Page 190 of Forever Relentless

“How does what feel?” I asked as I walked to the bus stop.

“Being the hero of Wrighton U.”

“I’m not a hero.”

“Finally, we agree.”

I rolled my eyes. “Why are you calling? Is it to fall out with me? Because I don’t think I was even on your Christmas card list to now suddenly be off it.”

He gave a grunt of acknowledgment. “What you did took balls — balls I don’t think I’d have had. I know everyone else is probably pissed at you.” When I went to speak, he spoke over me. “My sister is very vocal with her disapproving silence.”

“So, you’re okay with it all?” I asked skeptically.

“No. Never will be okay with it, but that’s fuck all to do with you, Matthews.”

Fair.

“Well, thanks for calling. I’m . . .” I was what? Resigned to being lonely and losing the girl? No. “I’m okay,” I lied.

“You played poker with Sutherland and won with that shit game face?”

I looked around. He was leaning against a car and grinned when he saw that I’d seen him.

I hung up and walked over to him. “Hey.”

He held out his hand, and I shook it.

“You want beer and a bucket?” He gestured to the bar I’d been to before.

“Aren’t you driving?”

He shook his head. “Nah. No idea whose car that is.”

I gaped at him as he walked past me and headed into the bar. I followed. Soon we were sitting at a window booth, a beer each, and a bucket of wings and some sides.

“So,” he started. “How’d it play out?”

I told him what I’d told the others, keeping my voice low. When I was done, he clinked his bottle off mine.

“Well played.”

Was it?

His eyebrow rose, and I realized I’d said it out loud. “You think you fucked it up?”

“No.” I reached for some chicken. “I don’t know.” I tossed the wing back in the box. “He had me cornered, and I had to think on my feet. I didn’t get time to think it all through.”

He took a piece, avoiding the one I’d had in my hand. “It’s his style. He plays the game that way on the field. You know this, Matthews.”

I gave a half-hearted shrug. “Yeah, different in an office.”

“No doubt.” Mason wiped his hands on a paper napkin and took a drink of beer. “I asked her the same thing when she came up with this plan to work here. What did you hope to achieve?”

I stared back at him, at a loss for words.

He nodded and pointed at me with his beer bottle. “Exactly. You didn’t know what the outcome looked like. You hadn’t moved to the success of whatever was happening. Let me tell you something simply. You got the result.”

“I’m calling it a draw,” I muttered, and he snorted.