“I fucking told you.”
“You should've told me she was yours.”
“That wouldn’t have meant shit to someone like you.”
I lift the barbell because his face is turning a shade of beet red and the last thing I need is him losing consciousness. He dramatically holds his neck with both of his hands and takes deep breaths while the rest of the guys in the room just stare at me with slacked jaws.
“What did you tell her about Miranda?” I ask accusingly.
“The truth.”
“What were you two doing last night?”
“None of your business. The way I heard it, she doesn’t want your ass anymore.”
This motherfucker.
I lean deep back and swing my fist straight for Samuel’s eye and our brawl begins. Punches are thrown, barbels crash to the floor and we basically trash the gym. We keep throwing punches until Proctor and another lineman come in and help the other guys break it up.
“Rush, that’s enough!” Proctor says for the room’s benefit, but in my ear he whispers. “Good job, man.”
Samuels definitely got the worst of it, but we both look pretty beat up. I go outside to the field to try and walk off my rage, but visions of Mia and Samuels doing freaky shit online, while she’s in my house, keep playing like a loop in my mind. A part of me knows she never would do something so disrespectful, but the fact that I don’t know for sure is what’s killing me. Maybe this is what she was feeling about me and Miranda, but still… it’s different.
I sit on the grass with my head in my hands for I don’t know how long when I hear a golf cart pull up behind me. I lift my head, hoping it’s Mia, but it’s not.
“Hey, there.”
“Hi, Miranda.”
“You look a little worse for wear.”
“Just a scuffle with some of the boys. It’s good now.”
“You sure?”
She sits down next to me.
“You know you can talk to me.”
I raise my head and look at Miranda.
“When we were seeing each other, did you think we were serious?”
I can see my question takes her by surprise. But the only way to get it out there was to be direct.
“Well, yes, I did.”
“Did I make you feel that way?”
“We saw each other every time you were home from being out of town. So, yeah, I thought we were dating. Are you saying we weren’t?”
“I’m just trying to understand myself a little better these days, Miranda. It seems like I’m not to nice to strangers and I’m way too friendly with people I consider close to me. I’ve got to work on that.”
“Oh, so this is about Mia.”
“No, this conversation is about you and me.”
“She’s not right for you, Rush.”
