Days With Zion Dawsey

22. An Hour Away

"Ebony, we-" He stopped.

The two had rushed to his building, Bonnie pushed the elevator buttons so hard and often, Zion was afraid it would fall out of its place. Once they reached his office, she pushed the door open like a gorilla on steroids. When Zion tried to stop her one last time, she had already opened the door to his office. It banged against the wall and he cringed slightly.

But that didn't matter. All he could think about upon seeing his office was that it looked like someone had cleaned it up. Like really cleaned it up. All the mess was gone, the desk he had flipped over before was now placed in its usual spot. All the books he had thrown to the ground were also on their usual spot again. His chair was replaced, since he had completely trashed it. Michael must have done that or at least organized it, because Zion was planning to replace his chair and call a cleaning service tomorrow.

"Wow, Michael has done a good job. He even put the decorations on your desk right." Bonnie stated and turned to Zion with her hands on her hips.
"So, where is it?" She asked.
"Wait, what?" Zion frowned.

"Where is the bracelet?" She repeated.
"How do you know about the-"
"Trashed office? I was here two hours ago, seeking to talk to you. I saw Michael cleaning it up." She shrugged, biting back a smile.

"Oh. Alright, it's in the top drawer to your right." The two opened it and saw the bracelet. It was still made out of brown leather with a C. K. written on it.
"Well, let's see if there's a Calvin Klein store around here. Maybe they could tell us who bought this." Bonnie said, sitting down on his big man chair.

"There's less than a 25 percent chance that he did buy it in a store. He could've bought it online, gotten it as a gift or-" Zion shook his head.
"Try it with a little more positivity." Bonnie said, taking out her phone and googling the C. K. stores in Silverthorne.
"I'm not too fond of delusional positivity. I'm a realist." He told her.

"You mean a pessimist." Bonnie said.
"I found one kind of close to us. It's an hour drive. Let's go." She continued, standing up. They ran to the elevator.

"So, where's River?" Zion figured there was no point in acting like he didn't care anymore.
"He's safe. Your mom volunteered to take care of him until we figured it out. Speaking of your mom." Zion looked at her, waiting for her to continue.
"Why didn't you tell her that I blackmailed you? You could've easily made her hate me." She murmured.

"What good would that do? She found out that she had a grandchild and was so happy. Why tell her he was the result of blackmailing?" Zion shrugged, avoiding eye contact.
"No one needs to know that. It's a secret between you and me. And I think we should burn the contracts before they fall into the wrong hands." He told her, making Bonnie nod.

"You're right. We will do that right after the store." She agreed as the two walked out of the building. All of a sudden they heard shouting and the clicking of cameras.

"What the fuck?" Zion growled, pushing a paparazzi away from him.
"Careful, that camera was a grand!" The angry man shouted at Zion.
"Oh yeah?" He asked, taking a hold of his camera and breaking off the lens before throwing the two pieces on the floor.

"Leave us alone or I'll do that to every single camera that is pointed at us!" Zion announced, momentarily making them stop and stare at him.
"Okay, let's just get to the car without getting another lawsuit." Bonnie grabbed Zion's arm, almost dragging him to her car.

.

"I'm not saying you exaggerated. But you really don't seem to like it when people take pictures of you." Bonnie said after they've been driving for half an hour.
"I don't care when people take pictures of me. But I hate people that write about me and my business. They don't have any sense of privacy." He snapped.

"I know, but it's their job. Unfortunately people get paid a lot of money for a story like ours." Bonnie sighed, stopping at a red light.
"They could get an actual degree and work like normal people in order to get money." He shook his head.
"You can get a degree in photography too." Bonnie shrugged.
"Yes, that's why I said actual degree."

"That's rude. Not all professional photographers are paparazzi." Bonnie told him.
"Doesn't matter. Photography is not a job, it's a hobby." He scoffed. Bonnie decided that their discussion was going nowhere so she changed the topic.

"I've never let River out of my sight for that long." She said, knowing he's more than fine with his grandmother.
"My mother is an amazing mother and she's going to be an even more amazing grandmother, do not worry." Zion assured her.
"I know, trust me. I'm just- I just miss him already. That's probably stupid." She shook her head. Who was she talking to?

"It's not." He murmured, looking out of the window, watching the cars on the other lane. Bonnie watched him before looking back at the road. She felt bad for the situation and knew that even though Zion has only seen River a couple of times, he missed him too. And it was her fault that the two didn't see each other as often as they should.

She regretted all those rules she wrote two years ago just because she was angry at him and never wanted to see him again. But even back then when they were trying to conceive, she knew that the rules were bullcrap. But she was afraid he'd laugh at her for even thinking he could want a relationship with his son.

But now she knew he wanted to be his father. He might not be ready for it, but he was going to be a good father.

And just like that, she found a way to make things right.