Page 72 of Not Before Game Night
When I scowled and turned to see who it was, I understood why.
It was Denver.
I never saw him come up to the table.
He looked like shit. Like he’d been on a bender. It was a few days ago that I’d seen Jayne.
“Wow, look at this,” Denver said, stepping closer.
I straightened in my chair as the pungent smell of rum hit me. Denver looked like shit and smelled like he’d been rolling around in a brewery. His face was blotchy, and there was dirt all over his white T-shirt.
“Denver,” I began. I didn’t know what he wanted to say, but whatever it was, it didn’t feel like anything good. He looked at me differently to how he usually did when he saw me.
“It was you, wasn’t it?” he slurred and laughed off key.
“Me? What was me?” I didn’t think Jayne was the kind of person to rat on me and tell him I’d confirmed his cheating, but I actually didn’t care. I glanced at Vanessa quickly, who’d tensed next to me.
“Don’t act like a prick, Cole. Jayne broke up with me. She said she spoke to one of the guys and they told her they’d seen me with other women. When she said that, I knew it had to be you. You asshole!” he snapped. Now we had the attention of everyone at the nearby tables.
“Yes, it was me.” I stared him down. I wasn’t afraid of him or afraid to confirm my actions. “What are you going to do about it? I didn’t lie.”
“Fucking asshole, my girl left me because of you! All you had to do was keep quiet. You didn’t have to say anything to her. I loved her. I loved her!”
Now I fucking stood up because he was getting in my face.
“Is that how you treat someone you love?” I spat back. “Don’t be an ass and tell me yes, Denver. Do yourself a favor and get the fuck out of my face before I knock your teeth down your throat.”
The only reason why I hadn’t done it yet was because he was drunk, and in my warped brain I wanted to be cordial due to the fact that we played on the same team, and yeah, maybe I still considered him a friend.
He laughed at me and shoved me hard in my chest. That alone should have made me snap, but he was drunk. Hitting him would be like fighting a guy who was weaker than me.
“You hypocrite. Fucking hypocrite. You’re only with her because of a bet,” he barked, looking at Vanessa.
That fucking bet took me a few seconds to remember. It happened so long ago, and at the time so insignificant.
“Shut the fuck up.” I grabbed him around his neck, seeing what he was trying to do.
“What bet?” Came Vanessa’s delicate voice over my shoulder. I turned to see she was standing too.
She looked from me to him, and he laughed. “Cole and I made a brilliant bet for two hundred grand that he could sleep with you the night before the first game. It was to break the coach’s stupid superstitions. That is the kind of man you are with, sweet Vanessa Cartwright.”
It was the crestfallen look on her face that made me loosen my grip on him.
“What kind of a man does that?” Denver continued in a drunken slur, now moving closer to her. “I’ll tell you who.Him. Betting with the guys on all the ways he can fuck you. You think he just turned into some kind of saint? Overnight and foryou?” Denver laughed louder.
My throat closed up, and I couldn’t say anything. Usually, to defend yourself, it was against something that wasn’t true.
“Coleridge Buchanan is the biggest womanizer I know,” Denver declared. “At least I cheated in secret. With him, all anyone needs to do is Google him to see who he really is. It’s all there on the Internet for everyone to see what a man whore this guy is. At least I was serious about my girl. He’ll never be serious about you, never love you, and you know why? You’ll never be enough. Just like his father. Exactly the same. A man who disrespected his wife in every way. Didn’t you hear how he died? Screwing some eighteen year old on his wife’s birthday. Like father, like fucking son.The same. Really now Vanessa, can’t you do any better?”
It was like I was watching a fucking nightmare play out before me. However, as he turned to continue his tirade on me, I threw a punch smack in his face, sending him to the ground.
“You evil piece of shit!” I balked, not caring who heard me.
Denver just laughed though, the way a person would laugh when they were wasted.
“Didn’t you hear, misery loves company?” He wiped the blood that trickled down his nose and looked ahead. “Going to allow your so-called girl to leave like that?”
I followed his gaze and saw Vanessa rushing away.
