Page 24 of Play On

Aimee laughs. “Yes, you are.”

I shake my head. I refuse to talk about Noah.

“There’s a story there you’re not telling me.”

I flash her a cheeky grin. “There is.”

“Vi!”

“Aimes!”

Then we both laugh.

We begin chatting in earnest now, catching up on our lives beyond the grid of pictures on a Connectivity Story Share page. Aimee tells me about one ex-boyfriend—I knew something had gone horribly wrong when the guy she always posted on her account mysteriously disappeared—David, that was his name.I remember her posting some lovely things about him in her captions. Then poof! One day I saw her page and David had been completely deleted from her life.

“I was so in love with him,” Aimee says, sighing heavily. “I thought I was living in a fairy tale, you know?”

“What went wrong?” I ask. “I noticed he was wiped from your account about two months ago.”

Aimee runs her index finger around the rim of her cocktail glass. “For three months, everything was perfect. David was so romantic in the beginning, so attentive. We did everything together. The sex was phenomenal, too. Likemind-blowing, Violet.”

Hmm. Have I ever hadmind-blowingsex? I’ve had good sex, I know that. Or sex that was just fun. A few times, hot sex. And even awful sex.

But have I experienced mind-blowing sex that I want to have again and again?

I nearly laugh out loud. If I have to ask myself if I’ve had mind-blowing sex, I obviously haven’t.

I refocus on Aimee. “Okay. David was romantic, attentive, and good at sex. So why did you two break up?”

She shakes her head. “You won’t believe it.”

Ooh, this must be good.

“You have to tell me after that comment.”

Aimee sighs. “Well, David started getting busy, you know? He had to work late. Play football with the guys. Less time with me, you know?”

I cringe. I already don’t like where this is going.

“Well, I was out with some friends one night—we were at some bar—and one of the girls was complaining that there were no good men on the dating app she was on.”

Oh no. No, no, no.

“I can tell by the look on your face you can see where I’m going. David’s profile came up. Createdafterwe started dating. I thought I was going to be sick. Like vomit all over the floor right there. I called him up straightaway and he didn’t even ask to meet in person. He said yes, it was up there, because our relationship was going too fast, and he was feeling suffocated. But you know what the reality is? He was playing a game. David could have quit seeing me if he felt that way. But no. He put up a profile on a dating site and cheated on me behind my back!”

“Aimee, I’m so sorry,” I say, thinking back to how happy she looked in all those pictures with him just a couple of months back.

“It’s okay, I’m getting over it,” she says, pausing to take a drink. “But it was pretty bloody awful when it happened. David was playing me, and I had no idea.”

I swallow hard. Noah would never play a game with my heart like that. I know I barely know him, but I can tell he’s genuine.

And he was serious about getting to know me.

I have to put him behind me now, I will myself.I have to.

“I told myself if I was approached by a decent man tonight, I was going to talk to him. Perhaps you should join me in this endeavour,” I challenge.

Aimee laughs. “I love that you used the word endeavour.”

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