down to Zac’s name. I needed to call him and explain.
There was no answer. I tried again.
Nothing. I tried again. And again. And again.
On my seventh attempt, it went straight to voicemail. His inbox was full.
Shit.Shit.
I couldn’t breathe. My fingers were full-on spastic now as I typed out my message to him.
Me
Please call me. I can explain.
I could explain this. I could. He just needed to hear me out. He just needed to call me back.
But he didn’t. I waited for the full weekend, all day and night, with my phone glued to my hand. I sent more texts, but all of them failed to deliver. And I got nothing back from him. No messages, no calls.
I was in my office before 5:00 a.m. on Monday morning, waiting. He could ignore my calls, but he’d have a hell of a harder time not hearing me out in person.
I waited patiently for him to come in, but he never did. When I asked Andrew about it, he told me that Zac had called in sick. For the first time since the beginning of his career, he’d called in sick.
He wasn’t in on Tuesday either. Or Wednesday. Or Thursday. Or Friday. Margaret was covering. I didn’t get a single email from him the entire week.
All of my calls to him were going to voicemail, and all of my texts were left undelivered and unanswered.
Rumors were spreading around the office about his absence by the time Monday rolled around again. People were worried that he was on his deathbed, because no one could come up with a better explanation as to why he’d been away for so long. No one had even ever seen him take more than a few days of vacation at a time. And even that was rare.
I was sitting at my desk on Tuesday morning, zoned out, when my phone started to buzz. I pounced on it, my adrenaline spiking. But it wasn’t him.
“Hey, Jasmine, how’s it going?” I tried my best so keep the disappointment from seeping into my voice.
