to say,” she says, and I fold my hands over my chest. “Could it be that you got upset because you like him?” I open my mouth to scream, but she puts her hand up. “He should not have flirted with other women in front of you. That was disrespectful but think about it. If you didn’t care about him, would you really care?”
I stare at her, opening my mouth and closing it and then opening it again. “If you went out with Ralph and he flirted with other women, would you care?”
“I’d cut his balls off.” I point at her.
“Okay, fine. If you went out with Brian, and he flirted with other women, would you care?”
I glare at her. “No, I would give him a high-five.”
“Which means …” She looks at me, and all I can do is glare at her.
“I don’t like him,” I tell her, and she rolls her lips. “Fuck,” I say, slapping my palm to my forehead. “I might like him.”
Chapter 18
Miller
She hasn’t answered one of my texts in three days. Three long fucking days. My head is spinning, and I literally have no idea what to do. I text her before I left for Denver, and she never answered me.
I arrive at the arena at the scheduled time for our Saturday game. My body’s still sore from the grueling physical game we played last night. We flew back home right after the game, and I had no time to do anything but sleep. Walking into the locker room carrying a cup of coffee, I’m one of the last to arrive. “Gentlemen,” I say. The rookies nod at me, some in their workout clothes already. I sit in my spot next to Manning, who is undressing. “My ass is tired,” I say, putting my coffee next to me and just taking a second to breathe.
“If you think your ass is tired now,” Manning says, “wait until next week when we play four games in six days.” Thinking about next week makes me groan. We leave tomorrow night and are away the whole week.
“I hate those long stretches,” Ralph says, taking a drink of his protein shake. “I can do two days, but a whole seven?” He shakes his head. “Get ready for cranky Ralph.”
I laugh at him as I shrug off my jacket. “When don’t we have cranky Ralph?” Manning laughs with me. “Him, I get,” I say, pointing my thumb at Manning. “With his wife and all.”
“Can we not talk about her,” he says. Sitting down, he puts a baseball hat on his head. I look around and see that the rookies have gone and are no doubt in the gym working on their cardio. “I showed up at home last night, and she greeted me naked.”
I laugh. “I don’t know why that would make you cranky.”
“She had hickeys on her tits,” he says, and my mouth hangs open. “Yeah. I don’t even care, to be honest. I haven’t felt anything for her in years, and I just want fucking out.”
“I don’t know how you do it,” Ralph says. “At some point, you are just going to have to leave her and brace yourself for the worst.”
“I don’t want to put my son through that.” He shakes his head. “Worst case, I have another four years, and then I can let him decide.” He gets up. “Time to get my head into the game.” He walks out of the room.
“Time to get my legs working,” Ralph says. “Show off for my girls.” He winks at me.
“Is Candace coming tonight?” I ask, and he nods, his whole face lighting up with a smile. I smile back at him, and my chest suddenly hurts. I want that, I think to myself. I take out my phone when Ralph walks out and send her a text.
Me: This is officially the third day with no response. According to Google, I should wait at least five days before I message you again, or I’m going to look desperate. I guess it’s too late for that. Although, according to another Google article, after twenty-four hours, I should give up. LOL. I hope you are doing well. I was wondering if you would like to go and get coffee tomorrow? I would ask you to have lunch with me, but something tells me that you would say no to that. But coffee is safe, or is it?
I press send and then look at how long the message is. It’s been three