My phone buzzed.
Delaney
I need a date to an event on Wednesday.
Me
How is that my problem?
Delaney
Our fathers want to announce the engagement.
Fucking great. I’m sure Dad was ecstatic about the shitshow of a weekend. Oh, he’d find a way to punish me for embarrassing him with my poor performance, but it was one more nail in the coffin of my NHL career, and he’d love that. The last thing I needed was for my father to announce the engagement I’d only agreed to because he’d threatened Eva.
Delaney
I told my dad it’d be suspicious if we weren’t seen in public a few times first.
Me
Again, not my problem.
The ring of my phone echoed in the empty corridor.
“Don’t be a dick,” Delaney snapped. “I don’t want this either.”
Tristan stepped out of the locker room, and I held up a finger. I hadn’t told Tristan about the engagement yet. Or Eva. Not that it even mattered for the latter. In fact, why was I even doing this if I no longer cared what happened to her or her father?
“Deal’s off,” I snapped at my phone.
“Fuck you, Colton Carter,” she snarled right back. “Do you know what my father’s going to do to me for losing you?”
Fuck.Fuck!
When I didn’t say anything, she continued. “Saturday night. Charity fundraiser. New York City.”
“I have a game on Saturday.”
“In the morning.”
Fuck.
Tristan waited, brows raised.
“Fine.”
“I’ll text you my hotel information so you can pick me up.” And she hung up.
Tristan didn’t say a word, just waited for me to join him to walk out of the sports complex together. Normally, we got breakfast with Eva, and then I went to class while Tristan studied with her until she had class at eleven.
“I don’t want breakfast,” I said, my voice embarrassingly sullen.
Tristan raised an eyebrow. “Too fucking bad.” Then, he turned toward a dining hall and not the student union where we used to eat with Eva.
Yeah, he might be pretending everything’s okay, but he didn’t want to face his memories either.
After the longestfucking day of my life, I hit the weight room like a man possessed. Every rep was punishment. Every burn in my muscles was a welcome distraction from the gaping wound in my chest where my heart used to be.
