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She tilts her head, and it’s fucking adorable
“Should we?”
“Why not?”
“If I recall, you don’t like getting serious about women. You like to cycle through them; you don’t like calling back, or taking calls…”
I nod. “I know. I was a dick back then and a kid, okay? I was in a bad space in my life. I needed to distract myself, and I couldn’t get serious.”
“What were you distracting yourself from?”
Damn it, are we going to get down and dirty right away? But I suddenly want to tell her. The way she looks at me makes me think she really wants to know, too. She’s not just asking to make conversation or to find something to be a bitch about.
At least, I hope I’m right about the latter. Clearly, I don’t know her very well.
I don’t know her at all, actually.
“We got together just after graduation, and I was a mess.”
“Isn’t graduation something to celebrate?”
“Imagine you’re ready for a night on the town. You want to drink, get totally shitfaced. You’re so pumped—you’ve been waiting for this night for a long time. And then, when you get there, they only serve you virgin cocktails.”
“No alcohol?”
“At all. All you wanted was that buzz, the bender, the night you can’t remember. And you get a watered-down version of the real deal, the shit that tastes bad because let’s face it, no one drinks for thetaste.”
Raven laughs. “What are you getting at? Did you graduate with a degree someone else pushed you into? Your parents?”
I shake my head. “No, I wanted to play pro football, but I hurt myself and now I’m a general team manager. Talk about watered down.”
“You were mourning the death of your dream,” she says, and her words summarize how fucked up my life was back then perfectly.
“Yeah,” I say.
“That sucks.”
I laugh. It’s such a simple statement. And it’s true—it sucks.
“Do you hate your job or something?” she asks.
I shake my head. “Actually, I don’t. It’s not what I wanted at first, but I’m not bad at it. I’m pretty good, actually. And I still get to be around the players and the games, so I guess it’s not the worst. I could have become a lawyer or something, forced to only catch the Superbowl. Now, I’m still in the thick of it. I love it.”
“All’s well that ends well,” she says.
I nod. My life didn’t work out quite like hers, but she’s right. It did work out well. We’ve both come a long way since college. She’s living her dream and making a name for herself. And it’s fucking beautiful.
She’sfucking beautiful.
“How was your show today?” I ask. “First day, right?”
“You keep up with Fashion Week?” she asks, surprised.
I shrug. “I’m a man of many talents.” I don’t add that it’s only because I know where to find the parties and models during Fashion Week. It’s a taste of something different.
She laughs, and the sound is addictive.
“Tell me more about you,” I say. “What’s it like living in Paris? Is it as romantic as they make it seem in the movies?”
