Page 56 of Puck Drop
“It’s going to sound crazy,” I start. “And I’m sure that people don’t do this kind of stuff at such speed, but…”
“But what?” she asks when I stop talking.
“What if…” I take another deep breath in, praying that I am not about to ruin both if our lives. “What if you moved in with me?”
Her eyes widen in surprise. It is the last thing she thought she’d hear from me, I’m sure.
“Lo,” she whimpers. “This is an incredibly generous offer, but I can’t accept.”
Now it is my turn to look surprised. “Why not?” I demand to know. “It’s the perfect solution. I have the space, and you need the space. It’s a no brainer.”
She crosses her arms over her chest in defiance. “I don’t need your pity, Logan Mantei,” she snaps at me. “I’d rather beg my father to let me back in than feel like charity work to you.”
“Charity work?” I bust out laughing. “You’re ridiculous, Lizzie,” I tease but then get serious. “I want to help you because I love you. I don’t take our relationship lightly.”
That’s apparently the wrong thing to say. She starts crying again, but this time, it sounds different, more desperate somehow. I get up from the floor and sit next to her on the couch. As soon as my ass hits the cushions, she jumps in my lap.
She wraps her arms around my neck and continues to cry, to the point where there’s a wet snotty mess on the bare skin of my shoulder. It feels a little gross, but I don’t have the heart to push her off me. Instead, I hold her until she is ready to calm down. I run my hands up and down her back, every so often dropping a kiss to the top of her head.
“Please let me do this for you, Lizzie,” I whisper into her ear. “I really think it’s going to work out. I will help you get a job, too…”
“I’m not qualified to do anything,” she sobs. “The only reason I even had a chance to interview for this job is because of some connections I had made through my father.”
I really feel for her. If I didn’t have hockey, I don’t know what else I could do. I’m literally not good at anything else.
We are a couple of misfits.
EIGHTEEN
Elizabeth
“You’re moving in with him?”Mona shrieks into my ear. I put the phone away for a moment and rub at my ear.
“I didn’t say that I am moving in with him,” I clarify. “Just that he asked me to move in with him.”
Mona huffs in fake annoyance. “Same thing, if you ask me.”
“I’m not asking you,” I snicker.
My head feels congested from all the crying I’ve been doing after Logan left. He told me that he’d be back, that he was only going to grab some clothes. As soon as he walked out the door, I burst into tears, and I didn’t stop until my cell phone started ringing with my best friend’s call.
“Seriously, what are you going to do?” she now asks.
I sigh and drop my head back against the couch, staring at the ceiling but not actually seeing it.
“I’m not sure,” I admit to her. “But I’ve never been this scared.”
Mona sighs, too. “I get it, honey. But it will be okay, trust me on this, okay?”
I roll my eyes at that, grateful that she can’t see me.
“You’re a smart girl,” she continues. “You’ll find something else. Something better,” she adds with fake excitement.
I have to laugh at that. “I don’t see how that can be true, Mona. I suck at adulting in ways most young adults do not.”
“That’s not true,” she tries to protest. “You’re smart…”
“Mona,” I cut her off. “I am almost twenty-five years old. I have been a perpetual student up until now. I just got fired from my first job.”
