Forbidden Love - Segment 12

[itztigress3]

Segment 12
POV: Emily (OFC)
Word Count: 2646
Warnings: None

May 23, 2007

I woke up to my phone ringing, I reached behind me and nearly knocked everything off before picking it up, it was the house phone and it was the studio calling. Zac was still curled up beside me sound asleep.

“Hello?”

“Emily?”

“Yes, Isaac?”

“Did I wake you up?”

I blinked several times. “Yes, but that’s ok.”

“I was actually calling to see if you had heard anything from Zac, he has not answered his phone and he said he was coming in. Kate hasn’t heard from him since last night.”

Shit! He never called them or sent any messages to anyone.

“I spoke to him about five until six; he said he was very tired and that he was getting a hotel for the night.”

“Why didn’t he just go home?”

“I don’t know Isaac. I just know he’s been spending a lot of nights at the studio, he looked tired yesterday. Maybe he turned his phone off after getting there.”

“Maybe. I hate to ask but can you call him? He always answers your call. We’re just worried about him.”

“Sure, want me to call until he wakes up?”

He was quite a few moments. “No. You are right he did seem very tired yesterday. Try after noon, if he did get a hotel he should be awake by then.”

“Ok.”

I hung-up and looked down at him, he had seemed tired and he was sleeping so well. It was after nine so I just lay back down; I dozed back off but woke up when he moved.

“I was trying not to wake you.”

“I’ve already been awake, Isaac called at nine.”

“I didn’t send them a message…crap.”

“No worries call them after twelve and tell them you got a hotel.”

“Is that what you told him?”

“Yep. That we spoke before six and you were considering it.”

He leaned down and kissed me a few times and then got up. I watched him walk to the bathroom and then sat up myself. I recalled in the heat of the moment I had told him I loved him, it wasn’t a lie but it also wasn’t supposed to be more than just sex, right? He came out and slipped just his boxers back on.

“I’ll fix breakfast.” He said.

“You cook?”

“Funny.”

He walked out and I got up, I picked up his shirt and put it on, it would be long enough and then I went to the kitchen. He was getting stuff from the fridge when I came in.

“Do you like…” he trailed off.

He’d looked up at me. I waited watched as he licked his lips and swallowed hard.

“Do I like what?”

“Pancakes.”

“Love them.”

“Ok.”

I heard a familiar ring tone as he started mixing the batter; he heard it too but ignored it.

“They called her Zac; she knows you were not there. You may want to answer.”

He finished the batter before he laid the phone beside him; he hit redial and then apparently speaker phone. I checked my phone; just two calls one from Taylor and one from Isaac, both messages asked if I had heard from him.

“It’s about fucking time you called back.” She snapped.

I looked up. God that was harsh and her tone was totally inappropriate.

“I was driving; you know I do not answer when I am driving.”

“Where are you Zachary? Isaac and Taylor both called me to see if you were here, which you were not. Added, you haven’t been
here since yesterday.”

“I got a hotel for the night, I wanted to actually sleep.”

“Awe, you’re not sleeping here honey?”

I saw his head drop some and he never answered her question, almost sounded like he sighed even.

“So, where are you right now?” She asked.  Ahh, there was the demanding bitch tone.

“I’m at a friend’s house for a while.” He said.

“Which one?”

He glanced at me; he knew he could not tell her, so I mouthed the first name that came to mind. Craig.

“I’m at Craig’s house.”

“Who the hell is that?”

He looked at me and I mouthed an answer.

“He’s a friend of Emily’s. He came by to pick her up last week and we talked a bit. He invited me over; I called him when I left the
hotel.”

“What is his number?”

“Kate, you know I cannot do that.”

She was silent. “Do not make this worse Zachary; you know very well what I can do. I know about your headphones and your ear plugs don’t make them disappear.”

The line clicked and then she was gone. What the hell was she talking about? I sat back in the chair, looked at how tense he was standing there.

“Zac.”

“Yes?”

“What is she talking about? Why would you need headphones and ear plugs?”

He kept his back to me but placed his hands on the counter. I got up and walked over to him, put my arms around him, laid my head against his back.

“Please, talk to me. You have been quieter, more upset, and angrier the last few weeks. You are spending a lot of time at the studio
and I know you guys are busy, but baby they go home and you don’t.”

“Please, let me finish breakfast first.”

“Ok.” I kissed his back in the center of his shoulders.

He looked at me confused when I picked up his phone though. I sat down at the table and unlocked it; he didn’t think I knew the code. He had still not told Taylor or Isaac where he was, so I used his messages and sent them both the same message. Told them he had gotten a hotel and just needed a day to decompress and relax before they got super crazy.

“What are you doing?” He asked.

“Covering your ass with Taylor and Isaac.”

He turned around. “You can get into my phone?”

“Your password is 1234; it’s not rocket science Zac.”

Taylor replied with an OK and that they were just worried about him. So, I sent the apology text and said he’d forgotten to send them
a message.

 “Do I even want to know what you’ve told them?”

“Just that you were a little stressed and needed a day away from the studio before everything got super busy, which with the new
album shipments coming in soon and the new merchandise it will be and the membership kits are going out too. So, you got a hotel to decompress alone and you went to Craig’s, my friend, to just chill and play video games.”

“Do you really have a friend named Craig?”

“I do.”

“Is he an ex boyfriend?” His tone dripped with jealously at that question.

“No. Craig is very safe, he’s gay.”

He nearly dropped the spatula. “Are you serious?”

“Yes. He has been a friend of mine for a while now. He’ll cover for you if I ask.”

“He trusts you that much?”

 I smiled and couldn’t help it. “He does. I mean, all he wanted was a pair of your dirty underwear.”

The spatula actually hit the floor that time.  “He wanted what?!?”

I smiled and laughed.

“I’m kidding Zac. Craig has been like a brother to me. We met in middle school and both of us had it kind of rough with teasing. He was there to help me through that and I was with him. I mean, he was a gay male student and was harassed all the time. He followed me out here actually, landed the job of his dreams in his words. You should thank him; it was his suggestion for the fingers and between him and the internet, it told me what to do.”

His face turned bright red. “I will never be able to say that out loud.”

 I smiled at him. “I can thank him for you.”

He finished cooking breakfast and sat the plate in front of me. We ate quietly and I determined his pancakes were awesome. I cleaned up quickly and then joined him in the living room on the sofa.

“It’s so quite here.”

“The neighbors around me are at work today.”

“Did you choose the ground floor apartment?”

“Yep. It gave me the small patio which I enjoy in the summer time because it overlooks the river behind the apartments. Higher floors would have but the patio is not as big.”

He put his arm around my shoulders.

“I suppose that I cannot skate on your questions?”

“No. I want to know what she meant and why you said the middle of the bed.” I laid my hand on his thigh and waited.

He sat there a few moments, before he looked at me. “Remember when I said she wanted Gary to move in? The conference room.”

“Yes, I remember that day well.”

“When I got home that night she had fixed his favorite dinner, complete with dessert. I went to shower and she followed me, I smelled like you. She told me that she knew I had seen them and that she moved all of my things to the guest room. She did not lie, she put my stuff in the guest room and Gary’s went into our bedroom.”
I did not expect that, it was shocking news really. “You, her husband, are sleeping in the guest bedroom, while Gary, your ex-friend, is in your bedroom?”

“Yes. It’s been that way since he moved in. She fixes his favorite dishes, I just stopped eating what she fixed and started fixing my own, often getting dinner before going home.”

“Ok. So, why did she mention removing your headphones?”

I felt the tension in his arm behind me; saw the change in his face also. “Zachary?”

He looked at me, such sadness. “I wear them to drown out the sounds of them having sex. The guest bedroom is across from the master. If the headphones don’t work, the ear plugs do.”

I knew Kate was a bitch, but that was kind of low of her. “Why are you still there?”

Fuck! I hadn’t meant to ask that question, it was almost like asking him to leave her for me.  He chewed on his bottom lip for several
minutes.

“If I leave and file she will counter, if she finds outs about us she will file. Either way, she will take everything from me and by that I mean she would own part of 3CG studios and I cannot do that to my brothers. Our prenup was miswritten and Thomas has heard us.”

“How? She was cheating on you long before you and I ever had sex.”

 “It’s in our prenuptials; I don’t have concrete proof beyond my word against hers. If I tell the judge she moved him in, she’ll say I agreed and I did and she has Thomas on her side.”

“So, you’re just going to stay away from home then?”

“Well, a few more months and then we’ll be on tour for several months.”

“Speaking of the tour, tell me about it. What goes on, how it is.”

Honestly, I was glad for the diversion because I wanted to get away from talking about Kate, it still made me uncomfortable and from the way he was speaking even though it was over; the likeliness of a divorce was more remote.

 He spent several hours going over the tour process, experiences, requirements, and obligations of my job as well as positive and negatives of being on tour. It helped me to clarify what I would be doing and my position on whether I wanted to actually agree to go with them. When he was done we watched a movie and then he helped me fix dinner that night, I kind of expected him to leave after dinner but instead he kicked me out of the kitchen and cleaned up.

“I know I need a bath and I have clean clothes in the car. I will be right back.” He said.

He slipped his pants on and left, returned ten minutes later with a bag, which he took to the bedroom. I assumed he was going to shower before going home then, but he came out ten minutes later and turned the TV off and got my hand, he lead me to the bathroom where had drawn a bath and added bubbled.

“I know we both need one.”

“You honestly do not smell to me.”

He pulled me to him and kissed me.  “No, but after last night we still need one.”

“I am not going argue with that.”

He unbuttoned the shirt himself. “You should keep this one.”

“Why?”

He kissed my neck. “It looks better on you.”

“It’s your favorite button up shirt though.”

He let it fall to the floor. “It doesn’t matter.”

He’d already removed the pants, so pushed the boxers off his hips and let them fall to the floor. Then we got in. I figured he would
want to be frisky in the tub, but instead he had me lay back against his chest, letting the bubbles move around.

“What is your favorite dinner?”

“Chicken parmesan with spaghetti noodle, marinara sauce and a side salad.”

“What is your favorite color?”

I smiled. “You should know that one. Blue. Any shade is fine, but I do tend to gravitate toward the lighter shades.”

“Are there any other colors beside blue?”

I thought about that one. “Black and then maybe red. What about you? Anything besides blue?”

“Nope, just blue. You always wear your hair up, why?”

“Because my hair is not perfect like yours.”

He laughed. “Mine is not perfect either. I like your hair down.”

I smiled. “Do you plan to cut yours?”

“I thought about it, but I kind of like this length its medium between super short and super long.”

“When you’re not working, what do you do?”

“When am I not working? It’s obvious not bowling. When we have downtime video games are given, movies, books. I tend to read
more when we are on tour because of the long rides. What about you? When we’re not slaving you at the studio, what do you do?”

“Sleep normally. But seriously, I read a lot and watch movies, not much of a television person. I do tend to watch cooking shows or home renovation shows when I do. I do like to bowl and use to all the time, but haven’t as much lately.”

We countered back and forth with questions for another ten minutes, mostly about the common favorites from different foods to what he liked to paint; it was a getting the basics because we’d never had this kind of time to really do that. We also covered clothing likes and dislikes. He was washing my hair and lathering the suds in.

“What about your family? You’ve heard or already know most of mine. But, I haven’t seen any pictures and you never speak about them.”

I sat there, he probably felt the tension but he kept massaging the shampoo into my hair. I still wasn’t sure how to approach that subject.

“Emily?” He asked.

“I um…I would really rather not talk about that right now.”

His hands slid down my shoulders. “Ok. When you do want to, I’ll be there to listen.”

He rinsed my hair out and after getting me clean; I returned the favor as well. Getting to wash his hair and even comb it after we were out, dried, and dressed. Neither of us really wanted sex or anything else, but he did want to just cuddle. I was fine with that; I enjoyed just having him hold me in the dark room.  We had to be up early for work anyway and it was about my normal bedtime.