Page 37 of In Love and War

Once they were gone, Zac turned around and started to walk away without saying anything to me.

What’s with him?

“Where are you going?” I had to jog a few steps in my heels and dodge a couple of people to catch up to him and his long strides. It didn’t help that I was in a restrictive pencil dress.

“Back to the hotel. I have some work to do.” He didn’t slow down.

“Are you serious? You finally get a chance to take the afternoon off and you’re still going to work?”

Did he ever juststop?

He didn’t answer, just walked up to a yellow cab and opened the door.

“Hey, seriously, what’s your deal?” I grabbed his shoulder and pulled it back so that he was somewhat facing me again.

“I don’t know, Amelia,what’s yours?” he barked at me.

I blinked back at him with my mouth open, completely dumbfounded.

What the hell did I do?

He got into the cab and slammed the door without waiting for me to respond.

“Wait, wh—”

But the car had already started to pull away.

What the actual fuck?

I stood there staring until the cab disappeared from my view in the NYC traffic. I then aimlessly walked a couple of blocks, going through every last detail of our interactions that day in my head, trying to see what went wrong. But I came up blank.

Unsure of what else to do, I made my way over to another taxi and got in. I took out my phone when we started to drive and scrolled down to his name. My finger hovered over it for a bit, but I decided against it and put my phone back into my bag.

Before I knew it, I was standing in front of his suite, barely aware of how or why I’d made it here. This hadn’t been the plan when I arrived at the hotel.

I must have stood there for a full two minutes before I finally knocked, but there was no answer.

I tried again, louder this time.

Finally, Zac opened the door. He looked at me, visibly trying to make sense of what he was seeing.

“What are you doing here?” he finally asked with his eyebrows pulled together.

He had changed out of the three-piece suit he’d worn earlier and was now in a dark green V-neck sweater and black jeans. It was the first time I’d ever seen him in anything other than formal work wear.

He looked so fucking good. And the smell of his cologne swirled the air around him, hitting me full force.

This was a bad idea.

“Nothing, I uh—never mind.” I went to turn around, but he grabbed my arm before I could walk away.

“Whyare you here?”

“Why areyouin such a shit mood today?” I snapped back.

The words came out louder than I intended, creating a slight echo in the hall.

“Keep your voice down!” he hissed at me.