Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 65480 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 327(@200wpm)___ 262(@250wpm)___ 218(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 65480 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 327(@200wpm)___ 262(@250wpm)___ 218(@300wpm)
He’s referring to my past drug addiction.
I shrug off his concern. “Nah, I’m good. We got our asses handed to us in the last game. We deserved to lose.”
My performance didn’t help us.
“Are you coming back to the apartment?”
I shake my head. “It’s too crowded. I added a few more nights to my stay at the Ritz. I can’t sleep on the couch. It kills my back and shoulder.”
Sometimes, the pain from my past comes back at the worst times. I needed a decent night’s sleep, but Mia is the real reason I’ve steered clear of her apartment. I don’t want to hurt her, and yet I know what I’m doing must be crushing her because it’s killing me.
He snickers. “And you didn’t invite me? Dick. The mattress in Mia’s guest room is kicking my ass. The floor is more comfortable.”
“Hey, you were the one who was sneaking off with those girls. If you weren’t MIA most of the time, I would’ve asked you to share a suite with me.”
In all honesty, we needed a break from each other. We play hockey for the same team and share an apartment. A few times, we’ve even shared girls. I needed some space from the Roman family with how intense things were getting between Mia and me. But I’m too much of a coward to tell Will why.
“Ahh, that’s cool, bro.” Will waves his hand in front of him. “Don’t worry about it. My sister is hardly ever home. She has a new job. I only see her before she goes to work. We eat breakfast together, and then she leaves. I crash in her bed when she’s gone. Our arrangement works.”
“You should consider getting a room for a few nights,” I suggest. “Some sleep would do you good.”
He shakes his head. “We’ll be back in our apartment in no time.”
For someone with money, Will is unusually cheap. He’d rather crash on Mia’s couch than shell out the cash for a hotel room.
Will cracks open a fortune cookie and laughs at the message on the slip of paper inside. He throws it on the table. “Even the Chinese proverbs are telling me to go out tonight, and you, my friend, are coming with me.”
I lift the paper and shake my head. “Flattery will go far tonight. I don’t think there’s a hidden meaning behind this fortune.”
Will shrugs. “Yeah, maybe not, but it’s an excuse to have some fun before we have to go back to real life.” He reaches across the table and grabs the egg roll from my plate. “You gonna eat this or what? I’ve been eying it up for the last ten minutes.”
A smirk touches my lips. “Go right ahead.”
Will bites into the egg roll, licking some of the juices that slide down his lip. Watching Will eat is almost comical, or more to the truth, gross, even. He acts as if he hasn’t had a meal in days. I have no problem sticking to our diet during the season, but Will isn’t as disciplined when it comes to the meal plans I make him follow.
Binge drinking and eating for the first few weeks after the regular season is part of Will’s post-season routine. I could just as easily fall back into old habits along with him, but I have to control myself. I can’t go back to being the person I was in high school. Because, unlike Will, I won’t be able to stop once I lose myself.
I felt myself starting to slip with Mia. Driving to see her in the middle of the night made me realize I was on a slippery slope. She could be my downfall, my biggest weakness. And I can’t afford to have any more of those.
“Your sister got another job? Did she get fired from the paper?”
Will wipes his hands on the tablecloth. “Nah, nothing like that. She’s on a special assignment at a record store. Mia said she’s not allowed to talk about it.”
Our jobs aren’t something either of us bother talking about. We’re too busy taking off our clothes. Apart from what I know about the girl I met most nights in her backyard, I understand very little about the woman Mia is now. And that annoys me because I should—no, I want to know—more about her after all these years.
“How is she juggling that with her other job?”
I miss her. She deserves a decent apology, one that I’ll most likely fuck up. A girl like Mia deserves someone better than me, someone who can love and worship her like a goddess and not just behind closed doors.
“You know Mia, all business and no pleasure. She leaves early in the morning for the Inquirer and goes straight to Old City Records after work. I usually get her breakfast. That’s about the only time we see each other.”