Page 5 of The Fall

He shrugs. “No, but she’d be hurt. She’s trying to become a better cook and I don’t want her to feel bad.”

“And what about you? Are you trying to improve yourself in any way now that you guys are going to be walking down the aisle?”

Coach blows his whistle to start the practice.

“You can’t improve upon this,” Dom says smugly. “I’m already an eleven.”

I only hold back my response because practice is starting.

“Horseshit,”I say that evening, tossing the PS5 controller I’m holding on to the couch cushion next to me. “Clapper527 keeps cornholing me.”

“Hey, will you hold a piece of pizza in front of my mouth so I can bite it?” Dom asks, furiously pressing buttons. “But don’t block the screen.”

I take a piece of pizza out of the box and take a huge bite. “I’m not feeding you unless you wipe my ass.”

“I’ll wipe your ass if it’s clean.”

I laugh a single note and sit back down next to him. “Why would I need my ass wiped if it was clean?”

“Come on, I’m hungry.”

“You want me to ask Tess to bring you some more soup?”

“Eat my ass. She put squash in it this time. I had to smile while I ate that soggy shit and say it was delicious.”

“I told her when I got here that you hated it.”

His jaw drops and he looks over at me. “You better be fucking with me. If you hurt her feelings, I will dick punch you so hard your nuts will fall out of your asshole.”

He’s so distracted he gets killed in the game and I laugh, satisfied. “No, I didn’t.”

“You’re a cocksucker.” He sets down the controller and goes over to the open pizza box, taking out a slice. “Hey, Tess said you and Cam might be going out.”

I keep eating my pizza, waiting for a few seconds. “Is there a question in there?”

“I thought it was assumed. Are you?”

“I hope so. I’ve waited a year and it’s almost up.”

“Don’t try to make yourself sound like a Boy Scout to me. It’s not like you haven’t been with any other women in the past year.”

I shrug. “So what? She said she wasn’t dating anyone for a year so I waited. I’m still interested.”

“Interested in...?”

I open a bottle of water and chug half of it. “Interested in her. You know that. I’ve liked Cam since the day we met.”

“Yeah, but Cam’s my family, man. So are her boys. You can’t fuck around with her feelings.”

I scoff. “Between the two of us, I’ve always been much better to women than you. Until you met Tess.”

He lowers his brows, agitated. “Look, there are unlimited women out there for you to fuck around with. Not her. You’re like my brother and she’s like my sister. I don’t want one of you not showing up at my house anymore because you’re worried about running into the other one.”

“Relax. We haven’t even made plans yet. I won’t screw her over. You know me better than that.”

He shakes his head and gives me a rare, serious look. “We’re having this conversation because of how well I know you. Will you just respect our friendship enough to leave things the way they are with her? I’m asking you to do that as a favor to me.”

Tess opens the door to Dom’s office and takes a step inside, smiling at us. “Hey, how’s it going?”

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