I need you to draw me something.
LOLA
Okay.What?
THEO
Something simple and quick.Whatever makes you think about me.About us.Don’t overthink it.
LOLA
How much time do I have?
THEO
24 hours.
LOLA
This is weird but okay.Challenge accepted!
I smile, and my stomach flutters nervously as I step inside.
Chapter30
Lola
Turning twenty-five is not that painful when you wake up to a delivery of your favorite pancakes, coffee, and a bouquet of flowers.That’s how my day starts, courtesy of Theo Richard.Callan stumbles out of his room to find me eating my breakfast, staring at the lush, fragrant bouquet.He rubs his eyes and stares.“Let me guess.Richard?”
“Yup.He even included a fruit bowl and said to give it to you.”I swallow down a mouthful of fluffy, sweet blueberry pancake.“Happy birthday.Sucks that you’re in training mode for playoffs.”
“Making playoffs rookie year does not suck.”He walks by the table and into the kitchen, where he grabs a fork and then hovers over me and stabs my pancakes, pulling away with a huge chunk dripping in maple syrup.”
“Hey!”
“It’s my birthday too,” he reminds me.“And he’s my friend too.And also, there are no calories on your birthday.You’re the idiot who told me that.”
Right.It’s a mantra that Mom and my aunts have, and I adopted it.“Okay, fine.”
“So… you and Theo are still only friends?”he asks as he tries to steal another forkful of pancakes, but I slap his hand away and hold up the fruit bowl for him.
“Yes.”
He makes a disgruntled sound but takes the fruit from me and walks over to sit at the island.“Do you need me to punch him yet?At this point, I could knock some sense into him.You two spend more time together than Grady and Landon.You must be the most sexually frustrated woman on the planet.”
“I’m fine.”I am so not fine.
I masturbate to thoughts of him every freaking night without fail.My poor vibrator is probably going to self-destruct, and I’m not emotionally satisfied by it like I am when I had actual sex with Theo.But… It’s better than nothing.Or someone else.I truly believe that.“Are you seriously advocating for me to date your teammate?”
“Yeah.Even I can see how perfect you guys are for each other,” Callan replies.“Why the two of you can’t admit it is totally fucking annoying.”
“Thanks for sharing your birthday party with me,” I say, changing the subject.“Tonight is going to be fun.”
“Yeah.Sadly, though, since we play tomorrow night and I want to win that game, even though we don’t need to, I can’t be too hungover.And then it’s playoffs.And there’s no sex in playoffs,” he announces.
I almost choke on my pancakes.“No sex?You don’t have sex during playoffs?”
“We’re not allowed.Team rules.”Callan shovels some berries into his mouth and chews.“No sex, no razors, no touching the conference trophy if we win.No washing lucky clothing.No going out after wins or losses.Playoffs are nothing but no.Worth it if we win, though.”
