Leaving at Noon by Jess Dee

not just sex, babe. I need to touch you.
Hold you. Without the physical side of our relationship, I’m cut
off from you.” Theo resolved things physically. His actions said a
whole lot more than his words ever could. A conciliatory handshake,
a wave of apology, a nod of acknowledgement. Or when it came to
Zoey, holding and kissing her.
    Going down on her tonight? Shakespearean
sonnets couldn’t have told her all the things he’d needed to say
better.
    Zoey shook her head. “I can’t stand to be
held by you when you’ve just offended the very fiber of who I
am.”
    “ It’s my way of
apologizing.”
    She picked up her fork and played with her
food. “Sometimes saying sorry is a lot more effective.”
    Theo waited until she’d picked up her knife,
sliced off a piece of fish and shoved it to the side of her plate.
“I’m sorry.”
    “ For what?”
    “ Everything.”
    She dipped her head to acknowledge his
apology, but didn’t meet his gaze. Instead, she cut off another
piece of fish and this time nibbled on it. Then she nibbled on a
third piece and a fourth.
    With her silent moratorium on conversation,
Theo tucked in to his own dinner. The steak was rare, like he’d
ordered, and tender, but he didn’t really taste it. He ate
methodically, cutting his food, chewing and swallowing. It filled
the hollowness in his stomach but didn’t loosen the tightness in
his chest.
    As he tackled the plate of steamed veggies,
Zoey spoke. “I thought it would help.”
    He looked up questioningly.
    “ Your apology.”
    “ It didn’t?”
    “ I still hurt, Theo. The
things you said.” She tapped her fist over her heart. “They’re
buried so deep, hearing that you’re sorry doesn’t reach
them.”
    “ I get that.” He did. “You
know I didn’t mean any of it, right?”
    Zoey’s gaze hardened. “No. I don’t know
that.”
    “ Whatever I said, I said
to get under your skin in the moment, to get a reaction from you.
To piss you off. It wasn’t real. Any of it.”
    “ Sounded pretty real to
me. All of it. That comment about my mother?”
    Theo stared at her blankly.
    Her eyes narrowed. “You don’t remember.”
    He scratched his forehead. “Yeah, sorry.
No.” No recollection there at all. “I said shit designed to hurt in
the moment. Soon as it was out, I forgot about it.”
    “ God, Theo.” Her face
crumpled.
    “ Same goes for the stuff
you said to me, babe. It hurt in the moment, and then I forgot
it.”
    “ That doesn’t make your
comments any easier to remember.” Her face was racked with
grief.
    “ What did I say about your
mother?” It must have been pretty damn bad for Zoey to look at him
like he’d crushed her world.
    “ You truly don’t
know?”
    He shook his head. “Like I said…”
    Zoey drew in a shaky breath. “You
congratulated me.”
    “ On what?”
    “ Turning out to be the one
thing I hoped I’d never become.”
    Oh shit.
    “ My mother.”
    Shame burned in his gut. “I did?”
    She nodded woodenly. “‘Well done, Zo,’ you
said, ‘on becoming the coldest bitch in the Southern hemisphere.
Just like your dear old mum’.” Her voice was deep—like his—and
mean.
    Theo felt like the lowest piece of scum.
    “ I tried so hard to get
her to love me.” Now her voice wasn’t deep. It was soft and high
pitched, like that of a child. “Year after year, I got good grades
and behaved the best I could and dressed in clothes she wanted me
to wear. I took ballet and tap and modern dancing lessons because
she wanted to be a dancer. I did everything right. Everything she
wanted me to do, and it never made a difference. Ever.”
    Her eyes shimmered with tears. “I figured if
I could just be the perfect daughter she’d love me. But she never
did. Even when I was the most perfect I could be for her.”
    Theo’s stomach churned. Zoey had spent her
childhood years convincing herself her mother loved her, and the
rest of her life coming to terms with the fact the bitch didn’t