The Ghostly Love Story

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ZAKS POV

I sat there at the kitchen counter in disbelief. It felt like my heart broke. I heard the door close behind her and realized that we had made a mistake and maybe she was right. We shouldn't be mixing work with feelings. I look over at her laptop. The video is right back at the beginning. She must have removed the cop part. I grab her laptop and camera and walk over to the couch. I sit there for awhile before hitting play on the video. The look on both of our faces says a lot to me. As Im watching I can't help but to want to knock on her door. Right as the kiss comes up I hear her door open. I quickly shut the laptop and sit back in the couch. She looks over at me and laughs lightly taking a seat right next to me. She opens the laptop back up and continues playing the video. She watches and I see a tear roll down her cheek.

"Im sorry. I came off a lot more mean than I intended. I just don't want to end up heartbroken again and I do really want to keep my job" she looks over at me. Her face is puffy and I could tell she had cried for a little bit. I looked at her a moment before looking back at the laptop. I grab it adjusting the time on it. I hit play and point to it. She sits there watching it.

"Look at the smiles on our faces. Sometimes I think life wants us to take these risks. In my opinion I see two extremely happy people in that video. Two young people who are falling in love, and quickly. I know we are working together on an important job, but I don't think it should stop us from having emotions and feelings towards each other. I think we should take the risk." I pull her face towards me. I see a small smile form as I look into her eyes. I lean in towards her lips but she hesitates a little bit. She pulls away slightly but I bring her back in and give her a kiss. "We don't have to fly into this. We can take things slow if you want too. But don't be scared to fall in love. Its one of the most beautiful things. Clearly!!! I mean look at us in the video smiling ear to ear." I see her eyes finally open and take a deep breath in. she looks up at me and just rests her head on my chest. I hold her there a moment as I close the laptop and walk her over to her room. I open the door and follow her over to her bed. She plops down clearly tired from the day. I cover her up and begin to walk towards the door.

"Zak?" i hear her mumble.

"Yes?" i respond

"Don't go yet.. please?" she says shyly.

I walk back over to her and she opens the covers for me to slide in with her. she lays her head on my stomach and I gently massage her head. She slowly melts into a deep sleep and I slip away leaving her door cracked. I head up to my room and turn off all the lights. I get into my bed and get comfortable and quickly doze off to sleep.

DAHLIAS POV

I wake up late in the morning to the sound of the TV in the next room. I raise up in bed and head to my bathroom. I quickly brush my teeth and hair and walk back to my room. I get dressed into a pair of leggings and a baggy shirt thats almost like a dress on me. I open my door and see Zak sitting on the couch. I walk past him and get myself a cup of coffee. I walk back over to the couch and sit next to him. He looks over at me with a smile on his face.

"Good morning" he says.

"Morning" I say still half asleep. I smile in return and set my coffee down on the table. I look over at him and groan.

"Whats wrong?" he asks.

"Nothing. Im just tired. That drive took a lot out of me I guess." I say smiling slightly.

He looks over at me pulling me close to him. I lay there for a few minutes just enjoying the moment of rest. I pick my head up and grab my coffee quickly finishing it. I walk over to the sink and wash my mug. I step outside searching for my new phone and find it. As I walk inside I notice my other phone is ringing in my room. I ask Zak to go grab it and answer it for me.

He quickly gets up and runs answering it immediately.

"Hello? Uhm yes shes around. Yes of course" he says in the conversation. He walks over to me and hands me the phone. "Its Justin" he says a frown forming on his face. I look at the phone and slowly grab it.

"Hello?"I say

"Why haven't you called me back yet? Did you make it safe or not?" Justin says angrily.

"I'm fine. I need to go." I say shortly.

"Don't hang up on me. List-" I hang up before he can finish. I turned the phone off and look up at Zak. I hand him the phone and quickly walked to my room. I close the door behind me and walk to the bathroom closing that door behind me as well. Hearing Justins voice made me feel sick. It shook me to my core. We were over I don't get why he was trying to contact me. I quickly walked over to the toilet feeling my stomach churn. All of a sudden I hear a knock at the door.

"Dahlia? Are you okay?" Zak asks. I sit there a moment letting my stomach settle some before talking. "Im fine. Just not feeling good today. Probably from all the traveling." I muster every word before ending up gettin nauseated again. He opens the door and slowly walks up behind me squatting down to rub my back. "You don't want to watch this." I say as I begin leaning over the toilet preparing. He just sat there rubbing my back slowly grabbing up my hair holding it for me. Im trying to take deep breaths but it ends up not working. I get sick and get super shaky afterwards. I sit beside the toilet for a moment recollecting myself. I slowly get up and flush the toilet. I grab my toothbrush and smear toothpaste all over it and thoroughly brush my teeth. He sits there looking at me before getting up. I finish brushing my teeth and just stand there a moment trying not to get to dizzy. He walks me over to the living room and places me on the couch.

"What happened? Why did you get sick after the phone call? Who is Justin anyways?" he asks looking over to me. I sorta smile and laugh a second.

"My ex. My ex who is still completely obsessed with me. Hand me my laptop!" I say.

He looks at me kinda shocked. I grab my laptop and turn off location service. I grab my old phone turning it back on and log out of it completely. My photos are all on my laptop anyways. I grab my new phone and create a brand new apple account. I block his number regardless. I put my old phone in a drawer in my room and close my laptop. I look over at Zak.

"He shouldn't be a problem anymore." I say slightly out of breath.

"Thats fine. Are you feeling okay? Was it something you ate maybe?" He says

"No. It's an anxiety thing. If it get too nervous about something I get sick from it." I say shying as I hated talking about it. Zak looks over at me seeming confused.

"How come he makes you that anxious? Did he do something to you?" He asks sternly. I sit there and debate even answering his questions. I look over to him and it all just spills out.

"He abused me and threatened me." My heart drops as I tell him that. The look on his face told me he felt angry.

We both sat there in silence for awhile. I seemed to break him from speaking to me. He got up and walked upstairs and stayed up for a little bit. I sat scrolling on my new phone when all of a sudden I heard something break. I quickly run upstairs trying to find out where it came from when I walk past a door and stop. I walk backwards and see Zak standing in front of a dresser with a vase broken at his feet. He's leaning on the dresser catching he breath when I walk over to him and grab his hand.

"Hey. Its the past. No reason to feel angry about it. I'm fine and safe now. I have done my best to avoid any contact with him. Where's a vacuum so I can help you clean this up?" I ask. He swiftly walks away and down the stairs. I walk out to the hallways as he's walking up with a small vacuum. I grab it from his hands and grab the larger pieces. I turn on the vacuum and try to get all of the small pieces of glass. Once I finish up I set the vacuum down on his dresser and look over at him. He's laying in his bed rubbing his temples. I quietly walk out of the room and head down the stairs. I hear his door close behind me by the time I'm in the kitchen area and I decide to grab my keys and go for a drive. I close the door behind me and step into my car. I start the vehicle and just as Im about to back out of the driveway I hear the door shut. I whip my head around and see him walking up to my window. I quickly roll it down.

"I'm sorry. I'm not mad at you. Just felt terrible for the situation you were put through. You don't deserve anything like that." He stares at my eyes taking deep breaths.

"Get in. I just wanna drive around some. But first could you grab my camera from the room? Figured I could get more photos." I say smiling at him. He walks back into the house and quickly comes back out with the camera in his hand. I watch as he opens the door to the passenger seat and I quickly grab my bags and move them to the floor. We both buckles and I drive toward the desert. All I can think about is just driving until Im completely lost and don't know where I am. That's what I did when I was back home. I would drive around for hours upon hours taking in the views of the wilderness around me. I would stop anytime I saw trails and take photos. There weren't any trails out here. I slowly came to a stop and looked at a couple Cacti on the side of the road. I check my mirrors before getting out and slowly open my door. I look down at the ground checking for snakes or anything. Once I see i'm safe I walk to the other side of the car. I take a couple photos as Zak opens his door. He looks over at me seeing what photos I am taking and smiles.

"You're a nature lover aren't you?" he asks.

"Yeah I guess you could say that. I love driving and taking photos of my surroundings. Sometimes I drive in the rain when I'm upset and stop at random trails and if I see something that speaks to me I take a picture of it. It helps me feel like I can relate to something. I never really had many friends. Clearly considering I haven't gotten any texts from them." I lightly laugh and roll my eyes at the thought. He looks over to me and opens up his door. He walks over to the drives side and slides in.

"You won't find much rain here. But you can find sweltering heat. It resembles rage maybe. A cactus would too probably. The desert seems more like an angry place if you ask me. Sadness would be Washington or Oregon maybe. I don't know about happiness. I feel like for someone who has shut down and turned cold hearted would feel at home somewhere where its always cold. Maybe Alaska or Canada." he looks at me laughing trying to make sense of what I was saying. I slide in the car with him and laugh.

"Honestly that sounds accurate. So now we have to find where people go when they are happy." I say.

"Somewhere to go when you're happy. Hmmmm. Home?" he says.

"Mmm. definitely not my hometown personally. What about Montana? Ooh or what about Italy?" I say excitedly. He looks over at me watching excitement fill my eyes.

"That sounds happy. All the food you can eat and wine you can drink. Sounds almost romantic." he laughs. We look at each other and he turns my car around. We head back to the house and as we drive I take pictures. He pulls into the driveway and I open my door. We walk to the house as he unlocks the front door and as we walk inside I feel my energy shifting. I finally realize its my time to start fresh. To let go of the past and become who I have always wanted to be. I don't have to be this anxious girl afraid to make friends. Afraid to take chances. Afraid to live or love. I can be whoever I want to be. Who I have dreamed of being since I was a little kid.

"If we are going to do this then I'm all in. But if we do this you need to know and understand my past to understand me. Understand why I react to things a certain way and understand the things I have survived through. And once we start then there's no turning back okay?" I quickly turn around looking Zak in the eyes. I could feel the sting of memories hitting me as he looked at me.

"Okay. When do you want to do this?" he asked

"Tonight. We can build a fire and just talk about things and see if you can handle me at least." a small laugh escapes my mouth as i finish that sentence. He smiles over at me and shakes his head in agreement. I go grab my phone and see that he had sent me a text while we were driving around.

Don't take the way I react to certain things personal. It's truly not you. I just hate to hear hoe you have been treated in the past. No one deserves to sit through abuse and pain. And that was only a small part of your story. One that I won't let you live through again. ~ZB

I look over to him smiling as he is searching through the fridge for something to eat. I manage to sneak up behind him.

"How about pasta?" I say

He quickly jumps up and turns around to see me behind him. He comes up to me and picks me up throwing me over his shoulder laughing.

"You'll regret scaring me" He says laughing. He opens the back door and walks outside and straight into the pool. We're both laughing as he gently tosses me all the way in. I come back up and attempt to run towards him, the water of course slowing me down.

"How about a nice wonderful hug?" I say laughing at him as he is still mostly dry. I quickly jump onto him clinging to him with my soaked clothes. He groans and laugh as he feels the rest of him is getting wet.

"Smart smart move." he says laughing heavily embracing the hug. I run my hand down his arm grabbing his in mine as i walk out of the pool pulling him close behind me. As I hear my clothes pouring water all over the place behind me I quickly take off my pajama pants and walk towards my room to change. I let go of Zak's hand in the living room and go straight to my boxes searching for clothes. As I find another pair of shorts and a tank top I go to the bathroom to change. I quickly throw the clothes on realizing another one of my tank tops were too big on me and i walk back out. I see Zak still standing there watching me tug and pull at my top seeming upset.

"What's wrong with your top?" he asks

"It doesn't fit. Its like its to big on me all of a sudden. Its aggravating me cus I don't have the extra cash to buy new clothes right now." I sigh at the thought of having to even shop. He helps me tighten the straps to my tank top a little bit as I still tug at it hoping maybe its just my imagination or that I had bought the wrong size. He quickly runs up the stairs and in a moment returns with a scale.

"Hop on. Maybe you have lost some weight over time. When was the last time you weighed yourself?" he asks while handing me the scale.

"I'm not sure maybe a couple weeks ago. I weighted like 175" I hopped on the scale and looked down to see I had dropped almost 15 pounds.

"152?! There's literally no way I lost 13 pounds in less than a month. I've been eating.... sort of?" I pause looking stupidly at my stomach realizing I skipped meals multiple times throughout the past couple weeks and ate very little if anything at all. I look over to Zak who seems rather upset and goes to the fridge to find something for lunch. I step off the scale walking over to him as he hands me tomatoes onions garlic and other items to make a sauce. Then he pulls out beef breadcrumbs and seasoning. Then he grabs noodles and cheese.

"You need to start eating more and regularly. And if you don't like how much you're eating I can help you with working out and stuff. You look fine but you need to be healthy. I don't want you starving yourself. It's not a healthy habit. so from now on we eat 3 meals a day and some snacks. We can workout as much as you want to as well. " he says firmly. He quickly begins cooking and I join in. I make the sauce and the meatballs for him and he just sits back as the pasta boils. I find a baking dish and strain the noodles before they are done and add them to the dish along with some of the sauce. I start frying the meatballs while waiting for the over to heat up. I throw cheese on the past and add the meatballs to the sauce. I put the oven at a low temp to prolong the cooking period. I grab another pan and eggs and begin boiling them. Once they finish boiling I tell Zak to peel them. Once peeled I add them to the sauce and check on the pasta in the over. I turn the temp up and let it bake for another 20 minutes. We clean up the pots and pan we already dirtied and wait for everything to finish. I grab a couple plates and set them out. I find some bread and grab butter and make butter the bread setting it on the plates and pull out the cooked pasta. I put a couple scoops onto each plate and add a couple meatballs and eggs I also add extra sauce and find some parmesan cheese to throw on it. i slide Zak his plate and put mine next to him. I walk to the fridge grabbing up both some waters and sit down next to him handing him his. We both dig in and devour it all. I hadn't noticed how truly hungry my body has been.

"That was really good. Where'd you learn to even cook like that?" he asked.

"My grandmother. I was raised by my grandparents from 6 to 14. I picked up a couple of her skills i suppose." I laugh gently. "I think I am going to watch some TV if you want to join me." I say. He nods his head and we walk to the living room. We both sit there and put on a random show. I lay my head on his shoulder eventually dozing off for a bit.