Page 76 of Meet Your Match
Each and every time, I thought of Vince, which only pissed me off.
After that picture he posted of us, the Internet had been buzzing with rumors. Camilla and Reya loved it, but they didn’t read the comments that streamed in under every post, or the messages that plugged my inbox.
You’re too ugly for Vince.
What does he even see in you?
You only got this job because he wants to have sex with you.
How big is his cock, Maven?
When he’s done with you, send him to me.
Whore.
Slut.
Puck bunny.
No one wants to see you. This is about hockey, not some romance fantasy.
I tried to ignore them, and when Vince was asked about us in interviews — which wasn’t often, but enough to make me grind my teeth each time — he would always laugh and politely defer. He spoke highly of me, saying I was a professional and I was good at my job, that the team loved having me around, but that there was nothing romantic between us or me and anyone else on the roster.
The first time he said it, that there was nothing between us, I’d felt queasy.
Even thoughit was what I wanted him to say.
… Right?
I was a damn mess.
Livia told me as much the night before I traveled with the team to Atlanta, me sprawled on her couch while she steamed one of her dresses.
“You’re a damn mess.”
I sighed.
“You like him. And he clearly likes you. Stop being a dumdum.”
“He’s fun, sure,” I conceded. “We have a good time together. But I don’tlikehim. And he doesn’t like me. He just wants to get me naked.”
She leveled me with a look, hanging one hand on her hip. “Bitch.”
I held up my hand to stop her. “I can’t like him, Livia.”
That made her pause, her brows folding together.
“Ican’t,” I said again, throat thick. “I get hives just thinking about it.”
My best friend watched me for a long moment before she put her steamer down and sat beside me on her couch. “Can you walk me through why you feel this way?”
My eyes welled, and I laughed at myself, thumbing a tear away before it had the chance to fall. “I can try.”
Livia was quiet, patient, waiting for me to try to find the words to explain it. I kept coming up empty. How did you explain how someone left such a permanent mark on you?
I loved James. For nearly two years, he was my everything. I saw a future with him. We were building that future together. I believed him when he told me I was enough, that we were going to go the distance. I believed him when he said we were going to get married, that I’d bear his last name and, one day, his children. I’d built up a whole future in my head, one that felt so solid and sure.
And then he discarded me like an old golf club.
