Page 59 of Hail Marry
Luca and Zach have a lot to discuss, so I work on cleaning up, rejecting Luca’s offer to help.
It’s not until almost ten that Zach finally leaves and I have a chance to talk to Luca.
Luca joins me in the kitchen, where I’m at the sink, washing dishes. He hip-checks me to make room for himself, and we get into a routine where he gets the dishes soapy, and I rinse them.
I force my voice to keep calm when I finally get the courage to talk. “Hey, sorry about that…thing in my bedroom.”
His hand slows on the plate he’s scrubbing, but only for a second before it’s back to scrubbing at full speed. “There’s no need to apologize.”
I steal a sideways glance at him. What does that mean? Does it mean he wants me to know he doesn’t regret it? Or that it meant nothing? Ugh. Why is communicating so hard?
I hesitate, and he hands me a dish. I just need to be direct. “I just want to make sure we’re on the same page, you know?”
He glances over at me, his eyes searching my face for a moment before he looks at the dishes again. “Why don’t you tell me what page you’re on?”
I give a nervous laugh. “Okay. My page, if I had to describe it, would talk about how I was so excited for you that I got caught up in the moment. And…it would have a paragraph about how I’m not looking for anything more than friendship.” Heart beating fast, I steal another glance at him, but the man’s face is like a vault. “Your turn.”
His brow knits, and he takes a second before responding. “My page would be similar. I don’t do relationships. I hardly do friendship, to be honest. It’s just…not my thing. My focus is on football, and I want to keep it that way.”
I give a decisive nod, ignoring the twisting feeling in my heart. I’ve got to keep this light, though. Not just this situation. This whole marriage thing. It’s a means to an end for both of us. A part of that, for me, is repaying Luca for saving my life. The last thing I want to do is end up making him feel some sort of emotional obligation toward me because I’ve gotten attached.
“So,” I say, “we agree that we’re definitely nothingmorethan friends. But you don’t do friendship. So…what does that make us? I feel like the stranger train has kind of left the station.”
He laughs softly and hands me the last dish, then turns to look at me. “We’re friends, Tori. I just want you to know that I’m not very good at it. Friendship, I mean.”
I finish rinsing the dish, set it on the drying rack, then turn off the faucet and face him. “I think you’re wrong about that.” Not once since I met him has Luca let me down.
“Agree to disagree.” He puts out his hand to shake. “Friend.”
I smile and take his hand. “Agree to disagree, friend.”
The biometrics appointmentgoes off without a hitch, but Luca has to leave right after. His schedule, which was busy before the draft, is now a nightmare. Between his last exercise science classes, studying, team workouts, calls with Zach and his new coaches, the man must barely sleep.
Meanwhile, I’m fielding my own messages from people congratulating him and us. My family is over the moon he got picked by a team just a couple of hours away.
So is Jess. “When will you move?”
“Huh?” I ask, entering numbers quickly on the ten-key, my eyes on the screen to watch for accuracy.
“To San Diego,” she says with a hint of impatience.
I stop typing and look at her while my brain registers her question and the expectation behind it. Sometimes, I forget that no one else knows the plan. “Oh. Yeah, I’m not sure. Probably not for a while.”
“What? Why?”
“Um, because I have a job,” I say with an incredulous laugh.
“A job you should quit,” she replies. “You’re married to a man who just signed a contract to become a millionaire. Your working days are over, babe.”
“I like my job,” I say, but even I don’t believe me.
She snorts. “Right. Even if that were true, you could find almost this exact job anywhere on the coast.”
She’s not wrong. Administrative assisting is a generic position that I could easily be doing in pretty much any sector in any part of the U.S.
“But you wouldn’t be there,” I say with a big, cheesy grin and fluttering lashes.
She just looks at me, waiting for a real explanation.
