Pursuit of Happiness | Taz Skylar [1]

094. intact

When Taz walked out of the shower and into Zoe's bedroom, he found Zoe sitting in the middle of her bed, dressed in one of his shirts with her tanned, bare legs crossed underneath her. There was a laptop open in front of her and Zoe had her thumbnail caught in between her teeth, but she took it out when Taz entered the room, looking up briefly to smile at him before turning back to what she was doing.

"You seem better," Taz remarked, unwinding his towel from around his waist and draping it over the wardrobe door so that he could pull on his underwear and sweatpants.

"I'm done feeling sorry for myself," Zoe muttered, her jaw clenching under her skin. "The damage is already done, there's nothing that I can do about it."

"You could say something."

"Like what?" Zoe asked, sitting back so that she could look up at him. "It's my word against theirs. Anything I say is just going to sound like it's me trying to cover my own ass."

"They tried to take your songs from you, bub. You could start with that."

"Yeah, and I have no proof of that, do I? I didn't think to record the phone call, so once again, it's my word against theirs," Zoe said, frustration flickering across her eyes before she pressed her palms against her face, hiding her expression from view. "I just hope this doesn't fuck me over. I don't know what I'm going to do if no one will want anything to do with me because they think I'm difficult."

"You could do a lot worse than difficult, you know," Taz told her, using his hands to pull Zoe's hands away from her face so that he could stoop to kiss her hair. Zoe heaved out a soft sigh and reached her hands up to wind around his neck, pressing her face to his bare chest.

"I'm sorry," Zoe mumbled, her voice muffled against Taz's skin. "I didn't mean to snap at you, I'm just – "

"You're stressed," Taz said, running a hand down Zoe's arm. She nodded, unwinding her arms from around his neck and fixing her eyes on the laptop screen in front of her once more. Zoe felt the mattress dip underneath her as Taz sat down in front of her, his legs dangling over the edge of the mattress, but she kept her eyes fixed on the screen in front of her.

"Do you really think that people wouldn't hear you out, at least? That they'd just take the label's word for it?" Taz asked.

"I don't know," Zoe confessed, pressing her lips together anxiously as she looked up at him. "And I don't know if I want to find out."

Taz said nothing, but he turned towards her, taking the laptop out of her lap and shutting it. Then, after setting the laptop aside, Taz placed his hands on Zoe's waist to pull her towards him. Zoe let herself be pulled, following Taz's hands until she could settle against him.

"I thought you said you were done feeling sorry for yourself," Taz said quietly, using his hands to tuck Zoe's hair behind her ears.

Zoe's smile was sheepish as she leaned up to kiss him. "Maybe I still have a little left in me."