Page 31 of Unlovable Player

He gulps and I drop my eyes, my face hot.

“Shit,” he says finally. “So what, you got expelled? That isn’t right.”

“No, I didn’t get expelled. I just couldn’t show my face there anymore.”

He gets that look on his face he gets in business class when he’s trying to take all the information in and arrange it into something more coherent.

“Wait a minute, is a professor supposed to… sleep with their students?”

I shake my head. “He was fired.”

“What about the person who filmed you? That’s illegal isn’t it? Shouldn’t they have been arrested?”

I feel my lip curl. “My dad thought it’d only draw more attention if it went public, there’d probably be a trial and the papers might pick it up, we couldn’t have that.”

Austin presses his lips.

“He said he was trying to protect me from it getting out any further than it already had. And I guess if you guys didn’t see it here, then… maybe he was right. He got his best, most trusted people on getting it taken down, but obviously they’ll never be able erase it completely. People probably still have copies on their phones. That’s why I had to leave. Even if they didn’t, everyone had seen it. Everywhere I went on campus, people fell silent or laughed when I walked past.” I push out a bitter laugh. “Or they quoted some of my famous lines. That was fun.”

“Fuck.”

I can’t look at him. I don’t want to see pity in his eyes.

“I’ll get the guys to stop calling you Yale. But you have to stop pissing everyone off.”

“You don’t have to do that-”

“Wait a minute, if you were running away, why were you still wearing the Yale jersey?”

I shrug. “Because it pissed you off.” I try a smile, but he just shakes his head.

“Anyway, it wasn’t Yale’s fault. It was the person who filmed it and passed it around.”

“And the professor who worked there.”

I shrug. “Yale didn’t know until the video got out.”

“Have you talked to this guy since?”

“Yeah right. The second shit hit the fan, he threw me under the bus. Tried to say I wouldn’t leave him alone and hounded him until he gave in.” I swallow.Fuck, do not fucking cry.

“I’m sorry.”

I shake my head, force a smile and shovel a forkful of cold pasta in my mouth.

He pushes his bowl away and rests his elbows on the table, bridging some of the space between us.

“I’m gonna make a deal with you. I take responsibility for being kinda a dick when you first showed up, and being too chicken-shit to stop the guys from being dicks. You’re on this team, we should treat you like everyone else.”

I groan internally.Please do not be nice to me. I already want to kiss your face off. The last thing I need is a straight-guy crush.

“Where’s the deal part?”

“You stop being a dickhead and I go to bat for you if anyone gets out of order…butif you deserve it and you intentionally piss someone off just to get a reaction, the deal’s off and you’re on your own.”

Austin’s gaze is intense as he waits for an answer. I paint on my best boardroom smile and stick my hand out. “Deal.”

There’s a sigh as he takes it, like he’s regretting this already.

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