Chapter Six
When I woke up the next morning, my head was pounding- but not because I’d been hitting it too hard the night before. No, far from it- I’d taken it easy. But I had hooked up with Emily, and I wasn’t sure if I’d made the right decision.
I mean, yeah, she was incredible- the image of her, riding me hard, her head tipped slightly back and her mouth hanging open a little, played on my brain and made me smile to myself involuntarily. As soon as I’d picked her up, I’d known what was going to happen. We were flirting as soon as she slipped into my car, and I wasn’t going to argue with her when she clambered on top of me in there at the end of the night. I just couldn’t shake the feeling that I’d done something….dangerous by fucking her.
I mean, every other woman I’d hooked up with since I left high school, it was clear it was a one-night thing. They knew, I knew, even if I had to lay it out for a few of them a little more firmly than I might have liked- it was clear. They knew who I was. I had a reputation in this town for a reason- one I was a little proud of, I had to admit. And playing for the team meant that I was never likely to be around any of my hook-ups again. I might spot them in the crowd of a game and see them give me that secret little smile, but I had never had them around for such a length of time after we were finished with each other.
I drove to training, and wondered why I had done it. Apart from the obvious- that she was smoking hot and sexy and forward and all kinds of good in bed. Or in-car, as the case may be. I had known all of this before we fucked, known that she wouldn’t be leaving soon, known that I would have to see her and be around her and deal with her for a long time yet- and still I did it. I couldn’t blame it on the alcohol as I hadn’t even been drinking that much. The only explanation was that I was trying to get my mind off…it. The thing. The big one. The question that I still hadn’t come up with an answer to.
I pushed it to the back of my mind as I climbed out of my car and walked into the building; my heart flipped in my chest when I saw who was leaning up at reception.
“Emily!” I called. I had dropped her off at her place last night, and she hadn’t made any noises about inviting me inside. Not that I could blame her. She turned and smiled when she saw me, and I couldn’t help but let my eyes drift across her body. She was wearing a tight shirt and narrow pants, and I could imagine the outline of her body beneath the fabric with ease, remember what it felt like beneath my fingers.
“Hey, Sam,” she flushed a little, but kept her cool. “Could you tell Darla here that I am allowed in the stadium while you’re training?”
“She is,” I smiled at Darla, who raised her brows as she looked between the two of us. “Promise.”
“Go ahead,” Darla sighed tiredly, waving us both in, and I held the door open for Emily. We made our way down the seemingly endless corridor in silence, until she spoke at last.
“So…last night was fun,” she remarked, glancing over at me as if checking to see how I would react.
“It was,” I agreed with a little smirk. “Really fun.”
“But…I don’t think it should happen again,” She suggested, stumbling over her words slightly as thought she wasn’t quite sure how to get them out. “If that’s okay with you?”
I let out a small breath, not realizing that I’d been holding it up until that point.
“Just because we’ll be working together, and I don’t want things to be awkward,” she blurted, reading my sigh as upset. I shook my head and held up my hand.
“It’s fine, you’re right,” I agreed. “We shouldn’t have…nothing should have happened. I get that. Let’s just put it behind us, okay?”
“Okay,” she agreed, and we opened the door on to the stadium. The entire team was there; it seemed as though I was a little late.
There was a small murmur around the room as the little clusters of Crows noticed the two of us walking through the doors together; I did my best to pay them no attention. I strode down to the changing rooms, opened the door, and glanced behind me to see Emily taking her place in the stands. Thank God that had been averted.
“So, you fuck her?” Nathan was leaning up against the lockers when I came in, taking me by surprise.
“Yup,” I nodded.
“Good?”
“None of your business,” I shot back, raising my eyebrows at him warningly. “Just ‘cause you’ve not been laid in forever.”
“You guys dating now?” He brushed off my comment easily. He’d heard a lot worse between these four walls, that was for sure.
“Nah, just a one-night thing,” I replied with a shrug. “No big deal. We were drinking, it was fun, but that’s it.”
“Is that what she told you?” Nathan cocked his head at me. “It never works out like that, you know.”
“It’s mutual,” I snapped, growing tired of his questioning. “Come on, let’s get on the ice.”
Training began, and I found my eyes drifting towards Emily a few times, watching her as she scribbled notes and made comments into her little voice recorder periodically. Her hair was tied back and she had rings around her eyes- but if she was hungover, she certainly wasn’t showing it. I wondered why she had been so into me last night- I mean, she just got here. Most of the women I hooked up with did it for the sense of celebrity. Emily had looked exhausted from the first moment she walked through the doors here, and I wondered if there was something else that had driven her out of the city. She seemed reluctant to talk about it last night, deflecting my questions about what life was like there. Maybe it wasn’t as safe a place for her as she made out.
Training finished up, and Johnson cornered me before I could get back to the locker room.
“Have you thought about it yet?” He demanded, his voice low and quiet. Emily was lingering behind us, and I could see that she was trying to overhear what we were saying.
“What?”
“The offer, you know,” he replied impatiently. “I got a call from them today.”
“Really? This soon?” My eyes widened. This wasn’t what I expected- I’d had no idea they were as keen as all that, and it was intimidating to think about a team of that size coming after me as aggressively as they were.
“Yeah, this soon,” he nodded. “So, anything?”
“No,” I admitted. “I’m still thinking about it. You said I had until the end of the month, right?”
“Right,” he nodded. “But I can’t promise they won’t find someone else in the meantime.”
“I know,” I shot back, defensive, and we exchanged a hard look before Johnson backed off and made his way down to his office. I pulled my helmet off and slumped down on to the slatted wooden benches at the edge of the stadium, letting out a sigh that turned to steam as it left my mouth.
“What was that about?”
I looked up, and found Emily standing above me, hands on hips. Her recorder was in her hand, and it was obvious she’d heard all of our conversation. I met her gaze and held it for a few moments before I responded.
“Nothing,” I shot back childishly.
“Are you moving to another team?”
“Turn that off and I’ll tell you,” I nodded towards the microphone in her hand, and she held it out to me.
“It’s already off,” she promised. “Here, look.”
I inspected the small device for a second and, seeing no obvious activity, I patted the bench next to me. By the time she wrote this story, I either would have gone or I wouldn’t, so having the world find out about it wouldn’t matter. Besides, I needed someone to talk to this about, somebody outside the game.
“I’ve been offered a position,” I began, talking slowly. It was the first time I’d spoken these words out loud to anyone since I’d first heard them a couple of days before. They’d been zooming around my head at such a speed, however, that I almost felt practiced reciting them.
“Where?”
“Philadelphia.”
“Not with the-“ she raised her eyebrows.
“Yeah, with the Soars,” I finished her sentence for her. Even saying that out loud, it didn’t feel real. She stared at me for a moment.
“And you’re thinking about it?” She sounded incredulous.
“Yeah, that’s right.”
“How?” Emily’s mouth dropped open after she spoke, the word hanging the air between us.
“I’m just…not ready to go yet,” I looked at my feet, mumbling, feeling the way I did when I told my Mom that I wouldn’t be attending college. “I’ve still got so much to do here.”
“That you couldn’t do with the Soars?” She pointed out. “Come on, if any of the guys in that locker room got offered this, what do you think they would do?”
“I think they’d take it,” I admitted. “But they’re not me, are they?”
“No, but I bet some of them wish they were,” she snapped, getting to her feet.
“Hey, did I do something wrong?” I looked after her as she rolled her shoulders back.
“Nothing,” she replied, her voice steady and suddenly cool. “Maybe we should sit down tomorrow, have a proper conversation about this.”
“I’m fine, I don’t need you to-“
“For the article,” she cut across me, smiling slightly at the fact that I’d forgotten. I nodded, feeling chided.
“Oh, yeah,” I agreed, glancing down. “Yeah, tomorrow.”
“See you then,” she began to walk away, and I looked up after her. Why did it feel as though I’d just let her down? I thought things were cool between us after what had happened last night- but it felt as though I’d just firmly put my foot in whatever was still lingering between us.