#zak001

Location: Neue 

Simone has perfected the laugh, the smile, the right words and how to say them. It’s a simple routine, because after all? Men are embarrassingly easy, simple creatures, and men with a little status, men with money and therefore power behind their names are the easiest of all. They’re all fundamentally the same. That’s why she sits here at the bar in Neue now, enjoying a pre-dinner glass of Sauvignon Blanc with her date for the evening. She laughs and smiles, pretending to be in awe of his intelligence as he gets the details of the wine wrong. The Bordeaux region of Southwest France is where the Sauvignon Blanc grapes are indigenous to, not Burgundy as he insists. That’s Chardonnay, but does she correct him? No. She has an agenda, and men like him don’t like to be told when they’re wrong. But then his phone rings, drawing their attention away from what he believes is a riveting conversation. If you’ll excuse me. I have to take this. It’s no problem at all. Simone grins, watching her date walk off with his phone pressed to his ear. Just behind him, coming as her date goes, is none other Zakarias Eklund. Her face falls immediately. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Simone frowns, irked to the very core of her being at the sight of her ex in Lockwood of all places.