Page 105 of Rookie Rules

"You're working."

"I invited you here."

"You invited me to the room where you work."

Rowan closed the clip. "That is not fair."

Luca nodded. "Probably not."

The agreement took away Rowan's defense.

Luca put on his shoes. "I'm not angry. You had a bad loss. Mateo scared you. Gabriel scared you yesterday. You think if you stop holding the whole team for one evening, it will come apart."

"It is my responsibility."

"I know."

There it was again.

Luca opened the door. "But I can't keep coming over to compete with every consequence you haven't solved."

"You are not competing."

"Then stop making me lose."

The line landed without volume.

Rowan stood in the hall with the phone still in his hand.

He wanted to tell Luca to stay. He had done it once, qualified by a heat cycle because unqualified wanting had felt impossible.

Now the word returned.

"Stay."

Luca looked back.

Rowan had no plan beyond it. No dinner left to serve. No practical task.

For one second, possibility opened.

Then the phone vibrated again.

Neither man looked at it.

The sound was enough.

Luca's face closed gently. "Not tonight."

He left.

Rowan locked the door and returned to the kitchen. The penalty clip waited on his screen, paused with Mateo's glove lifted and the official's arm not yet raised.

A moment before consequence.

Rowan knew exactly what he should have done differently.

He still did not know how to arrive there in time.