by Claire Adams
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.
"C
ome 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.
Chapter Twenty Nine
Roman
"I don't fucking know why we're friends." Don shook his head, taking a swig of his beer. He was squinting into the setting sun from where we sat out on his porch.
"Because no one else can stand you," I shot back.
He lifted the cat that had jumped up into his lap and put it back on the ground. It just jumped up again. There were a lot of cats on Don's family property. Some of them their cats, some that had wandered onto the property and just not left since they started being fed. Before they figured that they should have gotten the lot of them neutered and spayed, one of them had managed to drop two litters of kittens. Once in a while, Don would have them in the house, but mostly they hung out outside. One really old, big one with just one eye had fallen asleep near my foot.
"I have plenty of friends," he said. "You think I wouldn't have been able to replace you if you left again?"
"Good thing you don't have to put out that lonely hearts ad now."
"Like I said, I don't know how the fuck we're friends."
"You should be a lot happier about the fact that I'm staying. Maybe I should fucking leave."
"I wouldn't let you stay because of me, and you shouldn't stay for the reason you're doing it, either."
"I don't expect you to get it," I said, taking a swig of my beer.
"You're right. I don't."
"One day, when you meet the right girl, you will." He snorted.
"The girl who's gonna make me give up my dream just to be with her? No thanks. Wherever she is, she can stay there."
"I'm hopeful for you," I said, laughing.
"I'm not. You just had to go find her again after last year," he said.
"It would have happened sooner or later."
"Yeah. Wish it was later. You're really doing this?"
"Tonight. I'm calling the coach and telling the offer is great and all, but I can't take it."
"What will you say when he asks why?"
"Why the hell would he ask me that?"
"To talk you out of it. Maybe you'll listen to him if not to me."
"It won't work," I said simply, having another drink.
"You're an idiot," he said.
"You told me that already."
"I swear. Don't tell anyone we know each other. I can't be seen with you," he said, smirking at me. I knew he was kidding. It didn't matter what he thought. He wasn't the one who this was going to affect.
"Good to know I have your support," I joked.
"Do what you have to do, man. I just don't want you to end up regretting this."
"It's her. I know it is. Right now, this is where I have to be. I can't imagine a future without her. If football's still meant to happen, then it will. I'm not giving her up. That's not an option." Don sighed.
"You know what? If that's how it's gonna be, then I can't wait for the wedding," he said.
What was Don like when he was in love? The last girl he had been with was back when we were in high school and after the two of them broke up, he wouldn't even look at her anymore. I figured he could, for the right person, change and actually make them happy, but I knew he wouldn't appreciate the psychoanalysis.
"Oh, you're not invited. So you can fuck your way through Ron's bridesmaids?" He laughed.
"You know that's the only reason why single people go to weddings," he said.
He offered me another beer but I passed. I wanted to get home. Ron was coming over and I was cooking dinner that night. He tried to give me a hard time about blowing him off, but I ignored him.
It wasn't a competition, Ron did things for me that he didn't and couldn't do...and stuff I didn't want him to do, if we were being honest. I thought about maybe setting up double date or something where the two of them could meet. I didn't talk about Don to Veronica as much as the other way around, but something like that could be fun.
I had left all the groceries that I needed to cook the meal in the car. I passed by the store to buy the last couple things, wine, and dairy that would have spoiled if I left it in the car while I was at Don's, and went home. I could cook, if by cook you meant make oatmeal, ramen, rice...basically things you just added water to in order to make them not raw anymore. I was just making pasta, but I was making the cheese sauce from scratch. I had bought a rotisserie chicken at the same time as getting the wine, which I'd just carve up later.
The goal was to make it edible, and I was mostly confident that was what it was going to be by the time she got here. I wanted to be able to tell her that I was making the decision to turn down the deal before I made the call. Maybe she could be in the room as I made it. I had kept it to myself since my mind was made up already. I didn't want to take the deal. Tonight, I'd tell her everything. Nothing was standing between us again.
I was just slipping the chicken into the oven to heat up when I heard her at the door. She had a key and was walking in.
"Ron," I said, coming up to her. She gave me a small smile and let me kiss her.
"Hi," she said, pushing some hair back behind her ear.
"How was your day?" I asked. Her purse was still up on her shoulder, and her arms were crossed.
"Okay," she said, shrugging.
"Dinner's almost ready. Do you want wine?" She shook her head.
"No wine. I drove here."
"It's one glass. Besides, it's not like you have to drive back tonight."
"I don't want any wine," she snapped.
"Okay. No wine. What can I get you?"
"Nothing, Roman. I'm sorry you've already gone to so much trouble tonight."
"Trouble? What? Did you want to go out?"
"Roman," she said, looking down and taking a deep breath. "I came to end things tonight. I don't want to see you anymore." I looked at her, waiting for her to keep going, or just say something else that meant what she had just said wasn't true.
"Ron… What? What are you talking about?"
"I want to break up. I don't want to be with you anymore. It's over."
"The fuck it is. Where the hell is this coming from, Ron?"
"I shouldn't have let you back in. I had a life when you left, and you came back and acted like I should have just stopped everything for you. I did, and I wish I hadn't. It wasn't fair to me after what you did, Roman. I don't want to be with you, and I never want to see you again."
"Ron, you can't-" I reach
ed for her arm and she violently pulled away.
"Don't touch me. Don't talk to me. I should have done this in the first place, that day I came to see you at the picnic spot. Never contact me again, Roman. I don't want to hear it. I don't want to know. I just want my old life back." She turned and walked towards the door, stopping suddenly. She turned back and came up to me. She took my hand and placed my key in it. Then she left.
I ran to the door after her, only to watch her slam her car door and back out of the driveway. She was gone.
I closed the door and looked at the key she had put in my hand. I had given her the key because she had given me one of hers, to be able to get in her place just in case she was out. I still had it. I thought for a second that I needed to return it, but stopped myself. She didn't want me to contact her.
I didn't know what to do. I had heard her, but her words didn't make sense. They hadn't sunk in all the way yet. I walked into the kitchen and picked up my phone. I scrolled down to her number but she wasn't going to pick up, she was driving. Who the hell was I going to call? Don? Tiffany? My dad? My thumb hovered over the number till I shut my eyes and let it fall, holding it to my ear. I listened to the dial tone for a few seconds before he picked up.
"Hello?" His gruff voice issued over the line. I hoped that meant I wasn’t calling him too late.
"Coach Hayes? This is Roman Blake," I said.
"Roman, I've been expecting to hear from you."
"Sorry I kept you waiting."
"So, what do you say?"
"Yes. I'll do it. I want to do it."
"You sure you don't need more time, son?" he asked. He was ribbing me. "Nobody's ever made us wait on them the way you have. You better make sure you're worth the time we could have spent looking for another QB."
"Of course. I'm ready."
"Well, the soonest we can start processing everything is tomorrow morning. You don't change your mind, you'll be here in Miami within a month." I swallowed.
"I'm looking forward to it, sir."
"Welcome to the Hurricanes, Roman."
"Thanks," I said, through gritted teeth. We hung up, and I dropped my phone on the kitchen counter. I went to the kitchen and turned the stove off. The food was ready by now, but I wasn't hungry anymore.