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Thirty First Secret
Darien yawned and turned back over. Zach could tell that he was still half asleep.
“If that’s what you want, I’ll stay. Just let me go back to sleep. I’ll be here when you get back,” Darien replied and his eyes closed again.
He was asleep in seconds and Zach smiled. He wasn’t going to be alone. With that comforting thought in his heart, he unpacked some clothes and got dressed in the bathroom before going downstairs.
Zach took the spare door key out of the vase of flowers in the hallway and left it on the table with a note for Darien. Then he took a cereal box out of the cupboard and left it next to the note. Darien might skip breakfast if he didn’t prompt him.
His father was waiting by the front door when he came out. Zach saw how tense he was and all his feelings of worry that had been kept at bay were coming back. He fought them back down, he needed to be strong to support his father.
“Let’s go,” he said.
***
Darien woke up
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Zach’s mind was in disarray. He couldn’t believe that his father had drawn the conclusion that he and Darien could be dating. Darien didn’t like him like that. The question was also putting Darien in an awkward position as a closeted gay. The billionaire looked extremely uncomfortable right now. He needed to correct his father’s assumption as quickly as possible. “We’re just friends,” he told him. “He’s not my type anyway.” That wasn’t quite the truth there. Darien was very much his type with his intelligence, wit and increasing kindness. He noticed out of the corner of his eyes that Darien looked disappointed. He didn’t know why. They weren’t supposed to be each other’s types. “I see,” his father said. “Are you going to introduce him properly now? I didn’t ask much last night as I wasn’t in the mood.” “This is my friend. He also works at Harper Publishing and was passing by at the right time,” Zach informed him. There was no way his f
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Zach’s heart stung at the words which didn’t make sense to him. He didn’t have any romantic interest in Darien. They were simply just friends.“That’s fine,” he replied. “We are really just friends and I would never aspire to be any more than that.”His father picked up his cup of tea and waved goodbye. It was clear the conversation was over. Zach was also keen for the conversation to end.“I’m going upstairs now,” he said.Darien was sitting on his bed frowning at his phone when he walked in. The billionaire looked up and smiled at him. It was a nice smile. Zach was glad to see he was content with staying at his family home.“Are you writing your story?” he asked.He didn’t ask to have a look despite his curiosity. It was Darien’s private matter and he wouldn’t snoop.“I’m checking over my drafted chapters for mistakes,”
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The two of them left for London the following afternoon. Zach looked back at his family home as Darien drove around the corner. It had been nice to spend time with his parents again although he wished he hadn’t been so fraught with worry for half the time. Darien had been declared his mother’s favourite out of his friends. She had been horrified to find that Darien had been enlisted by him to clean the house and had apologised profusely. She had even packed snacks for their journey back to London despite her condition. Zach was looking forward to the chocolate cake. When he had thought about going back to his hometown to visit his parents during his internship he had never imagined it would be with a billionaire. Darien had enjoyed his stay. He had given Darien a brief tour of the town’s attractions in the morning. The amount of money Darien had spent in the gift shops was impressive. The billionaire seemed to want to build a collection of seaside the
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The next week saw only occasional texts from Darien. Zach was always happy to get a text even if it was a short one as he knew Darien was very busy with work and didn’t have much free time. He ran into the billionaire once outside Austin’s flower shop and purposefully walked past the flower shop. Darien gave him a discreet thumbs up which made Zach smile. The weekend finally arrived after a long five days of learning how to edit low level erotica. It turned out that there was a database of words that needed to be used in those types of stories. It was a surprisingly interesting area of erotica. Zach stood waiting outside his apartment block and double checked that he really had packed his swimming goggles for the sixth time. He wasn’t comfortable swimming without his goggles. A red car he had seen before pulled up in front of him and the side window rolled down to reveal a wavy haired Darien. “You can get in,” he said. Zach eagerly got in the
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Darien was too surprised by the declaration to reply immediately. They had just decided they were friends after three weeks and now after another week, Zach thought they were best friends. Was this what being stuck in the friendzone was? He had heard the phrase before and had never thought he could ever apply to him given his lack of interest in romantic relationships. Now he knew what it felt like. It was flattering to know that Zach really had warmed up to him which was a miracle given what had happened when they first met, but he wanted to be more than his best friend. He became aware that Zach was looking at him with his big eyes. The intern clearly wanted a response to his declaration. “I thought we were just friends last week,” he said casually and licked his ice cream before it could drip on his hand. “I know I know I said that, I just feel like we’re closer than that. You just served me ice cream and you’re letting me use your
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Zach opened the door of his apartment and encountered Emilia in the hallway. She took one sniff of the air and busted him.“You smell like chlorine,” she said. “Where did you go?”He wasn’t in the position where he could say that he had a best friend with an indoor pool. He had no choice but dodge the truth again. If he was lucky, Emilia wouldn’t ask him any other questions.“To a swimming pool.”Emilia nodded. “I sometimes want to have a swim. Work is a bitch for now. My sleeping schedule is messed up from all the late nights.”She walked into the kitchen and Zach breathed a silent sigh of relief. He had escaped an interrogation.He hung his wet clothes up on the drying rack to put in the washing machine later. He needed a shower as well to get the chlorine out of his hair. Then he could relax for a few hours before preparing dinner.Darien’s cooking skills were slowly
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The billionaire led him inside the patisserie. Zach looked around in wonderment. He didn’t know what it looked like on a normal day but tonight it looked impressively horror themed. The walls were covered in black drapes and the only lighting was provided by artificial candles lit up in varying shades of red. The staff were also dressed up for the occasion and Zach felt at home already. He hadn’t even eaten anything chocolate yet. “I’ll find a table before it gets too busy,” Darien said. “I think we know each other well enough for you to pick something on my behalf.” The queue for the counter was already growing at a rapid pace so Zach hurriedly joined it. He looked at the special menu on the wall so he would save time when it was his turn to be served. The menu was full of themed cakes, chocolates and light refreshments. He chose for himself quickly and took more time with Darien’s potential order. Darien was much more open to sweet treats now, but h
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Zach didn’t know what to say to that. She had caught him in the act and judging from the camera in her hands, she had photographic evidence. As he expected she turned her camera around and showed him a photo that was of Darien holding his arm in a way that looked more romantic than it really had been. He recognised that it was taken when he tripped up and Darien had caught him. Even with make-up and different hair, it was still unmistakably Darien to someone who knew what he looked like. “It isn’t what it looks like,” was all he could say. “He was the man I found on your lap that night,” she said. “After having to see photos of him at work I realised he looked a lot like that mysterious man…” There was no denying that one. In retrospect his secret relationship with Darien had been a ticking time bomb. He had messed up too many times in Emilia’s presence and she was exceedingly sharp and observant which was why she wanted to be a reporter. Was
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