Page 146 of How to Lose at Love

Way longer.

Diego and I have gone to war together on the playing field, but in all honesty, it feels like Ryann and I are fighting one together too.

A battle with the media.

“You’re right.”

He hesitates. “You being serious?”

I roll my eyes. “Course I’m bein’ serious. You’re right. The least I could’ve done was give you a heads-up so you didn’t have to see it on the news like everyone else.”

It’s as close to an actual apology as the dude is going to get and he knows it, shuffling backward a few steps.

“Thanks, I guess.”

I nod, thinking the matter is settled, thinking Diego is going to float away and leave me to get undressed and shower so I can get the hell out of here and head home.

I’m starving.

I want food, not to listen to his whining.

“I’m just wondering why you wanted to keep hanging out with her in the first place. It doesn’t make sense. You gave me such a hard time about breaking up with her.”

“Dude, you paid me to dump her for you. And by the way, you haven’t actually paid me, so…”

I turn my back on him so I can peel off my T-shirt. It’s soaked with perspiration.

“Since when do you date, though?”

Hands on the waistband of my compression pants, I slowly turn back to face him.

“Where are you going with this?”

Surely he’s not smart enough to put the puzzle pieces together. Surely he hasn’t heard whispers about Ryann doing me a favor—I haven’t told anyone except my brothers; the only other two people who know are Ryann and me. Unless she told people?

We have no friends in common…

My wheels turn.

No. You’re jumping to conclusions. Diego is dumb as a box of rocks. He knows nothing. You’re just paranoid.

“I just want to know what motivated you to ask her out.”

“Technically, I didn’t ask her out.” I resume undressing. “And we happen to have a class together, which is actually really convenient.”

“Oh. I didn’t know that.”

“Look, man, if any of this hurt your feelin’s, I’m sorry.” I have to force the words out, almost vomiting on them. It’s not the sincerest of statements, not by a long shot. “I wasn’t plannin’ to have feelin’s for the girl.”

“You have feelings for Ryann?”

“I guess so, yeah.” Grabbing the towel from the top shelf of my cubby, I wrap it around my neck. “Are we done here, ’cause I wanna rinse off. I’m disgusting.”

“Yeah, we can be done here.”

I watch his face. “We good?”

Diego nods. “Yeah, we’re good.”

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