Page 54 of The Fantasy League
In my defense, he started following me the week that he kicked me out of his house, so I wasn’t inclined to follow him back at the time. And while I might have perused his Socialgram account on more than one occasion, I guess I never got around to following him back.
Oops.
* * *
I was eatingdinner at the pool house by myself when a text from Abel came through as expected. We’d spent the last twenty-four hours texting nonstop, aside from the handful of hours that were spent sleeping or showering.
Abel:Why weren’t we like this sooner?
Me:Honest answer?
Abel:Always.
Me:Well until recently I kind of assumed that you hated me…
A big part of me was embarrassed to admit the truth to him, yet the other part was relieved to finally get that nagging feeling off of my chest after all this time.
Seconds after I hit send, my ringtone blasted loudly as a video call from none other than Abel Abbott himself popped up on the screen.
I bit my lip, debating whether or not to answer with a thumb hovering between the green and red buttons.
I could do this.
I could tell my boss all the reasons I used to think he was an asshole, right?
This was the moment I’d been waiting for, wasn’t it? So, why did my stomach churn at the thought of admitting the words out loud?
Ugh.
This conversation was bound to happen at one point or another, but at least it would be easier to do through a screen three thousand miles away from each other, right?
Deciding to bite the bullet, I huffed out a ragged breath and pressed the green button to accept the call.
“Are we really going to have this conversation right now?” I droned, rolling my eyes as his face came into view on my screen.
I thought it’d be best to skip the formalities and jump straight to the good stuff. Although, my chest felt like it was going to burst as Abel stared back at me with narrowed eyes. Not. Saying. A. Word.
“Yes, we’re going to have this conversation right now,” he finally replied, albeit sternly.
What didhehave to be upset about? If anyone was going to be upset in this scenario, it was me!
“I wouldn’t know what to fucking do with myself if I knew you went to sleep thinking that I hated you. Frankly, the fact that you’ve gone to sleep foreleven fucking monthswith the idea that I hate you pisses me off.” His voice was icy as he spit his words out. My stomach filled with tiny butterflies at his confession.
“Well… this isn’t exactly how I envisioned this conversation going,” I muttered to myself.
“Tell me why you thought I hated you so I can prove you wrong.”
It seemed like poor timing to bring up the past, especially given the progress we’d made in our “friendship.”
Jesus Christ, I hated that word.
The truth was, I knew that Abel and I weren’t really together and that he didn’t owe me an explanation about the girls that came before me.
But that didn’t mean I didn’t have to keep reminding myself… often.
And it wasn’t like he could take back the months of being a dick to me. As much as people liked to believe an apology could cure all things, it couldn’t, especially in this case.
On the other hand, Abel continued to prove that whatever preconceived notions I’d created about him in my head were entirely wrong. I’d grown to like the true version of himself that he only allowed a select few to see. I liked being one of those select few.
