get picked up. And if he didn’t, he could surely make the practice squad somewhere. Granted, that wasn’t a long-term job, but I didn’t understand why he didn’t want to play anymore, especially when he was good enough to get to the next level. Lots of college players would have loved the option to go pro.
I wasn’t one to judge. My post-graduation plan was to move back into my mom’s house. I was doing it willingly, but I was sure a lot of people wouldn’t understand my choice. “So what do you need help with?” I asked.
He absentmindedly rubbed his right shoulder. “I need to tweak my résumé to fit each job. You’re good at stuff like that.”
With my background in communications and the marketing skills I’d picked up from my social media business, I could confidently agree with him. A résumé was nothing more than a document meant to sell a potential employee to an employer.
I sent his résumé to my laptop before handing back his tablet. I opened the document and turned on the track-changes feature, which would act as my digital red pen. “I’m going to make you look good,” I promised.
His grin was slow to stretch across his face. “Oh, I always look good, sweetheart.” His voice had a slight Matthew McConaughey twang to it. I hated to admit that he pulled it off.
“Cocky bastard,” I muttered loudly enough for him to hear me. The trouble was, I couldn’t disagree with him.
CHAPTER 4
Justin
I WATCHED LAYLA’S mouth move as she worked, wondering if she realized she was doing it. It was cute, in a totally nerdy way. Good thing for our friendship, I wasn’t into nerds. Not dating Layla was one of the best decisions I’d ever made, because when I dated girls, they were around for a matter of weeks, a month at most. Girlfriends took up too much time. I had my friends and football. Good enough for me.
Normally, I would have been tempted to pester her, but since she was working on my stuff, I figured it was in my best interest to leave her to it. I polished off the box of pastries then leaned my head back on the couch. An unwelcome but familiar ache pulsed in my shoulder, and I rubbed it even though the motion didn’t provide any relief.
“Okay, I think I’m done.”
My head snapped up at the sound of Layla’s voice. Shit. I’d dozed off. She hadn’t needed my help with anything, but I still felt like a jackass for falling asleep while she worked on my stuff. “That didn’t take long.” I casually ran my hand over my chin. I didn’t normally drool in my sleep, but there was a first time for everything, and it was Murphy’s Law that it would happen in front of a hot girl, friend or not.
Layla snorted. “You’ve been snoring beside me for the past hour.” Busted. Still, what had taken her an hour would probably have taken me all day.
“I’ll be sure to stay awake next time.” I hoped there wouldn’t be a next time, because ideally, one of the résumés she’d perfected would land me a position. Job hunting was a pain in the ass. I would rather have been living it up my final semester in college, but I also knew I’d regret it if I slacked off.
She opened her mouth to retort then thought better of whatever she was going to say and shut it for a moment. “On second thought, maybe it’s better you were sleeping. We don’t want a sequel to the project that shall not be named.”
“Amen to that.” I didn’t remind her that it was all her fault that project had gone south.
The year before, Layla and I took a criminology class together. It was supposed to be fun. In reality, it resulted in a clusterfuck when we did a project together. She was normally pretty easygoing but apparently not when it came to her schoolwork. That personality trait worked for her, though. Instead of slaving over résumés like me, she’d created her own career in the form of her business. But I learned my lesson—Layla worked better alone. I, on the other hand, was definitely a team player. You couldn’t expect to succeed in football as a lone wolf.
So yeah, the clusterfuck was definitely on her. I had a proven track record of being a good teammate. But I was smart enough not to point it out to her.
“I saved the different versions