Page 15 of Fumbling in the Dark

“Good morning. Someone got home late,” she says turning toward me waggling her eyebrows at me.

I leave her stewing for a moment while I grab creamer from the fridge, pouring it into my cup. Once I’m completely done, I turn back toward her and lean against the counter. “I had a good time last night,” I reply as casually as possible as I take a sip from my cup.

When Sam processes my words, her eyes go wide, and then she smiles at me. “Oh my gosh…you actually like this guy.”

“I do.” There’s no reason to deny it. I continue to drink from my cup while Sam finishes cooking.

“Here. I knew you would be up soon so I made some food too,” she says, placing a plate on the table.

“Thank you, boo. You know I love you,” I say to her. Sam is the closet person to me other than my own siblings.

“You know I have your back. Now, tell me about the date,” she says, biting into her breakfast.

“It was easy, comfortable. He didn’t seem to be taken aback with my prickly nature. I took him to my two favorite places in Vegas, and he enjoyed them,” I summed up the date leaving out any of the naughty parts. That just seems too personal.

“What? You took him to that hiking trail that you won’t even let me go to?” she asks.

“Yeah. Honestly, I’m not sure why. I just felt compelled to show him all of me.”

“Oh shit. You like,likehim.”

Right then my phone rings, saving me from having to say anything else about Shane and me. I jump up and jog back into my room to grab it before it stops ringing. I can’t help the smile that spreads across my face as Shane’s name runs across my screen. “Hey, Shane. How are you?” I ask, trying to sound as casual as possible and not internally freaking out.

“Janae.” He says my name in his deep timbered voice and my clit starts throbbing. “I’m good. I just wanted to call and see if you wanted to get dinner with me tomorrow?”

I don’t even have to think about the answer. “Of course. Text me the details.”

“Wonderful. I have to get back to work but wanted to get that on the books. Talk to you later,” he says then the line goes dead.

I can’t help but feel the flutter in my stomach. This man has me in a choke hold and it scares the shit out of me. Hoping to take Shane off my mind for at least the moment, I decide to check my messages.

When I see my notifications, I can’t help but wonder why I have so many. Not just from my brother and sister but from random people I haven’t talked to in a while. I scroll past those and click on my brother Jermaine’s message first.

Jermaine: Why didn’t you tell me you were dating the SHANE MITCHELL?

Jermaine: Have you seen the news yet?

Jermaine: Janae why aren’t you answering me?

There are two more messages that are similar. I furrow my brow with confusion because how the hell does he know the name of the guy I was on a date with last night? I was going to call him later to tell him about my date.

Some of his texts seem to be urgent so I decide to ignore the rest and call him. The moment I hit the call button, he answers right away.

“Janae. What took you so long?” he says.

“What, no ‘hello, how are you?’ I was sleeping Jermaine. Then I was eating. What is so urgent?”

“Did you see the news on the internet?”

“Uh…no. I don’t normally check the news.”

“Well, you might want to today. Here, let me send you this link, you’re going to want to see it,” he says, my phone buzzing in my hand.

Hitting the speaker button, I check his message and see the link to a news article. When I click on it, the first thing I see is a picture of me with Shane cuddling at the Bellagio. Next to it is another picture of me and him kissing. Under it, a headline reads:Shane Mitchell’s new girlfriend? Or is he just another football “player”?

I keep reading. It’s an article talking about how Shane is known as the best rookie tight end and that everyone has high expectations for him. My mind races back to last night. He said he worked with a football team, but he sure as hell didn’t tell me that he was a famous football player. In fact, I believe I asked him if he was a trainer and he said “Yeah, like that.”

Anger bubbles up in my gut and my hand starts to shake. What a fucking liar! I should’ve known that he was too good to be true.

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