“I shouldn’t have spoken to you like that.” He closes his eyes, shaking his head. “I don’t—I don’t want you to think—” He drags his chair closer, his legs almost brushing mine. “No matter what, you need to remember that I respect you more than anyone in the entire world. Okay, Sloan?”
I swallow, frowning. I don’t see how that could be true. But Bohdan touches me, his hands wide and strong across my exposed knees.
I feel a bit like I’ve been electrocuted. The kind that could either save a life or end a life, I’m not really sure.
“Not a reassurance, Sloan. That’s a fact, okay?”
I nod quietly because Bohdan doesn’t lie. Not about facts.
“Zlatícko,” he murmurs, one hand coming up, thumb ready to wipe the tears away, but he hesitates, hand hovering right there, and when I don’t pull back, he cups the side of my face. “Why are you crying?”
My eyes close, I lean into his palm and pretend for a moment we’re back there in the life we used to have, with all those simple things I took for granted because I thought they were mine forever.
His thumb brushes across my cheek, and my fingers scramble up his forearm, traversing old pathways and finding old friends in the cords of muscle, and I cup his hand with mine.
The sob sneaks up on me, and I let it out, so it doesn’t threaten to choke me the way all the horrible things I think do.
Blinking, I inhale, shuddering and lips quivering. A mess, really. But I think he might be looking at me like I’m still beautiful to him.
“I can’t pretend not to know you,” I tell him, pressing his hand into my cheek even harder.
Bohdan shrugs, thumb stroking my freckles. “I wasn’t trying that hard.”
I choke on a laugh, and he smiles quietly, the lines of his face still all sharp edges.
His hand leaves my face, his fingers wrap around my wrist, gently, reverently, and he carefully pulls my hand away from my temple. He tips my chin up and I have to look at him now: bronzed from the sun, harsh ridges and lines of his body that were never hard on me, and a face that looks like it could make a statue weep.
“Let’s change the rules,” he says, like it’s simple. “Spend the day with me. Spend the rest of the days with me. No pretending. Just me and you.”
“And what, you’ll give me the picture and I’ll give you the ring back at the end of the week in exchange for my time?” I murmur.
Bohdan shrugs one shoulder again. “I don’t care about the ring, Sloan. Keep it. Don’t. Throw it overboard Titanic style. Just—don’t pretend not to know me. Know me for the next few days, even if that means hating me, and I promise you, before we get back to Barcelona, I’ll give you everything you want.”
I nod softly.
His hand stays wrapped around my wrist.
I don’t look away. Neither does he.
Our eyes stay on each other, and neither of us look down because we had everything we wanted, and it lies ruined at our feet.
Bohdan
Then - College
“You’re sure?”
It’s a stupid question, and it’s met with the belated, stretching silence it deserves.
Shay clears her throat on the other end of the phone. “Am I sure? Yes, Bohdan, given that I’ve been doing this for quite a while, I’m intimately familiar with the rules of the draft. And seeing as you’re the first-ranked player in the nation, and Seattle won the lottery—I’m fairly confident in my assessment. And you can tell Jay Choi, unless he overtakes you in points for the rest of the season, he’s probably going to Philadelphia. But I’m sure he’s on the phone with his agent as we speak, getting the exact same news you are, though I do hope he’s receiving it better.”
“I’m not receiving it poorly,” I say flatly, pressing my head against my doorframe and banging it there once.
I can hear her eyes roll. “Really? The last time I got to deliver this kind of news to a generational talent kind of player—which isn’t a lot, by the way—that they were going to go first overall,and a team won the lottery that didn’t even have the worst record, he was elated.”
Pressing my fist to my mouth, I knock my head against the frame again. “Kurva. Zkurve—”
She cuts me off before I can keep going. “Please don’t swear at me in Czech.”
