Total pages in book: 104
Estimated words: 97882 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 489(@200wpm)___ 392(@250wpm)___ 326(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97882 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 489(@200wpm)___ 392(@250wpm)___ 326(@300wpm)
“But what if one of you develops more feelings?”
“We won’t,” I said, shifting in my seat. “We can’t.”
“Why not?” Riley asked.
“Have you forgotten who her dad is?” Mary held up her glass toward Riley before taking a sip, and her words silenced everyone as their eyes floated to me once again.
“Shit,” Riley said.
I shrugged. “It’s fine. Really. You guys are making a big deal out of nothing. Holden and I are very aware of what we’re doing. We… use each other,” I said, shifting. “To blow off steam. That’s it. No one knows.” I gave them all looks then. “And we need to keep it that way.”
Giana pretended to zip her lips closed. “I won’t say a word.”
I nodded. “Thank you.”
“But,” she continued, cringing. “I just… I have to know. Do you… do you like him?”
“Yes,” Mary said at the same time I said, “No.”
I glared at her.
“Like I said, we’re friends. And he’s a great lay.”
Every single one of their faces had this is a disaster waiting to happen written all over them.
I rolled my eyes and waved them off, standing. “There’s nothing else to say, so just drop it. And I mean it,” I added, pointing a finger at each of them. “Not a word. Not to anyone — not each other, not me, and especially not your boyfriends.”
“No worries there,” Mary mumbled before draining the rest of her wine.
Riley and Giana nodded their promise, and then I walked over to the kitchen and yanked open the freezer. “Who wants pizza?”
I was answered with an enthusiastic chorus of meeee before Giana was trying to sell Mary on her books again and Riley was not-so-subtly watching the ESPN highlights that we’d muted to keep her from fixating on them all night. I took the escape to work on the pizza and sneak my phone out again.
Me: Sorry for the delay in response, you knocked me out with that photo.
Holden: Hurry up and get your sweet ass over here.
Me: Give me two hours.
Holden: Two hours… and then, two orgasms.
I bit my lip against the jolt of pleasure that just that stupid dirty text could elicit from me as I tucked my phone away. Then, I tore open the plastic wrapping on the frozen pizza and flicked on the oven to pre-heat.
When I turned around, Riley and Giana were on the couch, trying to decide what we should watch.
Mary, on the other hand, was watching me.
Holden
I knew something was off when I woke up that morning.
It was the week before Thanksgiving, and as if preparing for our game on Saturday wasn’t high stress enough with a playoff chance on the line, the entire team was wound tight from tests and papers due before the holiday, too.
Every day presented me with new challenges as captain — from setting up non-optional study halls for the players I knew needed it, to talking down my best guys from panic attacks, I’d seen it all.
Fortunately, I was in a good headspace to handle it.
My grades were high, and I’d planned ahead to get any assignments done early that I could so that I was able to be available during this demanding week for my team. On the field, I was excelling, our win streak stacking up and putting us closer and closer to the playoff spot we aimed to clinch. If we won our game this weekend, we’d be a shoo-in.
And off the field, outside of the classroom…
I had Julep.
But on the morning of November 17th, I woke with a pit in my stomach for a reason I couldn’t explain. The weather was shit, my head was pounding, and when I texted Julep good morning, she didn’t respond.
Normally, I wouldn’t have worried. I would have assumed she was busy. But I’d felt her growing distant lately, something brewing in her that I couldn’t put my finger on. The other night, she’d ripped at my clothes so frantically she’d nearly burst into tears. I’d stopped her, holding her, and for the first time, she slept in my bed without us fucking first.
She didn’t say a word.
And she was stiff in my arms the entire night.
So, when she didn’t answer my text two days later, I was immediately anxious. And I couldn’t shake it — not with my morning run in the freezing mist covering Boston, not at practice — where Julep was uncharacteristically absent, and not as I turned in my last assignment before the holiday. I still had no text from her, and I tried calling, only for her to send me to voicemail.
So, I texted again.
Me: Hey, didn’t see you at the stadium today… you okay?
I still hadn’t heard from her when I made it back to the house and found my roommates setting up for a party.
“What’s this?” I asked, tossing my bag against the bay window bench. Leo and Kyle were carrying a keg into the kitchen.