Page 18 of Blackout

‘What did Connor want?’ Zach still pierced me with his eyes.

‘If I had to hazard a guess then I would say he was offering me a job. I don’t know, I tore the envelope in half and threw it in the bin along with his business card.’

‘And you haven’t seen Connor since?’

I moved my head from side to side. ‘Zach, I looked Connor up. He is one ruthless man, and there are a lot of opinions in the world of social media. Connor always gets what he wants, and he won’t stop until he gets it.’ I turned away from Zach’s stare. ‘I don’t want any of what Connor has to offer. I don’t want to sing for a living or even record an album. I want to sing for me, for fun, like last night and not because I have to, to make ends meet. I don’t want that pressure. I can’t handle it, and last night proved that. But Connor, just like my sister, doesn’t know about my struggles.’

By the time I’d finished, my hands shook, and I was thankful my coffee was all gone. Zach’s hand covered mine again, and I stared into his brown eyes. It was like there was a protective force field around me, and I felt safe.

‘Everything will be alright,’ Zach told me, but I wasn’t convinced.

‘You don’t understand, Zach.’ I looked away from him. ‘I never turned Connor down on whatever it was that he was offering. He’s probably still chasing an answer, especially if he thinks I can make him a ton of money.’

‘Hey!’ I dared to look up at Zach. ‘It will be okay.’ He moved the hand that was in his to his lips and kissed it. ‘I won’t let Connor get too close to you.’

Silence filled the space around us, and my hand was still pressed against Zach’s lips. Then I heard him say, ‘Come on, let me make you breakfast.’ Zach moved off the bed, and this time he moved towards his walk-in robe for a tee-shirt that had a picture of a motorcycle on it.

I was about to leave the comfort of his king bed when I realised what I was dressed in. My underwear.

‘You undressed me?’ It was twice now I had woken up in only my underwear.

‘You managed that all by yourself,’ Zach told me as a matter of fact. ‘Last night and the night before.’

Oh my God. It had been years since I had undressed myself without remembering. After spending all my free time with Grandpa at the bakery and with the exhaustion I’d descended into, I also fell into the pattern on undressing in bed under the covers. And now I was doing it again.

‘Here.’ When I looked up at Zach, he was handing over what looked like a folded-up piece of material.

‘Where did you get this from?’ I pressed as I got out of bed, slipping the long black tee-shirt over my head that had Babe written across the front.

‘I bought it for you yesterday, Harley.’ My insides did a happy dance at the use of my name. ‘And that tee-shirt dress is perfect for you,’ he told me.

I raised my eyebrow at him, and before I could speak, Zach continued with, ‘I wasn’t sure what was in your overnight bag, but now you have pyjamas.’

‘Okay.’ I was only a little freaked out at how close I felt to Zach already.

I took a step away from the bed and followed him into the kitchen.

‘Another coffee?’

I wasn’t ashamed to admit I needed more than one coffee in the morning to get going. I needed the extra kick especially when I worked myself to exhaustion. ‘Sure,’ I said as I moved over to the glass doors in the kitchen.

‘Eggs and bacon or pancakes?’ Zach asked, and I wondered if the two options he had offered were the only two he knew how to cook for breakfast.

‘Eggs and bacon please,’ I replied as I turned to face him.

‘I was sure you’d want pancakes,’ Zach told me.

After yesterday’s brunch, I wasn’t surprised. ‘They are my favourite,’ I informed Zach, ‘but I feel like eggs and bacon today.’

‘Eggs and bacon it is.’ He handed over my coffee.

‘Babe, you really blew everyone away last night. You were unbelievable. Everyone was like, wow. They were surprised by your song choice, but your voice really impressed them.’

‘It felt good to sing along with everyone,’ I told Zach. ‘Shea surprised me with her song, and she did the ladies proud. Brock, though, really gave me no choice but to belt out the intro to Paul Kelly’s “Dumb Things”.’

‘Even I was surprised by Shea; she comes up with something new every year. But I’m sorry about Brock,’ Zach said on behalf of his friend.

‘It’s fine. I’m grateful that both of you didn’t make me sing the whole song acapella.’ There was a shyness inside me that I didn’t want Zach to see, and I told myself to watch out for Shea and her mischief. Zach was the essence of cool, calm, collected and confident. A natural at everything, whereas I was the polar opposite since I had blacked out and buried myself in work.