Page 12 of Roman and the Hopeless Romantic
Jesse raised an eyebrow as he held the door open. “After you.”
“What?” Roman shook his head. “This a date?”
“You wish you could date someone like me.”
“You know it.”
“Jesse,” Callie called as she rushed toward the door. “Roman. It’s good to see you boys.” She crossed her arms and eyed Jesse. “Once again, I get the feeling you’re here when you’re supposed to be somewhere else.”
“Again?” Roman looked sideways at his friend.
“Cass and I came here after her appointment last Friday.”
“Cassie came into the diner?” That surprised him. She wouldn’t go anywhere around other people.
Callie handed them menus they didn’t need and left them to their favorite booth in the corner. Roman’s leg shook as he pretended to look at the menu.
“Rome, you never read the menu. What’s wrong?”
Roman just needed to rip off the Band-Aid and let the words fall off his tongue. Before he could, Callie returned with two milkshakes. She set the chocolate shake in front of Jesse and the strawberry shake in front of Roman. Just like with his girly coffees, his teammates gave him grief for this as well.
Callie eyed them. “You boys looked like you could use these.” Was it sad they frequented her diner so much she knew their flavors? “Are we eating healthy or yummy today?”
“Yummy, definitely,” Jesse answered.
“Gotcha. I’ll be back.” She walked over to the kitchen window to put their usual order in.
Jesse leaned forward, elbows on the table. “Spill. Now.”
Roman took a fortifying sip of his shake before pushing it away. “I’m leaving.”
“Leaving?”
“Yeah, moving.”
“Moving?”
“Are you just going to repeat everything I’m saying?” Roman needed Jesse to react, to get as mad as he felt.
“Processing.” He took a sip of his shake. “So, you’re moving? Like after graduation?”
“No. Like a few days from now.”
That got his attention. Jesse straightened in his seat. “But you can’t. The team… our season isn’t over yet. You can’t leave, Rome. What about me? What am I going to do without you around?”
“Gee, I’m so sorry for you.”
Jesse’s face fell. “I just… this sucks, Rome. But I know it sucks more for you. Where are you moving?”
“Estonia. The parental units have some empire to expand there.”
“Estonia? Like somewhere in Texas?”
For the first time that afternoon, a smile spread across Roman’s lips. Jesse was ridiculous. “No, not Texas. Europe. As in once a USSR country and on the Russian border.”
“You’re not going.”
“Sorry, man. I kind of don’t have a choice in this.” Before he could say anything else, the bell over the door rang and Hadley walked in. Tall, blond, sarcastic… she was the kind of girl haunting the dreams of high school boys everywhere. And right now, she was Roman’s savior. He couldn’t stand to talk about this anymore with Jesse or to see how upset he was.
