Zenon's Game Chapter 321

Zenon hung up. He walked down the front steps in the black bomber jacket he'd been wearing earlier. His left hand gripped his workout bag, and his right hand held the phone.

It rang again.

"Seriously Bryce, if you call this number one more time, I'm blocking you... I don't want to talk about it... No, don't tell your therapist."

He hung up on Bryce again.

Zenon sounded tense and I had no idea what was going on.

I didn't know where Zenon was going, but I came all this way, climbed up a tree, just to speak with him. And now he was leaving again. Part of me really wanted to hide in embarrassment until he left, but a bigger part of me was so done with us not talking.

"Zenon."

Zenon turned round, searching for where my voice was coming from.

Maybe he thinks it's coming from the heavens? He's never described my voice as angelic – actually he's only compared it to a dying cat, so never mind.

I gave the lost boy some help. "Up here."

Zenon doesn't get surprised easily, but I saw his shock when he spotted me in the tree. His mouth opened and he squinted his eyes to make sure he was seeing me properly.

"Candace?!"

I waved.

He asked, "What are you doing?"

"Hanging out."

"In a tree?"

"I was trying to find you."

"I wouldn't be up there," he replied.

Ha.

I gave him an unamused look and said, "We should talk. I have something important to tell you."

He stood there and waited. I wondered what he was waiting for, so I waited for him to tell me.

"Candace, I'm not having a conversation with you up in a tree."

Why is he so focused on the tree part?

Since it didn't look like he was changing his mind any time soon, I had to face my fears and try to get back down.

I gripped onto the branches for dear life and waved my right foot around, trying to find something sturdy for it to latch onto it. I thought I got a foothold but as I rested more of my bodyweight on it, I slipped.

A split second later, Zenon was behind me, and I felt his hand grip my ankle. He steadied me.

I looked down at him, "That scared you, didn't it?"

He shook his handsome head in disbelief, but that perfect smile of his couldn't resist coming out. "You're something, Candace Turner."

I kept moving, feeling more secure now that his hands were on me.

It took me a few seconds to come up with a reply, and just as I was about to say it, a branch smacked me in the face. My mouth received a fistful of leaves. I flayed my hands, trying to get the leaves out without falling further. Before any more mayhem happened, Zenon plucked me out of the tree and lowered me to the floor.

I landed on my feet, barely, and stood up. I spat out some leaves. I'd lost my height advantage against Zenon and our proximity made my heart beat faster than it had falling down the tree.

We were standing between our two houses: his home was not one I was comfortable entering and he probably felt the same way about mine.

"Where should we..." I asked, my words trailing off in mid-sentence as I looked at him.

He moved his head in the direction of the street.

Zenon walked to the side of the pavement and released his grip on his gym bag. It dropped to the ground, and he sat down next to it. I guess this was neutral ground for the two of us.

I came up next to him and he raised his open palm. I pressed my hand against his and used it for support to sit down on the pavement next to him.

Where do we begin?

The grey clouds rumbled overhead.

I was so nervous speaking to him. I don't know why. He's my boyfriend. He's held me in his arms and on his bed. Why do I doubt that he'll stay?

Zenon's knee pressed against mine, "You don't have to be nervous around me."

He knew me too well.

The pavement we were sitting on was cold and hard. I wrapped my arms around my raised knees and watched him. I wanted to reach out to touch him, but that felt like disturbing the perfect picture. His blue gaze was downcast. His cheekbones carved down to a hard jaw. He took his time to formulate the next words, since it was obvious I wasn't going to.

I suppose we've learned to not jump headfirst into an argument.

He started, "I know you're not happy with the way I handled Kaden. And we're still working through that."

I tried not to pull a face at the Kaden comment. I still didn't understand, what did he think violence would accomplish?

But I kept quiet. I needed to hear him out. I've learnt that.

"There's something I need to tell you too. After you left the court, Julia came up to me. She said that someone else asked her to get the jersey," he told me.

My expression dropped.

Zenon and I spent so much time fighting about his actions, that I hadn't heard the reactions. He hasn't been able to tell me this because of all our arguing.

"She'd been receiving texts from some number," he continued, "They wanted to buy a jersey and asked her to get it."

"Julia confessed?" I repeated.

I was hung up over that point.

Zenon's strategy - as much as I hated it and found it morally wrong – had actually given him the result he wanted. He'd gotten one of them to talk.