Page 62 of Playbook
He’s ditched his suit jacket and his tie is loosened. “Heading out. Thought I’d swing by on my way and make sure you were alive.”
“Barely.”
“Another late night being the girlfriend of a star athlete?” His sly grin widens as he leans against my desk.
I glance around to see if anyone is eavesdropping. The last thing I want is for my coworkers to find out about Brogan.
“Did you see this?” He holds his phone out for me to see the screen.
It’s a picture of me and Brogan at the Mavericks event last weekend right after Archer helped me dunk him. I’m not named, which is good. Brogan has an arm around me, pulling me against his wet chest, and he’s aiming a big smile at the camera. We look like a couple in our matching jerseys. My insides warm as I think about that entire day. I had fun with him.
“I’ve seen it.” I take another sip of my coffee.
“You look good.” He slides his phone into his pants pocket. “Happy.”
“I’m supposed to. That’s kind of the whole point.”
He leans in with a smile and whispers, “You’re not that good of an actress.”
I haven’t heard from Brogan since he dropped me off after the event on Saturday. He asked me to hang out again that night, but I couldn’t get Archer’s words out of my head. Are we going to somehow cause more damage by pretending to date? I can’t imagine that, but I figured the less amount of time we are together when we don’t need to be, the less likely it is possible.
They had an away game this weekend. They won and Brogan had another great game according to every article I’ve read. I almost sent him a text to congratulate him, but that felt strangely intimate, like I was overstepping some unspoken line of our agreement.
“So, where’d he take you last night? The new Italian restaurant opening? Trivia night at Rockwells? Dancing at Gaga?”
“I was here,” I say before he can continue guessing. It doesn’t escape my notice that he knows every possible date location in the city on any given night. “Wayne needed me to redo some graphics.”
“All night?”
“Until ten or so. They were going out this morning.”
“And let me guess, someone else did the first draft, management didn’t like them, and he dropped them in your lap at the last minute?” Alec’s mouth pulls into a straight line and his brows lift.
That is basically what happened, but for some reason I don’t want to admit it. I feel a sense of loyalty to Wayne despite everything. He hired me and gave me this opportunity.
“What did you do?” I ask him.
“Nothing much. Ordered takeout, went to bed early. When are you seeing him again?”
I toss a pencil from my desk at him. “Why are you so interested in this?”
“Are you kidding? You’re dating—” He lowers his voice after I widen my eyes in warning at him. “Brogan Six.”
“You know it’s not like that.”
“Uh-huh.” He stands, cocky grin still plastered to his face.
It’s not. But I’m starting to wish it were.
I go to Sierra’s apartment after work to help her make a final decision on wedding invitations.
“You must really like this guy.” Sierra’s smile widens as she catches me scrolling the Mavericks website. She decided on a simple but elegant white invitation with black engraved type an hour ago, but has kept on looking just in case she finds another she likes better.
I’d given up on invites and had been searching for details on the team event schedule to know when Brogan might need me to be his fake date again, but got distracted when I saw a picture of him from today’s practice. Ever since Alec’s interrogation earlier, I can’t stop thinking about him.
“I told you, it’s new.” I really hate keeping things from Sierra, but I’m afraidshe might lose her shit if I tell her I made an agreement with Brogan so I didn’t have to suffer seeing Chris alone at all the wedding festivities.
“God, I still can’t believe you’re dating a Maverick.” Her grin widens and she looks at me with such awe.
