Page 74 of Once Upon A Player
“But what did hedo?” She sounds genuinely confused, and that’s surprising. She’s always had such a low opinion of footballers, I would’ve thought she’d jump to the worst possible conclusion straightaway.
Yes, but she’d be wrong because Lucas didn’t cheat on me…
I don’t know anything for sure.
Shut the fuck up, Violet.
“He didn’t believe me when I told him about Mum.”
Her face scrunches in obvious confusion. “That doesn’t even make sense. Why wouldn’t he believe you?”
Because I blurted it out at the wrong moment.
Well, okay, so itwasa completely random comment when we were talking about going to Madrid, but that was no excuse for him to be so heartless.
Unless he really did think I was just making excuses?
Wait. What? No, why would he think that?
“I’m still trying to figure it out,” Katie says, scattering my tangled thoughts. “You tell him your mum’s sick, and he says he doesn’t believe you? Who evensaysthat?”
“No.” I rush to his defense before I even realize what I’m doing. “It wasn’t like that. I think”—an eerie shiver races over my arms as a new certainty grips me—“he thought I was just trying to fob him off.”
“It doesn’t matter what he thought. He had no right to be so nasty about your mum.”
Heat eats through me until I’m burning from the inside out. Katie’s thinking the worst about him, and the more I replay that conversation in my head, the less sure I am about anything.
“It’s complicated.” I groan at the cliché and cradle my aching forehead with my hand.
“Yeah?” Katie doesn’t sound convinced. “Try me.”
“There were these girls.” I’m reluctant to tell her, because here, in the pub, as I try and sort everything out, it doesn’t seem quite as awful as it all did last night.
“What, and he played tonsil hockey with them in front of you?Bastard.”
“No, it was nothing like that. Well,” I let out a defeated sigh. “I think he’d dated them all in the past, but that wasn’t the problem.” Not that I’d been thrilled to come face to face with three of his exes, but they seemed nice, even if I got the feeling Pene still wanted to climb inside his boxers.
Katie gives a cynical cough. “That wasn’t a problem? Really?”
“Yes, really. I mean, the parties and things he goes to. It was bound to happen, wasn’t it? But it was the way he just casually invited them all to go to Madrid with him.”
“Why would he invite a bunch of girls to go with him? That’s just wrong. No wonder you walked.”
Itwaswrong. I wrap her indignation around me like a fluffy blanket, but there’s an uneasy prickle worming through my chest.
Did he really say that, Vi?
They were talking about parties. Hypothetical parties, at that. And what did Lucas say?
Sure, everyone’s invited.
And then he’d swept his gaze around the deck as though he was including,literally, everyone.
Shiiiiit…
He was just being his usual, friendly self. And big deal, so he said the same thing he’d said to me. There aren’t that many different ways of saying it’s only a two-hour flight and asking if that’s a problem, are there?
It’s like forked lightning spikes through my throbbing head, and I stifle a groan. I’m sick with worry about Mum, but yesterday I was still in shock. If I hadn’t been on the edge of cracking, would I have taken everything so personally?
