Page 51 of Aftersome
Sighing, I went to shove my phone back into my pocket, but a text message had come through.
Shelia: Hey! Haven’t talked to you in a while, just wanted to see how you were doing. Call me if you can.
Shit.
I hated saying that she was the last person I wanted to talk to, but it was only because I couldn’t find the strength to face her yet. I think the second I’d hear her voice, I’d break down into tears and that’s the last thing I wanted to do. She then would undoubtedly hit me with questions about Mal and I’d have to respond with nothing but bad news because I was a failure.
No thanks.
Saving the disappointment and embarrassment for a later time, I placed my phone screen down onto the table and went back to working on a video I had been editing to upload to the team's Facebook page. After watching many YouTube tutorials, I was finally finishing up when something out of the corner of my eye had caught my attention.
Tall, broad, with an extremely large shadow, I wasn’t expecting company and I sure wasn't expecting a certain grumpy hockey player to take the seat across from me. To be sure it was actually him, I blinked a few times in hopes that my mind was playing a trick on me before peering over the top of my computer screen.
Sadly, my eyes were working perfectly fine because the first thing I noticed was the absence of a shirt, with the exception of what looked to be some sort of wrap around his shoulder.
Like maybe he had injured it, but unfortunately, I was too distracted by the dips and curves on his chest to think any further than what had happened. In all his bronzed and muscled glory, he hunched himself over his salad and began to eat.
Half naked.
And to make matters worse, he had yet to acknowledge my presence. No hi. No eye contact. Not anything.
My mouth opened to ask what he was doing, but the words had died on my tongue the second he reached for his ball cap and flipped it around on his head.
I had no intention of staring at him this long, but that’s exactly what I was doing. Mal wasn’t an easy man, but he sure as hell was easy on the eyes.
“You’re staring,” he grunted in between bites without looking at me.
Crap.
My gaze fell from his torso and I went back to looking at my now black screen.
“I’m not staring,” I grumbled.
Not anymore I wasn’t, now I was just flustered.
“Could’ve fooled me.”
My jaw tightened.
“I’m only staring because I didn’t expect to see you sit at the same table as me, let alone without a shirt on.”
My computer created a barrier between the two of us, but the second his eyes connected with mine, it may as well not even be there.
“I thought I told you that wherever you go, I go.”
Oh, I remember him telling me that. I remember him saying a lot of things the other night, but I never expected him to mean them.
“I thought that was just all talk,” I admitted. “A way for you get me to leave.”
He watched me intently, his eyes never leaving mine before he brought his fork back up to his mouth.
“You should know by now that whenever I say something, I mean it.”
I scoffed.
“It’s been ten years, Mal, I don’t think I know you anymore,” I responded. “I don’t think I ever really knew you.”
His eating paused. It was hard to decipher what he was thinking, but his chest expanded on a heavy breath.
