Page 113 of What if I Told You

My cell phone buzzes on the table and Harrison picks it up to answer it.

“What the hell? That’s my phone.”

“Tom?” Harrison says.

Tom? What’s my agent calling for?

“Yeah he’s awake…No we’re about to find out…yeah…yeah I think so…I’ll keep you posted…yeah whatever the cost. Just work it out…yeah. Thanks Tom.” Harrison pockets my phone not giving a care in the world that I’m giving him the stink eye.

“What was all that about?” I ask him.

“It was about the assault charges Jeff Furbling is ready to press against you. We’ve also been in touch with Coach Hicks and Mike Exling.”

“The general manager of the team? What for?”

“Because they’re questioning if they should even be keeping you on after the stunt you pulled yesterday.”

“That wasn’t a fucking stunt,” I tell them. “That was pure?—”

“Anger,” Oliver says, nodding. “Yeah we get it. So shut up and listen because we’re not about to let you walk away from this.”

“Ella told us all about Furbling. She told us what happened all those years ago and she told us that playing the Gators eats at you every single fucking season,” Ledger says, shaking his head. “Dude, why did you never say anything? We could have protected you.”

“I don’t need your protection. And what’s there to fucking say?” I ask, trying to sit up. The emptiness in my stomach isn’t helping the nausea or the headache. “I ruined a man’s life and now he hates me for it so every time we play his old team I feel bad about it?”

“Yeah, dumbass.” Bear nods. “That’s exactly what you say.”

“And why are you talking to Ella anyway? I told you we’re over. She slept with the asshole.”

“Okay first of all, we’re not going to let you say a damn bad thing about Ella.”

I whip my face toward Harrison and almost black out when the room spins. “What the hell?”

“She hasn’t done a damn thing to you and you know it, August. You’re just butt-hurt that shesupposedlyslept with someone you don’t like, but guess what? Her life is and never was yours to control. If you didn’t want her to sleep with anyone, you should’ve fucking nutted up and told her how you felt years ago. That was your first mistake. Secondly, you really need to take some time to talk to her because from what she says, that night did not go the way you perceived.”

What the fuck?

Why are they suddenly on her side?

“But she?—"

“Didn’t get a word in edgewise because you never gave her the chance before you fucking walked out on her,Auggie.” Griffin enunciates my nickname with a piercing stare. “You accused her of your worst fears, threw your hands up, and walked away.”

He’s right.

That’s exactly what I did.

I was just so angry.

And hurt.

Devastated is more like it.

“You guys, I can’t look at her or even…think about her without seeing him. Picturing them together. Picturing him fucking her. I can’t.”

“For the love of mother fucking Christ, August,” Oliver blurts out. “She didn’t fuck him, alright? They didn’t fuck!”

My brows furrow. “What?”

---