Page 1 of My Brother's Teammates

ONE

Charlotte

“Wait. You’re breaking up with me?” I stare at my… boyfriend… ex-boyfriend? Roommate? I’m not really sure what he is right now, but surely he’s not saying what I think he’s saying. “You’ve been cheating on me with this…”

“Kai.”

I glance at my ex-boyfriend’s new boyfriend and suck in a breath, trying to steady myself. My palms are sweaty, my stomach’s in knots, and my jaw is trembling as tears fill my eyes. The last thing I need is to cry in front of either of them. “You’ve been cheating on me with Kai, and now you’re breaking up with me? Am I hearing this right?”

Shane sighs, running a hand through his short blond hair and glancing at the floor with a grimace. “I’m sorry you had to find out this way, but… we’ve been seeing each other for a while.”

“You’re sorry I found out this way?” My voice goes higher and higher with each repeated word, cracking on the last one.

“I meant to tell you. I really did.”

I let his words hang between us, suffocating me, squeezing my chest so hard it hurts. Two years—two years we’ve been together—and he didn’t even have the decency to tell me he’d found someone else.

Just like always, he failed to think about anything or anyone but himself.

I was the delusional yet dutiful girlfriend. The one who loved him, who put her life on hold so he could get his hockey podcast off the ground, even though I had a dream too.

No one really gives a shit about hockey in New Orleans, but I was right there by his side, helping him succeed, giving up the things I wanted to make him happy.

His life consumed mine, and I let it because I thought we were in this together.

I thought… Well, I guess it doesn’t matter what I thought.

“That’s not good enough, Shane. We’ve been together for two goddamned years, and you don’t think I deserve to know you’re done with me? That you found someone else?”

“I know, I’m sorry.”

“You keep saying you're sorry, but I don’t think you are.”

“I’m so?—”

I narrow my eyes as soon as he opens his mouth, and he leans back on the couch, raising his hands in surrender. He casts a quick glance at Kai, who’s sipping a soda in the kitchen, pretending like he’s not listening despite being able to hear every word.

“Charlotte… Babe…”

“Don’t you babe me, Shane.” I cross my arms, biting down on my bottom lip to keep it from quivering. “You lost that right when you started having feelings for someone else. So… what now? Are you and…?”

“Kai.”

“Are you and Kai moving out?”

He looks back to Kai and swallows, his Adam's apple working up and down, something I used to think was sexy, but now… I honestly don’t know what to feel.

Shane turns to me, cracking his knuckles one by one, something he does when he’s uncomfortable, and I know I’m not going to like what’s coming next. “My name is on the lease, so I think it might be best if you moved out.”

My insides twist and my stomach drops as I take another deep breath, stopping the tears threatening to fall by sheer willpower.

I don’t say another word. I don’t need to. There’s no use fighting him on this. It’s his apartment, and if I really step back and think about it, I don’t want to live here with the ghost of our relationship anyway. With the happy memories and the sad. With what could have been instead of what is.

I don’t need that. I don’t need him.

The next thirty minutes are spent packing up most of my things, and just to be petty, taking a few of Shane’s when he turns his back. The TV remote has been liberated of its batteries, his shampoo has been squirted down the drain, and his toothbrush may have been rubbed around the toilet bowl.

It might be a little childish, but fuck, he was cheating on me and it makes me feel better, so sue me.

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