The One That’s Sugary Sweet
If that threesome had been a watershed moment in mine and Zac’s relationship, then the appropriate word hadn’t yet been invented to describe what happened after the parking lot incident. It was a subtle change, but I was positive it ran deep.
In typical Zac fashion, he seemed to have no desire to talk about it. In fact, he hardly seemed able to speak to me at all. It was kind of cute–no, it was really cute. If I was completely honest, I’d always thought he was adorable, but it was a thought I knew was better kept to myself. Zac didn’t need to hear my thoughts on his baby face and puppy dog eyes. He probably didn’t need to know how cute I found all the blushing and stammering he’d been doing for the past few days, either.
So I didn’t tell him, and despite this seismic shift in our world, we went on living more or less the same as we had before.
Friday morning, I went through my pre-work routine as usual, waking up early enough to start a pot of coffee while I showered, shaved, and otherwise groomed myself to Ruby’s specifications. Once that was done and I was dressed, I poured myself a cup of coffee and surveyed the food situation. We didn’t have much; the best I could manage for a late breakfast was a plain bagel. I knew Zac wouldn’t be happy when he woke up and discovered little in our refrigerator that wouldn’t be just as at home in a petri dish.
With my bagel in hand, I walked down the hallway and knocked gently on Zac’s door. It was just barely open, so the movement pushed it open further and revealed Zac sprawled out across his bed, one leg under the covers and one leg above. I couldn’t see his face at all for the mass of tangled hair on top of it, but I was certain it looked just as adorable as the rest of him did right then.
“I’m going grocery shopping,” I said softly, my volume barely even causing him to stir. A little louder, I added, “Do you need anything while I’m out?”
He mumbled something that sounded vaguely like “food” and that was good enough for me.
We usually did our shopping together, and between that and a decade as roommates, I was quite certain I knew what Zac liked to eat. It was comfortable and routine to go shopping with him, but I was capable of doing it on my own, too.
I was finally beginning to understand why people thought we were a couple.
Aside from those secret shopping trips with Cade while we planned Zac’s surprise birthday party, I really couldn’t think of the last time I’d left the house without him. We did everything together. That mostly boiled down to the fact that we were roommates; it was easier to carpool, split rent, share bills and Netflix accounts and gym memberships… All of those things were simply convenient.
Then there were other things, like the way I knew exactly how he took his coffee or how we took each other home for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners with our parents. Things like the threesome–things that went well beyond the sort of stuff normal friends shared.
As I pulled into the grocery store parking lot, it dawned on me that everyone was right. Zac and I were boyfriends and had been for years. We were like one of those boring old married couples who get so comfortable in their routines that they don’t even have sex, don’t even show each other any affection anymore. They just exist in the same space, living their lives together because it’s the only way they know how. It was kind of depressing to think about, until I remembered that at least we’d added the sex element into our relationship now.
Our relationship.
It felt weird to describe it that way, but I knew that was what it was. It was a good weird, really. A butterflies in the stomach sort of weird.
With a strange new spring in my step, I made my way into the grocery store and began shopping. I didn’t need a list; we were creatures of habit, after all. I knew what we needed and what we both liked to eat. Maybe that made us predictable and boring, but I kind of liked it that way. Even though some strange and unpredictable things had happened to us lately, I could at least count on Zac to eat the same sugary cereal for breakfast every day.
As I grabbed said sugary cereal from the shelf, I realized that I really was Zac’s bitch. His dutiful little housewife, even. It always bothered me a little when people would comment on that, but never enough to actually stop me from catering to Zac’s every whim. I’d often wondered why that was, but right then, the answer hit me.
Because I loved him.
It seemed so simple. Of course I loved the guy or I wouldn’t have been able to tolerate living with him for a decade. There were a lot of things I loved–The Princess Bride, my leather jacket, cheesy pop music… but I wasn’t in love with any of those things.
Standing in the middle of the grocery store, holding a box of insta-diabetes, I realized that I was in love with Zac Hanson.
That realization stopped me on the spot. It felt like the sort of thing I probably should have figured out years ago, or at least before I decided putting his dick in my mouth was a good idea. And yet it seemed so obvious. Of course I loved Zac. I’d loved him… well, probably for years. Maybe it was even love at first sight. Whatever. I didn’t know when it had started, but now I was positive it was a thing, and that seemed more important than nailing down exactly when it had begun.
“Excuse you!” a loud female voice huffed, roughly two seconds before slamming her shopping cart into my ass, as though I might not have heard her.
“Sorry,” I yelped, rubbing my ass as I hopped out of her way.
She just rolled her eyes. I hopped farther out of her way, not wanting to lose a toe under the wheels of her cart. It probably wasn’t a good idea to have life altering epiphanies in the grocery store, I decided. With that thought in mind, I tossed Zac’s cereal in my own cart and hurried through the rest of the shopping.
During the drive home, I contemplated whether or not I should share my epiphany with Zac, ultimately deciding that I shouldn’t. He was still acting kind of skittish around me, as though it were possible for the two of us to have those early relationship jitters. That sort of thing was for people who were still getting to know each other. I knew Zac, and he knew me. Surely that meant he already knew I loved him, too.
“Finally,” he grumbled as I struggled to open the apartment door with half the grocery bags dangling from my arms.
“The thanks I get for making sure you don’t starve,” I replied, pushing past him. “There are still a few bags in the car.”
He took the hint, though not without whining, and retrieved the rest of the groceries. He left them for me to put away, of course, all the while searching for his cell phone and wallet and moaning about how we were going to be late for work. I decided to be nice and not point out that if there were four hands working in the kitchen, this would get done a lot sooner. Maybe it was that epiphany that made me want to be nicer to him.
After I had put all the bags away, I even threw together a couple of sandwiches, scarfing down half of my own as I carried the other to Zac’s room. It wasn’t the best dinner, but I had taken a long time with the shopping so I wasn’t in any position to be picky. On my way back through the apartment, I grabbed a hat and a scarf, and nuked a cup of coffee for the road.
“Ready to go, Princess?” Zac asked, and for the first time, it sounded more like a pet name than an insult.
We were both quiet during the short drive to the club, but it wasn’t an awkward quiet. I wanted to reach across the console and hold his hand, but that seemed too cheesy. I couldn’t see Zac ever reaching a point where he would do that if he were the one driving. So I settled for just stealing quick glances at him and trying not to smile too much when I caught him staring back at me.
If I smiled and blushed a little when Zac actually held the door open for me, well, who could really blame me?
“Okay, spill,” Eduardo said as soon as I walked into the ready room.
I spun around and found both him and Cade staring me down, arms crossed. It would have been comical if I hadn’t been so confused. “What? Spill what?” I asked.
“You and loverboy,” Eduardo replied. “Something’s different. We could tell as soon as you two walked in. So spill before he gets back from the bathroom.”
I shook my head and tried to laugh off his words. “There’s nothing to tell, honestly.”
“I thought you were an actor, Tay,” Cade said. “But I’m not buying that for a second. Something’s changed between you two. A big change. Huge. I’m talking visible from outer space.”
Eduardo nodded in agreement. “Yeah, the club is full of all this sexy tension now.”
“Sexy tension?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.
He shrugged. “I know what I said.”
“Look,” I said, sighing. “If something happened, and I’m not saying something did, Zac would kill me for telling you guys. So I’m definitely not telling you that we’re together. Because that would be ridiculous. And impossible.”
“Right. Totally impossible.” Cade nodded, a smirk spreading across his lips. “You know, Zac’s a lucky guy. He better appreciate what he’s got…”
The gleam in Cade’s eyes told me that if Zac didn’t, he was definitely volunteering to… appreciate me. I wasn’t sure how to respond to that at all, but Eduardo saved me the trouble, slapping Cade on the arm and hissing, “You can’t flirt with him! He’s off the market now.”
“What can I say?” Cade replied, still smirking. “I’m a sucker for a guy in a newsboy.”
I pulled my hat off self consciously and turned away from the terrible twosome before I said something really stupid. I could still see them out of the corner of my eye as I examined my hat hair in the mirror. The moment Zac walked in the room was obvious from the way those two started shushing each other and attempting–poorly–to act natural.
“What the hell’s going on in here?” Zac asked, his eyes darting from Cade and Eduardo to me, then back again.
“Nothing!” They replied in unison, then dissolved into giggles that would make even a twelve year old girl cringe.
“Taylor?” Zac asked, only the tiniest sliver of hope in his voice.
I shook my head. “You don’t even want to know.”