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All I could hope was that Gaby understood.
But then Coach’s words ran through my head again.
“Your head hasn’t been on right since you got back from Georgia, which I assume is when this girlfriend popped up.”And I needed to get my head back in the game to achieve my goals.
She’ll understand that, right?Yes, she loved me.
“You can love her and love swimming too, right?”
Fuck, I hoped so.
Chapter Twenty-Two: Gaby
Over the years, I’d always found during times of immense happiness that a sickly feeling of dread would creep in. Like I was waiting for the other shoe to drop. Usually, when I got that feeling, something bad happened. I clung to this irrational fear that things weren’t supposed to work out for me. Some form of heartbreak eventually had to pass.
With the success of my school and my loving relationship with Noah, it felt like I was too blessed. Something was going to have to give. I was going to have to pay the karmic piper. The thought scared the hell out of me.
And just when I thought I was overreacting, a shift occurred between Noah and me. It wasn’t the seismic one I’d feared. At the same time, the subtlety was more unnerving.
While I tried to push the thoughts from my mind and the ache from my chest, I lounged on the couch watching a movie with Bella. After what must’ve been my tenth sigh of the evening, Bella paused the movie. Tilting her head, she eyed me curiously. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“That’s not your nothing face, Gabs.”
I sighed for the eleventh time. I should’ve known I couldn’t keep anything from Bella. While we might’ve been two years apart, we were more like twins in the way we felt each other’s intense emotions. “I’m worried about Noah.”
Bella’s dark brows rose. “Because of the qualifiers?”
Inwardly, I groaned that Bella immediately thought the best in me by thinking I was worried about Noah’s competition. I wished I wasn’t so set in my ways that I could be that type of girlfriend. No, I was more worried about the lingering silence between us than how he was going to nail the scores he needed to be considered for the Olympics.
“Yes and no,” I finally replied.
Placing her hands on my shoulders, Bella pinned me with a hard stare. “All right, Gabs. Spit it out.”
“He’s different.”
“Because he’s stressed out?”
I shrugged. “Maybe.”
“How is he different?”
“Well, for starters, we haven’t had a Facetime Fuck in almost two weeks.”
Bella snorted. “Excuse me?”
“That’s what we call our video sex.”
With a grin, Bella said, “Maybe that’s what I’ll ask Jude to call ours.”
Her statement caused my mind to short-circuit. “Isabella Sofia! Are you having sexual relations with Jude?”
A wide grin stretched across her cheeks. “Yes, I am.”
I shoved her playfully. “You sneaky little bitch! How could you not tell me?”
“Well, after that night at Eastman’s, we decided to take it slow.”
