Page 81 of The Fantasy League
I wasn’t opposed to him suffering once he found out either. Even the tiniest modicum of suffering on his end would be worth it.
I wanted Abel to think that I was just as unattached as he was from our little charade.
Oh, Scarlett? Didn’t you hear? Yeah, she moved on a week after the breakup.
What Abel didn’t need to find out was that I’d spent the last two days bouncing between sulking and binge baking. I’d made so many baked goods that I had to drive down to the local food bank this morning to donate them so they didn’t go to waste.
According to him, half-truths weren’t a crime, so it’s not like he’d care anyway.
I looked over at Mae, who sat on the couch sporting a deathly scowl while typing out a text on her phone. Should I have gotten a living will made before bringing the date up to her? Probably.
“Mae, come on. October will be here in two hours. Will you pretty pretty please help me get ready?” I asked with a pouty lip, giving her my best puppy-dog eyes with batted eyelashes. “I could really use my best friend right now.”
“Fine. I’ll stand in your general vicinity, but I won’t be helping,” she grumbled, peering up from her phone. “I want you to look awful so he doesn’t end up seeing you as more than a friend.”
“Mae!”
“What? I’m not trying to subject myself to my own personal hell if you end up liking each other for real,” she scoffed, clearly annoyed.
“It’s one date.” I walked into my bedroom and looked back to see Mae following behind begrudgingly. “I swear on all things holy that I won’t let him fall in love with me before the check comes.”
“You know, it’s probably wrong to swear on all things holy.”
“Probably, but oh well.” I shrugged. “Pick out my outfit?”
“Where’s he taking you anyway?” Mae asked while opening the doors to my tiny closet.
“No idea, he didn’t say.”
* * *
Twenty minutesafter he said he’d pick me up, the sound of Mae’s doorbell echoed off the walls of the house and nerves instantly pooled in the pit of my stomach.
I was doing this.
I was going to go on a date with October. I’d get Abel out of my system and all would be right with the world.
“Mae, can you grab that?” I shouted down the hallway as I slipped on a short green dress that made my legs look significantly longer than they actually were.
I cracked the bathroom door just enough to get a front-row view of Mae and October seeing each other for the first time in years.
A smile pulled at my lips as I watched him rake his eyes up and down her body.
I’d always secretly hoped that the two of them would get together one day. I was confident that if they stopped hating each other for a few minutes,maybethey’d realize they were actually perfect for each other.
These days I was doubtful that would happen though. Too much time and animosity had passed between them for them to recover from all of the shit they’d put each other through over the years.
“March,” October snarled at Mae as he waltzed through the doorway and into the entry.
“Toby,” she fired back at him with her arms crossed tightly against her chest.
“Please don’t kill each other! I’ll be out in a second, I promise,” I shouted down the hall to them. Leaning against the bathroom sink, I put on the final touches of maroon lipstick.
There wasn’t a chance in hell that I’d see Abel in person tonight, but I wouldn’t put it past the paparazzi to be scoping out October’s whereabouts.
He signed on to the Matrix last year for only one season, and the team hadn’t given him an extension offer yet. So, any of the other thirty-one teams in the league could extend him an offer, and after winning the League Bowl last year, he was a hot commodity. With the Matrix training camp starting next month, he was becoming more and more of a hot topic in the press with each passing day.
So, I needed to look my best tonightjust in casethe tabloids had caught wind of our date and snapped some pictures of us together. I couldn’t look ugly in them if I was going to print out hundreds of copies and tape them on Abel’s SUV while he was sleeping, could I?
