by Claire Adams
"It's one class," I insisted, kissing down her chest. I cupped her tit, rolling her nipple between my fingers. She moaned again, pushing her chest into my hand.
"Not now, babe," she said, running a hand through my hair.
"I'll be quick," I said, disappearing under the covers. She laughed, pressing her thighs together so I couldn't get to her. I kissed the back of her thigh, nipping lightly with my teeth. She squealed.
"Roman," she whined. I laughed, doing it again. She scooted away from me, pushing herself up so she was sitting with her legs hanging off the bed.
"If we do this, I'm gonna end up falling asleep again," she complained.
"You say that like it's a bad thing," I said, coming up behind her. I kissed her neck wrapping my hands around her waist.
"I can't skip class for you," she whispered. I tried to cop a feel, but she moved my hand. "I'll be back in a little while."
"What am I supposed to do till then?" I asked, kissing her neck again.
"Wait for me," she said, turning and kissing me on the lips. I let my hands drop as she stood. I knew she wouldn’t let me convince her to stay, but it had been worth a shot. Maybe one day it would work, and I was going to make sure that when that day came, it was the one when I asked her.
I checked her out as she walked away into the bathroom. She never really got a lot of color, but her pale skin was soft and creamy. Her body was tight and toned. I didn’t really get those exercise videos she liked to do online, but they worked for her. Fuck, she was sexy, waiting would be worth it.
I got out of bed and pulled on some underwear before leaving the room. I brewed some coffee in the kitchen so it would be ready by the time she came out. I was just pouring in the almond milk when she walked into the kitchen.
"For me?" she asked. I handed her the cup. She took a deep, long sip. She was still in the clothes she had been wearing yesterday, so she'd have to pass by her place to get changed before getting to campus.
"I don't know why I'm being nice to you. You won’t even spend one morning with me."
"You know I can't, babe," she said. I sighed dramatically, pretending to be hurt. She came up and kissed me again. "How about you come over tonight? I'll cook."
"You have to make whatever I want," I said, smirking. "Then I get to have you for dessert." She giggled and kissed me. We finished our coffee standing in the kitchen before I walked her out to her car. I thought about breakfast, but figured I might as well hold off till after the gym.
I had been keeping up with my workouts trying to bulk back up again and last week even started practicing again. Coach Fitz didn't let me join every practice, but it was something. My phone started ringing on the bed as I packed up my gym bag. I didn't know whose phone number it was, so I hesitated before finally picking up.
"Hello?"
"Roman Blake?" It was a man's voice. Clipped and scratchy, but not a wrong number if they knew who I was.
"Yeah. Who is this?"
"Lawson Hayes, the Miami Hurricanes coach. We never met, but I saw you at the NFL combine a couple weeks ago. I have to say, we were very impressed." I was standing already, but suddenly, I felt like I had to start moving. I started pacing around the room.
"Thank you, sir. That's always good to hear."
"That's why I'm calling you today. I don’t know if you’ve gotten a lot of calls like this already, Roman. Honestly, we hope you haven’t. We're very interested in signing you and we want to make you an offer." I stopped cold and suddenly, I had to sit again.
"Sorry?" I asked.
"You're our first pick for this upcoming season, son," he said. For a second I didn’t know what to say, so I said nothing.
"Uh, thanks. You were right about me not getting a lot of calls like this."
"Does that mean we have you?" he asked.
"I couldn't tell you today, sir. This is...unexpected."
"I understand," he said, laughing a little. "Take a little time to get back to us. Sleep on it, whatever you need. This type of offer doesn’t last forever, though; I hope you understand that."
"Of course. Just give me a few days. I'll get back to you in a week."
"You have until Friday," he said in a way that wasn't really mean, but sort of sounded like a threat. I thanked him anyway, and he said that he would be looking forward to hearing from me.
I didn’t know what happened for the ten, maybe fifteen minutes after the phone call. All I know was I realized I had been sitting on the edge of my bed, staring into space when my phone accidentally dropped out of my hand, hitting the floor.
Did this mean... Was I in? Were they recruiting me? What the hell was going to happen on Friday if I told them yes?
First thing in the morning was the worst time to get news like this because it was all I could think about the whole day. I tried to forget while at the gym, then at practice, but it didn’t work. All I could think about was Miami and how much fucking space was between here and there.
Don had texted me back by the time I got back home. He suggested that we hit a bar, but we couldn’t do that today. I needed him focused. I headed out to his ranch. He didn't live in the farmhouse that his dad stayed in, even though his place and his dad's were on the same property. His house was smaller, a little less than a quarter mile from his dad's. A porch wrapped the whole way around and it had two stories, even though he stayed there alone. He answered the door with wet hair and no shirt on like he'd just come out of the shower.
"Hey, man," he said. "What was up with those texts?" All I had said was that I needed to talk to him and that it was important. I followed him inside and shut the door behind me.
"Remember that trip I took a couple weeks ago?"
"To play football? Yeah. What about it? I thought it went well. Didn’t that guy on the plane or wherever tell you that he wanted to get you on the team he works for?"
"The coach called me today," I said. He turned to face me, holding a beer in each hand that he'd pulled out of the fridge.
"That's good, right? What did he say?"
"That I was their first pick. I have till Friday to accept or refuse their offer."
"What the fuck, Rome, that's great," he said, slapping me on the arm. "I don't see what the problem is here. You told him yes, right?"
"I asked for the extra time before I had to decide," I said. He put his beer down and crossed his arms.
"Why the hell would you do a thing like that?"
"Because the team's in Miami." He was confused before it dawned on him. He scrubbed his face with his hands.
"Godammit, Roman. I swear to God. I'll drag you to Miami myself if that's what it's going to take to make you go."
"I can't leave. Not now."
"Yes you can and you're going to," he said forcefully. "Don’t tell me you’re actually thinking about throwing this offer back in their faces."
"If I have to trade it for Ron, then yeah. I just might." He swore, crossing his arms again.
"What the fuck are the chances that this will ever happen again? If she was out of the picture, just think. After a whole year not playing, a team picks you out of hundreds of guys and offers you a spot. How often do you think that happens? How many guys would murder you to take your spot?"
"I can’t make this decision like I don't have other things that matter to me. If you asked me a year or two ago, I would have said yes and been in Miami tomorrow – no hesitation. This is different, Don. Football's not the most important thing to me."
"But the girl you just got back together with is?" he asked.
I shrugged. "I know I don't want to leave her."
"You did it before and look what happened. When you got back, she was still in one piece."
"You can't compare this to that time."
"Why not? You had to go then, and you have to go now. You had to leave her then, and you have to do it now. Talk to her, whatever you need to do, but fuck it, man, you have to take this deal. "
Why did it feel like this mean
t more to him than it did to me? I knew he was my friend and supported me, but what was the big deal? He had backed out of his own sports career, maybe it would make him feel better somehow if I went through with it?
I didn't get it, though; he had quit. He had loved baseball, too, and he had still hung up his mitt to work here every day. He had chosen what mattered more to him and it hadn’t been baseball, so why couldn’t he see that I felt the same way?
"I have till Friday to tell them. I'll wait till then," I said, sipping some of the beer. How long had it taken him to make his decision? Had he just been so worn down by his dad that he'd thrown his hands up and quit, just like that?
I knew I had asked for more time and things could change over a couple days, but far as I could tell, I had to pick. Ron or football. Right now, it wasn't looking that good for Miami. Right now, if someone asked me straight up to pick, I was picking her. I didn't want football if it meant she and I would have to split up again.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Veronica
Roman didn't sleep in. He had sort of been like that before, but it had never been this severe. My alarm hadn't rung yet, but I was awake. He was next to me, looking at his phone. The light was illuminating his face ghostly white.
That hadn't been what had woken me up, though. That had been him getting up a little while ago to go to the bathroom. He was back in bed, but I hadn't managed to fall back asleep yet. Part of me didn't really want to.
It was Wednesday, which meant class, which I wasn't looking forward to. Not when I could just lay here with Roman. He wasn't even sleeping, but it didn't matter. I was warm and comfy, and I liked being close to him. It hadn't gotten hot enough outside to not need to use covers anymore.
We were in my bed. The night before, we had had dinner together, watching TV shows, and I had ended up passing out on the couch. He must have carried me back here. I was glad that he didn't end up leaving back to his place after making sure I was back in bed, even though the chances that he would do that were pretty slim with the record we had been keeping up. My apartment was starting to feel like something was missing when he wasn't here with me.
If I woke up – well, I was already awake – but if I got up, I'd have to start getting ready to leave, and I didn't want that. Cognitively, I knew the way that sounded. I felt like a thirteen-year-old girl dating her first boyfriend, who she couldn’t be separated from for even a minute. I wanted to stay with him, but I was paying back the full cost of my tuition no matter how many classes I missed.
Attending class was literally the easiest part of college unless you had a disability or were sick. I wasn't either – I was just hung up on the man beside me who I'd see again anyway. It wasn't that serious needing to leave for a few hours.
That didn't mean the idea stopped appealing to me. We were both dressed under the covers since nothing had happened last night, but that could change. I put my hand over his body, feeling the warm, tight skin on his abs. He didn't move. I peered up at him, checking to see whether he had noticed. He hadn't. I started moving it deliberately down to the waistband of his underwear.
"Ron?" he said.
"Good morning," I said, looking up at him.
"I thought you were still asleep," he said. I straddled him, throwing the covers off.
"Hm, but you're not," I said, grinding my hips into his crotch. I could feel him growing stiff and long. My alarm finally rang when I had my legs spread on either side of Roman's face, and his cock in my mouth.
"You sure I can't get you to stay?" he asked from the bed. I looked over my shoulder at him. He was still naked and hadn't bothered to cover himself up. His cock was already soft again, but I looked away. I couldn't let him distract me.
"I have to go to class, Roman," I said, pulling my jeans up over my ass.
"That's the thing. No, you don't."
"Yes, I do," I said, piling my hair up on my head and tying it into a bun.
"Not every single one. They give us a number we can get away with not attending because they get that, too. Come back to bed."
"You're trying to derail me," I said, trying to paint on some mascara so I looked like I’d maybe tried this morning.
"Right. I'm a dropout. You should stop hanging out with me. I'm a bad influence."
"You aren't a bad influence. I'm just weak," I said, finally turning back to him.
"Not weak enough," he sighed. I walked over to the bed and crawled over him. He immediately grabbed my hips and pressed our bodies together. He kissed me softly, a total contrast from the way his hands pressed into my skin.
"You can stay here if you want. I'll be back in the afternoon. Eat whatever you want, just tell me if anything runs out." He brushed a loose lock of hair out of my face.
"I love you," he said.
"I love you, too," I whispered back. Two weeks ago I wouldn't have dreamed of repeating those words to him. Things had changed since he had come back home from the combine, but me loving him hadn't really changed since the past year.
When he dumped me, I’d felt like it had completely turned in on itself and become hate, but I had been wrong about that. When I saw him again, everything that I had fallen for in the first place slid right back into place.
The more I thought about it, the more I didn't think I had made it to the point when I stopped loving him, not romantically, not as a friend. I wasn't scared to let him know it anymore. This summer, we had found it again. Us.
"Will you be here when I get back?" I asked.
"I don't think so, but I can come by later." I had given him a key to my place for when he wanted to hang out here when I wasn't home.
"I should go. I'm going to be late."
"I'll be right here when you change your mind at the door and we can finish what we started," he said, smirking. I told him it wouldn't happen, but I didn't want to admit just how shaky my resolve to leave the apartment and go to class actually was.
I finally made it out the door and drove to campus. I texted Tiffany to see whether she was at school yet, and she told me to meet her at the library. She was waiting there with coffee for both of us when I found her.
"Hey, what time did you get here?" I asked. She always looked impeccably put together, something I couldn't say about myself, even though I totally had makeup on today.
"Maybe half an hour ago? I had a book overdue, and I didn't want to get lazy and not return it later." We started heading towards our classes. They were being held in the same building today.
"Half an hour ago, I was contemplating not even showing up."
"Yeah? Why? Are you sick?"
"See, now that would be a perfectly reasonable excuse to cut class. No, I'm not sick. I left Roman at my apartment."
"If you're about to tell me that you were going to cut class to have sex with my brother, stop. I don't want to hear it."
"Okay. I won't," I laughed.
"You were really going to cut class for him?"
"No," I sighed, "I know I can't do that. I'm not that girl. I'd hate myself if I did. Let's just say he can be really persuasive when he wants something." Tiffany made exaggerated fake throw up sounds, making me laugh. It had to be hard having your best friend date your brother. My sex life was his and as my best friend, she got to hear all the lurid details.
"Guess it's safe to say the two of you are doing well?"
"Better than well, Tiff. I never thought I'd be this happy with him again. After last year, I couldn't imagine even facing him. Now, it's like all that happened just to bring us here."
"As a person who's been rooting for you guys from the start, I have to say it's about time."
I sipped my coffee. "It took a little while but in the end, it was worth it."
"It's good that the two of you are stable now, you know, because of the Miami thing." I stopped walking.
"The what?"
Tiff turned and looked at me. "You know, the Miami thing. He got a call the other day...from these..." she trailed off. "Oh my
God. He didn't tell you?"
"Tell me what?"
"I only brought it up because I thought that he had told you already."
"Told me what, Tiff?" She hesitated before finally talking again.
"Earlier this week? He got a call from a team in Miami that's looking to sign him. He's been in contact with them since the combine, but they only confirmed that he was their pick a couple days ago."
"When was he going to tell me?"
"He's going to turn them down. That's probably why he didn't say anything."
"Wait, what? Why would he do something like that?" I asked. Tiff looked at me like pointedly.
"Come on, Vee. You know why." I had an idea why, but I didn't want it to be true.
"He wouldn't do that."
"Turn down the offer so he can stay here with you? Oh yes, Veronica. He would."
"But he can't." We started walking again.
"He’s made his decision."
"You didn't try to tell him anything?"
"Like what? I think he knew he'd have to make a decision like this at some point and he's made it. It doesn't matter what I think or tell him. He knows what he wants."
And he wanted me. By the time I was in class, I might as well have just spent the time at home. No, if I had, then I wouldn't have found out that Roman was planning to turn down a shot at the league because he didn't want to leave me. I was madder that he would stay because of me than that he hadn't said anything about it. He couldn't do that. When would this ever happen again for him? This wasn't something he could gamble with.
I was nervous getting back to my apartment that afternoon that I would still find him there. After combing all the rooms and finding them empty, I was relieved. I didn't know what the hell I would have said to him if I found him. I probably would have brought it up, and we'd have ended up fighting.
I didn't want to fight with him. There was no fight here. There was only one right answer to what he had to do.
He had been waiting for the opportunity to play his whole life and he was choosing to stay here for me. Part of me loved him for it, but that wasn't important. I had come to realize that there was no good enough reason for him to say no to the team. Nothing mattered enough for him to pass this up. Not even me.