wrapping paper and discovered a little black book. A laugh launched itself out of my throat. Zac had a knack for that, making me laugh, and what was with the weird kind of calming effect he had on me? ‘You’re a swine. You know that, right?’
‘I do my best.’
I met his grin. ‘So are you in here under Z or I, or maybe N?’
‘I’m not in there at all, actually.’
‘Oh.’ I stopped flicking through the blank pages and stared down at the front cover, buying time to disguise my confusion.
‘I don’t think I’m “black book” material, you see, it’s not the done thing for friends.’ The word shivered over my spine, only to be chased away by the unfamiliar warmth spreading from my chest.
‘Is that so?’
‘Uh-huh. I would like to trade numbers though, if you’re happy to?’ He held out his phone in one hand, then turned his other hand over in an unspoken challenge.
I responded in kind, grabbing my phone from my back pocket, then I slapped the handset onto his upturned palm. Neither of us spoke as we keyed our numbers into each other’s phone, then traded back again but something had definitely changed.
Of all the things I’d been given for Christmas over the years, Zac’s friendship ranked as one of the best gifts of all time, if not the best gift ever. We spent the rest of the morning chatting and drinking coffee but the time went so fast it was more of a blur. The clock in the hall struck twelve far too soon so Zac got going, setting off to his parents early to leave me to get ready for a double shift.
Once the post-Christmas lull kicked in, the nagging inner voice inside my head refused to leave me alone. To drown out the constant drone, I hit the town and went out on dates every opportunity I got. Why have a little black book if it wasn’t going to get used? Never the same guy twice, I managed to dull the internal noise until it barely interfered with me any more.
Valentine’s Day rolled around and, unluckily for me, I had the misfortune of being off work for the entire weekend. Short of begging to swap shifts or volunteering to work for free, I had no choice but to stay home and not because I was short of a date for the night; on the contrary, I’d been inundated with offers but I’d turned every single one of them down.
Desperate to avoid all the lovey-dovey vomit-inducing crap, my revised plan involved a couple of action movies, a huge bag of salted popcorn and a giant slab of chocolate. I figured I might as well get an early night too, since the only man I wanted to spend the ‘most romantic’ day of the year with had to be in bed for seven o’clock on account of him being only four years’ old.
If you asked me, Valentine’s was nothing more than a commercial money-grabbing gimmick anyway. Maybe if I ever fell in love with somebody I’d feel differently but, until then, I wanted no part of it. There didn’t seem any point in all of us being at home so I magnanimously offered to mind Charlie, hoping it would buy me some peace as well as bank some brownie points with Mum and Derek. Plus I loved spending time with the little guy.
Derek actually made a point of thanking me but I didn’t know what to say. I ended up saying something incoherent as I headed out the door to collect Charlie so that they could pack and get going. My phone rang while we were out, with Derek calling to let me know they were off and to say goodbye to Charlie and already I felt calmer.
Charlie and I grabbed lunch then stopped off for a kickabout in the park. Next stop was the supermarket on our way home to grab pizzas and garlic bread for dinner, and popcorn for my movie night. I’d just unlocked the front door when my phone rang again. I shepherded Charlie inside and answered without bothering to look at the screen.
‘Hey, what’s up, Derek?’ I said, following Charlie into the house. ‘Did you forget something?’
‘Er…hey, Alice.’ Instead of Derek’s voice, a different male spoke at the other end.
‘Whoa. You’re not Derek.’
‘No, you’re right there. D’you want another guess?’
‘Zac?’
‘Yep,’ he said, before taking a heavy breath. ‘Now I know this is a total long shot, but I don’t suppose you’re free tonight?’
My stomach lurched and I bit back a groan. We hadn’t spent heaps of time together since Christmas but I thought we’d long sailed past the point of possibility of a casual fling. If anything were to happen now, it would surely jeopardise the friendship we’d built and I didn’t want that at all.
‘Please tell me you’re not asking me out on a date, Zac?’ I asked, with about as much energy as a tranquilised snail, tensing up more with each word.
‘No way,’ he protested and I could picture him stood with his hands raised in surrender. ‘I was just heading home to avoid the crazy people when the thought occurred to me that I could catch up with a friend instead.’
‘OK. Well that’s good,’ I said, able to breathe freely again. ‘But no can do, I’m babysitting Charlie tonight.’
‘I can do babysitting,’ Zac replied. ‘How about you buzz the gate and let me in?’
‘The gate?’
‘Yeah, I’m outside. You know, just in case.’
‘Oh.’ The carrier bag containing the pizzas slipped from my fingers and landed on my foot. In trying to hop over the damn bag, I tripped and went down knee-first, only for my fall to be cushioned with an ominous squelchy sensation. ‘Shi—oot,’ I corrected, then settled for cursing under my breath.
Thank goodness my impressive performance of pure klutz had gone unwitnessed.
‘Sorry,’ Zac said. ‘I’m guessing whatever the hell just happened is my fault?’
Unwitnessed but not unheard.
‘I’ll live.’ Heat filled my cheeks. ‘I’m not sure about the pizzas though.’
‘Pizza? Even better. And since yours just got murdered or something, it’s only fair I pay for replacements to be delivered. I’ll even throw in some dough balls and potato wedges?’
‘Um…’
‘And Ben & Jerry’s?’
‘OK, deal,’ I blurted before hanging up on him. Without looking at the pizza crime scene, I clambered to my feet then crossed to the control panel to press the gate release.
Thirty seconds later, the sound of crunching gravel signalled Zac’s arrival and a smile spread slowly across my face. I opened the front door and watched him park his über-manly Freelander next to my outrageously feminine Beetle. As he cut the engine, Zac looked over his shoulder and hit me with a grin but it stuttered and vanished. He elbowed the door open and jumped out of the car in one move.
‘Alice, do you realise you’re bleeding?’ he asked, leaping up the steps three at a time.
‘What? Where?’ I glanced down to where his gaze had fallen and saw my knee covered in pizza sauce. ‘Oh dear,’ I said, failing to stifle a giggle. ‘I’m not sure your
