Notice me

CHAPTER I : NOTICE ME

"Dacia I really don't think this is a good idea" Zoey felt herself succumbing to the guilt of what she was about to do. This wasn't right, not after everything she's learned.

"Do you seriously not see how that man looks at you, you'd be stupid to pass him up" her friend had seen how Mr. Tate had gazed at her friend, almost like a hungry jaguar drinking in its prey's every move.

" I'll call you later" she sighed in frustration hanging up and tucking her phone into her wool satchel.

Heaving up enough courage she closed the door behind her and started her trip to his office passing the murals he painted and photos of his works hanging on the wall.

Rory Tate wasn't an arrogant man in-fact he was the sweetest most dedicated soul she's ever encountered. Whenever she needed a helping hand he was the first to help and always the last to leave.

His thick head of curly amber trestles stopped at the tip of his shoulders his dark thick eyebrows always furrowed in question combined with his straight Roman nose, warm honey suckle eyes, high cheekbones and soft pillowy rose pink lips.

He was a ten in her picture but this was strictly professional she was the employee and he the employer.

She toppled up the stairs with a warm cup of unsweetened coffee knocking on the already opened door.

There she found him dead asleep head on the table surrounded by clusters of papers his reading glasses still on. She slowly placed the coffee on his table picking up a portfolio scuffling his papers together and placing them on the edge of his desk in plain sight before walking behind him taking off his glasses rubbing his shoulders softly as not to frighten him.

He groaned out in exhaustion burrowing his already messy hair further into the desk and pouting his lips sleepily.

"Mr. Tate, I brought you some coffee" she didn't want to give him but he always requested it and when she'd deny his request he'd always end up making it himself only to get scorched by the piping hot water.

He lazily eased himself up rubbing his eyes and propping himself against his elbow, eyeing the cup in relief.
"Thank you, What would I do without you" she went to respond but kept her mouth sealed.

"I have a question" he gazed at her expectedly not expecting her to pause seeing ass she was always the talkative one of the pair.

"Ok go ahead" his face still screamed sleep deprivation but he'd always make time to hear her out.

"What am I to you" her breathed itched as her throat closed desperately trying to suck back in her words of doom.

She couldn't take the embarrassment or heartbreak of rejection but it was something she needed to know, she needed closure.

"You-I uh. I see you as my rock your here for me as I you, you're my home Zo" he did respond but she didn't know what to do with it, she hadn't expected that type of response.

Wasn't he supposed to 'woo' her? His answer wasn't clear, in fact it didn't give her two coops of chicken crap to find it.

Rory could see the disappoint leaking from her. "Now darlin you know how much you value to me, why is it now that you're questioning it" was she that oblivious?

"Because Rory the whole damn town knows something I don't! You come here after 10 years of serving in the army and what I'm magically yours now. Cut your crap and set this record straight cause I know darn well I'm not setting my life cause of no town gos-" her words stuck in her mouth when all of a sudden she saw Rory angrily get up from his desk, the chair toppling over and his face anything but the usual joyous man he was to her.

His full height would've made anyone cower but not her, his Zoe wasn't going to back down. Her head angled towards his chest as he stood in front of her closely his six foot four figure towering her five eight.

"What's a little gossip got to do with us Zoe, it never bothered you before so why now" the curl of his lip and fisted veiny hands made her rethink this particular initiative.

"Do you care about me other than a friend Roar" her tone made him relax in her gaze.

"I loved you as a friend when we were younglings but when it came to middle school I didn't like you playing with those other boys, I told your momma one Sunday and she told me nothing was wrong about it, that's just life. In high school however you managed to drown every little shit in your charms and I got possessive and protective- these weren't friendly feelings Zo. I left because I couldn't get you out of my head and I thought the army would've helped that but I was wrong. After the black ops mission in Baghdad I developed a PTSD disorder, I couldn't live like that thinking about you standing at deaths door and not doing a thing about it. The PTSD got worse and the night terrors made me a liability. I was honorably discharged and my first stop was you but you were so vulnerable and I didn't want to damaged what took so long to build back up. I love you more than life itself Zoe but I don't want to push you away, you're it for me" by now her heart had gone fifty beats per second.

He loved her.

"I spent nights doubting myself worth just because you couldn't bear the thought of being with me? You deliberately endanger yourself because of me" her lips trembled and her chocolate eyes shone with unshed tears.

"Zo- darlin no, you were too young, I would've ruined you. I would've jeopardize everything we had together" he felt like someone had taken him from his comfort zone and tossed him into the Arctic's.

"I have to go it's my night to cook" her hands formed into fists around the wool handle of her satchel.

"Zo please don't do this" his voice pleaded hoarsely reeking of desperation.

"I'm sorry sherif " it felt like a blow to his heart; the woman he loved for half his life and the rest dying after was calling him by a title that meant less to him than her tears of sadness.

She took off in a flash with him pacing her steps calling her name loudly as she quickly got into her beat up Chevy pickup and drove out the driveway with him running after her stoping when he felt his chest constrict in pain but he still couldn't decipher whether it be from his heart ache or the exertion.

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Thank you for reading💝