Runaway

********Zacky’s POV*********

I needed to have a talk with Violet that I really, oh so really didn’t want to have. She shouldn’t be embarrassed, but I knew she would be, and that made me feel terrible. I didn’t want to put her in the position of finding out in a public setting, but I definitely didn’t trust myself alone going to her place, so I asked Brian to go with me. We had just gotten home yesterday for a nice, month long break before getting back out there again.

The guys had tortured me non-stop about the pictures. We launched the spring and summer line the week after I had been sent the proofs, so now my own website had six different pictures of her, one of which was that sexy fucking bikini picture. I managed to casually mention that she worked with my hairdresser, so that if that ever came up it wouldn’t seem like I was hiding it. This, unfortunately, came with more teasing that I knew her, knew where to find her, etc. etc. It often devolved into locker room talk about her--which got to the point where I started pissing me off, how dare they talk in such a lewd fashion about such an amazing woman?!
But of course I couldn’t say anything. Brian often had to be they “hey, guys, seriously” one--which was so out of character for him that it would turn the conversation off of me and onto why he was acting so odd. I knew it was only a matter of time before we’d all run into her somewhere and then I’d be fucked when they saw the crazy chemistry we had…

I knocked on her door, nervous as all fuck. Brian stood beside me, lighting a cigarette. Bracing myself on the doorframe, I tried to regulate my heart rate as I waited.

My heart stopped when she opened the door. Not dressed in anything special--lounge pants and a somewhat tight Red Sox shirt, she was still a complete knockout. I watched as all the color drained from her face and her eyes got saucer-wide. A quiet “oh, shit” escaped her lips as she stared at me.

“Hi, Violet.” I forced out, frozen in place. I could see her panic, looking quickly over herself and back at her tiny apartment. Forcing out a laugh, I dropped my hand from the doorframe, “I’m not going to judge you on your place, babe,” Shitfuck already? “I mean...can we talk?” I cleared my throat awkwardly.

“Uh, sure. Come in.” When she turned, I could see the “Pedroia” and “15” on the back. It would figure if we were into the same sport.

She offered me a drink, to which I declined. I tried to sit close enough, but not too close, to her on the couch. Nervously biting where my snakebites used to be, I clasped my fingers together in front of me. I’d gone over and over in my head what I was going to say to her, yet had come up with jack. How beautiful she was sure didn’t help. Now I was nervous, distracted, sick to my stomach, and a little turned on all at once.



“What’s up, Zacky?” Violet asked me. She was trying to keep her voice light, but I could hear the nervous tinge to it--she was a smart girl, she knew at least partly why I was here. The other part was what I was worried about.

“Violet...there’s no...easy way to say this, I guess--”
“Zack, please spare me,” She cut me off, clearly a tad peeved, “You told me you didn’t want to start an affair and I respect that. Is that really why you’re here? To hammer that home so I really understand?--”

She was about to go on, when I grabbed her hand, my frightened gaze meeting her startled one, “Meaghan’s pregnant.”

Violet immediately took her hand back, her eyes darting around before she stood up, rubbing both her hands over her face, “Oh god…”
“Please sit, Vi--”

She was walking away from me, fingers raking into hair, “Just go, Zack. I get it. You’re the family man that needs to go back to his family.” She laughed ironically, “I can’t believe I could be this--”

“Can you just listen to me!” I stood up and had a small outburst. When she glared at me, I softened my voice, “Please. I didn’t come here just to tell you that and that I can’t see you anymore.”

I watched her closely as she warily sat back down next to me. Clearing my throat, I started again, running my fingers through my hair, “Violet...things have...changed between my wife and I. They were getting really bad, so bad that I...well, that I cheated. But ever since she told me, right after you left my house, our relationship has partially recovered. While that is a good thing, and it does mean I’ll be a little more able to stay away from you…” I licked my lips, my nervous tick since I’d been a kid, “I wanted you to know...You did mean something to me. Way more than you should’ve.” I raised my eyes to meet hers, despite the fact that I knew they said way too much.

Hers in return, changed from miffed to yearning sadness, which didn’t make this easier at all, “I knew that you’d see us on social media and get the wrong idea...I’ve really never been with anyone like I was with you. I don’t cheat. It wasn’t just...I wasn’t just blowing off steam. I really felt a connection with you and that’s why I find it so hard to resist you. While I can’t be with you, I felt like you deserved a little bit of an explanation. I didn’t want you to feel cheap, or used, or like you’re anything short of special to me. Please understand, Violet. I can’t stand the idea of you mad at me.”

A single tear slipped down her cheek, surprising me, and she quickly dashed it away. Fuck, I was making her cry? Again??

“I could never be mad at you Zack.” She said softly and it warmed my chilling heart.
Just as a slight smile pulled at my lips, she raised her eyes to mine, tears glistening as she bit her lip, “Congratulations, Zack.”

My heart shattered into a million pieces.

The tone in her wavering voice along with the hurt look in her beautiful natural blues was a knife slicing through an already gaping hole. I caved immediately, framing her face in my hands as I covered her quivering lips with mine. All control ran at lightning speed out the window as I pushed her back into the back of the couch, pulling her body up against mine as my tongue dove into her mouth. Her fingers were threading into my hair as a knock sounded at the door.

“Vengeance, c’mon, bud.”

Violet looked at me, startled and I laughed at myself--immediately straightening and sitting away from her, “Yeah yeah, gimme a sec!” I flushed, “I, uh, brought Gates along so that--well, something like that wouldn’t happen,” I shook my head and pulled a hand over my face. I had the self restraint of a teenager, apparently, “Look, I am so sorry that...keeps happening,” I couldn’t help but sit there and blink like an idiot at how I just couldn’t help myself. How the fuck was this going to work???

“It’s okay, Zack….this actually...explains a lot.” She looked relieved about something.
“It does?” I furrowed my brow in question.

“Um...yeah, I uh, Meaghan invited me to one of their girls nights awhile ago...she was going on about how happy you guys were now...I know it shouldn’t have, but....” Violet bit her lip again as she blushed beautifully, her lashes falling and raising again, “It really hurt me. But now, it makes a little more sense.”

She was hanging out with my wife?

“Thanks for….coming over, Zack.” Dammit I loved every single time she said my name.

“Don’t mention it,” When we both got up, I kissed her cheek lightly as we stood in her little living room, “See ya ‘round, kid.” I smiled sideways at her.

“Kid?! I’m a month older than you, Vengeance.” She crossed her arms and gave me sass, mentally bringing me to my knees.
“No you’re not.”
“Am too,” She cocked her head as I shook mine again. Unbelievable.

I pointed at her shirt, “Let me guess, you’ve loved baseball your entire life, haven’t you?”
“Yep.” Violet popped the ‘p’ and I rolled my eyes, mumbling,
“I hate the universe so much right now.”

This made her smile, which made my day. Grinning wide, I made myself leave on the good note, “Well, then I’ll see ya ‘round short stuff.”

As I opened the door to Brian standing there, she waved, “Look who’s talking, Zacky.”
Syn waved as well, I’m sure also noticing how much we were both blushing like kids, and we left.


“So...she seemed to take that pretty well.” Syn added as we both slid onto the bench seat from opposite sides of his classic.

“She did. I mean, she fucking cried at first--well, like a couple tears--but she was really understanding. It figures, she’s perfect in every other way, why wouldn’t she also be totally accepting of the fact that I knocked up my wife?” I sarcastically rambled on.

Brian looked sideways at me, “But you did kiss her.”

“Did you have your fucking ear to the door?” I asked a little more defensively than I had any right to.
He just laughed back, “That is why you brought me. C’mon, it can’t possibly be that bad.”

I huffed, crossed my arms, and narrowed my eyes at him, “She drinks Scotch. And loves baseball.”
His eyebrow went up, “Fuck. It is that bad.” He chuckled, “Man, you are really and truly fucked.”

“Don’t I know it.”

*******Violet’s POV*****

I melted down the door, literally sitting on the floor as I tried to process what just happened. My lips still buzzed from when he had kissed me and my heart still fluttered from the look he had given me after he found out I loved the same sport he did.

He’d been gone for almost a couple of months and I thought I’d made progress. I thought about other things that weren’t him, it hurt slightly less when I did think about him, and I functioned much better on a daily basis. I’d finally slept with another dude--Ben--even if it was only once. But all that fell apart the moment I opened up my door to catch those sparkling green eyes. Fuck.

It all came tumbling back to me--our wonderful time together, the way he made me feel, as well as the hurt. As much as I tried to just enjoy the memory and leave it for what it was--that was hard and he had just made it so much harder.

Well...maybe he had actually made it easier?

With Meaghan pregnant and them happy again he’d most likely stay away from me, which in the end was for the best. If she hadn’t gotten pregnant, who knows what would’ve happened. We could wind up in this awful on again, off again, can’t-resist-one-another hell where we keep cheating a poor woman who was becoming my friend. There would be no good that could come from that.

Yes, that was it. It was better this way. I’d just keep telling myself that.

****

Notes

Sorry for the short chapter, but I had to cut it off somewhere so I have more! Hopefully another chapter soon!
Life is kinda handing me weird stuff right now.........


How cute are they, for real???

Please check out and maybe rec if you want (if you're on Mibba) this one shot I entered in a contest. Try and view it on a PC if you can, the layouts don't show up on a phone (they may or may not show up on some tablets, but I spent some time on it and it's really cool--the layout that is):
http://www.mibba.com/Stories/Read/619786/6661/