Page 34 of Try Hard
Ophelia looked like that was deeply unexpected news, though I couldn’t figure out why. Weren’t women routinely falling at her feet, desperate for her number? Sure, she madejokes about that happening to me, and she wasn’t totally wrong—that was part of the deal with being in the public eye—but the idea that they weren’t doing the same to her was preposterous.
Her gaze slipped over my shoulder and her expression hardened, highlighting again just how much she’d relaxed around me. Even elusive, she let me in more than she did with other people. I’d be riding that high for weeks.
“Watch out,” she warned, picking up her pale blue napkin and lying it in her lap. “Your girlfriend’s on the way over.”
I turned to follow where she’d been looking and, sure enough, Sammy was making her way over with Tanika.
“Ophelia,” I said fiercely. Saying her name, to her face, felt like a firework exploding in my chest.
She looked at me, that carefully curated façade cracking. Something real, vulnerable, a little thunderstruck took over her face, and I was acutely aware of how close I was sitting to her, of the distance between our lips.
She swallowed visibly. “Yes?” Her voice was barely more than a whisper.
“She’s not my girlfriend and I don’t want her to be.”
She nodded slowly as Sammy and Tanika got closer and closer to our table. “Noted, Archer.”
I followed her lead, looking up to welcome the other two to our table, but my whole body was fizzing with a desperate, nervous energy. I needed to throw a ball just in an attempt to chuck the feelings away with it.
How was it possible she wasn’t feeling the same way?
Chapter Eleven
Fia
Eve laughed at something Sammy said and scrubbed a hand through her brown hair. It had so much volume and thickness, highlighted by the way she had it brushed to the side. And, while my eyes traced her movements, a significant amount of my brain was being consumed by the fact that her other arm was stretched along the back of my chair.
It seemed to be preoccupying Sammy’s brain too, if the way she kept glancing over was anything to go by. I almost felt bad.
“Ooh, looks like the food is here,” Tanika said, her voice sing-songy and excited.
“You must make the officesucha fun place to be,” Eve told her, a huge grin on her face.
“You know it. I’m in charge of staff birthdays, so those are the best days.”
She worked in some kind of admin job that she didn’t give many details about, mostly because the job itself was a little boring, apparently, but I was kind of with Eve. Even if yourjob was soul-sucking, I could only imagine having Tanika in the office brightened things up.
The staff arrived while she was talking, placing our dishes in front of us with big, bright smiles. Tanika shot me a pointed look after warmly thanking the one who placed her plate down, someone she’d deemed my type.
I returned the same deadpan look I’d given her at the bar. I had no interest in picking anyone up. But I knew what she was like. Determined.
Eve kept her left arm along my chair as she picked up her fork. She’d ordered American pancakes—the ones with passion fruit—and I couldn’t help thinking she was going to need both hands to cut through them, but she clearly didn’t have the same concern.
Sammy bit into her food and made the universal sound that came after eating something too hot, fanning a hand in front of her face. “Shit. That’s almost as hot as some of the celebrities that have been gracing us with their presence,” she said once she’d swallowed the mouthful and chased it with a gulp of the cocktail she was drinking.
I fought the urge to shoot Eve a look. That was not subtleat all.I was pretty sure Eve was the only celebrity at this thing, and, even if she hadn’t been, that still would not have been a particularly subtle comment.
Tanika laughed, turning her focus on Eve. “You must get a lot of attention wherever you go, right? Like, I’m straight, but you’re clearly hot, and you’re a famous athlete and everything.”
I cut into my avocado toast, refusing to get involved in the conversation. I’d basically told Eve the same thing and she’d tried to fight me on it. I wondered if she’d do the same with Tanika—a woman notoriously stubborn and optimistic. It was a difficult combination to beat.
Eve hummed. “A little. It’s not like I’m a men’s football player, but, you know, after the Olympics, and how well the team was doing, social media stuff, and… some of the photoshoots I did… Well, there’s a sizeable following and people do tend to be enthusiastic when I meet them.”
Tanika scoffed. “Please, everyone knows that the lesbians have been obsessed with you forever.”
“Am I supposed to be sad about that?” she replied, laughing, and I finally looked at her, her deep blue eyes already on me.
“No, but you don’t have to feign modesty,” Tanika said.
