“Hey!” I yell in my partial defense as I only heard the last part of what he said. “I said goodbye and she’s not some woman.”
My defensive reaction gets a big smile from my teammate.
“I know. And her name is Gabi and she was great. But it was clear you were in lala land and I needed to get your attention somehow.”
“You could’ve just said ‘Hey! Maddox!’”
“We did,” Wyatt says. “Now talk. Because clearly, this woman has you all sorts of torn up.”
I hang my head, not quite sure how to voice all of this out loud. Not because I’m not one to share—I probably tell theseguys too much about my personal life—but never before have I felt a weight to it.
“Okay, fine. Yes. It’s about her. She… I don’t know. She got to me that night. I really did feel something more than a just a fun night in Vegas. And it was, believe me it was. Then, poof, she was gone.”
“What do you mean she was gone?” Wyatt asks.
“I mean she was gone.” I sit up enough to pull my wallet out of my back pocket, where the note she wrote me has been living since I found it. “When I woke up Monday, this was all that was left.”
Maddox,
I hope you don’t mind, but I stole a T-shirt and sweatpants. My dress was… yeah.
Thank you for a night I’ll never forget.
<3 Gabrielle
When I woke up that morning and found the bed empty, I’d hoped she had just got up to use the bathroom. When she didn’t come back, and I didn’t hear anything except the air conditioner, I knew I was alone.
I don’t know if the note made it better or worse. I appreciated that she left it, and that she told me she took some of my clothes. But I would have given her every piece of clothing I own and taken her to buy a whole new wardrobe for a few more minutes with her. Sure, I was looking forward to morning sex. It’s my second favorite kind of sex. But what I wanted more than anything else was to see if what I felt was real, or if it was part of the magic of the night.
“Damn,” Wyatt says.“She left?”
“Yup,” I say, taking the note back from Linc. “I didn’t even hear her go.”
The two of them share a grin. “What are you two assholes smiling at? I’m going through it and you two are fucking smiling!”
“I’m just saying, karma is a fickle creature,” Wyatt says. “Is this what Maddox Gallagher gets for all the times he’s left before the sun came up?”
“All of those were different,” I defend, not wanting to admit Gabi leaving me is some sort of cosmic payback. “Every one of those women knew what they were getting into before events occurred.”
“Fair, but I still find it funny that the man who has made a name for himself around this town as the guy known for a good time but not a second time, is suddenly in his feels because a woman left and took a hoodie with her.”
“Give him some slack,” Linc says, and for a second, I think that this man is going to solidify himself as my best friend and defend me. “It was his favorite sweatshirt.”
“One, it was a T-shirt, and two, you’re both fucking assholes,” I say as I pop up from my makeshift seat. “I liked her okay? I liked her for more than one night. I still do. I want to see her. But I can’t and that’s driving me absolutely fucking insane which is why I’m sober and sad on parade day.”
“Damn,” Wyatt says, taking a seat where I just was. “You’re serious aren’t you?”
“Of course I am,” I say. “Did you think I wasn’t?”
“Honestly? We didn’t know,” Linc says. “We call you The Enigma for a reason. We never know what you’re doing or thinking and when we do, you go and do something that completely contradicts it. At least you have in the past. We didn’t know she wasthatdifferent.”
They’re not wrong about that. For my entire life, I’ve never fit into one specific box. I was the jock who also was in the school musicals. I was friends with the robotics team and the wrestling team. The two girlfriends I had in high school were a cheerleader and the captain of the math club.
Those glasses really did something to me…
Even as an adult, I’ve kept everyone guessing with who I really am. I’m the jock who has a foundation that promotes STEM programs for kids who don’t have those kinds of opportunities at their schools. I make undercover children’s hospital visits in the afternoon then later that night am being photographed at one of the Nashville bars with a swarm of women around me. The only thing that people know about me is that I’m a playboy. I’m not the kind of guy who’s seen out with the same woman more than once.
At least I wasn’t. Because there are pictures and videos out there of Gabi and I from Vegas. But if she showed up right now, I know for a fucking fact I’d make it my mission to be seen with her every day.
