“Absolutely not. He’s just a crabby patty by nature.”
“Mia, can you bring me another skewer?” Rush interrupts.
“Are your hands broken?” I taunt him like we always do with each other. Now that the true nature of our friendship has been revealed to at least one person, I feel as if we can start to finally be normal with each other.
Tiger laughs at my little jibe, but Rush doesn’t. He turns around and stares menacingly at the two of us.
“I’m working.” He turns back to Carter. “Keep your chest up and drive your knees up seventy-five to ninety degrees.”
“It’s dinner break,” I bite back. “Come over here and eat your food yourself.”
“Wow,” Tiger remarks. “I’m not used to hearing people talk to the infamous Rush Bacchetti like this. It’s refreshing.”
When Rush glares angrily at me, I realize that I may have just inserted my size nine foot into my feisty little mouth. Without another word between us, I grab both a shrimp and chicken skewer off the table and walk it over to him. He notices that I’m walking slower than usual and his face drops. Before he can apologize, Tiger jogs over and wraps his arm around my waist to support my weight.
“You ok there, Mia?”
“Yes,” I answer gently. “Just making sure my friend here eats since he’sworking.”
I can tell that Rush is still upset, but I’m not exactly sure if it’s with me or himself.
“Samuels, can you grab a pair of crutches for Mia in the PT main office? Anybody in there will know where they are.”
“I should have thought of that myself. Let me go grab you a pair, Mia.”
After Tiger jogs off toward the center, Rush grabs the two skewers out of my hand and polishes each one off as I stand in front of him with my mouth agape.
Nineteen
MIA
“Why didyou ask him to do that?”
“You need them.”
“Are you determined to make me look weak in front of everyone on this team? First, you help me get this job and now you’re purposely sabotaging me?”
The pupils of his eyes darken.
“You’re upset so I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that shit.”
“You jackass–“
He lifts his hand to stop me from saying anything more.
“The crutches say your pain is temporary to people, but the cane might communicate something else more permanent. So I’m thinking that the compromise here is to use the crutches when you need them at work and use your cane at home.”
“I don’t need to make any compromises with you.”
“I’m not going to be able to come to work every day and watch you make stupid decisions when you’re clearly in pain, Mia. I won’t fucking do it.”
“Is it possible for us tonottalk about my leg for one day?” I’m so irritated with him I could scream. If I didn’t need this job so badly, I would quit. “Are you my friend or my freakin’ doctor?”
The player Rush has been running drills with notices that we’re having words and stops sprinting to see if we’re both okay.
“You okay, Rush?”
Correction, he’s just checking on the superstar he clearly idolizes.
