blue eyes

Chapter 7

Zoe: 

Zoe snoozed her alarm three times before finally getting up, having decided that she could skip washing her hair and just wear it up. At 6:30am she finally swung her feet off of the bed and stood up. With her eyes still closed, she padded over to the bathroom to get ready. She showered in record time and did her quickest make-up look, then got dressed, thankful that she'd put together all of her outfits for the week on Sunday.

By 7:15am, Zoe was on the subway with her tea in hand. After sitting down in her usual seat, Zoe pulled out her phone and scrolled back to the beginning of Sam's texts from the night before. Good grief, how many are there?

The first few were casual questions about Esther and the impending dinner on Friday, but the messages quickly dissolved into chaos. Sam was questioning everything, the manuscript, their abilities, their place in the industry. Zoe winced at the self doubt and pain lurking beneath those questions.

Then suddenly, the centaurs entered the conversation, well, monologue really. Sam's ideas were brilliant, naturally, but clearly a diversion from the bigger issues. Zoe was glad that Sam had reached out last night and hoped that they had listened and actually gone to sleep after their phone call.

When the train got to her stop, Zoe got off and wandered toward the office, still lost in thought about Sam. She waved halfheartedly at Louis and Gary, then tapped her ID to get through the turnstiles to the elevator. As the doors opened on her floor, Zoe was debating whether or not to share anything about the conversation last night with Esther. She didn't want to betray Sam's trust, but if they were as scared as they seemed last night, Zoe might need back up. Still on autopilot, Zoe stepped out and ran directly in to Esther.

"God, finally," Esther said, grabbing onto Zoe's arm and steering her towards her office. "I've been waiting for hours."

"I didn't think I'd see you before tonight," Zoe replied. "Also, the building only opened at 7am, so you can't have been here for hours."

"I didn't say anything about waiting inside," Esther clarified as they entered Zoe's office. "My flight landed at 3am, so I waited at the airport for a while, then came right here."

"I can see that," Zoe laughed, taking in all of the luggage piled in her reading chair. "Good grief, how long were you in Korea?"

"A week," Esther said, alighting themselves on the chair across from Zoe's desk. "But you know I like to keep my options open. I never know what I'm going to want to wear until I figure out how I'm feeling about wherever I'm going."

Zoe laughed and shook her head as she set down her tea and work bag, then settled into her desk chair. Esther was always perfectly dressed, so it makes sense that there would be a lot of intention behind it.

"So," Esther said. "You looked upset in the elevator. Do I need to be worried about anything?"

Zoe hesitated, squirming a bit under Esther's intense gaze. If Sam trusted her and she trusted Esther, then hopefully they would trust each other, right?

"Sam panicked a little last night," Zoe said carefully, still unsure of how much she was going to share.

"Panicked," Esther repeated. "Are we talking an explosive-misdirected-creativity-to-cover-one's-emotions panic or a changed-their-name-and-left-the-country panic?"

"Uhh, the first one," Zoe said, shocked by Esther's spot on diagnosis.

"That's mostly to be expected with a first time author," Esther nodded. "I'd honestly be more worried if they weren't panicking. How bad did it get?"