“You’re not,” Alexa said. “Except that you’ve moved out of your parents’ house, gotten a job, paid all your bills yourself, and seen a lot more of what it’s like to be an adult than some college students. You don’t need to have all the answers right now. You just need to know that you’ve found someone you want to date, and hey, it might not end with happily ever after. But even if you and John aren’t meant to be, and he does break your heart, that doesn’t mean the relationship wasn’t worthwhile.”

Zack sighed. “When did you get so smart?”

“I was always smart, babe.” Alexa crushed her cigarette out beneath her yellow pumps. “I was waiting for you to be ready for my bountiful wisdom.”

They headed into Murmur Inc. as the last of the sun’s light faded from the metallic sky. They chatted on their way up the stairs and parted ways once they entered the office. Zack waved at Colette, who was standing near the break room with her arms crossed, but received only a curt nod in response. Zack frowned. What was her problem? Shrugging internally, he made his way down the aisle of cubicles and ducked into his.

Zack barely had time to sit down at his desk before a stern voice floated to his ears.

“So, how’d you fuck it up?”

Zack jolted in his chair. “Colette. I— How’d I fuck what up?”

Colette loomed in the doorway to his cubicle with her hands on her hips. If that weren’t enough to tell Zack that she meant business, her scowl was. “Your whale. What’d you do to piss him off? He used to ask for you every day, even if you weren’t here. But now he hasn’t called in days.”

Zack’s stomach filled with lead. Colette was right. It had been four days since his last professional conversation with John, the longest they’d gone since they started talking regularly. And that made sense, of course. Why would John keep calling now that they were sleeping together?

He scrambled to think of something to say. Colette wouldn’t confront him like this if she didn’t think something was up. He needed to act casual. Clients fell out all the time.

Zack shrugged. “Dunno, guess he got bored with me. It happens.”

“Bullshit,” Colette said without venom. She was merely stating a fact. “Clients may be fickle, but they don’t go from blowing up the phone lines to radio silence in a matter of days. Not unless you did something completely unacceptable.”

Shit. Zack almost wished he were caught between a rock and a hard place. It would be a lot more comfortable than being pinioned by Colette’s fierce stare.

“What really happened between you and your client?” Colette demanded.