"I knew she overre--holy shit!" he yelled, falling back on his ass and scooting away from the largest spider he'd ever seen. When it decided to come after him he was left with little choice but to grab one of Zoe's magazines off the neat pile near the toilet and beat the shit out of spider as Toby barked encouragingly. Even after he was pretty sure it was dead he kept up the attack, afraid that it was just a trick and the spider was buying its time before it attacked him and dragged him beneath the sink.

Panting hard, Trevor tossed the magazine back on the pile and slowly stood up, never taking his eyes away from the gooey mess on Zoe's floor and leaned back against the wall, making a mental note to call an exterminator first thing tomorrow morning. He watched the mess intently for a moment, making sure it wasn't going to come after him again before he decided to clean it up and get the hell out of there before its friends came looking for him.

He walked downstairs, trying to calm his damn nerves, barely aware that the dog followed him downstairs and headed for Zoe's kitchen. He opened the refrigerator and grabbed a bottle of water and chugged it down, wishing Zoe had something more substantial in her fridge to calm his nerves like steak or left over lasagna instead of diet yogurt and a huge pile of green veggies.

Toby's whimpering caught his attention. "Of course she went back and bought it," he said when he spotted the large clear plastic jar filled with mini dog treats.

With a sigh he opened the jar and grabbed a handful of mini treats and held them up. "You're going to keep your mug shut about the spider, right?"

Wagging his tail happily, Toby barked.

"That's what I thought," he said, tossing the dog a biscuit.

**********

"Excuse me?" Zoe said, signaling the bartender as she did her best to ignore feeling like she was on display in her new clothes. It was the first time in a long time that she'd worn something so revealing. Granted, compared to the scantily dressed women walking around the bar she was probably dressed more like a nun.

For probably the hundredth time that hour she resisted the urge to yank up her blouse she let the sales woman talk her into. Not that she regretted buying it. Okay, maybe a little since it put her breasts on display a little more than she was comfortable with, but it helped give the illusion that she had a nice figure so she was going to have to learn to deal with it. Besides, the blouse went really nice with the silky baby blue floral skirt that she'd loved and bought so it wasn't too bad.

"What can I get for you, sweetheart?" the bartender asked as he walked over to her.

"Could I get another screwdriver?" she asked, smiling as she held up her empty glass.

"Sure thing," he said, winking.

Zoe sighed contently as she turned on her barstool to scope out the crowd again, trying not to look desperate and doing a much better job than she had an hour ago, she thought, feeling surprisingly comfortable.

It was surprising that she could feel so relaxed with her breasts on display and wearing clothes that showed off her real figure without feeling awkward. No doubt it had to do with the excellent music playing and energy the crowd was giving off. The four screwdrivers she'd allowed herself to drink probably had something to do with it, but at the moment she simply didn't care.

Right now she didn't care that she wasn't the skinniest woman at the bar, or even the prettiest. It didn't even matter that the man in her life saw her as nothing more than a tenant to do his bidding or that in a week that man would probably break her heart by taking her precious puppy away. Hell, it didn't even matter that each drink contained over two hundred calories, but that probably had something to do with the fact that she hadn't eaten all day so she had plenty of calories to use. At this moment everything was right with the world and she felt damn good and was ready to have sex for the first time in five years.

"Here you go," the bartender said with a delicious little smile that made Zoe even happier.

"Thank you," she murmured, handing over a twenty and waving away the change. She picked up her drink and sipped it as she looked over the crowd, wondering what the best way to approach a man for sex was.

Her eyes landed on Trevor as he walked into the bar and she nearly sighed. He really looked good, she thought and judging by the way every woman in the bar seemed to stop what they were doing to look his way she didn't think she was the only one that thought so.

She raised her hand to wave to him only to stop mid-raise as she reminded herself that it wasn't like that between them. They weren't friends and the last thing she needed tonight was to look pathetic, well even more pathetic than coming to a bar alone to pick up a guy. For a minute she sat there sipping her drink as she discretely watched as he approached the corner where a lot of guys from work were hanging out.

While all the guys greeted him the women looked him over hungrily. Not that she could blame them. He did look rather delicious tonight. Through narrowed eyes she watched as that jerk that liked to make fat comments about her when he thought she couldn't hear approached Trevor with several women. He wasn't an attractive man, not by any stretch of the imagination, but he obviously put a lot of work and time into his appearance. His hair was over styled, she'd bet everything that she had that his black designer tee shirt was ironed along with his pants and she knew the large bugle in his pants had to be a rolled up gym sock. The man was pathetic and a jerk and she was getting sick of his comments, but she kept her mouth shut only because she didn't want to start any drama at work.

Obviously Trevor liked the big jerk, she thought as she watched him greet the women that the jerk practically shoved his way. She couldn't help but feel disappointed when Trevor didn't tell the jerk off or walk away from the women who looked like they'd been around the block one too many times.

Of course nothing disappointed her more than when he looked up and met her eyes only to look away. Then again it shouldn't because they weren't really friends, she thought, making a mental note to short change him on his lunch Monday morning. She forced herself to look away and focus back on the task at hand.

Having sex.

"You're a pretty little thing," a man with shoulder length blonde hair and pretty grey eyes said as he took the stool next to her and gestured for a beer. He looked clean and had the boy next door look going for him and would probably be a good choice to help her get over her sexual slump.

"Thank you," she said, feeling secretly pleased by the comment and attention. At least someone was happy to see her, she mused.

"Are you here with someone?" the man asked as he ran assessing eyes over her, pausing on her breasts.

She opened her mouth to answer only to have a familiar deep voice answer for her.

"She's with me," Trevor said, throwing his arm around her shoulders as he gave the man a pointed look.

The man opened his mouth, looking as though he wanted to argue, but quickly snapped his mouth shut as he took in Trevor's large build. With a forced smile and a nod farewell the man grabbed his beer and walked away.

"You're welcome," Trevor said, taking the newly vacated seat and signaled for a beer.

"Why the hell did you just do that?" Zoe hissed, watching the man hurry across the room towards a much prettier brunette. Great, now she'd have to figure out how to get another man to approach her, she thought, taking a sip of her very delicious drink.