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God, days like today sucked. She hated when she had to call DCFS about one of the kids in her program. Pulling a bottle of wine from the fridge, she poured herself a hefty glass. As she took the first sip of icy cold wine, she closed her eyes and sighed.
Images of the burns on Billy’s ribs flashed before her eyes, and she took another sip. Please let this time be different for him, she prayed. Billy had been bounced back and forth between home and foster care so many times already, and each time the situation seemed to get worse and worse for him. Not only was he getting harder to place in foster care, but each time he went home the secrecy grew. If his shirt hadn’t gotten ripped during football today, who knows how long it would have been before he ever talked to anyone? She understood the law around reporting, but each time he was sent back home, his faith and trust in the staff at the youth center diminished.
With a glass of wine in hand, she made her way down the hall. She needed a hot shower to wash the day off her. The sound of her doorbell ringing pulled her up short. She debated ignoring it, but on the off chance it was Ryan, she turned and made her way toward the front of the house. With them heading out-of-town tomorrow, she doubted it would be him, but a girl could hope.
She pulled open the front door and smiled when she saw Ryan standing there in his sweats. His hair stood up on end like he’d had the windows down while he drove. “Hi, what are you doing here?” she asked, stepping back to allow him to come in.
“We need to talk.”
“Okay,” she murmured hesitantly. Anxiety danced down her spine. Why? She couldn’t quite say, but something about his tone was off. “You want some water or anything?”
“Why didn’t you tell me you’d made a sex tape with Andy?”
She reared back like she’d been punched. “What?” What the hell was he talking about, a sex tape?
“You fucking lied to me. You said you never had sex with him and today I had to walk into work to see a fucking video of you two together.”
“Back up. I never had sex with Andy.” Her mind reeled as she tried to catch up with what he was talking about.
“Well, you sure as hell gave him a killer blowjob. And now all the fucking guys on the team saw it.”
She dropped onto the couch. Her stomach lurched. He’d filmed her? Her mind raced. How had he filmed her? Oh my god, who else had he shown?
“There’s a big fucking difference between we started messing around and we made a fucking sex tape. Jesus Peyton. Do you know how embarrassing that was?” Ryan demanded.
“Oh, it was embarrassing for you?” she scoffed.
“Yeah, Jesus, it was bad enough when the guys bugged me about taking his sloppy seconds. Now I have to deal with them knowing what you look like when suck cock. Fuck, Peyton. I didn’t sign on for this shit.” He angrily shoved his hand through his hair.
Humiliation warred with the rage burning in her chest. How dare he be mad at her for something outside her control?
“Sloppy seconds, huh? Well, god forbidyoube embarrassed about me.”
He stared at her like he’d never seen her before. Then shook his head. His gaze ran up and down her body, and his lip curled in disgust. “I have to play with these guys, Peyton. You could have fucking warned me. If you had told me the truth, I would have been prepared for this kind of thing.”
“Prepared for this?” She scoffed. “How do you prepare for a sex tape you didn’t know was made? My god, you’re a jerk. Get over yourself, Ryan.” She laughed, sounding harsh even to her own ears. “Do you honestly think I’d agree to some douchebag showing everyone a video of me?”
“I don’t even know anymore.” He shook his head. “I bought all the shit you spewed about not being some kind of groupie. That you were different from those other girls. And yet you’re the worst of them all. Making your little sex tape to secure the deal.”
“Fuck you,” she snarled. “I didn’t know about the goddamn tape.”
“Yeah right,” he scoffed. “The angle of that camera was pretty fucking good for you to not know it was there.” He glared at her like some piece of trash. “You played me, and I was too fucking stupid to see it.”
“Well, now that you’ve seen the light you can get the fuck out,” she yelled.
“I can’t believe I was so wrong about you,” he said before storming toward the front door.
Tears burned behind her eyes. “You and me both,” she whispered to his receding back.
The front door slammed shut behind him, and she dropped back onto the couch as pain ripped through her body.
God, how could she have been so stupid? Did she learn nothing from briefly dating Simon? How had she not seen that all professional athletes were the same? They were all a bunch of entitled assholes. She’d stupidly believed Ryan was different, but he wasn’t. Hell, maybe he was worse. At least with Simon, what she eventually saw was what you got. He was a rich, egotistical asshole. But Ryan? He’d acted like he was so sweet and caring when really, he was just the same.
It had only taken a handful of dates with Simon for her to realize he wasn’t for her. But with Ryan, she’d thought they had what it took to go the distance. That what they’d been building was real. That he respected her, cared for her. Clearly, she’d been so wrong about him. Her chest tightened as she tried to swallow past the pain. She’d been in love with the jerk and now—.
She sniffed and wiped the tears that streamed down her face. Reaching behind her, she grabbed the couch pillow and clenched it to her chest before curling into a ball on the sofa. She let the tears flow.
After her brutal day, she’d been so excited to see Ryan on her front doorstep. And it had all fallen to dust. How could she have been so blind? How could he believe she was that kind of person?
