Almost Easy

The Apology

Zoey’s POV

I’m not sure what came over Brian. One minute I’m packing my stuff to get out of my condo and the next we’re sitting at a cozy Italian bistro eating pizza and tiramisu, followed by a walk on the beach where we had our picture taken a few times by random people.

I could tell Brian loved it. He patiently talked to each fan and smiled for every pic. He even agreed to silly faces and poses that his fans asked him to do. It was adorable.

I wasn’t as excited about having my picture taken. I could probably go my whole life with never having one snapped ever again.

“Just once I’d like to be able to walk out of the house with bad hair and no makeup and go someplace without getting my picture taken,” I complained.

He glanced at the ocean as we walked. “C’mon Zoey, there’s absolutely nothing worse than a celebrity complaining about the hardships of fame.” 

I looked over at him. He looked so cute, his black jeans rolled up and carrying his shoes and socks, “I’m not talking about every day fans. I don’t have any of those. I’m talking about those vultures over there.”

I pointed to the two camera men who were using their long lenses to snap pics.

He looked over and then flipped them off.

“Very mature, Brian,” I chuckled.

“It’s not that big of a deal,” he said continuing to walk.

I followed suit “Yeah, it is. I’ve been dealing with the paparazzi ever since Lee and I started to date. You’ve only had to put up with it for a few days.” 

“Hey, I get photographed,” he protested

 “Sex videos don’t count,” I joked as I leaned down to pick up a pretty shell. “And let’s see how cheery you are after another couple months of this

Outside, the night was a romantic cliché. Moonlight frosted the tips of the waves. The surf lapped at the shore. Cool sand squished between my toes. The only thing missing was the right man.

“I can handle it,” he said confidently.

“You think?” I asked but didn’t really expect an answer. “So how did Michelle take it?”

He slowed his steps as he splashed a bit in the water. A ribbon of moonlight silvered the tips of his eyelashes. “About how you’d expect.”

“That bad?” I asked as I grabbed his shoes from his hand and moved to place them with mine on the rocks that formed the jetty next to us.

He shrugged “She gave me entirely too much credit. Thinks I’ve had feelings for you all this time and that I lied to her.”

“That’s ridiculous,” I said joining him in the water.

“Yeah,” he said, his voice hoarse “I’m sorry I hurt her.  I didn’t want to but it was actually a good thing, you know. We finally broke the cycle.”

“Well that’s something,” I nodded. “At least she got an apology from you.”

He looked at me offended “What’s that supposed to mean?”

I shrugged “Oh you know me, still pining for the apology I never got.”

He ran his hand over his face “And what do I need to apologize to you for?”

“Oh just for that night on the damn boat,” I said, probably a little bit too quickly.

“Seriously?” he asked a look of shock on his face.

“Seriously,” I nodded as I picked up another shell and threw it side arm into the ocean waves.

After about a minute of silence, he finally spoke “You’re right, Zoey, I was a jerk that night on the boat, and I apologize.” 

I had never really heard him apologize for anything and here he was admitting guilt twice. Something was totally off with that.  I waited but no other words came. “That’s it?” 

He stuffed his hands in his pockets. “I don’t know what else to say. It happened, and I’m not proud of myself. It wasn’t like I wanted…” 

“You wanted to get off,” I cut him off bitterly, “and there I was, standing so conveniently in front of you.” 

“Hold on,” he protested. “Let’s get something straight, I could have gotten off with any of the women on the boat that night. And I’m not being arrogant. It’s just the way it is…was.”

A wave splashed my ankles. “But you didn’t. You chose dumbass here instead.” 

“You weren’t dumb. Just naïve.” 

I needed to ask him what I’ve always wanted to know, but I didn’t want to look at him, so I leaned down to roll my jeans up further. “Why did you do it?” 

He picked up a beach stone and hurled it into the water. “I had just found out Michelle had cheated on me for the first time. I was hurt. I wanted to hurt someone else the way I was hurting.”

That hurt. “And you picked me. What a nice guy,” I replied.

He shrugged “You asked.”

The fact that he’d finally owned up to his bad behavior made me feel a little better. Not great with the admission that he’d done it to hurt me, but enough to accept that I had to somehow coexist with him while we were married. We began walking again.

“It was years ago,” I replied softly, as I stepped around a sand turtle some kids had made earlier. “No lasting harm done.” 

He gave me a skeptical glance “Liar. You’ve been holding that in for years. I’d say there’s a little harm done.”

I lifted my eyebrow.

His head came up. “Shit.” 

“What—?”

 He pulled me hard against him and stamped his mouth over mine. One hand slipped under my T-shirt at the small of my back, the other cradled my hip. A wave crashed over our feet and I almost lost my balance. Perfect moonlit passion. 

“Cameras,” he ground the word against my lips as if I hadn’t already figured that out. I wrapped my arms around his neck and tilted my head.

“Are they closer than before?” I asked as his eyes focused behind me.

He didn’t speak; he just continued to kiss me.Hotter. Deeper. My breasts flattened against his chest, and the tips began to tingle. I could feel him growing hard. He settled his thumb into the soft flesh along my spine.

“I’m going to feel you up now,”he growled as his hand moved over my rib cage to my breast. The hand no photographer could see.

“Is that really necessary,” I growled as my mind filled with all kinds of dirty thoughts. I argued with myself that this was all okay because it was all fake and because it would only go as far as I let it. I tried to pull away. “Okay, I’m bored.” 

He tightened his grasp and grazed his hand across one of my nipples “I can tell.”

“Let’s go back,” I said hoarsely, finally getting away. “I’m getting cold.” 

“I can fix that,” he smirked but following me as I walked back towards our shoes.

“You’re an idiot,” I told him as I slipped my vans on and watched him as he unlaced his shoes and put them on.

His eyes narrowed “Just so you know, there were no cameras. I just wanted to get my kicks.”

I smiled sweetly “And just so you knew, I knew there were no cameras. I just wanted to get some kicks myself.”