Power Play - Brittney Mulliner Page 0,14
was correct. I owed him nothing, but I wanted to tell him. I wanted to show him that I was just fine without him.
“What do you want to know?”
He smiled just a little and sat up. “Did you decide on majoring in graphic design or drawing?”
I sucked in a breath. He couldn’t have known how painful that topic was for me. I spent two years dragging my feet, fighting between pursuing my dream and being realistic. It was his desertion that helped me choose. Dreams were just that. Illusions, fantasies created by our brains. They weren’t real. They weren’t something to chase after.
“Accounting actually.”
His head shot back as his brows raised. “Really? Why? You love art. That was your obsession when we were together.”
“I was always good at math.” I shrugged.
“But you never liked it.”
I rolled my bottom lip between my teeth, reigning in my impulse to chew him out. “It’s a solid career choice. I’ll always be able to find a job, and once I had finished the tax classes, it wasn’t as boring as I expected.”
He didn’t speak for a few seconds. “That’s good. I’m glad you found … something.”
“Yup.”
“Did you like MSU?” he continued.
“Yeah, it was great.”
“Any boyfriends?”
“Nope.” I popped my lips. None. I went on a few dates but quickly realized I had no interest in any of them. Turned out college boys were just as dumb as high school boys. I didn’t see any point in wasting time and energy on them when I could study and take internships and graduate at the top of my class.
“Do you work here now?”
I wanted to lie. I really didn’t want him to know about my most recent failure, but how else was I to explain being in North Carolina? I had no friends or family here. I could make one up. I nearly did when I remembered I had no reason to impress him. After this, we would never see each other again.
“I was supposed to,” I muttered.
He leaned forward, hovering over his untouched breakfast. “What happened?”
“A wrong turn.” It was as simple as that.
His lip quirked. “Literally or figuratively?”
I huffed out a laugh. “Both. I got lost on my way here and missed my first day. When I let them know, the company said they decided to go in a different direction. So, I’m here without a job, a home, or a plan.”
“You never were great with directions.” I glared at him, and he threw up his hands. “It’s true. I can’t even count how many times you got lost on the way to my games or that time we went to the lake and ended up in Ohio.”
He wasn’t wrong. I just didn’t like him remembering that detail about me. It was too familiar.
“So, what’s next?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m applying and sending out my résumé to a few contacts I have, but it will take a few days for something to come together.”
“You’ll find a great job. Once they see how impressive you are, you’ll have a ton of offers.” He grinned at me, and I smiled out of some repressed habit.
“Thanks, I hope so.”
He knocked on the table twice and stood. “We’re flying back to Utah today so I need to get my luggage, but I saw you here and couldn’t miss the chance to talk. Thank you.”
“Jason?” I called out before he could walk away.
He turned and waited.
“I’m sorry about last night.”
He let out a humorless laugh. “Yeah.”
“Is he okay? Kozlov?” That was the name the announcers kept using, but the girls used his first name. I couldn’t remember it though.
“It was a bad break. He’s out for the rest of the series.”
I cringed. Injuries weren’t just inconvenient for professional athletes, they could end careers. Completely alter their lives.
“I hope he’s okay.”
He met my eyes and nodded. “Me too.”
Without another word, he turned and walked away.
That was it? Those were all the questions he had for me about the past four years? All that we’d been through, the losses, the plans that didn’t matter? Maybe he just needed to know that I was fine in order to clear his conscience. Not that I would necessarily consider myself okay. Things were most definitely not okay right now. That wasn’t his problem though. We were nothing more than memories to each other.
6
Jason
Murmuring and defeated faces greeted me as I walked into the team meeting room. I shouldn’t be happy about Nikolai’s injury—and I wasn’t. I was just grateful that the team’s attention was