Seeing Is Believing

“Order up,” the kitchen called, I walked over and picked up the order for table seven and dropped it off to the nice older couple—Mary and Steve Jameson.

“So, how was your lockdown?” Kat asked while I stood at the counter.

“It was fun,” I replied.

“How were things with Zak?” she asked with a hint of a smile. “I saw the way he was looking at you the other day…”

“Well, Kat…” I said, trying not to smile. “He kissed me…a few times actually.”

“Oh my God,” she said excitedly. “Was he a good kisser? Does—”

The bell jingled when as someone else walked into the diner. We both looked over at the door and saw a certain black haired guy walk in. I swore that his ears were burning.

“I guess I better go take his order,” I sighed.

“Don’t sound so depressed about it,” Kat said.

“I just don’t know what will happen with him when he leaves…” I replied and walked over to the table.

“Well, fancy seeing you here,” Zak grinned.

“What can I get you to drink?” I asked.
“A tall glass of you,” he said, his grin changed into a very silly smile. I just rolled my eyes and shook my head, trying not to break a smile. “Sweet tea,” he decided.

“I’ll be right back,” I walked over and poured him a glass of iced tea and brought it back.

It took nearly an hour to get Zak fed and ready to leave. I brought him the check and went to leave, but he caught my hand and set something on the table. I looked down and noticed that it was a keycard, one for a hotel.

“I’m not asking what you think I am…I just want you to come back and hang out. There’s a pool, you can even bring Mason…If I’m here anyway, I might as well make good use of my time.”

“Mason is babysitting Abbie tonight,” I replied.

“Then you come hang out,” he looked at me with his dark blue eyes and I slowly nodded. I knew that he could tell my change in mood yesterday and I assumed that was the reason that he came into the diner today.

“What time?”

“Whenever,” he replied with a light smile.

“I don’t get off here ‘til five,” I said. “Maybe I’ll try to come by around six.”

“Perfect. I’ll see you then.”

***

“So you’re just going to go back to his hotel?” Kat asked as I was finishing up my shift.

“Why shouldn’t I?”

“I don’t know…But like…are you going to have sex with him?” she asked in a low voice.

“I didn’t plan on it,” I replied honestly.

“How do you know he’s not some murderer?”

“I don’t…you’re the one who’s a fan! You should know these things!”

“I don’t think he is…but I mean…What if he does this all of the time, what if he does go from city to city sleeping with poor, innocent women?”

I shrugged. “Then that’ll be my mistake to make, if I so decide to make it…”

“I just don’t want you to end up pregnant or something,” I could tell that her tone was one of worry. We both worried about each other, but I was that one girl that did nothing. I hadn’t even had a boyfriend in three years.

“I’ll be fine,” I promised.

I ended up back at my house a little while later. Mason was at Kat’s house babysitting Abbie. My truck got fit last night by the local mechanic. I didn’t know what exactly to get…I remember when he mentioned something about a pool, so I put on my tankini and shorts (a bikini and a bikini bottom weren’t exactly my style) under my jeans and long sleeved shirt.

***

The numbers 418 stared me in the face as I considered my next move. I could knock or I could use the keycard…but then again I could leave. It was scary to do this to begin with. I didn’t know what would happen if I decided to spend the night alone with Zak. Kat was getting into my head a little bit.

“Oh hey, Macy,” Aaron said when he saw me in the hallway, he was exiting one of the other rooms. “Are you here to see Zak?”

“Yeah, actually,” I blushed a little bit before gaining the courage to actually knock on the door.

“Just a second,” I heard his voice call from the other side of the door.

“They’ve got a really cool pool and an awesome hot tub downstairs,” Aaron informed me before going on his way with a towel—I assumed that was where he was going.

The door opened and Zak stood on the other side with wet hair and in a pair of shorts and a T-shirt. “Macy, I’m glad you’re here,” he smiled. It was so weird to see his hair flat against his forehead. I had been seeing it styled since she arrived.

“What else was I doing?” I smiled. He let me into the hotel room and it perfectly clean. The bed was made and untouched, his suitcase was set in the chair by the window and there wasn’t a piece of clothing or anything anywhere. I had noticed the ‘do not disturb’ sign on the outside of the door, so I had to assume that he had cleaned all of this by himself. “I’m impressed, I expected a single guy to have a big mess everywhere.”

“I can’t find anything that way,” he said, grabbing his hat from the dresser and putting it on his head. “So do you want to go down to the pool?”

“Sure,” I replied. It was a little bit more comforting to know that Aaron would be down there too, no matter how close I already felt to Zak, I had only known him a few days. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust him, really. It was a lack of trust in myself.

“Let me get changed real quick,” he went over to his suitcase and began digging through the clothes. I noticed that they were all neatly folded too. He found what he was looking for and headed into the bathroom to get changed. He came out a moment later in a different pair of shorts, no hat, two towels, and the same T-shirt on; I assumed he would take it off at the pool.

“Ready?” I asked.

“Yep,” he replied. He led the way down to the indoor pool and set up on one of the tables.

“You can go ahead and start swimming,” I told him. I needed to take my outer clothes off so that I could wear my bathing suit. He nodded, took off his shirt, and dove into the water. As I undressed, I noticed Aaron in the hot tub.

“Hi again, Macy,” he said with a wave.

“Hi again, Aaron,” I laughed.

When I was finally ready to swim I opted to take the stairs in, rather than dive. The water was rather warm, but not too warm. It had been since summer that I actually went swimming, I had missed it, actually.

“I used to be a swimmer in high school, competitions and stuff,” I said as I swam over to Zak.

“Really?” he asked.

“Yeah, I was pretty good too, I went to State my senior year—came in 3rd.”

“Impressive. I was the nerd in high school.”

I crinkled my nose and made a weird face. “Really? I thought you would’ve been that popular, attractive, jock guy,” I replied.

“So you think I’m attractive?” I splashed him with the water and he grinned. “No, I was the ‘weird kid’.”

“Was it because of your belief in ghosts?” I asked, seriously wondering.

“This is really nice, actually,” his smile grew a little bit and he walked a little closer to me (the water wasn’t even five foot deep).

“What is?” I asked, confused.

“I’m kind of used to people knowing stuff about me and then in relationships I miss out on this, the ‘getting to know you’ part of it,” he moved even closer to me and rested his forehead on mine before gently kissing my lips. “I didn’t believe in ghosts until college. I was in Trenton, Michigan and there was this female spirit that screamed my name every night…Then I kind of had to believe.”

“So you were a former skeptic too?”

“Yes ma’am I was,” he kissed me again.

“You’re very…physical today, aren’t you?”

“Mm hmm,” he replied.

“Guys, don’t filth up the pool!” Aaron called from the hot tub across the way.

“Shut up Aaron,” we both called back, equal playfulness in both of our tones.

***

“Well, this has been fun,” I said as we walked back into Zak’s hotel room.

“It has,” he smiled, looking over his bare shoulder at me. I set my clothes on his dresser, I was still in my swimsuit.

“I think that I should head back though. My hair will dry out if I don’t…” this was my lame excuse to keep from going too far tonight. If I stayed, I didn’t know what would happen. I feared the unknown more than anything.

“You can shower here,” he suggested. I knew that he wanted me to stay. Maybe I agreed because deep down, I knew that I wanted to stay.

“I guess you’re right,” I replied.

“I didn’t mean that as ‘you have to stay’. If you want to go, you can. I’m not going to keep you here.”

“I want to stay,” I told him.

In that moment, he looked like a kid in a candy store. I blushed lightly and went into the bathroom. I turned the water on and quickly rinsed off all of the chlorine.

***Zak’s POV***

I was surprised she had actually decided to stay. I could tell that she was nervous to begin with, but I was glad she was trying to overcome it. Macy was so awesome so far. I didn’t know that I wanted to leave this little town any time soon. But, tomorrow I would be back off to Vegas for the next two months before we started filming again. In those two months I would have to come up with a bunch of locations and a schedule and do a lot of research. A break wasn’t really a break when you had a show to run. Without me doing that stuff, it wouldn’t get done and we wouldn’t ever have anything to air; just like how we needed Aaron to do all of the editing and whatnot.

The bathroom door opened with a squeak and Macy walked out in one of the white hotel towels, I quickly looked away, not wanting to make her feel uncomfortable.

“Funny story, I forgot my clothes out here,” I could hear the distress in her voice, but of course I wanted to peak. She was a gorgeous woman and I couldn’t help myself but want to know how she looked without clothes. Like tonight, I’ll be honest, I was kind of hoping to see her in a bikini, but she came out in shorts (ones of a modest length) and a tank top (tankini, whatever).

“No worries,” I replied.

“Of course not,” she scoffed; I looked up upon hearing her playful tone. She met my eyes for a moment before receding into the bathroom again with her clothes this time. I hadn’t noticed that her phone was here until it started ringing on the dresser where he clothes had been.

The bathroom door opened again and there Macy was, fully dressed. She hurried to her phone. But then, she set it right back down after reading the caller ID.

“Who was that?” I asked out of curiosity.

“Nobody important,” she replied before taking a seat on the vacant side of the bed. She brought her legs up and sat with her back against the wall. I was surprised when she reached over and ran her fingers through my short, black, hair. She had never done that before, but I liked it. “If you really want to know…it was my ex…”

“You’re ex?” I sat up a little bit, her hand moved away from my hair as she looked over at me.

“Yeah, ex fiancé actually; we broke up years ago…Back in 2001, I think…That was when I became Mason’s guardian.”

“Was that why you two broke things off?”

“He didn’t want to be a dad—ever. I figured that he would come around eventually, but when he found out that Mason was going to stay with me permanently, he wouldn’t do it. He told me to send him to live with my crazy aunt that had twelve kids.”

“You’re kidding,” I said, looking at her carefully.

“I wish I was,” Macy said. “He’s been calling me all of the time lately…I just keep ignoring it.”

“How does he even have your number?”

“He came into the diner one day while I wasn’t there and lied to Kat, it wasn’t her fault, but she gave him my number…”

“He’s been stalking you kind of, then?”

“I don’t know if I would call it stalking but—” her phone started ringing again. She went to decline that call, but I caught her hand before she could.

“Let me answer it, I’ll get him to leave you alone for good,” she handed her phone to me. “Hello?” I answered.

“Oh…I was looking for Macy Holland…Who is this?” he didn’t sound very intimidating.

“Her boyfriend, who the hell’s this?”

“Duncan Jefferson, can you put Macy on?”

“No, we’re kind of busy,” I looked over at Macy and as if on cue, she giggled loudly.

“Zak get off the phone,” she murmured, kissing my cheek.

He mumbled something, he sounded really nervous and freaked out. I loved it.

“Look, don’t call my girlfriend again,” I hung up the phone and set it on the bedside table.

“That was so awesome,” she took the initiative to kiss me deeply. I returned her kiss and pulled her even closer to me. She didn’t object in the least.

***Macy’s POV***

After a rather brief time of Zak and me kissing, I realized that before this did go any further, I had to ask him something.

“So what happens when you go back to Vegas? Do we just pretend none of this ever happened?” I asked.

“I don’t want that,” he replied right away. “We can do things long distance, telephone, skype, you name it. I don’t want this to just end because we live so far apart.”

“No matter what happens tonight, you’re not going to just pretend I don’t exist?” I asked, looking into his dark blue eyes. I wanted to make sure he wasn’t lying to me whenever he answered me.

“I would never do that,” he replied. His answer seemed very honest. I didn’t think that he was lying to me.

“And this is your last night in town?”

“It is,” he confirmed.

“If we’re going to continue this thing…long distance…we won’t actually be together, will me?”

“Not physically, no.”

“Maybe we should make the most of this night then,” I said, kissing him, hoping that he would get the hint. I never did this sort of thing, but I really liked Zak and I honestly didn’t see the harm in not waiting…