I woke up the next morning feeling pretty good. I had a great night last night with Zack. I was now considered his fiancee once again. However, now I have to face Zoe at work. Hopefully, she didn't see everything that happened with Brian yesterday.

I walked into the shop and she immediately jerked her head up to see who it was. She shook her head and put her head back down and finished up whatever she was writing.

“Well hello to you too.” I mumbled. She didn't respond so I went right to my station. I opened my door and Brian was sitting in my chair.

“Holy shit! You scared the shit out of me. What are you doing here?”

“You didn't answer and didn't call me back. We have to talk.”

“Can't it wait until I'm off? This is fucking suspicious.”

“Is that your engagement ring?” Shit.

“Uh, yeah it is. Zack gave it back to me last night.”

“And you took it even though you don't know if you want to be with him?”

“Yes, I did. Now what do we have to talk about that can't wait?”

“I have an excuse. You're gonna give me a tattoo. Just a small one.” I rolled my eyes. I really didn't want to tattoo him right now, because in all honesty I didn't even want to see him. He really pissed me off yesterday and him just showing up again just pisses me off more. I set up all my gear and drew up what he wanted and began the tattoo.

“Zoe knows.” He blurted out.

I stopped tattooing. “What?”

He sighed. “After you left yesterday she came out and asked if she could go get coffee with me.”

“Wait you went out with coffee with her?” I asked, jealousy dripping from my tongue.

“Yes, but not for long. Listen to me.”

“Okay, sorry.” I continued tattooing.

“She started talking about you and all this other shit. I stood up for you 100%, but it pissed her off. All she said was she knows what going on between us. I played it cool and told her we were just best friends and all that shit, but I think she's smarter than that. She's pissed cause I dumped her for you. You have to watch her. She'll tell him, Lex.”

“So what if she tells him? She has absolutely no proof. This is why I told you to stay away. If you would've just listened this could've fucking worked.”

“Could've? That's past tense.”

“Yeah, I'm not so sure anymore.”

“Lex...”

“Brian, just please you have to understand.”

“You've made a decision?”

“No, I haven't. But I can't risk all this because you want to casually run into me.”

“So what does this mean?”

“We need to play it cool for a bit. Maybe have a scene at the next party or something. Make things seem I guess what is normal for us.”

“But wouldn't that make it more obvious when Zack figures out you're hanging out with me?”

“He won't that's the thing.”

“He gave you your engagement ring back surely he'll want you to move back in with him soon.”

“I'll say no.”

“Lex you know damn well you won't say no. Just like you didn't say no to your engagement ring.”

“Why are you acting like this?”

“You just got engaged, Lex. And not to me. How do you think that makes me feel?”

“God, I swear you're a woman sometimes.”

“I'm serious. You accepting that just tells me you want to be with him long-term.”

“No, it doesn't, but I couldn't really say no. How suspicious would that look?” I snapped.

“I guess you do have a point there.”

“Now when he asks me to move in with him, I'll tell him I'm not ready for that. He won't question anything with that.”

“Yeah, that makes sense.”

“Stop freaking out, okay. Throw a party this weekend, okay? Then think of something that we can argue about and get pissed off and then after the party we'll sneak to my house and have great make-up sex.”

He laughed. “God, I love you. You're the only woman that can make me go from being pissed to horny in a split second.”

I laughed back. “Don't worry, babe. We'll make this work.” I finished up his simple tattoo and stood up.

“It looks great. I'll see you Saturday.” He pecked me on the lips and let himself out. I sure hope this all goes as planned.

Notes

Alright, my laptop is back up and running!! I'll post one or maybe even two more chapters after this one :) Enjoy! Thank you everyone!