Page 2 of Endurance
“I’m aware of my clothing status, thank you. I was hoping this box had a phone in it.” My teeth begin to chatter from the cold.
“These don’t have phones in them anymore. Everybody knows that,” he harrumphs.
I purse my lips. “Right, well, as you can see, I’m a bit desperate. Just…forget you saw me.” I turn to leave, giving him a proper shot of my arse as I go.Time to knock on some doors.
“If you need to make a call, why don’t you just ask?”
I pause mid-step and quickly turn on my heel to look back at the man. He’s waving a small flip phone in the air at me.
“You have a mobile?” I ask.
He shoots me a lopsided grin. “I may be homeless, but you should never be without a mobile, boy.” When he holds it out to me, I note his dirty fingernails and calloused hands. Mine look practically feminine in comparison. Regardless, I grab the mobile and he mumbles, “Here, I’ll give you some privacy.”
“No, you don’t have to get up,” I argue, feeling like the biggest prat for uprooting this guy from his…home.
“Do I need to remind you that you’re without trousers?” His voice is firm, but I swear I see mirth in his eyes.
I wince and nod, feeling completely emasculated by this homeless man as we switch places. As I close the door behind myself, I note that it smells like our stadium changing room after a horrid and muddy game.
I exhale.All right, Tanner. Now, who do you call?
I have a big family. Three brothers, one sister, and a dad who pretty much runs my career. But as the token family screw up, even this is a new sort of low for me. Normally, Camden is my go-to since he’s my twin and we live together. Doing things for each other sort of comes with the territory, but he’s travelling with his team this week. Since Booker still lives at home with our dad in Chigwell, I know it’d take him at least thirty minutes to get here. And big bro Gareth plays for Man U, so he’s at his Manchester flat.
Christ, if I call my sister, Vi, about this, she’ll have my balls on a skewer. She’s eight months pregnant as it is, so I really can’t get her riled up over something like this. Not only would she be raging pissed, but she would be disappointed, and that’d be worse than the humiliation of being cold and naked in public.
I don’t know any of my teammates’ numbers by heart, so that leaves only one more option. I punch in the last number I can recall.
“Hello?” a female voice answers.
“Who’s this?” I ask when it’s not the voice I was expecting.
“You called me. Who’s this?” the female voice bites back.
A knowing doom creeps over me.
“This is Tanner. Is that you, Ryan?” Definitely not the doctor I was looking for.
“Tanner? Oh, how lovely.” Her voice is flat and monotone. “Yes, you guessed right. Well done. Gold star!” Her forced patronising tone is unmistakable and has become quite natural in all of our exchanges.
“Why are you answering Indie’s mobile?” I ask, doing nothing to hide the annoyance in my voice.
Indie is whom I was hoping to get a hold of. Indie is kind and good and decent. She also happens to be head over heels in love with Camden, so I know she’d have mercy on me. Her best friend and flatmate, Belle Ryan, on the other hand, will be less inclined to sympathise.
“Indie’s in the bath. She told me to watch her mobile and only bring it in if Camden calls,” she snaps. “You might share DNA with the man, but you’renothinglike him.”
A leer breaks across my face. “I don’t even want to know what you mean by that because, knowing you, it’s sure to be an insult.”
“Another gold star, Harris.”
“All right, can you just go get her,” I huff. “It’s an emergency.”
“What’s happened? Did you twist an ankle climbing out some girl’s window again? Oh! Did her husband catch you this time and beat you to a bloody pulp like you deserve? Or did you call her by the wrong name while you were balls deep and she threw you through a closed window? Indie’s your doctor for football, Tanner, not an STD clinic for whatever sideshow escapades you get into in your personal life.”
I bite back a growl and reply, “I’m stuck and I need a ride before someone sees me and calls the paparazzi. It’s…an urgent matter.” I glance down at my birthday suit and can’t help but feel that I’ve reached a new low with this one.
She huffs. “Give me the address. I’ll tell her.”
I give her the directions before we hang up without so much as a goodbye. I’m actually surprised she offered to give Indie the message. My relationship with Belle Ryan is difficult at best. In the early days of Cam and Indie getting together, Belle and I did some heavy flirting that I was certain would turn into heavy petting and eventually heavy shagging. The sexual chemistry between us was intense.
