Page 21 of What are the Risks
“Do you know this girl?” the security guard snapped.
“Ugh.” I shifted uncomfortably. “She’s my Uber driver.”
He huffed. “This isn’t the zone for Uber drivers. Particularly ones that sit in a pick-up area for more than twenty minutes.”
Yikes.
Shooting Tori a look of concern, she quickly unlocked the car. Though rather than get any closer to the angry security guard, I jumped in the back seat instead. It wasn’t until he was completely out of view and Tori was merging onto the freeway that I climbed over the centre console and slipped into the passenger seat.
As always, her car was a chaotic mess. I had to shove a heap of clothes off the seat to clip in my belt, and there was a stack of empty Starbucks cups at my feet. I may not live Noah-level clean, but even this was too much for me.
“How does Brady put up with this?” I teased.
“Easy,” Tori returned. “I give the best blow jobs.”
Brady had met Tori the first week of freshman year and they’d been dating ever since. It was nice having her around whenever I came to visit Ryker. She was like my Phil-U bestie.
Her white-blonde hair was freshly cut an inch shorter than her jaw, and she was dressed in a pair of baggy jeans and a cropped singlet, like a 90s icon. She didn’t fit the stereotypical football player’s girlfriend vibe, but her and Brady were so obsessed with each other you couldn’t deny that they were soulmates.
“Ryker’s going to be so excited,” she yelped, wriggling giddily in her seat.
This was a fly-in-fly-out trip. I had fifty hours off between shifts, and forty of those were being spent here.
I hadn’t planned on coming until yesterday morning, when Ryker called to say his parents had bailed because Savannah and the twins were sick. I knew he’d hate the idea of having no family here.
I’d booked my flight so last minute that I hadn’t even had a chance to tell Ryker I was coming. When I’d mentioned that to Tori, she’d decided it would be fun to surprise him. So here we were.
“He probably won’t even be excited,” I said.
“Are you kidding? He was whining last night that he wouldn’t see you until Christmas.”
Christmas was just over a week away. I had to wait until New Year’s Eve to see Noah. His family were travelling interstate to spend Christmas with their extended relatives.
I’d asked him to spend the holiday with mine and Ryker’s families, and he’d asked me to fly with him and his parents to Minnesota. Given it was obvious that neither of us were going to budge, we’d let it go with the promise we’d spend New Year’s Eve together.
I already had my flight booked for Miami. I’d used my miles so it hadn’t cost a thing.
Fourteen days until I’d see him. And according to Tori’s nav system, fourteen minutes until we’d arrive at the Phil-U Athletes’ Centre.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Fuck conditioning training
Ryker
Fuck conditioning training. Seriously. We had a game tomorrow. If Coach was purposely trying to exhaust our bodies, he was going the right way about it.
I pulled my tee over my head, using it to wipe the sweat off the back of my neck, but it was so drenched it was like drying myself off with a soaking towel.
I was on my last exercise in a cardio-fucked circuit. I think this was lap six. Or was it seven? I’d lost track after round four. Worryingly, Coach hadn’t confirmed how many laps were left.
As the timer signified go-time, I wrapped my hands around the handles of the air bike and got to work. Last round I’d managed nineteen calories during the interval. I doubt I’d be able to beat it, but I had to at least match it.
The gym reeked – myself included. The entire active roster was here, so there were close to one hundred combinations of sweat and odour mixing. If fatigue didn’t get me, death by BO would.
With heavy limbs, I raised my gaze to the clock. Fifteen seconds left, and six calories to go. Summoning energy from God knows where, I digged deeper.
Five calories.
