Zach and Sabrina: Round 2 Read online

After she got through security, she headed to the VIP lounge. She grabbed a coffee and a salad and went to find a place to plug in and work. Travel sucked. But being able to have the convenience of food and electricity while waiting for her flight made a big difference. She was working away when she heard someone call her name.

  “There you are,” Troy said as he walked towards her.

  She was completely caught off guard seeing him.

  “Troy, what are you doing here?” she asked.

  “Going Hawaii with you,” he said with a smile.

  “But why are you here? Why are you flying out of NY instead of Boston?” She still couldn’t get over him being here.

  “Well, I had some business in the city and figured I would conduct my meetings today and catch up with you. I remembered you had this strategy meeting. This is the only direct flight tonight so I booked my ticket with the hope that I would catch you. I thought it would be nice to travel together. Like old times.” He looked at her expectantly.

  Oh, Troy, she thought. What am I going to do with you? Being together for this wedding is just going to make things messy. Well, she wasn’t one to back off of things when life got messy. Maybe a friendship with Troy was do-able. What was her alternative? Their lives were too interwoven for complete dismissal.

  She smiled at him. “I’m happy to see you. Have a seat.”

  “I will in a minute. I want to go check on our seats and see if they can put us together,” and off he went. It wasn’t worth her breath to try to call him back. That was Troy. When they were together, he was always making things better and easier for her behind the scenes.

  That was one thing she always appreciated about him. He had no ego when it came to her. He didn’t care how much she made or how big her job was. He was a very powerful CEO of a consumer products business but you wouldn’t know it when he was with her. It wasn’t like he wasn’t strong around her. He was always just there. Making it easy.

  Now that she thought about it, was that something she loved about their relationship or not? Maybe his easy way didn’t hold enough sparks. They never argued. They never fought. She can’t recall any disagreement that lasted more than a few hours. He didn’t like that tension between them so he would always work to make it go away. By any other person’s standards, he was a perfect partner. What was wrong with her, she questioned to herself.

  She saw him at the concierge desk speaking with a woman about their seats. The woman couldn’t take her eyes off of Troy. He had played football at Notre Dame and was built deliciously. He worked hard in the gym to maintain his football form and maintained a healthy lifestyle. His dark hair and hazel eyes made him a stunner.

  Am I crazy to have given him up, she wondered?

  Chapter 6

  Her ringing phone interrupted her thoughts.

  Zach’s number and name appeared on the screen.

  “Hi Zach,” she said with a smile in her voice.

  “How’s my favorite executive?” he asked with a smile in his voice as well.

  “Your favorite executive, huh… buttering me up because are you calling with bad news?” she asked with a laugh.

  “No, I just thought I would catch you before your flight left and see how you were doing and give you an update on how the horses went this week.”

  “Oh, great! You first…tell me how the boys were.” Sabrina was happy to have an update.

  “Well, I keep re-arranging the order in terms of who I like best after each session. Ben had started out as my favorite, but I have to tell you, Indy is quickly moving up to the top spot. They all had Monday off, as is the usual practice” Zach started.

  Horses and trainers alike lived for Mondays. The world of show jumping required such precision, that dedication like no other sport was required. Not only did you need to make sure you were in top form, but your partner had to be too. The one who ate hay and had his or her own mind about things! Most horses at that level trained six days a week and everyone had Monday off.

  “Yesterday, I did some flatwork with them incorporating many dressage moves and they were great. Today, I did grid work with them. That Indy is smart as a whip. And fast as a bullet. I think we have just only begun to tap into his potential. He’s really hungry to learn, too, which is fun.” Sabrina listened and enjoyed not only the update on her horses, but hearing Zach talk about his work with the horses. He truly was a special horseman. He had an enthusiasm about him that made the horses want to work with him. They were drawn to him.

  They weren’t the only ones!

  “…They were able to also give us an upgrade from business class to first class on both legs of the trip using some of my frequent flier miles for both of us… oh, sorry, I didn’t see you were on the phone,” Troy said as he sat in the seat beside her.

  The talking on the other end of the phone stopped. She waited. So did Zach.

  “Sabrina, did I interrupt something?” Zach asked slowly.

  “No.”

  “Do you mind me asking who that is I hear in the background? It sounds like you are in a conversation and like I interrupted something,” Zach continued.

  “Excuse me,” she said to Troy as she stood and walked away from where they were sitting. When she was far enough away so that Troy couldn’t hear, she put all her attention on Zach.

  “No Zach, you didn’t interrupt anything. That was Troy in the background. As you know, he is the best man and happens to be on the same flight to Hawaii,” she offered, wondering what the reaction was going to be.

  “So you are traveling together. I didn’t realize that,” Zach responded stiffly.

  “No, we are not.”

  “Sabrina, I don’t mean to pry but did I not just hear that the two of you were upgraded to first class together?” he pushed back.

  “Well, yes, but I didn’t know. I mean I didn’t know he was on this flight. He surprised me when he walked up to me in the lounge. I knew he was inquiring about our seats but I didn’t know he had arranged something until he walked back and you heard him,” Sabrina explained.

  Zach was silent. What the fuck! He just wanted to hear her voice and wish her well on her trip. He wished he didn’t know Troy was going. It had already made him crazy for three days and now he knew he would be so distracted for the rest of the week. Seriously? He just happened to be on the same flight? Not likely…this guy was on a mission. Great…just great.

  “Zach?”

  “Yes.”

  “We were having such a nice conversation. Can we go back to that?” Sabrina asked simply.

  Zach thought about it for a minute. He wasn’t really in a relationship with her. Right? He didn’t have room to be jealous. Right? Why was he? Because he wanted a relationship with her and he didn’t want her within 1000 miles of her GQ ex-fiancée who was trying to woo her back.

  But none of this was her fault. Other than continuing to be tied up with his family and sharing friends, this wasn’t her doing.

  “So Indy is super smart, is what I was saying…” Zach continued with his story about how her horses were.

  Sabrina was relieved. She was so happy when she heard his voice and Troy’s unfortunate timing made things awkward for a minute. She really wasn’t sure how Zach was going to handle things. She really appreciated that he honored her request to get back on track.

  They talked some more about the horses, about her meeting and stayed away from discussing the trip. They discussed upcoming horse shows and which ones might be good for her to do.

  “We’ll sit down and look at the calendar to see where you want to show and what your constraints are in terms of timing. We’ll do that when you get back. When are you back?” Zach asked.

  “I am back Sunday night so I will be out to ride on Tuesday,” she answered.

  “Are you flying into Boston or NY?”

  “Both. Into NY then a short flight into Boston to make my life easier,” she explained.

  “Do you need someone to pick you up at the airport?” he
asked.

  She smiled. For someone who didn’t like people and complained that she had been hoisted upon him, he sure had changed his tune.

  “No, I’m fine. It will be late. I’ll take a taxi.”

  “Ok, well, I don’t mind so if you change your mind, let me know,” he affirmed.

  He didn’t want to let her off the phone. He felt like he was releasing her to the lion’s den. He didn’t want her to spend time with Troy.

  “Oh… hold on… Zach, they just announced boarding for my flight. I’m going to have to go.”

  “Ok, Brine.” She smiled at the use of his nickname for her.

  It was awkward for a moment without either knowing how to end the call.

  “I’m glad you called. It was nice to catch up and hear how the boys are,” she said.

  Is that it, he thought? That’s what she got out of it? He was happy he called because he heard her voice. Because he fed the beast in his belly that was aching since she left. He was like a love struck teenager. He didn’t want to blow it with her or push her, but he also didn’t know what to do with her.

  “Sabrina?” Zach asked catching her before she hung up.

  “Yes,” she replied.

  “I’m glad I called too. For some annoying reason, the smell of your perfume filling up my barn since you showed up was missed this week,” he said with a laugh.

  She smiled. Well, well, Zach. That’s quite an admission.

  “My perfume and I will be annoying you in no time. It was nice to hear your voice. Have a good rest of the week. Bye Zach.”

  “Bye Sabrina.”

  Chapter 7

  The flight was actually enjoyable. Sabrina and Troy caught up on each other’s lives and relaxed in first class. She slept for about 6 hours so that when they landed, she was well rested. As they came off the plane, he grabbed her bags. They were greeted at baggage claim by their driver, who placed fresh flower lei over her head. She turned around just as the same was done to Troy.

  “C’mon… a picture,” the driver insisted.

  She wasn’t interested in a photograph, but the driver was pretty insistent and it seemed like the fast way to get out of there. It didn’t hurt that the driver had Troy’s support and encouragement.

  He flashed the picture and waited for it to print out of the old Polaroid camera. He handed her the picture and as she looked at it, she thought that they looked like a couple. Oy, she thought.

  The driver took them to the hotel and they were greeted by Lacey and her mom. The bride was beaming and couldn’t contain her joy when she saw Sabrina. She ran over and Sabrina dropped her bag just in time as Lacey barreled into her.

  “I can’t believe we are in Hawaii for MY WEDDING!!!” Lacey shouted. Sabrina laughed She will never change, Sabrina thought, her exuberance was unparalleled.

  “And it’s all because of you two. When you fixed me and Devon up, it was the start of a life together.” She was already fighting back the tears. As non-emotional as Sabrina was, Lacey was a stark contrast. She cried at the drop of a hat. She and their other best friend Michelle had a bet on how many times Lacey would cry the day of the wedding.

  “This is so exciting. I’m so happy for you. This is going to be amazing,” Sabrina offered while reaching out to hug Lacey’s mom.

  “I didn’t know you and Troy were traveling together,” Lacey said in undertones. “Is there something I should know?”

  “There’s a lot you should know and we need to catch up but, no, us traveling together was a surprise for me too.”

  Just then, Troy walked back to the trio and handed Sabrina keys to a room.

  “What is this?” she asked confused.

  “The key to your room. I’ve upgraded my room to a suite and took the liberty of doing the same for your room. We have an adjoining door.” Lacey and her mom just raised their eyebrows and looked to busy themselves with the plant next to them.

  “Troy…” Sabrina began.

  “Oh, Sabrina. Don’t be a stick in the mud. You deserve a great place to rest based on how hard you work. We are going to enjoy the wedding of our best friends. As maid-of-honor and best man, we’ll need to do a bunch of things together so this makes it easy.”

  He was so smooth and convincing, she thought. She had to be careful. She could be swept right back into their relationship without her even knowing what happened. The trouble was, if Zach was out of the picture, she didn’t know if that was a bad thing any more.

  She smiled at him and thanked him for the key.

  Lacey jumped in, “Why don’t you go change and let’s meet at the pool. I need to greet a few guests who are arriving over the next thirty minutes so I’ll meet you out there in an hour. Michelle is meeting us then too. Troy, you will find Devon already out there. Follow the cigar smell…” she said as she walked over to greet another guest.

  “Come on Sabrina, let’s get to our room,” Troy said as he picked up her bag.

  Roomssssss, thought Sabrina.

  Chapter 8

  The greeting with Michelle was much the same as her greeting with Lacey. Sabrina hadn’t realized how much she’d missed them until now. It had been a few weeks since she spoken to them on the phone and almost two months since she saw them.

  “………And then, as I was saying, there was no way I was going to have sex with him in his mother’s house, his mother walked right up behind us,” Lacy spit out laughing so hard.

  “Oh, I would have died,” Eve confessed.

  “Oh my god, I would have died if Eve Duncan walked up on me at that moment too!” Michelle squealed with delight at the thought, referring to Troy’s mom.

  When things simmered down, Michelle asked Sabrina, “So, how is it being with Troy?”

  Both she and Lacey waited to hear what Sabina would say.

  They were her closest friends. If she couldn’t talk to them about this situation, she couldn’t talk to anyone.

  “To be honest, it’s really weird. His family doesn’t acknowledge that we broke up and for that matter, neither does he,” she admitted.

  “Well, you need to put your foot down and let him know how it is,” Michelle said, ever the person who saw things in terms of black and white.

  Lacey asked, “Is that what you want? Do you want to lay down the law? Or are you having second thoughts?” Lacey was always the more intuitive of her two friends. She sensed something was going on with Sabrina as soon as she hugged her.

  “Yes. I think I do. It’s just too nice and easy to be with him. I mean it’s Troy, right? Who wouldn’t want to be with him?”

  “I would die if Adam looked at me the way Troy looks at you. He still has it bad for you for sure.” Michelle reflected. Her relationship with Adam was new and she was too close to it to see that Adam actually did look at her that way.

  “He’s a great guy. Traveling here with him was fun. We have all the same friends; we care deeply about each other. So in and of itself, I think I would be questioning my decision being here back with him this week. But, there’s more…” Sabrina indicated.

  “More what?” Lacey probed sensing that they were getting more to the heart of things.

  “More to this story. More to my life right now.”

  Sabrina looked at them and almost laughed at them peering back at her expectantly.

  “Are you pregnant?” they both asked in unison.

  “No!” laughed Sabrina. “Thank goodness, no! That would be much more than just …more. That would be holy shit!”

  Sabrina took a deep breath. “So, you know I moved the horses, right?”

  Chapter 9

  Sabrina took her two best friends through the last few weeks. She told them how she went in as Lewis’ student but that got switched to her riding with Zach… even though Zach doesn’t like to teach. She gushed about how amazing the horses went. She talked about the awkwardness of meeting up with Troy and his family in Saratoga. Lacey clued in to the fact that she was meandering around the significant parts of thi
s story.

  “So what’s the big deal, then? You have a new trainer. It’s not like you are sleeping with him, right?” Lacey looked at Sabrina ready to laugh until she saw the look in her eye.

  “Get the fuck out! You are sleeping with your trainer? How soap opera is that??? C’mon Sabrina. You have to be kidding me! Are you sleeping with your pool boy too?” Michelle said with delight. And loudly.

  “Michelle, shush! The whole pool can hear you!” Sabrina admonished.

  While she didn’t actually think people heard what Michelle said, she did notice that everyone looked their way with Michelle’s exclamation. Including Troy.