Page 10 of Famous Last Words
“In exchange forbuyinganapartmentfrom me?”
“Yes.”
I’m not sure what I’m pissed about most—the blatant solicitation or the fact that he’s so goddamn blasé about it. I shake my head again. “Um. Okay. Give me a second—” I pause, pinching the bridge of my nose, eyes squeezed shut. “First, are you serious?”
“Yes.”
“STOP SAYING YES!” I scream, my voice indignantly shrill.
I’m met with another low chuckle, and I almost throw my phone against the cement floor. In an attempt to collect myself,however, I take a deep breath in through my nose and out through my lips, but it doesn’t help one bit.
“Okay, second, have you lost your goddamn mind?” I can feel the blood rushing through my veins, pumping hard and fast, rising up my chest, my neck, my face heating with pure, unbridled rage. “I don’t know who the hell you think you are, but I am not some… somehookeryou can just?—”
“Okay, calm down,” Robbie interjects.
My jaw drops. “I know you did not just tell me tocalmdown.”
“First of all, I’m not expecting you to havesex,” he says as if the sheer notion of sex with me is disgusting. Frankly I’m still too shocked by his proposition to take offense.
“Second of all—” He pauses, and it’s the unexpected hint of dejection in his tone that somehow pacifies me enough to at least hear him out. “The thing is, today when Andy told you I recently signed with New York, it wasn’t the whole truth.”
I wait for him to continue.
With a hard exhale, he does. “The truth is, I was released from my old team because I… well, because I got into a bit oftrouble.”
Trouble?I quirk a brow, suddenly more than a little curious.
“New York is the only team willing to pick me up. Probably because they’ve sucked ass the last few years, and I can only assume they’re desperate,” he mutters. “But no other team will touch me. To everyone that matters, I’m a liability.”
I continue listening, silenced by the unexpected fragility in his words.
“The terms of my new contract are totally unfair, but I can’t lose hockey. It’s the only thing in my life I’ve ever been any good at. I didn’t finish college. I don’t have a degree. I’m useless at pretty much everything. Without hockey, I honestly don’t know what I’d do.”
“So, what does me pretending to be your girlfriend have to do with any of that?”
He hesitates for so long I’m forced to check the screen to make sure I haven’t been cut off, but then he talks. “My reputation is at an all time low. Half the officials in the league fucking hate me. They say I brought the game of ice hockey into disrepute.”
My eyes widen.
He sighs. “Anyway, my new GM told me that now is the time for me to prove that I’m not thebad boyof hockey that everyone thinks I am. And so… I don’t know… maybe if it looks like I’ve settled down, maybe they’ll stop giving me such a hard time.”
The tension in my shoulders eases a little in the wake of his confession. Frankly, I didn’t know Robbie Mason had a vulnerable bone in his body.
He continues. “And, I don’t know, I guess I just thought because you need to sell that place to keep your job, and I need a place to live… maybe we could help each other out, y’know?”
The more he talks, the more I’m listening. I mean, of course, it’s completely absurd, and the sheer thought of being in any way romantically linked to Robbie Mason, fake or not, is giving me a serious case of the ick. But the thing is, in a weird way, it kind of makes sense. Maybe with a fake boyfriend, Tadd might finally accept that I want nothing to do with him.
Before I can respond with anything, the door opens and Vera sticks her head inside, eyes frantically wide as they land on me. She motions back out to the bar, whispering loudly, “I’m drowning out here.”
I wave a hand, indicating to her that I’ll be right out.
“Hey, Robbie. I have to get back to work.”
“Work?”
“Yeah, I work nights at a bar downtown.”
“You havetwojobs?” He’s clearly confused.
