Page 28 of Falling Offsides

“Delilah!” Courtney groans.

“What? You gave him a hard time and he called you a brat. Like, how is that a red flag?”

“You’re annoying.”

“I’m honest. And if you were being honest with yourself, you’d admit it made you feel some kind of way.”

“It’s not… I… The air shifted.” My pulse stutters at her words—she felt it too. “My whole body went haywire. I laughed it off, but then he told me to be a good girl next time. Delilah.Good girl.”

Delilah’s wicked laugh fills my speakers. “Okay, so he’s either a closet dom or just casually deploying kink lingo like it’s nothing. Either way—are we mad about it or...?”

“I don’t know. I was confused. Iamconfused.”

“And turned on…?”

“It’s not like that. It can’t be. I’m not here for this. For anything other than my CV and my dad.”

Delilah snorts.

Courtney groans.

“Sounds to me likethou protesteth too much.”

“No, seriously. I thought maybe he was flirting. Except this afternoon, he iced me out. Total switch flip. Short, rude, like I was annoying him.”

“You sure it wasn’t Coach-itis?” Delilah teases.

“No. This was different. It felt personal. Like… I misread everything.”

Delilah’s voice softens slightly. “Well, you just told me you’re not there for the big D, so what does it matter? Fuck the guy, in the not nice way and… and live your best life.”

“I have to see him every day.”

“So what, Court? You haven’t fucked the guy.”

“Yeah, I know. It’s just that… Jesus, I don’t know. He’s messing with my head.”

Delilah’s pause lingers, allowing the roiling in my chest to spread all the way down to my gut.

I’m not this person. I don’t fuck with girl’s heads. I have a sister for Christ’s sake. I’d fucking kill any guy that made her feel like this.

“Right, well. What if you caught him on a bad day? Or he’s emotionally constipated? Maybe both?”

“Delilah—”

“Youdo nothave to spiral over him.”

Courtney doesn’t answer for a moment.

Then Delilah tries to shift the mood. “So. Lunch with your dad?”

“It was good,” Courtney says, and my pulse skips a tad. I like that for her. “Dad was in full watch-dog mode after yesterday. He spent all morning going extra hard on Auguste?—”

“ThePuckinator,” Delilah does a decent announcer voice.

“On my God, stop it! Anyway, I had to tell him to quit it. I didn’t come to LA for him to give his players a hard time over me.”

There’s a laugh. Another Delilah joke that I can’t make out.

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