AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Come here.” I pull her into my lap, wrap my arms around her waist, and shove my face into her hair. I’m so glad to have her, but everyone leaves eventually. It’s the story of my life.
Ido exactly what Bea says. I play my fucking ass off. And Hollis is rotated out in the third period, so he doesn’t tax his knee, and I take his place. It puts things in perspective. I may not have started the game, but I finished it with a goal.
For once, Flip doesn’t bring bunnies back to the room. Not by choice. Hemi is on him, and milk is one bad press statement away from pulling his endorsement campaign. Dallas is also trying to stay under the radar. His campaigns aren’t at risk, but he doesn’t want to give Hemi a reason to dress him up like a clown again. That’s why we’re all here in our hotel room, like it’s some kind of slumber party.
“You kicked some serious ass tonight.” Dallas clinks his beer bottle against mine.
“We all did,” I say. “It’s a great start to the season.”
Flip nods. “It really is. I wish I was celebrating balls deep in a bunny, but losing a million-dollar endorsement over sex seems stupid, even for me.” He tips his bottle back and drains half of it.
We stopped at the liquor store to grab a case. We also stopped at Walmart to grab snacks. It’s a Flip thing to do. Room service is pricey.
“You should probably slow your roll now that the season has started,” I suggest.
“Seems like I’ll have to, no matter what, at least until the milk campaign settles. Or I’ll have to rely on a few regulars to get by. Although too many repeats gives them ideas.” Flip taps his temple.
“You could try dating someone for a change,” Ashish offers.
“I’m not interested in commitment.” Flip polishes off his beer and grabs another from the fridge.
I shake my head. “You have this great stable family, parents who have been together for more than three decades, and you’re more relationship averse than even I am.” I trade my empty for a full one, too.
“They’re part of the reason I’m relationship averse,” Flip admits.
“They love the shit out of each other, don’t they?” At least they seem to. As a kid, I couldn’t believe how nice they were to each other. They didn’t have a lot of money, but every Friday, Flip’s dad brought his mom a bunch of wildflowers in the summer. In the winter, he’d bring her a single rose. I could do something like that for Bea. Bring her flowers. She loves peonies. I used to steal one from my neighbor’s garden every once in a while for her when she was a kid.
“Yeah. Exactly. I can’t get in that deep with anyone. Not now. It’s too much pressure.”
“Too much pressure how?” Dallas asks.
“It’s someone else to worry about. You know what that’s like,” he directs the comment at me. “I already have my parents and Rix. I can’t add another person to that when I’m focused on my career.”
“Why are you worried about Bea?” She’s got it together; she has a good job and nice friends. Not much to worry about apart from the one thing we’re hiding from him.
“You saw where she was living. She’s used to shitty neighborhoods because of how we grew up. But small town and big city are different. I want her somewhere safe, but she refuses to take money from me, and she’s super paranoid about not having enough of a cushion. That roommate situation must have been way worse than she’s admitting for her to end up at our place.”
“Why would you think that?” Once we got her out, I didn’t think much about it.
“Rix doesn’t do anything without a plan. She organized her university pathway starting in grade school. She figured out how much she’d have to save every year, how much she’d need in loans, and how long it would take to pay it all off once she had a full-time job. She even calculated things like inflation, trajectory, and how quickly she could reasonably climb the ladder with the right company. It takes a lot for her to go off, and she’ll put up with a lot of shit before her fuse gets lit,” Flip says.
“Huh.” I sip my beer, considering. Maybe that’s why she won’t say anything to Flip about his fuck-a-thons. She’s already had to get herself out of one shitty situation. Maybe this is the lesser of the two evils. Or maybe if we weren’t going behind his back she would say something, but she feels like she can’t.
“Huh, what?” Ashish asks.
“Eh?” I give Ashish my attention.
“You said huh. Huh, what?”
“I seem to be able to light Bea’s fuse.” In more ways than one.
