“Good one. But you just don’t understand. RIP perfect ponytail,” I sighed. “I should probably find my own phone.” I pushed up from the bed and went to my clothes from last night, which were crumbled in a ball in the corner of theroom.
When I pulled out my phone, I wished I could’ve put it back… because there were a million missed texts from Nikki…
Apparently, the mother-in-law of the bride went off on Nikki about me not being around until Thursday, and she went to the venue and complained about my lack of professionalism. It was just my luck that the one vacation I took all summer would get rained on by a Karen who wouldn’t even need me until Thursday night anyway.
I wanted to rewind to five minutes ago before I had ever looked at my phone. Because what I really wanted was to stay in bed cuddling with TJ.
I sat back on the edge of his bed and lazily scratched his back.
“I’ve gotta go back up north.”
He seemed to freeze.
“Because…?” heasked.
I sighed. “Because a client is putting up a big stink about me not being there right now, and I can’t afford to lose Cherry Lane as a venue.”
He put his arms around my waist and pulled me back into bed with him, making me giggle.
“No,” he grumbled. “I need more Ellie time,” he said into my hair.
I patted his cheek. “Wish I could stay longer.”
“We have more pre-season games this coming weekend, but the weekend after that we have the kick-off to our regular season, will you come?” he asked, giving me a hopeful look.
“I’ll try to,” I told him earnestly.
He hugged me tighter then.
“I wish you could stay,” he said, clearly still groggy with sleep. “I’d pay you whatever you make if you could skip this wedding and just stayhere.”
I stiffened in his arms then… because did he realize what he just said…?
“TJ…” I warned, “that was kind of disrespectful.”
His eyebrows pinched together. “I was just kidding, I just want you to stay, babe.”
“Well, I created this life for myself, and I won’t just give it up because you flash your dimples at me,” I said, kind of irritated that I even had to explain myself.
“I’m not asking you to give itup-”
“Yeah, you pretty much just did,” I said, and pushed away from him.
He rubbed his eyes. “I’m not even awake yet. Why don’t we get some breakfast first andtalk?”
“Talk about what, TJ? You’re not convincing me to stay if that’s what you think. I need to leave, it’s my job.”
“Jesus, you’re being super defensive. I just wantto-”
“What?” I felt like I’d been slapped. “I’m entitled to feel defensive over my job that I worked very hard for. Forget it.” I quickly grabbed up my clothes from the floor and went to the bathroom to change. “I don’t need this right now,” I muttered.
It’s not like I wanted to leave, I clearly wanted to stay with him. But for him to act like my job didn’t matter was pretty frickin rude.
I quickly changed back into my own clothes, not even bothering to look in the mirror. Today would just be a driving day anyway.
I closed my eyes and tried to steady my breathing before I opened the door. I didn’t want to leave on bad terms with TJ, no matter how much his comment bugged me. He probably didn’t mean it, he was probably just sleepy, I reasoned.
He was sitting up on the edge of his bed, still in his boxer briefs when I entered his room again.
