Page 184 of Scoring the Player
“Salem. I’m not lying to you. I don’t want him.”
“Answer the question.”
“We were at Ty’s house.”
“Ty and Sid’s?”
He shakes his head. “Just Ty’s. I mean, Sid was there too. Ty invited some guys over to talk about mental health and stuff, and Aiden showed up. I didn’t invite him.”
“How did it lead to the bar?”
“He talked about what he was going through back then, and it led us to clear the air.”
“There’s clearing the air, then there are bodies pressed together,” I point out.
“It wasn’t like that. We were all at the bar—the whole group. It was crowded, and he slid into the spot next to me.”
I look away from him and try to get my thoughts straight. I’m angry, and I don’t know why. Lucien saw other people—people we’d run into sometimes—and it didn’t bother me.
“Let me see if I got this straight. You fell in love with him in college. He rejected you. You haven’t spoken in years. He’s back now. And not only is he back, but he told you he was in love with you too. And all of it messed you up. Is that the reason you fell off from us before Milwaukee?”
He doesn’t answer.
“Wow.”
“Hold on. It wasn’t like that,” he hurries to say.
“Yeah…I’m gonna go.”
“Come on, Salem. I’m being honest with you.”
A dark chuckle leaps from my chest. “Why? ’Cause of the article?”
“What?”
“Were you gonna tell me about any of this if the article didn’t drop?”
“There isn’t anything to tell!” he insists.
The hell there isn’t.
I scoff. “The man you were in love with is back in your life, and he admits to you that he was in love with you too. And you work with him every day. How isn’t that anything to tell?” I pull my jeans out of my duffel and stab my foot through a leg. “I get having unfinished business. But you straight-up put me on the back burner to deal with him? You didn’t think you could tell me?”
“Hold on.” He moves to stand in front of me. “I disappeared from everyone.”
Cool. So, I’meveryone. “I have to go.”
“Wait. Hold up.”
I pause.
“I didn’t understand it until my session with my therapist, but I dissociated or something.”
Was I just a replacement for the one that got away?“This whole time, were you just dragging me along ’cause you’ve been holding out for him?”
“No. That’s what I’m trying to explain. These last few weeks weren’t about him at all.”
Brick by brick, the dread I’ve felt the last few weeks crumbles, but instead of relief, I feel dislocated. I’ve been dreaming of a future with someone still in love with the past.
