Chapter 20
"Someone call an ambulance!" one of the crew yelled near her ear, making Zoe wince and wish she could crawl away, but the overpowering dizziness that she'd experienced just before she'd passed out threatened to once again take over so she took that as a sign not to move, much.
"I'm fine," she tried to say reassuringly, but it came out a little too muttered for anyone, including her, to understand. She really hoped they understood her, because she really didn't want to go to the hospital over her own stupidity.
"What the hell is going on here?" Jared suddenly demanded.
Zoe risked opening her eyes to see if he looked as mad as he sounded and immediately regretted the move as everything spun.
"Zoe?" he asked, his tone softening as he came closer, she assumed. She wasn't about to open her eyes and find out.
"Fine," she said. Taking a deep breath she repeated it, pleased that she sounded a little better.
"I think she fell on that patch of ice," one of the men said and Zoe kept her mouth shut, not really in the mood to admit that she'd passed out and hoping that she could get through this without anyone finding out.
"Are you hurt anywhere?" Jared asked as he presumably checked her over.
She shook her head slightly. Hurt? No. Humiliated? Beyond measure, but she wasn't hurt. Well, she was freezing lying on the frozen ground like this. As soon as she could manage it she was going to get up, walk back to the office and hide under her desk for the rest of the day or until everyone forgot about this, whichever came first.
"Did someone call an ambulance?" Jared asked, fretting over her.
"Don't. I'm fine," she said, taking a deep breath and forcing herself to sit up, knowing that if she didn't, she'd find herself hauled out of here against her will, further adding to her humiliation.
She opened her eyes to find Jared kneeling next to her on the frozen ground, looking concerned and upset. "Would you feel better if one of us drove you to the hospital?" he asked softly as he took off his much larger and thicker jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders. She pulled it tightly around herself as she nervously looked around the small group of very large concerned construction workers that stood around her.
"I'm really fine, guys. Embarrassed, but fine," she said, giving them a small reassuring smile, hoping it would be enough to convince everyone to walk away.
It wasn't.
But thankfully Jared took pity on her. With a long drawn out sigh that did not bode well for her, he gestured for them to leave. They did, but only after they made her promise one more time that she was okay.
"Are you okay to stand?" Jared asked.
Her head had stopped spinning for the moment so she assumed she was okay. She hoped at least. Passing out hadn't exactly been a fun experience.
"You look a little pale, Zoe," Jared said, putting his arm around her and gently guided her towards the office trailer.
"Oh," she said, worrying her bottom lip. She was tired, hungry, a little light headed, a bit weak, humiliated, and not really sure she could show her face to the guys again, but other than that she was okay. "I'm fine," she said, giving him what she hoped was a reassuring smile.
He narrowed his eyes on her as if he didn't quite believe her. "Are you sure?"
"Positive."
"I could drive you to the doctor," he offered, opening the trailer door and gesturing for her to step inside. "Or I can take you to the hospital."
"I'm really fine. Don't worry about it," she said, feeling the first sign that perhaps everything wasn't exactly okay. A few seconds later when she sat down her suspicions were quickly confirmed and she did her best not to wince as her butt screamed in agony.
Her eyes shot to the clock. Thankfully she only had a few more hours to kill before she went home for the weekend and this weekend she was going to make damn sure that she got some rest. After nearly two months of their "arrangement" Trevor had to be bored with her. Not that she wanted to end their arrangement.
No, what she wanted at this very moment was sleep, lots of it and a really large ice pack for her bottom and sleep wasn't exactly something she got when Trevor was around. Then again he wasn't exactly known for leaving her alone when he was around. The man just could not seem to keep his hands off of her, she thought with a little pleased smile.
That didn't change the fact that the man was killing her. No matter how many times they agreed to take a step back and limit their time together, and those conversations always somehow seemed to end with her on her back, they couldn't seem to keep their hands to themselves and they tried. They really did, but it didn't do them any good.
If they weren't working, she wasn't at the gym swimming, or he wasn't watching a game with the guys they were having sex. They had sex in every room, in every position and they couldn't seem to stop. As great as it was she really needed some sleep. She really wasn't sure she could keep going at this rate.
"Zoe," Jared said with an unhappy sigh, "look we need to talk."
**********
"You owe me sex."
Trevor didn't even bother looking up. He grabbed another nail and drove it into the floor as he did his best to ignore Hank's bitching.
"Did you hear me?" Hank demanded. "Because of you I didn't get sex."
"How exactly is it my fault that you didn't get laid last night?" Trevor asked, giving up all hopes that the man would simply walk away.
"Because you didn't show up last night," Hank snapped, sounding truly pissed. Not that Trevor could blame the man. If he had to go a night without sex, and he was pretty sure he'd die if he had to go twenty-four hours without touching Zoe, he'd probably be snapping at everybody, too.
"And you needed me for what exactly? Pointers?" he asked, slamming another nail into the floor.
"Hardly," Hank said, making a sound of disgust. "When you didn't show up like you promised, Mandy left, because she didn't want to be a third wheel. Then Cindy left because she didn't like the idea of her sister going home to their apartment alone. So thanks to you I went home alone last night."
"Uh huh," Trevor said, gesturing for the man to move back so he could do his damn job and get home, hopefully on time. There was absolutely no doubt in his mind that the man had hung back at the bar after the women left and tried to find a bar bunny to spend the night with.
"Look, Cindy is willing to give me another shot so I need you to come out with us tonight," Hank said, still sounding putout and really starting to piss him right the hell off.
"Just take this Cindy woman out and forget about finding the sister a date," Trevor said, wondering why the man was bothering him with this bullshit.
"Because the sisters are close. They don't like dating unless they're both dating," Hank explained.
"Then find someone else to take her sister out. I'm f*cking exhausted." Which was unfortunately true. He was so damn tired. He had to force himself to focus and move his ass when he was at work. When he was at home he couldn't seem to force himself to rest. If Zoe was around he had to have her. It was as simple as that.
No matter how much they tried, and he'd admit that he hadn't been trying very hard, they couldn't keep their hands off each other. Before Zoe he used to think the best way a woman could wake him up was with a stack of homemade pancakes, bacon, and toast, the works. Now he looked forward to waking up to the smell of burnt coffee and the equally burnt pop tarts that Zoe shoved at him as she demanded for him to hurry up or starve. She usually gave him about sixty seconds before she attacked, forcing him to devour the burnt pop tarts, and he still wasn't sure how she was burning them since he'd checked the settings on the toaster a dozen times now, and swallow the thick hot coffee down in one gulp.
Zoe was without a doubt the best lover he'd ever had or probably ever would have. A month ago that thought scared the hell out of him, but now he realized that it was okay. Zoe would be his last and best great flame before he found his perfect wife. Not that he considered her anything more than his bed buddy at the moment, but he'd decided last night after their little hallway incident that he'd keep their little arrangement until he found his wife.
It would be stupid not to. Zoe was available, great in bed, never got demanding, didn't pout when he spent time with the guys and did her own thing so she wasn't constantly underfoot. She was the perfect little bed buddy until he found his wife, he'd decided this morning after she woke him up at three in the morning and demanded that he do that thing that she loved with his tongue, which he happily obliged her with. He would keep her around. Granted she was a sneaky little thing, he thought with a chuckle.
She was so damn cute when she thought she was pulling something over on him. Like not mentioning giving Toby away and thinking he'd just forgotten that the damn dog was still around. She hadn't yet realized that they'd both adopted the dog.
About six weeks ago they both went from just leaving their doors unlocked to propping them open at night, he added an extra deadbolt to the front door of course, so that Toby could go wherever he pleased. While Zoe had all the sissy toys for the dog in her apartment he had, in his opinion and really that's all that mattered, all the man stuff.
Every now and then he'd catch her sending the dog a mischievous little smile and knew she really thought she'd gotten away with breaking one of his rules. Since he decided to keep the dog this little break in their agreement didn't really count. Of course when their little arrangement was over, a.k.a. when he decided he'd found his wife, and Zoe moved out, he was keeping the dog. He could just imagine how that was going to go over, but really the dog needed a man in his life.
"What's so funny?" Hank demanded.
"Nothing," he said, hoping the man would just go away and bother someone else.
"Look, I've offered to find someone else, but she wants to meet you. I guess she met you through a friend last year and was hoping to see you again. Can't you please come out with us tonight?" the man begged, which was really embarrassing. "I'll even pay. Please, Trevor, you don't know how long I've waited to take this girl out. If you could just-"
"Fine," he snapped, anything to get the man to shut the hell up. Plus a free meal was a free meal. No Bradford in his right goddamn mind would pass on a free meal.
"Thanks, man. You're a lifesaver," Hank said, further embarrassing himself.
"Uh huh," Trevor said, absently as he returned his focus back to getting the floor down before the weekend.
"Hey, did they call an ambulance?" someone yelled. Since it had nothing to do with him, he ignored it.
"No, she went back to the office with Jared," Hank said as he finally got his ass back in gear and returned to work.
Now that got his attention. "What are you talking about?" he asked even as he continued to nail down the floor boards.
"That tenant of yours," Hank said, shrugging. "About an hour ago she fell outside. Mark said it looked like she slipped on some ice, but I thought it kind of looked like she passed out."
He looked up to glare at the man. "Why the hell didn't you tell me she got hurt?" he demanded, grabbing another nail and driving it into the floor with a little too much force.
Hank frowned. "Why would I? She was fine and Jared's looking after her."
Trevor opened his mouth to tell them he should have been told, but just barely stopped himself. As far as the guys were concerned Zoe was just his neighbor and part-time employee, which is exactly how he wanted it. Whenever he saw Zoe he gave her a barely there nod and that was it. He never acknowledged in any other way. When he went into the office he kept it professional and Zoe did the same.
They hardly went out in public together and if they did they acted like acquaintances and nothing more. At first he'd been a little nervous that Zoe wouldn't be able to go through with it. He'd been pleasantly surprised when he realized that she was more than capable of keeping their personal business private. She never hounded him like his old girlfriends did, never text messaged him, which he truly appreciate, and only called to ask him what the hell he'd forgotten to add to her shopping lists.
"I don't think she was fine," John added as he carried in two by fours and joined in the conversation. "It did look like she passed out. I'm not sure what's going on there, but she just left the office in tears."
"She was crying?" he forced himself to ask as he fought back the urge to drop everything and run after her since he had a pretty good idea what one of the problems was, but he forced himself to remain on his knees and grab another board and another nail.
"Yeah, as soon as she was able to get that piece of shit car of hers going she was out of here," John said, stacking a pile of wood near him.
"I see," he murmured, forcing himself to stay right where he was when everything in him screamed to go after her.
"I hope she's alright," Rick, an all around decent guy and someone he suspected had a crush on Zoe, said.
"I'm sure she's fine," Trevor forced out, not wanting to encourage the guy, especially before he was done with Zoe.