“That’s not—” I scrub a hand down my face. “She’s my boss, not my girlfriend.” Though I certainly wouldn’t mind the latter option. “Her dad lives around here, and we ran into her that day, that’s all. There was nothing more to it.”
“That’s not what it looked like from where I stood,” Charlie unhelpfully chimes in.
“Well, get your eyes checked, dear sister, because that’s all it was.” Now, it's my turn to kick her under the table, but all I get is air. The menace has her legs crossed on the chair and not sitting on the floor. She smiles and winks at me.
I’ll kill you, I mouth in her direction.
You can try, she mouths back.
“That probably for the best; workplace rendezvous can be messy, and you want to stay focused on the coming matches,” Dad chimes in finally. “Might not be a good look to National scouts if the captain is shagging the owner of the club.”
“Oh dear.” Mum chokes on her bite of parsnip.
I would love nothing more than to start banging my head on the table until I pass out, or die from an inoperable brain injury. Anything to get us to move on from this topic.
“Can you pass the gravy?” is all I ask instead.
It’s barelypast eight in the morning when I get my twentieth phone notification of the day. Only this one is very different from all the others pulling me in different directions like I’m strapped to a medieval torture rack.
A single link from the man whose blue eyes and tattooed thighs have been running laps through my mind that would make Coach Ballard proud.
T
BOOKED! Crochet Workshop @ Get Knotty for 7:30pm
Jade
Is that where you go to pick up little old ladies? I know how much you like the elderly.
I never kiss and tell.
Thank God for that.
I immediately blush, wishing I could take it back. That one tiny slip was as good as an admission to the night we met, and I don’t need any reminders when my subconscious mind already has no qualms conjuring up different scenarios while I’m sleeping and vulnerable.
T
You don’t have to go, but my sister said it’s fun. It's booked under your name if you decide you want to get out of your house.
As much as I’m annoyed at him inserting himself into my life, and Iamannoyed, I’m also bizarrely touched. But I can’t go. Can I? Do I want to? No. Maybe.
Jade
Will you be there?
T
Would that be a problem for you? Is there a reason you might be trying to avoid me?
Yes.He means it as a joke, but he’s right all the same.
When I don’t respond right away, another text comes through.
T
If you feel like you can’t handle being in the same room as me, I won’t go.
I pause at that, scoffing out loud. It’s like he knows that by challenging me, it’ll make me want to rise to the occasion. Absolutely ridiculous that it’s working.
