Time suspended around me. The only thing that made me haul myself off the sofa was when I ran out of whiskey. I stood up, swaying a little on my feet.Jesus.The world wasn’t spinning, but it certainly didn’t feel as steady as it should be.
A knock at my front door halted my search for something to drink.
I padded down the hall, not thinking twice as I swung open the door. All the alcohol in my body evaporated. My mouth went dry as sandpaper. I stared incredulously at the man standing before me, wearing a faint smile.
‘Been a while, man.’
‘What are you doing here?’ I managed to croak out.
Looking more ruffled than I’d ever seen him, Cole glanced helplessly around him, searching for the right words. Nothing came. He held up a bottle of whiskey in defeat—offering it towards me. I couldn’t make my limbs move; they’d been so utterly stunned at seeing him on my doorstep.
He cleared his throat, looking as uncomfortable as I felt. ‘I came to talk. But if you’d rather slam the door in my face, Iunderstand, but I’ll warn you, I’m not leaving. I’m a persistent bastard.’ He tried to smile, but it slid from his face as quickly as it came.
I knew the hard look in his eye… the determination. It’s what made him a world-class manager. I forced the air from my lungs, let my hand slip from the door frame, and started walking back to the kitchen. As I reached up in the cabinet to get another glass down, I heard the front door close and Cole’s sure-footed steps pad down the hallway.
Cole opened the bottle, pouring a generous amount into each tumbler. I was going to be truly plastered by tonight. I also wasn’t entirely certain that this wasn’t some drunken hallucination. A quick glance down to my body confirmed that this was reality. For some fucked up reason, in all my drunken hazes I was always naked. It only comforted me for a moment, because it meant that the guy I had levelled outside his house four months ago, who all but stole my girlfriend, was standing in my kitchen staring around like he didn’t know where to begin.
‘I was saving this for a special occasion. Haven’t had a lot to celebrate since she…’ Cole trailed off, a flash of something crossed his face but I didn’t want to examine it too closely.
Since she moved in.Was the end of that sentence.
After another few moments in awkward silence, Cole put the glass down, half empty and ran a hand through his hair, ‘Fuck man, I’m not good at this shit.’
Leaning casually against the counter, I eyed him.
‘What shit would that be?’
Cole’s grey eyes slid to mine. ‘Admitting when I fucked up.’
I paused, my glass halfway to my mouth. Slowly, I lowered it. ‘What are you talking about?’
Cole dropped onto the nearest bar stool, resting his elbows on the marble counter.
‘I spoke to Ashley.’ Her name dropped like a bomb between us. The sole cause of friction between the two of us over the past few months. The reason my best friend had turned into my enemy.
I tensed, not knowing where this was going but having a feeling that whatever Cole was about to say, wasn’t going to make me start clicking my heels for joy.
‘I know she’s been lying… about… God about everything.’ He ran a hand down his face. I recognised the look of devastation well enough, I’d seen it staring back at me in the mirror for months. It crossed my mind that, over the past few weeks, it had started to fade. I no longer stare forlornly at my reflection, noticing the bags under my eyes or cringing at the sallowness of my skin. In fact, the heaviness I’d started to carry around with me like a dead weight had slowly, almost without my knowing, lifted.
Because of her.
I shook that thought from my head. ‘I tried to tell you that.’
A pained expression crossed Cole’s face.
‘I know. And if I was in your position right now, I’d probably take another slug at me.’
My head shook softly as I took another drink. ‘I don’t want to hit you. It fucking cuts me up every day that I ever did.’ A lump lodged in my throat. Cole’s shoulders sagged like he hadn’t been expecting an apology. He blew out a breath, ‘Well, fuck. That makes what I’m about to say even harder.’
He pressed his palms flat on the kitchen counter, his arms flexing under his body weight.
My back stiffened. ‘What?’
Cole’s head moved subtly from side to side; the words about to leave his mouth were too much for him. I was used to this man yelling at me in the locker room, or tearing me anew one at training… so seeing his shoulders slumped, voice quiet enough that I could barely hear him was a punch to the gut.
‘She’s pregnant,’ he spoke softly, yet the impact of those words might as well have been as loud as a brass band.
The glass in my hands trembled. The spike in my adrenaline had me blurting out the words, ‘How far along?’ Only one question lit up my head like a neon sign.
