Page 24 of Waiting for Her

I gently twist so the bottom side of her wrist is facing me and read the series of numbers flanked by two Chinese symbols.

I stare unblinking, my thumb tracing a pattern over the black markings.

Back and forth while my mind catches up with my eyes.

It’s a tattoo we’d talked about getting together some day.

Love.

Thedatewe first admitted we loved each other as more than just friends. Coincidentally, it was the night of our first date, too.

Eternity.

She went through with it anyway.

What does that even mean?

She slowly tugs her wrist back, wrapping her arms around her waist, rubbing her lips together.

I don’t say anything.

What could I even say?

“I told you the list was too long to text.” Her voice wavers, full of emotion.

I nod, shoving my hands into the pockets of my shorts. “I’m sorry, too. For Friday night,” I explain when her head tilts to the side in confusion. “I was shocked to see you, but that doesn’t give me an excuse to be rude to you.”

“You weren’t,” she says quietly.

“Yeah, I was.”

“Well, if that’s the case, it was warranted.”

“Maybe a little,” I smirk, and she laughs lightly. “Here’s the deal. I need to tell you, when I heard you got this story, I didn’t know how it would go. I still don’t, really. But it’s going to go to shit real fast if I behave like I did toward you on Friday night. Neither of us wants that.” I pause, noticing the look of hurt on her face and know exactly where her thoughts are going. I clench my fist around the phone in my pocket to stop me from reaching out to her. “Stop thinking for a second, okay? I’m not apologizing to you, so the story will be good. I’m not going to lie, I don’t want our feelings to get in the way of whatever you publish, but I also want both of us to get over the past. I don’t know about you, but Ihaveto move forward.”

She blows out a breath and nods, pressing her lips together. “Yeah. Moving forward would be good.”

I swallow and look out to the field, a few of the players are looking at Bri, stupid hopeful expressions tugging their lips into a grin.

I want to punch the look straight off their faces and give them extra laps.

I blow my whistle three times and they jog in our direction.

“Gentlemen. You’ve no doubt seen we have a guest with us this morning. We told you last weekSports Illuminatedis doing an article on the team this season. It starts today. I’d like you to meet Bri Jameson. She knows more about Warrior football than anyone I know, including you, and is to be treated with nothing but respect,” I bark out when I hear a few lude comments. My blood instantly boils, and I narrow my eyes at the little punks.

I point in the direction of where I heard the comments. “Enough! As I said, I expect you to treat women with respect and that means you don’t need to be making lewd comments about Bri or anyone else, you feel me? Trust me when I say this, you don’t want to test me. If I see a single one of you mistreating her, or hear any more of that shit I just heard, you’ll be working it off on this field until you can’t walk.”

Grumbles are heard from a few of the punks, but for the most part, they nod their heads and listen.

“Bri, meet the Warriors. Boys. Meet Bri. She’s my shadow for the next six weeks.”

I pause long enough to hear someone muttercoach is alucky fucker.

“Tim!” I shout, and the little prick who thought he’d test me snaps to attention.

“Yeah, Coach?”

“You just earned yourself thirty minutes of suicides. Enjoy.”

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