Offensive Behavior

He stuck his hand out to shake on it and Vi took it. “Don’t fuck up again,” she said.

Lucky’s looked the same, tired and cheap. It smelled of too much spilled alcohol and the carpet was sticky underfoot. There were minimal lights on. The ones above the bar. The ones above the booths. The stage was shuttered in darkness.

Zarley sat at a booth, paperwork piled around her. Her hair was twisted up on top of her head with a pencil through it. She wore a skirt and a shirt he’d never seen her in before, all business. She hadn’t heard him come in. There were ten booths. She’d chosen to work at the one at the very back of the room.

She made his giraffe heart full to exploding, but he imagined it shrinking to a walnut then a dot, leaving him forever cold. There were more things she didn’t need from him than she did. She didn’t need his money or his apartment or his dependence on her for everything he was doing better at Plus.

Dev got to the guts of it. Zarley had made the world a bigger place for him. Made him want to be in it more fully, experience it with more people, and to do that, he had to see things from other points of view, different to his own.

He saw hers now, and had no idea how best to be what she needed most.

But he’d always liked a challenge. And so had she.

He approached the booth, stopping when she started, her eyes going big. “How did you find me?” She waved a hand and sighed. “It doesn’t matter. Have you been home?” She spoke sharply but she’d gone pale.

He pulled the folded letter from the inside pocket of his leather jacket. “I know you don’t want to see me. I understand. I’m not here to try to change your mind or talk you around or beg you to take me back, though I want to do all of that.” He wanted to lay at her feet and will her to walk over him in her stripper heels. He wanted to give her everything but feared he had nothing she’d take.

“Then why are you here?”

“I came to say three things and then I’ll get out of your way.”

She sighed. She didn’t want to meet his eyes. He wouldn’t make this harder for her than it had already been. “You’re not in my way.”

“Yeah, Flygirl, I am. I didn’t mean that to happen, but it did. Can I sit down?”

She shrugged. “It’s your booth.”

“I noticed.” He dumped his helmet and took off his jacket, slipped into the seat opposite her. “You want to know why I chose it?”

Her brows came together. “You were sulking and it’s the least well-positioned for the stage.” She pointed to another booth that had a more direct sightline. “You’d have been better off there.”

“It has the best view of the wings.”

She shook her head, full-blown frown on her face now.

“Five times a night you’d stand there waiting to come on stage. No one else could see you. That was my favorite part of your performance. You’d stand in the shadow and wait for your music. You had this look on your face, as if the next few minutes were going to be the highlight of your day. I was obsessed with you from the first time I looked up and saw you there.”

She busied her hands in the paper on the desk. He saw colored sketches and pages full of numbers. “I can’t do this with you now.”

“I was obsessed because you knew exactly what you were doing and you had this confidence I was jealous of.”

She folded her arms. “No way.”

“I’m the weird, loner guy. I’ve spent my whole life doing what I was good at and what I’m good at is pretty damn narrow. I’d never had a girl on the back of my bike before you, or a proper vacation. I wasn’t even very good at being drunk and you know the rest. You were this incredibly strong, polished, graceful thing. I didn’t know anything about you, but the confidence you had about walking on air and I was addicted to those moments I got to see you. The fact I got to be with you, have you in my life, Zarley, that’s my single greatest achievement.”

She turned her face away. “That part where you said you wouldn’t make this harder for me was a lie.”

“I’m an asshole.”

She took a deep breath and sighed it out.

“I have three things to tell you. One. I quit as CEO.”

She turned her face to his, eyes up. “Oh Reid, no. I didn’t want you to do that.”

“I didn’t do it for you. Owen is a better CEO. I get that now. We got Ziggy over the line. I can step back without Plus being affected. Sarina will be a better CEO until Owen is fit to come back.”

“But what will you do?”