Page 20 of Passing the Red Line
Miguel and his fun.
My friend and I couldn’t be any more different. While he is the going out and extrovert type, I have always been the quiet, introvert type. In all the years that I’ve known him he has always been the life of the party while I was always hoping for the cops to arrive to shut said party down. The only way we are similar is the fact that we are both professional athletes. Miguel sighed with the Major League Soccer team here in San Jose a few ago and I went to Chicago to play for the Knights.
Even though we have our different personalities, we still work as friends. We were that way when we were kids, and we are still that way. He invites everyone and anyone to a party or even a get together with his friends. So, I'm used to random people joining in when we get together.
I give him a nod. “Fine by me.”
“Cool,” he says, guiding me over to the table where all of our other friends are at.
Apparently, I was the last one to arrive.
I take inventory of the table before approaching it and when I see our addition for the night, I can’t help but let out a small snort.
Of course, it’s her. Who else would it be? My luck absolutely hates me.
“Christian, this is Eliana. She’s working with the Quakes for a few months. Eliana, this is Christian, our grumpy best friend,” Miguel says, waving a hand over to the brunette sitting at a table filled with our friends.
Eliana.
I guess my intruder officially has a name.
For some reason though, the name sounds familiar, but I can’t pinpoint where I’ve heard it. Maybe online somewhere.
“We’ve met.” I say to my friend, not taking my eyes off the feisty brunette sitting a few feet away.
“You have?” Miguel asks, giving me a confused look. Silently asking how.
Eliana rolls her eyes but doesn’t say anything.
“Yup, she broke into my house,” I say, feeling a smirk forming on my face.
“For the hundredth time, I didn’t break in. Your door was wide open. You were the one that was about to throw me in the ocean.” Eliana finally says, throwing another eye roll in my direction.
I bet everything in my wallet right now that if we were still in elementary school, she would have stuck her tongue out at me.
“Because you were in my way,” I argue, and I can see the fire in her eyes. I’ve noticed how gorgeous this woman is the first day I met her, but seeing that fire in her eyes, that anger, put her on a whole new level. A level that makes my dick twitch.
“Whatever,” she says, flipping me off as she takes a drink of her beer.
Is she drinking beer because she likes it or because she feels like she has to because everyone else at the table is?
Why do I even care?
“Damn. And here I thought about setting you two up. I’m thinking twice about it. You two would eat each other alive,” Miguel says through a chuckle as he takes a seat a few stools away from Eliana.
Leaving the only one open being the one in front of her. Great. I’m either leaving tonight with blue balls or a headache. I don’t know which one I prefer.
Miguel is right though, Eliana and I would without a doubt eat each other alive, especially with that attitude of hers. The sex will probably be fucking fantastic but neither one of us would make it out alive.
“Your friend is lucky I swore off hockey players a long time ago, because he wouldn’t be able to handle me,” Eliana tells the table, and they all laugh like it was the funniest shit in the world.
They’re my friends, so they should be on my side, not hers.
“That sounds like a challenge to me, hermosa,” I say, taking a seat and reaching for the empty beer glass in the middle of the table and filling it with the pitcher.
“In your dreams, Rodriguez.” She tells me, and even though she gives me a death glare, the way the corner of her mouth twitches, I know she wants to smile.
I guess I’m not the only one that has taken a small liking to our back and forth sparing.
