Page 22 of Blindsided
“With extra milk,” I finish and waggle my brows at her playfully.
She gets an uneasy look on her face for a few seconds but then quickly brushes it off. “Okay, be gracious and thankful for flattery. Got it. What’s next?”
“A lesson in cheese,” I reply and gesture towards the loads of plates passing us by. “Let’s grab a few plates, do some sampling, and ask our server some questions. Consider this a cramming session for your big test tomorrow.”
Freya eyes light with excitement as we set about picking out various cheese samplings. I have no damn clue what most of the stuff is, but I’m keen to try anything. Even the smelly cheese that has weeds rubbed all over it. Freya snort laughs when I spit it out because it tastes fishy.
After the cheesemonger—an expert in selling cheese—gives us a lesson on everything we’ve tasted, I realise that I’m two pints in and actually having a nice time on this mock date.
We order one more round and have eaten our fill in cheese when Freya says, “Mac, can I ask why you consider yourself an expert in dating?”
I frown at her question. “What do you mean?”
“Well, I’ve given you all this power over my dating life, but we rarely ever speak about our dating experiences. How do I know you’re not an even bigger disaster than me?”
I level Freya with a flat look. “What do you want to know?”
She shrugs her shoulders. “What was your last relationship like?”
A pang of unease hits me because what Freya is asking isn’t exactly a short story. There’s really no reason to hide it from my best mate, though, so I tell her what I can.
“I don’t really do relationships, but I had this sort of casual situation with a woman I met when I first started playing football for Bethnal Green. It went on for a couple of years.”
“A couple of years?” Freya barks out in shock, her eyes wide and disbelieving. “Who was she? Where did you meet her? When did it end? How have you never mentioned to me before that you had a two-year relationship with a woman?”
I roll my eyes at her last comment. “Her name is Cami, and she was the photographer they hired to shoot me and Roan when we signed on with the club. I didn’t mention her because it ended around the time I met you, so I didn’t really see the point.”
Freya processes this information and then asks, “Why did it end?”
I shrug dismissively. “She met someone.”
“Met someone?” She gapes at me. “So you two were together for two years, and you weren’t exclusive?”
I cringe and rub my palms down my thighs. “Not exactly. We went out occasionally, but it was mostly physical.”
“Oh, like a friends-with-benefits situation?” Freya pries.
“I guess you could call it that.” I shift uncomfortably in my seat because this isn’t a subject I like to discuss. “I wasn’t surprised when she ended it, though, because she was always going on about wanting to settle down with someone serious. The guy she met is a lawyer, so I guess that’s what she was looking for at the time.”
“So, she was with you for two years and didn’t think you were long-term material?” Freya asks. Her brows pinch together in the middle, and I think I see an edge of protectiveness in her posture.
I shrug. “You know what my life is like. I travel a lot, which doesn’t exactly make me good boyfriend material. None of it really mattered anyway because I didn’t want anything serious either. My focus is one hundred percent on football.”
Freya ponders my response for a while, and then asks, “So were you in love with her?”
“Christ, no,” I bark out defensively. “Cami was just sex.”
Freya wilts and gets a sad sort of expression on her face. “You slept with her for two years, and you never fell in love?”
I eye her seriously. “Love isn’t a requirement for sex, you know.”
Freya swallows, and her face blanches. “Sure.”
I watch her carefully. “You do know that, right?”
“Of course I do!” she snaps and then takes a drink of wine from her kitten mug.
“Cookie,” I state and wait until she looks at me. “Are the only guys you’ve slept with ones you were in love with?”
