Page 115 of Courtside

How did she know…

“But I miss him! And he’s tall!”

“And you’re gonna make a fool of yourself.” Maggie started to pull forward. “Go get your ass in bed, and then you can go see him in the mornin’. Don’t you want to brush your teeth before all the make-up sex the two of you will be havin’?”

“You’re a terrible wing-woman!” Sage shouted after the car.

Sage resumed her walk to the gate. It only took her three tries to get the code right.

Luckily for Sage, she wasn’t great at doing what people told her to do.

She’d make a quick stop at her apartment to brush her teeth and then she’d go see him.

It was the perfect plan.

She pushed her front door open with her shoulder and fumbled with her phone, narrowly avoiding accidentally calling Danny with the Flip-Flops, a guy she’d hooked up with in California a few summers back. Once she’d pulled up David’s contact, her thumbs tapped out a message that had become familiar. One she’d sent every night, even when she wasn’t quite ready to forgive him.

Home and safe.

* * *

It was too bright when Sage blinked her eyes open.

Immediately she squeezed them shut again, not ready to face the sun and the headache and the roiling in her stomach andstupid fucking hangovers can go fuck themselves.

After a minute of trying to will herself back to sleep, Sage relented, flinging back her covers and dragging herself out of bed. Her first stop was the kitchen, where she threw back two glasses of water and then shuffled to the bathroom to brush her teeth, feeling herself relax a miniscule amount when no longer confronted with brutal, fuzzy cottonmouth. She groaned audibly as she dragged on clothes and stuffed her feet into her running shoes.

The walk to the gym only added to her misery, which was compounded by the realization that she hadn’t made it to David’s apartment the night before. And if she hadn’t made it over there, that meant that things were still unresolved between them. He probably thought she wasn’t going to forgive him.

But she couldn’t go over there like this. Workout first, then food. Then go get David Hughes back.

She suffered through her workout, only making it through a half an hour of moving before the demand for something in her stomach had her limping back to her apartment.

Ten minutes later she sat on the floor with a plate piled high with bacon, and nothing else. It was exactly what she needed.

By the time she’d finished the plate, exhaustion was weighing down her eyelids.Maybe just a quick nap and then she’d go over there. Mind made up, Sage fiddled with her phone alarm and then crawled over to the couch. With her face buried in the pillows and her legs draped off the edge of the cushions, she fell fast asleep.

* * *

“Fuck fuck fuck fuck.”

Sage ran down the stairs from her apartment, her hair flapping around her shoulders.

Some quick nap,she thought as she tried to button her jean shorts while sprinting down the sidewalk. Now it was dark, and she’d wasted an entire Saturday sleeping.

Objectively, there wasn’t a rush. There was no reason for her to be running like a raging bull was hot on her heels.

But now that her mind was made up, she didn’t want to wait a second longer.

She was barefoot, and felt a wave of gratitude for smooth cement sidewalks. She also hadn’t showered after her workout, which wasn’t at all ideal. But at least she’d managed to grab shorts from the hamper of clean laundry that sat in her dining room to go with her t-shirt.

She was too old to pull off running through an apartment complex without pants on.

As soon as she got to David’s apartment, her fists banged on the door. Over and over and over and —

“Sage?”

David stood in his doorway, dark eyes blinking at her like he couldn’t quite believe what he was seeing. He was shirtless, leaving his broad, hairy chest on display. Her gaze fixed on the dip between his pecs, where she knew her cheek fit perfectly when he held her.

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