Page 33 of The Fake
I jump to my feet and then proceed to wobble because damn my legs hurt. He takes in me and then Chloe while I find my words. “We were just finishing up.”
Chloe moves behind me. “Sorry. You’ve got the good equipment in here.”
Coach smiles at her. “That we do.” He looks to me and that smile falls a little. He nods with his head to the door. “Get out of here before I’ve got the whole team bringing their girlfriends in here.”
We shuffle past him into the hallway, and Chloe busts up laughing. “Sorry,” she says between giggles. “I hope I didn’t get you in trouble.”
“Nah, I’m already on his shit list.”
She looks to me for an explanation, and I shake my head. “It’s a long story.”
“I’m at the gym on a Friday night… I’ve clearly got time.”
We make our way out to the parking lot and pause where our paths split and we’ll be forced to go in opposite directions.
“I did something dumb, got caught.” I shrug.
“Something dumb?”
The truth is on the tip of my tongue, but I like the way Chloe looks at me now and if she knows the truth… well, it’s a risk I’m not willing to take. Good things haven’t come my way too often lately, and I’m not ready to gamble giving her up.
“I showed up to practice pretty hungover… in fact, I might have still been drunk.”
“So that’s why you’ve stopped drinking so much?” she says as if it’s all clicked in place. “And then you met me.” She bats her eyelashes.
I nod, unable to force another lie. “And then I met you.”
* * *
Chloe
Sunday night, Nathan and I are sprawled out on the floor in the common area of my dorm, working on our communications class project. Bri is at a study group, Emily’s in her room with the door closed, and Sydney’s in our room but has the door open just enough we can hear the music she’s playing.
“A pen?” Nathan asks, his pencil tucked behind his ear. He flips through my notes, long legs propped up on the coffee table.
“Not just a pen. A retractable roller pen with extra ink cartridges. It retails for over seventy dollars.”
His eyebrows lift up toward his hairline. “A seventy-dollar pen? That’s crazy.”
“Which is the point of the project,” I remind him. “We need to figure out how to market it to our classmates. What would make you spend that much on a pen?”
“Winning the lotto.”
I tilt my head. “We have to come up with something.”
“Yeah, I know. I’m gonna have to think on it. We can pull together the current marketing details and customer profile and come back to it.”
“Yeah, alright.”
“Or we could blow this off and grab dinner at my place? Joel’s mom brought over enchiladas.”
“Joel’s mom really feeds you guys?”
“Hell yes.” He grins. “I’m not even embarrassed about it because it’s so good. So much better than that cafeteria shit.”
I stare down at my notes. He’s right, we need time to process, but I want Nathan to be here when Bri comes home. “How about we order takeout, finish up the outline, and then watch a movie or something here?”
He nods slowly. “Yeah, alright. We could do that.”
