“They’re a wild card team,” I said, quickly dialing back when the woman across from us looked over. “They don’t have the luxury of bleeding talent and pretending it’s nothing. And Landon doesn’t have room to miss playoff ice because you needed to win a fight you started.”
I watched my words register on his face. His eyes hardened, flashing like steel as he searched for a response that wouldn’t sound as bad as the truth.
“You’re making him a martyr,” he said then. “He made his own choices, same as you.”
“Oh, my God, are you kidding me?”
“Nicole—”
But I wasn’t about to let him get away with it. Not now. “After everything, you’re still fixated on these imaginary choices you think I made that put you second in our relationship, when it was always just your insecurity getting the better of you.”
“Third,” he said simply. Then he placed both his hands flat on the table and came closer so there’d be no mistaking anything. “I hung around in the wings while you bent over backward for a hockey team and some juvenile rookie. I am— I was yourboyfriend, Nicole. But you showed me you’d rather be at a stupid game than spend time with me.”
“I asked you to come with me.”
“And I said no,” he snapped, pounding the table lightly. “You made it out like I was this huge asshole, but I was at the previous game with you. Remember that? All I wanted was a normal dinner with my girlfriend on the rare chance our schedules lined up.”
I fought the urge to jump down his throat, breathing slowly until I was sure my voice wouldn’t betray me. “You knew who I was before you asked me out. I’ve missed two Surge games in the history of ever.Two.That’s not some whimsical habit, or… or a thing I do because there’s nothing else filling up my time.”
“You’re obsessed.”
“I’m a fan,” I corrected. “And anyway, none of that matters because we’re here to talk about what you’ve done.”
James looked away, staring out the window, the street where people passed carrying coffee cups and shopping bags. “I didn’t do this to hurt you.”
“That’s the part you keep missing.” I lowered my voice further, each word placed as carefully as I could manage through my anger. “You didn’t do it to hurt me; you did it to protect yourself. And you were willing to take whatever collateral damage came with that.”
His gaze snapped back to mine. “That’s not fair.”
“I’m not here to be fair.” I held his stare. “I’m here to be clear. What you’re doing doesn’t stop at the courthouse. It follows him into every locker room conversation. Every contract discussion. Every headline that uses his name without context.”
The server stopped at the table to check on us. I shook my head with a sigh, and James ordered another water. When she left, the space between us felt tighter, more deliberate.
“You could help end this,” I said. “You could give up this agenda and just let him be.”
James laughed under his breath, the sound edged with bitterness. “You think it’s that simple now? Landon Cross isn’t the only name at stake here. My residency is part of it too. My name.”
“I think you’re pretending it isn’t simple.” I sat back, folding my hands in my lap to keep them steady. “And I think you like the leverage.”
His eyes dropped to the table. When he looked up again, his expression was careful. “You came here angry. I get that.”
“If you think angry is all I am, then you get nothing,” I said quietly.
“There is a way out of this.” His posture changed into something that felt rehearsed, and I found myself listening harder. “For both of us.”
I didn’t answer. I watched his fingers circle the rim of his glass. Water sloshed, then settled.
“I’ll drop the charges,” he continued. “I can talk to my lawyer today. Make it clean. No dragging it out.”
My pulse ticked once, hard enough that I felt it in my throat. I kept my expression still. “And?”
His mouth curved, cautious, as if testing ground that might give way. “You take me back.”
The café noise faded to a dull ringing in my ears. Plates moved past our table, a chair scraped somewhere behind me, but none of it connected.
“That’s not funny,” I said.
James shook his head. “Wasn’t trying to be.”
