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“My first name is more common than you realize. And about that mermaid at the zoo? Maybe she was just taking a break from swimming in the aquarium while still entertaining the children there. It sounds like loads of fun to me.”
Avery scoffed and then pushed by Zac. We all watched her leave and as soon as she was out of sight, Zac turned to me and our table of friends and apologized for Avery’s rude behavior. Every one of us immediately waved off his apology.
“No need to apologize, Buchanan,” Brooke said. “Sit back down and join us. Order yourself another gin and tonic. You too, Joan of Arc. Let the bullshit go.”
Zac and I looked at each other and nodded in silence. After we took our seats again, Bash started chuckling.
“I have to say something here and I hope all of you take it in the right way—but especially you and you,” Bash said, pointing at Zac and me. “Stevie, I really thought you were gonna pounce on Avery. Holy shit.”
As soon as he said that, everyone at our table busted out laughing, including me, and then started chiming in with their mutual agreement on the matter. Everyone except for Zac. Hedidn’t laugh or agree with anything. He didn’t have to, though. His smiling blue eyes did.
“Listen,” I said, looking at Zac and then at everyone else sitting around the table. “All of you know me and I have no tolerance for behavior like what we all just witnessed. I don’t care who it is.”
“Oh, I’m the same way,” Bash added. “I started to say something but you had it under control.”
I looked at Zac again and he still had his eyes on me. “I’m really sorry that you were just put in that position by your wife, Buchanan.”
“It is what it is. I’ll say one more thing about it and then I want all of us to move on. Okay?” he said, taking the time to look directly at everyone in our group, and we all nodded in agreement. “Every one of you is aware to varying degrees of what my life with Avery has been like. We haven’t all talked about it but we don’t have to. I know how quickly word gets around in our legal community. I don’t want one of you to feel sorry for me. All I ask is that you try to understand my position. I do what I doonlybecause of my son.”
I was shocked by Zac’s transparency with everyone but then again, after Avery acted in the way she did, Zac addressing it was something that I should’ve expected. He was embarrassed by Avery but he was also making a stand for himself by stating his position on the matter.
“Buchanan, we do understand and we respect you,” Brooke said, speaking for all of us.
“Thank you. Now let’s get on with our merriment. Shall we?”
We all said “Yes” at the same time, but I had to do more than that. I got up from the table, walked around to Zac, and then leaned over and hugged his neck. He hugged me like a friend would’ve done and even patted my arm. When I stood back up and looked at him, he smiled at me. Yes, we were lovers, butwe were friends first. Our friendship was a caring foundation for us and it was going to be what carried Zac and me through whatever lay ahead. Undoubtedly, there were going to be rough waters that we’d eventually have to sail through, but I knew that as long as we hung on to each other, we’d survive any storm that came our way.
29
#embrace
Zac
“STEVIE, JUST HOLDme. Please,” I said, and she wrapped her arms around me.
It was after eleven when I texted her that I was on my way to her house and that I’d explain everything after I arrived. As soon as I got out of my Blazer in her garage, Stevie’s mouth fell open. Then she covered it with her hands and started screaming out her anger. She screamed because of the cuts that she saw on the left side of my face.
After I’d arrived home from Mystic Bar, Avery and I got into an argument. I bitched her out about the way she’d acted when she showed up at the bar and then she started coming after me. She tried hitting me but I just kept dodging her punches and pushing her away from me. She finally tired out and I walked off from her, but before I made it out of the kitchen, Avery called me a weak-ass man.
When I turned my head to look over my shoulder at her, she’d already grabbed her empty vodka glass off the counter and thrown it at me. It hit the left side of my face and shattered into pieces. The cuts that some of those pieces made started bleedingbut I paid no attention to them. Instead, I ran after Avery, who was running away from me. I had enough.
I caught up with her in the hallway, heading toward the guest bedroom, and grabbed her from behind by wrapping my arms around her upper torso. Then I dragged her, kicking and screaming and trying to hit me again, into the living room and threw her down on the couch. She acted shocked that I’d done that—that I’d actually fought back. I didn’t hit her but I damn sure got her attention, then I said what I wanted to say.
I told Avery that her violence toward me was going to stop right then, and if it didn’t then I was going to call the police and press charges against her. I wouldn’t hold back.
She took in what I said but didn’t say anything in response. Instead, she got up from the couch and stormed off to her bedroom. I followed her and watched her throw her clothes into her suitcases. Then she flipped me off, got into her car and left. She was going back to Lubbock. I tracked her on my cellphone.
After getting the cuts on my face to stop bleeding, I cleaned up the glass on the kitchen floor, as well as the spots of blood on the carpet in the living room and in the hallway. Then I packed an overnight bag, because there was no way that I was staying at my house tonight. I wanted to stay at Stevie’s.
Now that I was here, now that Stevie had seen what happened to me and now that she was holding me in her arms, we both started crying. Not hard. Quietly. We were both so angry and hurt and frustrated about everything.
A couple of minutes later, Stevie led me by the hand into her bathroom, where she proceeded to doctor my face. Using some tweezers, she was able to pull out the little pieces of glass that were still in my skin. Then she gently dabbed hydrogen peroxide onto all the cuts. Neosporin came next, followed by Stevie’s soft kiss on my lips. It wasn’t until after she kissed me that we spoke to each other again.
As I began telling Stevie about everything that happened after I got home from Mystic Bar, she listened and asked questions. When I was done catching her up, we stared at each other in silence again. The only thing I could hear were the breaths we were taking.
“Let me take you to bed. It’s what you need,” Stevie whispered.
That surprised me. Having sex was the last thing on my mind and I thought it would’ve been the last thing on hers too—but she was right. I needed this. I neededher. As soon as I nodded yes, she again led me by the hand to where she wanted me.
