Page 44 of Personal Foul

She watches them walk away, all fucking dreamlike. There might as well be little hearts floating in her eyes. Like she’s just seen her favorite movie star. I suppose for someone like her who cares almost as much about sports as she does movies, it’s not much different.

“He’s really nice. I expected him to be an asshole, you know? Given his reputation.”

“He was being an asshole,” I grumble.

“How?” She furrows her brow.

“He knows we’re on a fucking date, and he was practically hitting on you.”

“I don’t think he was hitting on me…” She looks doubtful, but her eyes trail along the path he took out.

“He was.” I take a sip of my drink and stare out across the restaurant.

“Well, we don’t have to go if you don’t want to. I just thought it sounded like your kind of scene, and I wouldn’t mind going if you wanted to,” she hedges, but I can tell that she’s curious. Given the way she just fangirled out when he came up to the table and how much she loves the game, I feel like a jerk if I don’t take her.

“We can go for a little bit, but his parties get wild as hell. More than what you can probably tolerate.” I frown, remembering the last party of his I went to and trying to imagine Wren standing in the middle of it.

“Oh yeah? Sounds like a challenge.” She wiggles her eyebrows.

I shake my head and smile at her. “Yeah. Yeah. Finish your dinner.”

She picks up her fork and gives me a little devilish grin. And fuck, I really like this girl.

* * *

We’ve only beenat the party for half an hour and a group of women has already adopted Wren as one of their own. They’re teaching her some sort of dance and pouring shots for her, and somehow, I’ve become the one who’s responsible, sipping on the same glass of whiskey and watching every move anyone makes around her.

“So just friends, huh?” Tobias comes up and leans on my shoulder, following my line of sight to Wren.

“I’m not good at relationships.”

“That one looks like she is, so what are you doing?”

“You’d be surprised. She’s not much for them either.”

“And that’s the challenge you like?”

“No. I’m not trying to change her. We’re just… Hanging out for the trip.”

“Yeah, your face when she said, ‘just friends’ definitely said you werejusthanging out.”

“Just mind your business.” I shoot him a sideways glare.

“Sensitive. I see. Want to move to less sensitive subjects like football?”

“You know I don’t.”

“My season wasn’t much better. Some years are just like that.” He gives me a swift pat on the back.

“This was my last one. Right before the draft,” I counter.

“You’ll be fine. You’ve got the invite to The Combine. You can show them there that it was a one-off. I have faith in you. Besides, I wanna see you on that field across from me. Make our parents sweat over who they’re going to root for.”

“You know it’ll always be their golden boy.” I give him a little shake of my head before I take another sip of my drink.

I look up to see Wren doing some sort of ass-wiggling move that makes my mind blank out.

“Oh fuck. She’s good at that. Really fucking good. You better go get your girl, or you’re gonna lose her to one of these guys.” He points to a group of his fellow players whose eyes are locked on her, and I feel the kick in my gut.