plate.” She took her box and walked over to my small dining room table.
I shook my head and followed her. “Carmen, you can’t just come into my apartment when I’m not here.”
She waved a hand. “I knew you’d be on your way home around this time, but I was a bit early. Should I have just waited downstairs or in my car?”
I nodded. “Yeah, actually.” Especially since I didn’t invite her over in the first place. What would she have done if I went out for dinner? Or didn’t come home tonight?
She laughed. “You’re so funny, Jason.”
I narrowed my eyes. I wasn’t kidding. We’d only been seeing each other for two months. I’d taken her on four, maybe five dates. We were nothing close to being a serious couple, and it was creepy that she basically broke into my home. We weren’t at that point yet.
“So, at work today my coworker, Drew, you know him, right? Well, I’ve told you about him. Anyway, he totally took credit for the project I've been working on for like two weeks. Just told our manager that it was his, and guess what! John, that idiot, believed him. So I told Drew he can have it. He can finish it and present it to the team next week.” She let out a bitter laugh. “He has no idea what he’s doing though and is going to completely screw it up.” She stabbed her fork into broccoli with more force than necessary. “But now I have to come up with something else to present. It’s so annoying.”
She managed to get that all out with just two breaths. I swear she could talk more than anyone else I knew.
I liked her. She was sweet and understanding about my chaotic schedule, but things were casual. She wasn’t my girlfriend. I made that very clear from the beginning. I didn’t have time for a relationship. She was fun to hang out with once a week or so when I had some free time, but this wasn’t normal for us. Telling each other about our days over dinner. No, this felt too familiar. Too comfortable. Like she and I were more than I was ready for.
“I’m sorry about that. I’m sure you’ll come up with something great.” I had no idea what I was talking about. She worked for a marketing agency. I knew next to nothing about what she did on a daily basis besides complain about her coworkers. I’d never put together spreadsheets or compared the cost per click. That didn’t stop her from talking about it like I did.
We were worlds apart, and up until today, I was fine with that. I enjoyed her company, but I never brought her to team functions or introduced her to the guys, let alone the Pride. That seemed to be the pinnacle of a relationship with our team, and I was far from being ready for that.
After seeing Taylor and remembering what we had, things with Carmen felt more unsatisfyingly superficial than I realized. I didn’t have the desire to go any deeper with her, though. We finished eating while she told me everything that she’s done in the past two days, and I cleaned up before facing her. “Carmen, things with the team are pretty crazy right now.”
She stood and wrapped her hands around my arms. “I know. That’s why I want to help with as much as I can. I don’t want you to have to stress about anything you don’t have to. Your focus should be on winning the next four games.”
She must have done some homework while I was gone. Last week when I’d tried to explain that even though we won three rounds of the playoffs we still weren’t done, she’d been confused.
“I appreciate that, but I think I’m going to need some space for the next little while. I can’t afford any distractions right now.”
Her smile wavered for a moment, but she recovered. “Oh, I see.”
She backed away, and my chest tightened. I didn’t want to hurt her, and she didn’t deserve that.
“Thanks for understanding. I’m going to be traveling back and forth to Raleigh, and I’m not sure I’ll have time to see you. I have games I need to watch every night and …” I struggled to come up with another excuse off the top of my head.
“But after it's over? You’ll have more time?”
“Yeah, of course.” That gave me about two weeks to fade away so I didn’t have to