Strings Attached

Chapter Two

Once morning had broken, and she had forgotten about Zach's slight kiss, Kendall had made her way into her bathroom and showered. Then she'd gotten dressed and headed over to Fusion.

When she'd first entered the door she spotted Ethan. He was seated at Greenlee's desk scanning over some reports that apparently needed his attention and his signature because he was signing some of them.

Ignoring people was her strong suit when she need it to be. Briskly she walked into the office and went straight to her desk. Dropping her purse she sifted through some lipstick colors that she had been avoiding as of late.

She could feel his gaze on her. It burned her skin, and made her fuzzy in the head.

Stop it !, Kendall thought. Until he can stop trying to punish Zach, we cannot be together.

She moved to the other side of the office and began to make copies of memos that were going to got to other Fusion employees. Sensing that Ethan was behind her, even when she hadn't heard him she scowled. "Nothing has changed."

"Why do you insist on making this harder on yourself?" He asked as he nuzzled her neck. She moved away form him and gathered her copies.

"Make this hard on me. You're the one who insist on punishing your daddy because he won't love you." The look that crossed Ethan's face was one of disgust. He didn't like when Kendall made it all his fault and non of Zach's.

"Kendall, please-"

"Please what?" Her eyes flashed blue sparks. "Please don't mention Zach Slater. Don't justify your father to you." She sneered at him, feeling very void of any emotion for him.

"My father is going to regret every evil thing he's ever done," Ethan followed close behind.

"See, your so blinded by Zach, you can't see straight. You use to be a wonderful person before this whole mess with your father. I'm not saying that everything Zach did was right. Some of it was down right wrong. But that's not the type of person you are. You aren't vengeful." She shook her head, seeing that none of her words were making it clear enough.

"This morning I had Zach's casinos shut down. Both the Season East and West."

"God, Ethan, what has happened to you," Kendall backed slowly away from him and then turned bumping into Simone. She didn't recognize this man anymore. He had Ethan's face, and his body, but all the traces of the Ethan she'd known were gone. Evaporated as if they had never existed in the first place.

"Hey, watch where your going!" Simone cried as she moved around Kendall.

"Sorry," Kendall murmured. "I didn't see you."

Once she was in the parking lot of Fusion, the lights came on upstairs, and she could breath. She realized that she had been holding her breath. After a few deep minding calming, reassuring gulps of air she got in her car and drove home.

Although she and Greenlee had planned to work on a few things today she decided that it was better to get out of that air before Ethan sucked the life out of her. She wouldn't let him do that to her. Driving through the gates to her condo she saw Zack getting out of his SUV. A scowl had planted itself on his face. Appreciatively, Kendall's eyes roamed over his body, and then she scolded herself.

"Hey," she said after parking beside him and getting out.

He muttured something incoherent to her ears. She rolled her eyes thinking that it was just typical Zach until she remembered Ethan's words about closing down the casinos.

"So I guess you know about your casinos," she mumbled.

"Yeah. I just got a call from the gaming comissioner." He was weary as they trudged up the small hill to their respective condos. The way he moved spelled tired, fatigued.

"I'm sorry," Kendall said in a small voice. Zach gave her a look of disbelief. She smiled then, "Hey I can be nice. I know what your casinos meant to you."

"Thanks." He went to unlock his condo doors when Kendall mumbled something he didn't quite here. "Hum?" He asked.

She turned, with the key to her condo on the verge of letting her enter. "I said this doesn't mean were friends or anything."

This amused him. "Oh, of course not." He smile, then entered his own respective house.

Kendall rolled her eyes, throwing her purse down on a side table. She entered her small kitchen and grabbed a banana. Peeling it she checked her messages. There was only one, and it was from Bianca.

"Kendall, it me Bianca. Just wanted to call and check on you. I know I upset Ethan, but I hope I didn't mess things up between the two of you. Still, even though Ethan isn't on board with this project, I want Zach to help with it. I'll call later with more details. Maggie says hi, Miranda says she loves you, and I love you to." The recording ended.

She sighed and relaxed into her couch. Thoughts of last night spun into her head. They were all about Zach, and then she cided herself. She had a small, barely there crush on Zach Slater.

She knew it wouldn't amount to anything. Why? Because he wanted the one and only Widow Grey. Everyone knew that Zach was deeply in love with her. He had found her out in the desert, and had fallen madly in love with her. She sighed, thinking that it was nice to be in love when love wasn't beating you until you had nothing left to give.

Getting up she turned on the news and prepared to fix herself some lunch and tea. Putting water on to boil, she slipped into the shower. This was her favorite past time, it was how she forgot the world. It was now how she was going to forget Ethan existed, even if for only a few brief moments.

She also forgot that she had left her stove on.