“Okay, but I have to get out of here soon.”
“Then let’s make it quick.”
Fifteen
Eloise
“Come on, you’re coming to Toronto for three days and you’re not going to try to visit me in London?” Hannah says through the phone. I sigh. I love my sister, but she’s such a pain in the ass.
“Hannah, it’s literally three days of press and photo ops. I’ll barely have time to breathe, especially with Taylor being with me and us needing to train together.”
“Come on, you signed a decent contract, surely you can skive off for a day.”
I close my eyes as I pinch the bridge of my nose. “No, I can’t. This is part of my job. If you want to come up to Toronto for dinner, we can do that.”
“Oh, no. I can’t do that; I have work.”
I grit my teeth, taking a sharp breath through my nose as I try to avoid screaming into her ear. "Alright, fine. Thanks, Hannah, I’ll talk to you later." I hang up the phone before she protests.
I love her. I love my sister.
She just doesn’t think things through, though. She’s very much a young adult. Like she’s supposed to be, she’s only 18, but sometimes I wish that she understood that I can’t be at her beck and call. Not that I would want to be, but I’d love to be someone she can rely on a bit more.
If I were at the Titans with Kenz, then I’d be a bit more amenable to helping her, but across the country? There’s no way.
Kenz calls me almost immediately after I hang up on Hannah, a weight lifting off my chest as I pick it up.
“Girl, you’re coming to town?” she asks, her face flooding the screen. Brown eyes, tanned skin, the biggest smile a woman could have. Her eyelashes are long and thick and everything I wish I had.
“Of course! Taylor and I are flying in tonight. Did you want to get drinks tomorrow?”
Her black eyebrows furrow, scrunching up, and I bite back my wince.
“Taylor? I’m sorry, Eloise Harper, are you teammates with Taylor Matthews—the number one crush you’ve had since college?”
I can feel my cheeks darken at the thought.
“Maybe.”
She scream-laughs and drops the phone, her cackle insane as she tries to right herself. “I think I have to tell Blake. He’s going to be so excited.”
I wince. “Please don’t.”
She raises an eyebrow. “Wanna tell me why not?”
“Taylor and I are on shaky ground on the best of days.”
Her head pulls forward, waiting for clarification and something about trying to explain Taylor and my relationship, the ups and downs we’ve had and how sacred every smile she gives me feels… cheap. It seems impossible to pare it down into words that fit.
“I’m waiting.”
“I don’t know how to explain it. We hated each other—”
“She hated you; it wasn’t mutual, remember?”
I force myself not to roll my eyes at one of my oldest childhood friends. “Yeah, yeah, you’re right. But because we’re on a team and most likely a line together, they keep pushing us to be on one, so we’re trying to become friends.”
“Trying seems like the operative word there. Are you sure this isn’t a Stockholm Syndrome situation?”
