Page 17 of Risky Play

“Right, the hockey player who didn’t want to help you with ‘operation lose it.’ ”

I laughed. I had told her about my unfortunate virginity problem, and she made a joke about it being ‘operation lose it.’ Which so far had been unsuccessful. Not that I had been trying all that much.

“He lives with my brother.”

Her mouth dropped open. “No wonder he didn’t want to piss him off.”

I groaned. “You know what’s the worst part?”

“What?”

“He’s still so fucking hot!”

That made her laugh, and I was glad I could make her smile. I couldn’t stand when any of my friends were in pain. Fuck her ex. She’d find someone better. I was sure of it.

She wiped her eyes. “Thanks, Maddie. I think I’ll take you up on that drink.”

“Local Hangout?” I asked.

She nodded. “Gimme a few.”

I went into my room and dropped my bag off. I wanted to change if we were going out. I was wearing yoga pants and a hoodie, fine for lounging around, but not if we were going out. And hey, maybe I’d find someone at Local Hangout to take away my pesky virginity. Probably not, though. That would be rude to do to Ari.

I changed into a pair of jeans and an off-the-shoulder top that was casual but not too much. I checked my phone and noticed a couple of social media notifications. I swiped through them, but there was one notification that gave me pause.

MCally14 started following you.

I stared at the notification and then clicked through to the profile. It didn’t shock me when the first image was of Matt Callahan wearing that pinstriped suit at my brother’s wedding. In the photo, he had his arm around my brother, and they wore big smiles. I touched my heart when I read his heartfelt caption.

Congrats to my boy Kennedy on his wedding! Your friendship and mentorship on and off the ice mean more to me than you’ll ever know. Thanks to you and D for basically adopting me!

Matt was much more eloquent in his words than I gave him credit for, assuming he was just another dumb jock. No wonder he didn’t want to piss off Noah by sleeping with me.

That hadn’t stopped him from liking a bunch of my photos, most of them from the wedding. Which meant he had to go far down my feed to look at them. I scrolled down his own feed, but he didn’t post all that often.

Ari walked into my room. “You ready?”

“Yup!”

We rode the elevator down to the lobby and walked the few blocks to Local Hangout. Yes, that was literally the bar’s name. You’d expect something divey for a college bar, but it gave off hipster vibes. Ari loved it because they had great vegan offerings and craft beer. Eh, beer was beer to me, but I’d admit it was better than the swill they had at any kegger.

The bar was packed when we got there, but we muscled our way through and found two spots at the bar. Ari looked sad, so I bought the first round. I felt eyes on me as Ari asked me to tell her something good, and I told her about trying to convince my sister-in-law to publish her adult romance.

“Oooh. I liked her other books. They were cute, but not my usual thing,” Ari said.

“They’re great, but this would be off-brand for her.”

Ari pinned me with a curious look. “You’re a marketing major, right?”

“Guilty! I wrote a paper last year on influencer marketing and impressed my professor.”

I felt someone nudge me, but I ignored it and continued telling Ari my dreams of owning a PR company or working for a major publisher one day. I loved books, and if I got to work in the industry, it would be a dream come true.

“Hey, can I buy you a drink?” a voice purred in my ear.

I reared back, noticing that the drunk guy next to me was too close for comfort.

“No. Thank you,” I told him, polite and firm.