My doctor and trainer would be so mad right now, but I had been doing everything right, and look where it had gotten me. I needed one night to reset. Tomorrow, I could go back to the grind, getting my knee back in working order.
I felt like an idiot walking into the bar with my crutches, but it was nothing a shot of tequila and a beer wouldn’t make go away.
“Hey, suga, long time no see.” The bartender grinned at me.
“Hey,” I said, trying to remember her name, but couldn’t. “How’s it going?”
“Same shit, different day.” She grinned. “Shot and a beer?”
“Please,” I said, sitting on the barstool.
“What happened to you, hot shot,” she said, sliding a shot to me and then opening my beer as I took the shot.
“I’m not as invincible on the ice as I thought I was,” I chuckled, but it ended up coming out hollow.
“I didn’t see the game, but I heard it was a brutal hit,” she said with sympathy in her gaze.
“It's a part of the life,” I shrugged, grabbing my beer to take a drink when I looked to my left and saw Jude staring right at me.
It crossed my mind that he might have been here. He wasn’t ever big on going out, but he would come out with his coworker or Theo and his family for a drink sometimes. I didn’t know if it was relief or nerves I was feeling when I looked at him, but Ismiled, wishing that for one night I could have my best friend back.
I really fucking missed him.
He got off his barstool and walked to me. That's when I noticed the man behind him. I froze when I recognized him. He looked even better than I remembered. Jude stood next to me, stealing my attention and we looked at each other for a moment before I reached out to hug him.
Everything felt right for once when Jude hugged me back. I sighed as my eyes stung with tears and I wondered why I had waited so long to see him. Our entire fight seemed inconsequential, nothing mattered except Jude. At this point, I didn’t care why we were mad, I just wanted my best friend back. I would do anything to make sure he was happy.
“I’ve missed you, Jude,” I said, hugging him tighter.
He stayed quiet and my heart sank a little. I realized that maybe all this was one-sided as I let him go. We stared at each other and all the hope I had been feeling slowly ebbed. He stepped back hitting my knee as he did, pain shot up my leg, taking my breath away.
I gritted my teeth to stop from crying out in pain.
“Holy shit! I’m so sorry!” Jude cried out.
“It’s fine.” I breathed through the pain.
“You should be elevating your leg and icing it,” he said. “What are you doing at the bar?”
“I needed a drink. I just got off the phone with Miles,” I said, as he lifted my leg onto a bar stool.
He studied me, speechless.
“Jude, you don’t have to do that,” I said, feeling guilty that he had started to baby me. “I’m fine, really. Um…you can go back to your evening.”
He gave me a weird look, but I smiled at him trying to reassure him, then saw the guy he was sitting with behind him.Holy shit, were they together? Was this why he was pulling away? An awful ugly feeling hit my chest as I stared at the man behind Jude. My one night stand all those months ago.
Does Jude know we slept together? Did he sleep with me to get closer to Jude? Wait, that didn’t make sense.
Jude looked between us and then scoffed. “Seriously, Webber?”
“What?” I startled when he stepped away and he had that pout on his face that said he was mad.
He only called me Webber when he was mad at me.
“I’m glad your surgery went well, but I have to go,” he said, pulling money from his wallet and throwing it on the bar. “Hey, Mindy, can you close my tab?”
“Sure thing, suga!” she said.
