Page 128 of Green Flag
I should have deleted the file. I should have thrown the phone across the room.
Instead, I locked it and slid it back onto the desk with trembling fingers, walking away like nothing had changed.
Even though everything had.
25
Chapter 25
Everly
My heart was racing with the deep bass from the music in the stadium. I could feel the beat, but the notes, the angry lyrics were a muted buzz.
My high had truly crashed and hit rock bottom.
What an Icarus moment.
How dare I trust myself to get comfortable.
I adored Luca. It was pretty obvious, and everything about him weakened me to my knees. The way he climbed two steps at a time, threw his cap on backwards, and even rolled his sleeves made my heart flutter.
Which was ridiculous.
Luca had good intentions. I genuinely believed it. Maybe he’d tell me later.
I nodded, muttering to myself as I sat back down next to Bella who smiled at me.
Luca’s song played, and then he came out on the large screens. His grin beamed as he high-fived the people on all sides, pausing to smile at a young lad with noise-cancelling headphones with a large sign in Italian. I couldn’t read Italian but it moved him.
Then Marco gave him a pep talk and looked him over to check whether my elbows had bruised him.
The screen changed as another song played and Tyler Wells came from the corner closest to us. I should have sat with Dad.
Our ‘relationship’ had been papped, but this was a prime time when the press would be looking for us. Especially when Luca won.
“Who booked these seats?” I had to scream in Arabella’s ear. We were on the far side, near where Tyler Wells would come out. It looked like we were supportinghim, not Luca.
She shrugged. “Don’t know. But surely everyone knows we’re on Mendes’ team. You’re shagging him, for crying out loud.”
Hmmmmm. If I pretended I wasn’t shagging him, what reaction would I get? I was always thinking of ways to wind him up. Like the other week when he’d thrown me over the bed, questioning if I thought he was the worst or not. For a second, I thought he was going to kiss me. Then I felt stupid for wanting him to. I was a means to an end for him. The end of his contract.
The spreadsheet kept on interrupting my thoughts.
“Is that where you were for the first three fights?” one of the other grid girls, Penny, asked, leaning over Bella. “Did you give him a little good luck kiss?”
Her cocked brows told us she didn’t mean akiss.
“My own version,” I said and flipped my hair back dramatically as Luca’s furious face filled the screen, holding onto the bars of the boxing ring.
I might be confused, and I may have a pit in my stomach, but I was here for Luca.
Tyler Wells was a wanker. I mean, Luca said he wasn’t. He said that they’d been friendly and in the spirit of the charity Christmas match, they often had vicious banter to raise publicity and funding, but no one could get away with some of the shit Tyler had said about Luca and his family. Abouthis cousin.
There was no excuse for the cruel things he’d said about Luca being the ‘back up Mendes’ and the ‘second choice’ for Ciclati.
It boiled my blood.
I wanted to put the gloves on. He was no punching bag, but if he could just stand still, I’d give him a good run for his money.
